Couple that with inheritance taxes (which destroy family businesses and promote faceless corporations)
If you have accumulated wealth, it is based on being a part of society, therefore you should pass most of it back to society on your death. I do not see the problem here. If you were taxed sufficiently during your lifetime, you shouldn't have that much left when you die anyway.
despite considering myself a liberal and in general being able to see where even the occupy folks are coming from, i've never thought of a business as a bad thing.
That means you are a liberal in the classic economic sense of the world, and so in favour of free trade and so on, not the current derogatory "anyone more left wing than me" sense. Apart from in the US (apparently) most actual left wingers are at best equivocal about business, seeing it as a passing unpleasantness on the road from feudalism to socialism.
Yes, some people become wealthy by chance, but most people do not, so what's the point there?
Most people become wealthy by starting off wealthy and having wealthy parents. Self evidently there are exceptions, but the rags-to-riches billionaire is the exception rather than the rule.
Now, different people have different definitions of wealthy, and I am using it in the sense of "upper middle class, extremely comfortably off and able to finance the best education they can for their children" not "having several billions in the bank".
in most cases if a company dies then there is not much left over for any kind of 'parachute' and while it sucks for the employees, they always got paid
Er, (a) the owners/directors of the business are in the best position to know when the writing is on the wall and extract whatever they can from the business and (b) employees certainly do not always get paid when a company goes bust.
The whole point of being a brilliant business person is to let others produce for you while taking full credit/full benefit from it while exerting the least amount of time making that happen.
Well, yes, it's called capitalism. If you think it's wrong, you need to think about creating a better system, which is fine by me, but probably not too popular around here.
It took a development admin suffering a stroke, and a sysadmin getting a heart attack before this jackass would get a clue and hire some help to fulfill his ever-increasing list of demands. Given the economy at the time, other jobs were impossible to find, so we were stuck for awhile.
It is rarely the case that other jobs are impossible to find. Great jobs that are exactly what you want to do, fair enough. But once you are working in conditions of such stress and abuse, any option, including having to stay in and live on beans on toast for a few months, is preferable.
And yes, I know it's different if you've got a family to support, but it seems unlikely that was your situation at the time if one of the team hadn't even finished her degree.
The US military has lots of non-citizens in it. In fact, that's one of the easiest and most direct way for foreigners to become a citizen. Serve a complete term in the military and its automatic with no tests or anything.
The word 'jerk' is just a label we use for others, never ourselves.
That's what makes this topic so fruitless. Go ask the biggest jerks you know of if they believe they're jerks. Most don't think they are, but they'll probably volunteer a list of many "others" that fit the label.
Agreed. It's like asking someone if they think they're stupid or a below average driver or lover.
He said plenty, he wasn't received well by most Republicans or Democrats for it.
You mis-spelled "normal people".
What libertarians/Randians always seem to overlook is that the principle of enlightened self-interest (or selfishness) applies to society as a whole, not just individuals. The majority of people are happier with a system that provides some shelter from the brutality of pure laissez faire capitalism, because the majority of non-billionaires end up with worse lives under that system.
I admire Linus for daring to speak his mind, in the language he does speak his mind, as a person of public interest (or how you call it).
I'd have more respect for him if he'd actually do that instead of bowing to silly superstitions like writing "bats**t"
If writing "bats**t" instead of "batshit" means that the comment will get reported more widely, it is arguably a compromise worth making. It's not as though "bats**t" actually hides any of the meaning, is it?
What is annoying is when swear words are just blanked/asterisked out completely.
Reading that Mr A called Mr B "a ******* ****-brained ****-faced ****-monkey" leads to some ambiguity.
Liberty is indeed the freedom to do as we please, as long as we abide by the law. It is not limited by "act as we aught," which necessarily implies some set of arbitrary extra-legal rules.
That's "ought" not "aught" and the basic point of the laws we agree to and abide by is to define what we ought not to do.
However, there will always be unpleasant but legal acts, that does not mean we have to celebrate them in any way at all. Burning books is probably legal, that does not mean I would ever applaud it.
Obama is way more eloquent, patient, and understanding than Bush was, so the overall view of the US has improved from then--it's no longer quite
so dangerous for a US citizen to travel to Europe or Asia and admit to being an American.
The trick is to say you're Canadian. Everybody likes Canadians and no one outside America can tell the difference between the accents.
No, your fate is not entirely in your own hands. Although the pressure of social conformity is not as strong as (for instance) the need to find food or water, nevertheless in civilised affluent countries it becomes important. And the social norm nowadays in the West is to sit there with your fucking phone, texting, chatting, facebooking or whatever. I bet if you went and sat in most coffee shops for an hour staring out the window they'd call the cops.
Is while car pooling, the driver pulling out his smartphone and dicking around with it, eyes not on the road, barrelling along at 80 mph, in moose country, in the dark. Makes one appreciate not car pooling and just driving myself to work alone.
You do know that killing someone in self defence is not a crime? Get the fucker to pull over and remove his head with your weapon of choice. You are just stopping him from killing you.
The whole point of avoiding external stimuli and just thinking is to stop concerning yourself with mundane objects and trivia and concentrate on other things for a while. These things may include, but are not limited to, poetry, music, religion, philosphy, politics, psychology, relationships, nature, history, archaeology, painting, chess, cooking, sex and literature.
Having no internal life is not something to be proud of.
Slashdot Mirror
Indeed you have, mostly under the name roman_mir.
Are you sure? He didn't seem to mention taxation being legalised theft based on the threat of force/violence/death like he usually would,
Couple that with inheritance taxes (which destroy family businesses and promote faceless corporations)
If you have accumulated wealth, it is based on being a part of society, therefore you should pass most of it back to society on your death. I do not see the problem here. If you were taxed sufficiently during your lifetime, you shouldn't have that much left when you die anyway.
despite considering myself a liberal and in general being able to see where even the occupy folks are coming from, i've never thought of a business as a bad thing.
That means you are a liberal in the classic economic sense of the world, and so in favour of free trade and so on, not the current derogatory "anyone more left wing than me" sense. Apart from in the US (apparently) most actual left wingers are at best equivocal about business, seeing it as a passing unpleasantness on the road from feudalism to socialism.
But the government is not the root of all evil.
No, that would be the love of money.
Yes, some people become wealthy by chance, but most people do not, so what's the point there?
Most people become wealthy by starting off wealthy and having wealthy parents. Self evidently there are exceptions, but the rags-to-riches billionaire is the exception rather than the rule.
Now, different people have different definitions of wealthy, and I am using it in the sense of "upper middle class, extremely comfortably off and able to finance the best education they can for their children" not "having several billions in the bank".
in most cases if a company dies then there is not much left over for any kind of 'parachute' and while it sucks for the employees, they always got paid
Er, (a) the owners/directors of the business are in the best position to know when the writing is on the wall and extract whatever they can from the business and (b) employees certainly do not always get paid when a company goes bust.
The whole point of being a brilliant business person is to let others produce for you while taking full credit/full benefit from it while exerting the least amount of time making that happen.
Well, yes, it's called capitalism. If you think it's wrong, you need to think about creating a better system, which is fine by me, but probably not too popular around here.
It took a development admin suffering a stroke, and a sysadmin getting a heart attack before this jackass would get a clue and hire some help to fulfill his ever-increasing list of demands. Given the economy at the time, other jobs were impossible to find, so we were stuck for awhile.
It is rarely the case that other jobs are impossible to find. Great jobs that are exactly what you want to do, fair enough. But once you are working in conditions of such stress and abuse, any option, including having to stay in and live on beans on toast for a few months, is preferable.
And yes, I know it's different if you've got a family to support, but it seems unlikely that was your situation at the time if one of the team hadn't even finished her degree.
The US military has lots of non-citizens in it. In fact, that's one of the easiest and most direct way for foreigners to become a citizen. Serve a complete term in the military and its automatic with no tests or anything.
Sounds like Starship Troopers. Interesting...
The word 'jerk' is just a label we use for others, never ourselves.
That's what makes this topic so fruitless. Go ask the biggest jerks you know of if they believe they're jerks. Most don't think they are, but they'll probably volunteer a list of many "others" that fit the label.
Agreed. It's like asking someone if they think they're stupid or a below average driver or lover.
He said plenty, he wasn't received well by most Republicans or Democrats for it.
You mis-spelled "normal people".
What libertarians/Randians always seem to overlook is that the principle of enlightened self-interest (or selfishness) applies to society as a whole, not just individuals. The majority of people are happier with a system that provides some shelter from the brutality of pure laissez faire capitalism, because the majority of non-billionaires end up with worse lives under that system.
I'd have more respect for him if he'd actually do that instead of bowing to silly superstitions like writing "bats**t"
If writing "bats**t" instead of "batshit" means that the comment will get reported more widely, it is arguably a compromise worth making. It's not as though "bats**t" actually hides any of the meaning, is it?
What is annoying is when swear words are just blanked/asterisked out completely.
Reading that Mr A called Mr B "a ******* ****-brained ****-faced ****-monkey" leads to some ambiguity.
Liberty is indeed the freedom to do as we please, as long as we abide by the law. It is not limited by "act as we aught," which necessarily implies some set of arbitrary extra-legal rules.
That's "ought" not "aught" and the basic point of the laws we agree to and abide by is to define what we ought not to do.
However, there will always be unpleasant but legal acts, that does not mean we have to celebrate them in any way at all. Burning books is probably legal, that does not mean I would ever applaud it.
I was being sarcastic.
Oops, it was too subtle for me at least. Apologies, I'll go and throw myself out of an open plane window.
No rational person on earth thinks airplane windows should roll down.
And you fail to see the obvious conclusion to be drawn from this statement and the fact that Romeny thinks that airplane windows should roll down?
Obama is way more eloquent, patient, and understanding than Bush was, so the overall view of the US has improved from then--it's no longer quite so dangerous for a US citizen to travel to Europe or Asia and admit to being an American.
The trick is to say you're Canadian. Everybody likes Canadians and no one outside America can tell the difference between the accents.
What is Romney's policy on FOSS migration?
He probably thinks it's OK to hunt FOSS when they're migrating but not when they're nesting. But I could be wrong.
On the smartphone you read news, you read blogs, you watch youtube videos
Are you seriously using youtube as an example of the high quality of material available on the internet?
rich entertainment
That's just a buzzwordy way of saying it's shiny and you can leave messages somewhere at the bottom.
No, your fate is not entirely in your own hands. Although the pressure of social conformity is not as strong as (for instance) the need to find food or water, nevertheless in civilised affluent countries it becomes important. And the social norm nowadays in the West is to sit there with your fucking phone, texting, chatting, facebooking or whatever. I bet if you went and sat in most coffee shops for an hour staring out the window they'd call the cops.
Bored people have more Sex
I love this slashdot fantasy that is only our frenzied obsession with technology that leaves us with no time for mundane trivia like having sex.
Is while car pooling, the driver pulling out his smartphone and dicking around with it, eyes not on the road, barrelling along at 80 mph, in moose country, in the dark. Makes one appreciate not car pooling and just driving myself to work alone.
You do know that killing someone in self defence is not a crime? Get the fucker to pull over and remove his head with your weapon of choice. You are just stopping him from killing you.
Touchscreens and walking don't mix..
I disagree. I often use my iPhone for posting to slashdot on the move even in heavy traff
The whole point of avoiding external stimuli and just thinking is to stop concerning yourself with mundane objects and trivia and concentrate on other things for a while. These things may include, but are not limited to, poetry, music, religion, philosphy, politics, psychology, relationships, nature, history, archaeology, painting, chess, cooking, sex and literature.
Having no internal life is not something to be proud of.
I welcome the soft glow of my phone.
Pass the sickbag, Alice.