And how many of us can park our paychecks in offshore tax havens?
The real story for me isn't about the tax code. We all know that's it's totally unfair. The story for me is about how "raw capitalism" is allowed to trump any higher-value consideration that might be termed the social good. The primary reasons that corporations -- and Google is hardly alone -- even contemplate these kinds of things are two: 1) they are legally bound to increase shareholder value (period, full stop, no other considerations may intervene); and 2) they don't consider the impact of this on their nation because they belong to no nation. There is zero impulse to give back to the community because they have divorced themselves from any community except the community of money, of capitalism. What Schmidt is say, in effect, is that fairness and social well-being and any other impulse that might arise from a sense of being a part of our nation is a joke to him. And for that he's proud.
Maybe it's time to declare all multi-national corporations as foreign entities and treat them accordingly.
"That's why capitalist systems must grow continually, to create new jobs to make up for productivity increases."
That's a small part of it. Mostly, the economy must grow because of the nature of our monetary system. Almost all money is created through loans (aka debt creation). However, the money owed, principal + interest, is beyond the existing money supply. That is, at any given time, money + interest (debt) > existing money supply. In order for that interest to be paid, the money supply must continually expand (inevitably leading to inflation -- the purchasing power of the dollar has decline 97% since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913), and this can really only be done if the economy is expanding, leading to more borrowing and thus a continually expanding money supply. As you can see, followed to its logical conclusion, debt can never be paid off. There are other scenarios that break the link, but they all end badly. The question of debt is the true question that must be solved before we can move on to a more equitable world.
Also, with reference to RonTheHurler... Is it possible that while his company used automation to prosper and create more jobs, it came at the expense of other companies who had to lay off an equal number of employees or more? How much wood can the market absorb? At some point all this becomes a zero sum game.
"...they may create make-work and artificial scarcity for others (including by war and Kafkaesque bureaucracies), but is that really a good thing to build an economy around..." The American ruling elite have concluded that it's great thing on which to base an economy, especially since WWII. The majority of Americans might have a different opinion, but who listens to us...
One thing I worry about in your leisure society scenarios is how ready folks are to spend their leisure time in non-destructive ways. I'm fairly libertarian about what folks do with their own free time, but given the extent that our major institutions have been working overtime to turn the mass of Americans into drooling idiots and selfish assholes, I have some concerns about turning them loose on the streets. Hell, maybe they'd do less damage than they do now in their superstore aisles, cubicles, and trading stations, but I still wonder. Maslow's hierarchy is not inherently benign, and the manner in which people tick off the list is quite variable. Bombing villages might fill a lot of needs for some people, you know what I mean?
And excuse me if I enjoy a moment of schadenfreude as I read about lawyers suffering. (Oh, the horror!)
Nice post, though! I'm working through some of those interesting links.
"... a way for Microsoft to fight against it from close up, and armed with inside knowledge..."
Um, how much more do they need to know than to simply look at the source code, which is available to anyone in the world for free?
On the other hand, they probably don't care what's in the source code. They want to figure out devious ways to blackmail any and all institutions into using Microsoft products. Oh, then, that kind of "inside knowledge."
As a former FairPoint customer in Maine (I recently moved), I can tell you that service will improve. I lived in the sticks (sorry, Liberty), but I still had a great DSL line from FairPoint. It was a bit pricey (@$50), but considering the problems of delivering high-speed internet to a relatively small number of customers, I didn't feel I could complain. I still think they should lower prices, though. Not to say that FairPoint didn't occassionally try to pull something sleaszy -- hey, it's a telco -- but basically I had good luck with them.
As for cell phone service, that DOES suck in rural Maine.
Oh, the shame! The embarrassment! Imagine the world looking at all that crappy code! Nah, the code for Windows 98 will be buried alongside Jimmy Hoffa. You'll never find it.
What Mossberg said was that the division of the marketplace into corporate IT and home users is a false dichotomy. That's not the real division. The divide he addresses is between large companies that have IT departments -- and to whom the computer manufacturers cater -- and the vast legions of small businesses and individual professionals who take care of their own computer needs. If I understood him correctly, the latter group actually outnumbers the former -- and surely does when you throw in the mythical "home computer" user.
If he's right, and I believe he is (just ask the small business associations), then I have to ask why you didn't think to address the small business users in your business plan. They certainly could use some qualified assistance, and they probably have more money to spend on your services than home users.
Remember those thrilling days of yesteryear, when you used a computer application to, well -- write! Or maybe calculate some figures. Compose an email message.
Sheesh. The increasing and overwhelming emphasis on graphical styles and fancy templates and all the rest of the eye candy is really incredible. Fairly soon, all office workers can be replaced by Microsoft intelligent agent modules, who will endlessly send highly graphical memos, written in auto-generated corporate-speak, back and forth, conducting business without the intervention of human intelligence (aside from what little human intelligence designed all this shit!).
Makes me yearn for the good old days of Word 5.0 in DOS. Now there was a useful word processor. You could actually see the words! (/OldGuyRant)
"Look at Google maps... They just work and on any platform, much like Skype."
Last I looked, google maps were a Windows-only thing, with vague promises of other platforms.
Slashdot Mirror
And how many of us can park our paychecks in offshore tax havens? The real story for me isn't about the tax code. We all know that's it's totally unfair. The story for me is about how "raw capitalism" is allowed to trump any higher-value consideration that might be termed the social good. The primary reasons that corporations -- and Google is hardly alone -- even contemplate these kinds of things are two: 1) they are legally bound to increase shareholder value (period, full stop, no other considerations may intervene); and 2) they don't consider the impact of this on their nation because they belong to no nation. There is zero impulse to give back to the community because they have divorced themselves from any community except the community of money, of capitalism. What Schmidt is say, in effect, is that fairness and social well-being and any other impulse that might arise from a sense of being a part of our nation is a joke to him. And for that he's proud. Maybe it's time to declare all multi-national corporations as foreign entities and treat them accordingly.
That's a small part of it. Mostly, the economy must grow because of the nature of our monetary system. Almost all money is created through loans (aka debt creation). However, the money owed, principal + interest, is beyond the existing money supply. That is, at any given time, money + interest (debt) > existing money supply. In order for that interest to be paid, the money supply must continually expand (inevitably leading to inflation -- the purchasing power of the dollar has decline 97% since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913), and this can really only be done if the economy is expanding, leading to more borrowing and thus a continually expanding money supply. As you can see, followed to its logical conclusion, debt can never be paid off. There are other scenarios that break the link, but they all end badly. The question of debt is the true question that must be solved before we can move on to a more equitable world.
Also, with reference to RonTheHurler ... Is it possible that while his company used automation to prosper and create more jobs, it came at the expense of other companies who had to lay off an equal number of employees or more? How much wood can the market absorb? At some point all this becomes a zero sum game.
"...they may create make-work and artificial scarcity for others (including by war and Kafkaesque bureaucracies), but is that really a good thing to build an economy around..." The American ruling elite have concluded that it's great thing on which to base an economy, especially since WWII. The majority of Americans might have a different opinion, but who listens to us ...
One thing I worry about in your leisure society scenarios is how ready folks are to spend their leisure time in non-destructive ways. I'm fairly libertarian about what folks do with their own free time, but given the extent that our major institutions have been working overtime to turn the mass of Americans into drooling idiots and selfish assholes, I have some concerns about turning them loose on the streets. Hell, maybe they'd do less damage than they do now in their superstore aisles, cubicles, and trading stations, but I still wonder. Maslow's hierarchy is not inherently benign, and the manner in which people tick off the list is quite variable. Bombing villages might fill a lot of needs for some people, you know what I mean?
And excuse me if I enjoy a moment of schadenfreude as I read about lawyers suffering. (Oh, the horror!)
Nice post, though! I'm working through some of those interesting links.
"... a way for Microsoft to fight against it from close up, and armed with inside knowledge..." Um, how much more do they need to know than to simply look at the source code, which is available to anyone in the world for free? On the other hand, they probably don't care what's in the source code. They want to figure out devious ways to blackmail any and all institutions into using Microsoft products. Oh, then, that kind of "inside knowledge."
As a former FairPoint customer in Maine (I recently moved), I can tell you that service will improve. I lived in the sticks (sorry, Liberty), but I still had a great DSL line from FairPoint. It was a bit pricey (@$50), but considering the problems of delivering high-speed internet to a relatively small number of customers, I didn't feel I could complain. I still think they should lower prices, though. Not to say that FairPoint didn't occassionally try to pull something sleaszy -- hey, it's a telco -- but basically I had good luck with them. As for cell phone service, that DOES suck in rural Maine.
Isn't this called extortion? What? It's called capitalism? Hm. Perhaps I'm missing some nuance.
Oh, the shame! The embarrassment! Imagine the world looking at all that crappy code! Nah, the code for Windows 98 will be buried alongside Jimmy Hoffa. You'll never find it.
If he's right, and I believe he is (just ask the small business associations), then I have to ask why you didn't think to address the small business users in your business plan. They certainly could use some qualified assistance, and they probably have more money to spend on your services than home users.
Sheesh. The increasing and overwhelming emphasis on graphical styles and fancy templates and all the rest of the eye candy is really incredible. Fairly soon, all office workers can be replaced by Microsoft intelligent agent modules, who will endlessly send highly graphical memos, written in auto-generated corporate-speak, back and forth, conducting business without the intervention of human intelligence (aside from what little human intelligence designed all this shit!).
Makes me yearn for the good old days of Word 5.0 in DOS. Now there was a useful word processor. You could actually see the words! (/OldGuyRant)
"Look at Google maps ... They just work and on any platform, much like Skype."
Last I looked, google maps were a Windows-only thing, with vague promises of other platforms.