While China's economy is based on exporting crap to us, our federal bonds are issued mostly to the Chinese government. While China does have a substantial amount of US debt in raw dollars, your statement is considerably exaggerated. Japan holds 100 BILLION more US debt than China does, yet when was the last time you heard someone freaking out about Japan? China does own ~5% of US debt. This is a good chunk, but still the majority of debt is held domestically.
Of course, thats not to say that we shouldn't try to reduce the deficit. We should, but thats a different issue...
In you first paragraph you claim that video games have less of an effect because you see fake images, but in the case of rap music you have to use your imagination and thus your imagined images are somehow more real than the one's the playstation (or whatever) generates. Really?
Also you claim "Music and video games are fundamentally different in the ways that they effect the nervous system." This is a very strong claim. Please at least come up with some sort of backing for your points. The only stuff you come up with MightyYar seems to to have shot down pretty hard.
I would disagree. I think you imply that listening to music about "rape, robbery, murder, and obscene materialism (bling bling)" makes one desire to drop out of school, join a gang, etc. This is not true. For example, A very large portion of my music library is this kind of music. I personally like it a lot. I would go so far as to call some of Dr. Dre's work classic. Yet I attend an elite university, and certainly wouldn't ever think of committing violent felonies.
What you are saying is the same thing Jack Thompson says about violent video games. Rap music doesn't turn you into a gangbanger any more than playing Counter Strike trains you to be a violent killer. Frankly, I am surprised you were modded up by the same people who would probably mod you way down if you were agreeing with Mr Thompson. Oh well...
Just as a quick correction I believe Senators were originally elected by the state legislatures from the states they represented, which actually does not seem like that bad of a system to me in terms of getting rid of tyranny of the majority...
But the 17% figure you give for the past 8 years actually DOES roughly agree with CPI. In fact, if anything its a bit low. According to the inflation calculator, 1 dollar in 2000 buys the same amount as 1.17 dollars in 2006, thus 17% in less than 8 years according to official figures. Source: http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ Anyway, what this mean is the government's figures are pretty close to accurate, and so the government's conversions from nominal GDP to real GDP and their estimations of growth are actually correct! This means probably we haven't likely been in a recession since the 70's like you claim in your previous post. Unless I'm missing something. Still, it was probably a good call to invest in gold and the euro in the past few years.
I think your point is valid if we accept the statement that CPI and Price Level figures are fundamentally off by huge margins. However, you say Subtract TRUE price increases over that time (don't use the ignorant and embarassingly fake CPI figures) from that GDP. So where are you getting your figures for inflation from? I really would like an answer, this is not a rhetorical question. How do your generate your figures for inflation, and what makes your figures better than the CPI?
Yea, capitalism does work pretty well because of human nature. And yea, government interference can definitely mess up markets. But to say that is THE problem with capitalism is naive. For example, there are things called natural monopolies where factors in the production of a product that is being sold coerces companies toward merging into one big company. Such is the case with say, Utilities. This is why when ATT was broken up, it was pretty natural for it to reform.
Also, government regulation isnt inherently equal and can be used to alter otherwise pareto inefficient markets. That is, yes a market will be in equilibrium in a local sense but its equilibrium will push other areas out of efficiency. A classic example of this is pollution. If a market is in equilibrium but the industries in that market pollute which say, disrupts the market for corn, well we have inefficiency. Government regulation can be used to curb such behavior. Imagine if we had no laws on mandating corporations to be responsible for their actions, workers, products, etc. It would be a disaster!
I don't know... I mean yes, the United States has elements of a republic, but we do have to vote in a sizable portion those that serve in government. So I'm not sure how you define democracy. I guess if you say a democracy is a government where every issue is put to ballot and the people come out vote on it then no, we aren't a democracy, but then no country I know of is... Personally, I don't think "Republic" and "Democracy" are exclusive terms and would brand the United States a democratic republic.
As a Berkeley Student, the first thing I thought was YES! Now I don't have to go to class.
But seriously, this is why I really like UC Berkeley. They are a public school and seem to really take that to heart. While they wont give any schmuck a degree, they are funded in large part by the taxpayers so why shouldnt anyone be able to take advantage of what they have to offer?
I am an undergrad math major here at UC Berkeley. While I havent checked enrollment numbers it seems to me that a high percentage of the graduate students in my field are from other countries. But is this all bad? I wonder how many of them stay in the US and join our workforce. Anecdotally, I know alot of people whose parents were born somewhere else and came over to the United States for school and liked it enough to stay. It would seem to me that the strength of the United States' universities allows us to "steal" some of the best and brightest from India and China and all the rest. I think this is a huge advantage for the US and reason for much of the innovation done in the last century in America.
One thing i think that has been overlooked in this discussion is the number of amazing institutions. If you compare the number of elite research institutions in the United States to anywhere else the US does extremely well. While this is certainly only one factor in a nations "technology ranking" the amount of research these universities generate and the highly educated people they churn out is undeniable a huge positive force for the US.
Did anyone else notice that a judge approved the warrant at 2:09 am?
Why were they so desperate to get that warrant that they had to wake up at judge at 2am?
Seriously, where was he going to go between 2 and say 7?
Perhaps this is standard practice, but it seems the FBI is a bit off on their assessments of him...
While I think the sharing could be nice if it works well the biggest problem with it is that sharing is only useful if alot of people actually get a Zune. After all what use is sharing if you have no one to share with. And it seems unlikely to me that Zune will be able to take a significant porportion of the market given the current dominance of the iPod so I dont see the sharing feature being a feature that would get much use...
I am not sure whether you are speaking about the EV1 or electric cars in general but the EV1 was unbelievably fast. I was one of the people lucky enough to lease it and I remember taking it out and gunning it. It rammed you back into the seat harder than any other car Ive driven ever. The EV1 was one awesome car.
Because of the fact that this law bans sites with forums in places like schools, I wonder how this will affect people trying to view wikipedia. It seems like it would be foolish to block in a school or a library.
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Of course, thats not to say that we shouldn't try to reduce the deficit. We should, but thats a different issue...
Sources: http://www.treas.gov/tic/mfh.txt http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
Also you claim "Music and video games are fundamentally different in the ways that they effect the nervous system." This is a very strong claim. Please at least come up with some sort of backing for your points. The only stuff you come up with MightyYar seems to to have shot down pretty hard.
I still think my analogy is pretty apt.
What you are saying is the same thing Jack Thompson says about violent video games. Rap music doesn't turn you into a gangbanger any more than playing Counter Strike trains you to be a violent killer. Frankly, I am surprised you were modded up by the same people who would probably mod you way down if you were agreeing with Mr Thompson. Oh well...
Just as a quick correction I believe Senators were originally elected by the state legislatures from the states they represented, which actually does not seem like that bad of a system to me in terms of getting rid of tyranny of the majority...
But the 17% figure you give for the past 8 years actually DOES roughly agree with CPI. In fact, if anything its a bit low. According to the inflation calculator, 1 dollar in 2000 buys the same amount as 1.17 dollars in 2006, thus 17% in less than 8 years according to official figures. Source: http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ Anyway, what this mean is the government's figures are pretty close to accurate, and so the government's conversions from nominal GDP to real GDP and their estimations of growth are actually correct! This means probably we haven't likely been in a recession since the 70's like you claim in your previous post. Unless I'm missing something. Still, it was probably a good call to invest in gold and the euro in the past few years.
I think your point is valid if we accept the statement that CPI and Price Level figures are fundamentally off by huge margins. However, you say Subtract TRUE price increases over that time (don't use the ignorant and embarassingly fake CPI figures) from that GDP. So where are you getting your figures for inflation from? I really would like an answer, this is not a rhetorical question. How do your generate your figures for inflation, and what makes your figures better than the CPI?
Yea, capitalism does work pretty well because of human nature. And yea, government interference can definitely mess up markets. But to say that is THE problem with capitalism is naive. For example, there are things called natural monopolies where factors in the production of a product that is being sold coerces companies toward merging into one big company. Such is the case with say, Utilities. This is why when ATT was broken up, it was pretty natural for it to reform. Also, government regulation isnt inherently equal and can be used to alter otherwise pareto inefficient markets. That is, yes a market will be in equilibrium in a local sense but its equilibrium will push other areas out of efficiency. A classic example of this is pollution. If a market is in equilibrium but the industries in that market pollute which say, disrupts the market for corn, well we have inefficiency. Government regulation can be used to curb such behavior. Imagine if we had no laws on mandating corporations to be responsible for their actions, workers, products, etc. It would be a disaster!
I don't know... I mean yes, the United States has elements of a republic, but we do have to vote in a sizable portion those that serve in government. So I'm not sure how you define democracy. I guess if you say a democracy is a government where every issue is put to ballot and the people come out vote on it then no, we aren't a democracy, but then no country I know of is... Personally, I don't think "Republic" and "Democracy" are exclusive terms and would brand the United States a democratic republic.
As a Berkeley Student, the first thing I thought was YES! Now I don't have to go to class. But seriously, this is why I really like UC Berkeley. They are a public school and seem to really take that to heart. While they wont give any schmuck a degree, they are funded in large part by the taxpayers so why shouldnt anyone be able to take advantage of what they have to offer?
I am an undergrad math major here at UC Berkeley. While I havent checked enrollment numbers it seems to me that a high percentage of the graduate students in my field are from other countries. But is this all bad? I wonder how many of them stay in the US and join our workforce. Anecdotally, I know alot of people whose parents were born somewhere else and came over to the United States for school and liked it enough to stay. It would seem to me that the strength of the United States' universities allows us to "steal" some of the best and brightest from India and China and all the rest. I think this is a huge advantage for the US and reason for much of the innovation done in the last century in America.
One thing i think that has been overlooked in this discussion is the number of amazing institutions. If you compare the number of elite research institutions in the United States to anywhere else the US does extremely well. While this is certainly only one factor in a nations "technology ranking" the amount of research these universities generate and the highly educated people they churn out is undeniable a huge positive force for the US.
Did anyone else notice that a judge approved the warrant at 2:09 am? Why were they so desperate to get that warrant that they had to wake up at judge at 2am? Seriously, where was he going to go between 2 and say 7? Perhaps this is standard practice, but it seems the FBI is a bit off on their assessments of him...
While I think the sharing could be nice if it works well the biggest problem with it is that sharing is only useful if alot of people actually get a Zune. After all what use is sharing if you have no one to share with. And it seems unlikely to me that Zune will be able to take a significant porportion of the market given the current dominance of the iPod so I dont see the sharing feature being a feature that would get much use...
I am not sure whether you are speaking about the EV1 or electric cars in general but the EV1 was unbelievably fast. I was one of the people lucky enough to lease it and I remember taking it out and gunning it. It rammed you back into the seat harder than any other car Ive driven ever. The EV1 was one awesome car.
Because of the fact that this law bans sites with forums in places like schools, I wonder how this will affect people trying to view wikipedia. It seems like it would be foolish to block in a school or a library.