I hope RMS is not just talking it up and has some real plans in place to measure the benefits that are thought to be possible.
Dumb.
RMS travels around attempting to persuade people/states/organisations the benefits of Free software. MS no doubt is similarly talking to the Kerela govt to persuade them to use their software.
The government makes the choice, then it's their responsibility to monitor the outcomes.
Would you suggest that MS should monitor each sale they've made where they've caused a switch to ensure there's 'real benefits' of the switch.
I know random RMS bashing is popular on slashdot, but please, try to make your trolls less stupid.
Errr - thanks for mentioning the SLED licenses, but the other prizes (that people would actually want) are:
Prize/Odds of Winning: There are 20 tier 3 prizes to be awarded, 6 tier 2 prizes, and 3 tier 1 prizes. Tier 3 prizes are Apple® 2GB Nano iPods . They have an approximate value of US $199. Tier 2 prizes are Olympus® EVOLT E-500 Digital Cameras. They have an approximate value of of $800 US. Tier 1 prizes are HP Compaq nc6400 Notebooks . They have an approximate value of $2,000 US. The odds of winning a prize depend upon the total number of eligible entries received. All prizes will be awarded, provided they are properly claimed and a sufficient number of eligible entries are received. Limit one prize per household.
Who would you prefer to be treated by? A doctor who was trained in Cuba, or a doctor who was trained in Mexico?
But your comparison was between a cuban doctor and a mexican alley.
If Mexico has a higher infant mortality rate and lower life expectancy, it's only because those in the Mexican government find it more difficult to pull numbers out of their asses.
If the statistics don't agree with you, then the statistics are false? Not really much point try to discuss something with you if you just dismiss everything you don't agree with.
I have noticed that there appears to be a general declining bias for most search terms that either has to do with the declining popularity of Google....
Dumb. Maybe he's correct, that google popularity is declining, but the examples he gives do not back up his hypothesis.
There's less searches for Ultramax, Trance music, Madonna and Britney Spears than two years ago. Thats because those items are less popular than two years ago.
So - two of his search items are related to what he's selling! An interesting way to get your name, music & company linked from a high profile website.
Space shuttle "Antlantis" doesn't exactly fill me with confidence - I mean, why not just go with "Space Shuttle sinking continent" or "Space Shuttle doomed civilization"
The sort of "health care" available to ordinary Cubans is far worse than anything available in the backalleys of, say, Mexico.
Beyond stupid. Any sort of professional medical attention (even if the equipment is substandard) is better than what's available in a 'back alley' of any country. Furthermore, Mexico has a higher infant mortality rate & lower life expectancy than cuba - two good indicators of health care in a country.
I don't know why you think your anti-cuban propaganda is any less stupid than the the pro-cuban propaganda.
It strikes me as truly ironic that the US spends significantly more on healthcare as a percentage of GDP than other industrialized nations do, yet the results are so terribly sub-standard.
Yeah, that was really the point I was making with the cuban health care system - that centralization has allowed them to do so much more (per capita) with their money than the US.
I shouldn't have said 'better' however - such a general word can be skewed too many ways. Cuba has free, universal healthcare - that makes it better to me, but not everyone.
Overly Critical Guy is trolling here - he does this every time the OLPC project comes up. Again, I will have to refute him, just in case someone was tempted to believe his troll has merit.
Worst of all, Steve Jobs offered OS X for this laptop TOTALLY FREE OF CHARGE.
Jobs offered OS X to the one laptop per child program late in the day, knowing that it was unsuitable due to lack of source. It was simply grandstanding on his part. Frankly, I can't think of a non-malicious reason for Jobs to make the offer, (why knowingly offer something useless?). Job's crack at the OLPC project wasn't as childish & pathetic as Gate's, but make no mistake - it was similar jealousy that prompted it.
And if you're wondering why the source is so important, wonder no further - have a read of the OLPC's OLPC on OSS page:
* Must include source code and allow modification so that our developers, the governments that are our customers and the children who use the laptop can look under the hood to change the software to fit an inconceivable and inconceivably diverse set of needs. Our software must also provide a self-hosting development platform.
* Must allow distribution of modified copies of software under the same license so that the freedoms that our developers depend upon for success remain available to the users and developers who define the next generation of the software. Our users and customers must be able to localize software into their language, fix the software to remove bugs, and repurpose the software to fit their needs.
* Must allow redistribution without permission -- either alone or as part of an aggregate distribution -- because we can not know and should not control how the tools we create will be re-purposed in the future. Our children outgrow our platform, our software should be able to grow with them.
* Must not require royalty payments or any other fee for redistribution or modification for obvious reasons of economy and pragmatism in the context of our project.
* Must not discriminate against persons, groups or against fields of endeavor. Our software's power will come through its ability to grow and change with the children and in a variety of contexts.
* Must not place restrictions on other software that may be distributed along side it. Software licenses must not bar either proprietary, or "copyleft" software from being distributed on the platform. A world of great software will be used to make this project succeed - both open and closed. We need to be able to choose from all of it.
* Must allow these rights to be passed on along with the software. This means that we must not provide a license specific to the $100 Laptop project or organization or its customers. While we are the developers of this platform today, the users of this platform are the developers of tomorrow and it is through them that the platform will succeed, be transformed, and be passed on. They need the same rights as we do.
* Must not be otherwise encumbered by software patents which restrict modification or use in the ways described above. All patents practiced by software should be sublicenseable and allow our users to make use or sell derivative versions that practice the patent in question.
* Must support and promote open and patent unencumbered data interchange and file formats.
* Must be able to be built using unencumbered tools (e.g., compilers) whose output is unencumbered and free to examine and reverse engineer.
Again, I say that Steve Job's is far too an intelligent man to not understand OLPC's goals, so I can only imagine publicity (waaaaaaaaah! Google and Redhat are looking like nicer companies than Apple!) prompted his 'offer'.
Do you even know what GDP measures? Any idea whatsoever? Please read this in it's entirety and you may understand the error of your ways. Also see my post here.
I wasn't talking about GDP - I was talking about GDP per capita. The post you link to with sizes of economies show's you don't understand the difference.
The wikipedia you link to notes GDP per capita is often used as an indicator of standard of living in an economy, but goes on to say that the UN's HDI (Human development index) is consider a better indicator.
Western European countries poorer than Slovenia, Malta and Croatia. I'd also ad andorra to that list. The place seemed pretty poor last time I was there.
no economist will ever say Country A is richer than Country B and use GDP numbers to back up their claim. Not one.
Incorrect. They do all the time - they mightn't be correct doing so, but they do.
it is merely because I am rebutting you
No, if you thought my implication that government regulation led to a better healthcare system in cuba than the us was incorrect, then you should have said so.
You didn't, so I didn't really have anything to debate with you about. Someone else did, provided a link to back themselves up & I conceded that I was probably incorrect.
Your orginal reply to my post was a ramble. I pulled spain out of it to show it was a ramble.
Your strawman argument notwithstanding, it's still completely common knowledge
Not a strawman - just demonstrating that saying something 'common knowledge' (the fallacy argumentum ad populum) does not back up your statement in any way, shape or form.
that Stallman's goal is to get rid of proprietary software and have everyone using Open Source, because he considers proprietary software to be evil.
You have subtley changed your argument there - before it was "Stallman wants to ban proprietary software", now its "get rid of proprietary software" (by providing a better alternative thats precisely what he's doing).
I never said Stallman wanted the government to "ban" proprietary software.
Right - but you did say people like RMS actually believe that you should not be allowed to use proprietary software
And you've talked about coercicion, and imposition on your will in this thread. Who can possibly 'not allow' , 'coerce' and 'impose' on you to use free software?
What did you mean by 'not allow', 'impose' and 'coerce' if you didn't mean government regulation?
I've backed up Stallman's position countless times and could continue to do so indefinitely.
Allright, I'll conceed that Cuba does not have 'better' health care than the US - perhaps it would be more accurate to say it has better healthcare than most countries with a similar GDP.
I guess its a little unrealistic for such a poor country to have better healthcare than the US.
Maybe because you're so willing to repeat the lies of totalitarians.
Which part was a totalitarian's lie?
When I said better healthcare? Perhaps I shouldn't have used the word 'better', rather 'free, universal'.
When I said cuba had a lower infant mortality rate? Perhaps I should have added that gathering statistics about infant mortality across countries has too many variations, which perhaps make them not directly comparable?
Would that have made you happy? Or was something else I said the 'lies of totalitarian?'
Stringer was head of Sony US prior to becoming the first US born CEO of a major Japanese firm. In Sony US, content was were the profits were, and Stringer obviously thinks this will be true of Sony Worldwide too. He was behind Sony's DRM initiatives and the company certainly appears to be run with the content being king to the detriment of the electronics division.
If I was a shareholder, I'd be calling for his resignation.
Oh, how convenient. You didn't have time to refute every point.
*sighs* - OK little boy - I'll refute your points so you don't have another tantrum, but first, Spain.
Not even close to being correct? Spain is certainly in the bottom 2; the only other contender being its Iberian neighbour Portugal.
It's not close to being correct no.
1) Spain's GDP per capita is 25% larger than Portugal's GDP per capita - I'd call 1/4 'not close'
2) There are other, poorer Western European countries. Spain is not 'certainly' in the bottom 2.
Tell me, have you seen either of those countries? Have you seen outside the major Spanish cities? Between the two, I think I would prefer Portugal. Interesting that you would also fixate upon the most tangential of my points; a clear sign of your desperation.
No, it wasn't the most tangential of your points - all of your rambling post was tangential. Take the above paragraph for instance. How is it relevant that you think portugal is nicer than Spain? Does it matter if I've been to Spain or not? Does it matter if there's poor areas in a country if you're measuring the wealth gap between countries?
I presume you're ADD?
Anyway, on to your original post. Allow me to go through it point by point:
I very much doubt that the US has far fewer government controls. In accordance with the wishes of people like you, that hasn't been true in a very long time. You've also failed to isolate every other factor that may play a role, e.g. the size of the respective countries, and the demand for higher speed broadband in the US vs. in other countries. Therefore, you've proven nothing.
And why exactly is Cuba a "poor country"? Couldn't have anything to do with it's economic system could it? After all, just look at all those rich non-market countries like...
Strawman. I didn't say one way or another why Cuba was poor - I just noted the fact that it has better (free, universal) healthcare than the US.
As for better healthcare, while I have never been to Cuba, I doubt it, for the simple reason that people like you said the same thing about the Eastern Bloc (remember us?), and that was blatantly wrong. Furthermore, many Eastern Bloc countries were richer than Cuba, and as they were unable to succeed, I doubt an island in the Caribbean ruled by a Spaniard dictator (Spain is the poorest Western European country) is able to succeed where so many others who were more likely to succeed failed.
Rambling. You start with healthcare, but don't say anything about healthcare. The former Soveiet Satellite states are irrelevant to this.
But look, don't take my word for it. Every year, hundreds of thousands of Cubans who are convinced that you are wrong risk life and limb to escape Castro's fun land. You don't have to risk life or limb to live in your utopia; it's far easier for you to relocate. Frankly, I wish citizenship was transferable to people like you, who possess US citizenship, but do not vaue it in the least, could transfer it to people like me, who do not possess US citizenship, but would value it far more than an ingrate like you.
Strawman. I didn't comment on the economic conditions in Cuba (the main reason for the refugees)
Oh, and I'm not a US citizen.
P.S. I notice that your handle is "Whiney Mac Fanboy." Interesting that you are not a "Whiney Fanboy" of a computer designed in many of the worker's paradises you keep having (fluid) dreams about e.g. former Eastern Bloc Countries, former USSR, PRC, DPRK, SRC, etc.
Strawman. I didn't say it was a workers paradise. Offtopic. WTF do the eastern bloc counties have to do with this discussion (and I don't really care why they're important to you).
P.P.S. Funny how most of the people who constantly whine about Bush being a dictator idolize Cuba, which is run in a far more dictatorial fashion than Bush's tiny mind could even begin to fantasize about.
Offtopic. I said nothing about Bush. Strawman, I didn't say I idolized Cuba.
Some advice for you: Try and stay ontopic and people might take you seriously
But I guess it would be easier to drive from Perth to somewhere without light pollution then say western europe, india, or either of the US's coasts however.
Well, the OP's comment was more of an OT rant, which rambled too wide to really disupte (I mean wtf does bush have to do with anything? and whats with the implication that I think Cuba is a 'workers paradise'?)
*shrug* I thought I'd just pluck out the most obviously incorrect point in the OP's rant to show that they're pulling facts out of their ass.
I can't believe how often this is used as a legitimate justification for the US's crap broadband.
Manhattan island is one of the most densely populated parts of the world. And Broadband is still expensive and slow. If population desnsity is the problem, why does this happen?
I'd also like to see a comparison that includes the middle-class tax rate. Personally, I'd rather have to pay for my bandwidth than end up paying significantly higher taxes to subsidize cheap Internet connections for everyone else.
Yes - you're quite right, the only thing the extra tax is going to do is subsidise internet connections for crack whores. Never mind subsidised health care, housing, a social net (so the children of said crack whores won't end up stabbing you for the $2 in your pocket), etc etc etc.
I believe in a capitalist market, but if you can't see some of its failures & areas where it needs to be regulated, then you're deluded.
The United States has more pure land mass than all of the countries listed put together.
Yes, but what about countries which who's land mass is large - but a non-pure alloy of some sort?
(Countries like Australia are a similar size to the US minus alaska, but with a population of only 20 million if you want to play the 'big open country' game).
As any libertarian will tell you, government regulation and meddling in a market can only hurt consumers.
It's for this reason that the United States, with fewer government controls has a superior and chepaer broadband, telecoms network...oh what? Crap.
Turns out for some things regulation is better - look at how a poor country like Cuba has better healthcare (with lower infant mortality rates) than the wealthy US.
Oh, and I note they don't have sweden on the list where (last I heard) you could get 100Mbps for something like 30 euros/month in a large city.
You mean "low profit" like slashdot.org is(n't)? The rules have long since been broken.
I'm guessing you mean slashdot doesn't belong in.org? Probably true, but not relevant to this thread. The GP was saying that registrar of.com/.org/.net/etc domains should be low profit, nothing to do with net companies using.com, non profit organisations using.net & commercial companies using.org.
Slashdot Mirror
I hope RMS is not just talking it up and has some real plans in place to measure the benefits that are thought to be possible.
Dumb.
RMS travels around attempting to persuade people/states/organisations the benefits of Free software. MS no doubt is similarly talking to the Kerela govt to persuade them to use their software.
The government makes the choice, then it's their responsibility to monitor the outcomes.
Would you suggest that MS should monitor each sale they've made where they've caused a switch to ensure there's 'real benefits' of the switch.
I know random RMS bashing is popular on slashdot, but please, try to make your trolls less stupid.
Who would you prefer to be treated by? A doctor who was trained in Cuba, or a doctor who was trained in Mexico?
But your comparison was between a cuban doctor and a mexican alley.
If Mexico has a higher infant mortality rate and lower life expectancy, it's only because those in the Mexican government find it more difficult to pull numbers out of their asses.
If the statistics don't agree with you, then the statistics are false? Not really much point try to discuss something with you if you just dismiss everything you don't agree with.
How about some substatiation for that?
And to put that INTO perspective - try this search
(This can go on all day!)
I have noticed that there appears to be a general declining bias for most search terms that either has to do with the declining popularity of Google....
Dumb. Maybe he's correct, that google popularity is declining, but the examples he gives do not back up his hypothesis.
There's less searches for Ultramax, Trance music, Madonna and Britney Spears than two years ago. Thats because those items are less popular than two years ago.
Oh, and doing a quick search for the author of this 'blog' (which is starting to look suspiciously like a pagerank pusher), I see he has an ecommerce site called ultramax music, that features trance).
So - two of his search items are related to what he's selling! An interesting way to get your name, music & company linked from a high profile website.
Space shuttle "Antlantis" doesn't exactly fill me with confidence - I mean, why not just go with "Space Shuttle sinking continent" or "Space Shuttle doomed civilization"
The sort of "health care" available to ordinary Cubans is far worse than anything available in the backalleys of, say, Mexico.
Beyond stupid. Any sort of professional medical attention (even if the equipment is substandard) is better than what's available in a 'back alley' of any country. Furthermore, Mexico has a higher infant mortality rate & lower life expectancy than cuba - two good indicators of health care in a country.
I don't know why you think your anti-cuban propaganda is any less stupid than the the pro-cuban propaganda.
There'll never be another ridiculously late, overhyped, massively over budget, features touted then dropped software project again? ;-p
It strikes me as truly ironic that the US spends significantly more on healthcare as a percentage of GDP than other industrialized nations do, yet the results are so terribly sub-standard.
Yeah, that was really the point I was making with the cuban health care system - that centralization has allowed them to do so much more (per capita) with their money than the US.
I shouldn't have said 'better' however - such a general word can be skewed too many ways. Cuba has free, universal healthcare - that makes it better to me, but not everyone.
Worst of all, Steve Jobs offered OS X for this laptop TOTALLY FREE OF CHARGE.
Jobs offered OS X to the one laptop per child program late in the day, knowing that it was unsuitable due to lack of source. It was simply grandstanding on his part. Frankly, I can't think of a non-malicious reason for Jobs to make the offer, (why knowingly offer something useless?). Job's crack at the OLPC project wasn't as childish & pathetic as Gate's, but make no mistake - it was similar jealousy that prompted it.
And if you're wondering why the source is so important, wonder no further - have a read of the OLPC's OLPC on OSS page:
Again, I say that Steve Job's is far too an intelligent man to not understand OLPC's goals, so I can only imagine publicity (waaaaaaaaah! Google and Redhat are looking like nicer companies than Apple!) prompted his 'offer'.
So we could have had a $100--er, $140--MacBook.
Incorrect. You are not a c
Lol!
Do you even know what GDP measures? Any idea whatsoever? Please read this in it's entirety and you may understand the error of your ways. Also see my post here.
I wasn't talking about GDP - I was talking about GDP per capita. The post you link to with sizes of economies show's you don't understand the difference.
The wikipedia you link to notes GDP per capita is often used as an indicator of standard of living in an economy, but goes on to say that the UN's HDI (Human development index) is consider a better indicator.
Western European countries poorer than Slovenia, Malta and Croatia. I'd also ad andorra to that list. The place seemed pretty poor last time I was there.
no economist will ever say Country A is richer than Country B and use GDP numbers to back up their claim. Not one.
Incorrect. They do all the time - they mightn't be correct doing so, but they do.
it is merely because I am rebutting you
No, if you thought my implication that government regulation led to a better healthcare system in cuba than the us was incorrect, then you should have said so.
You didn't, so I didn't really have anything to debate with you about. Someone else did, provided a link to back themselves up & I conceded that I was probably incorrect.
Your orginal reply to my post was a ramble. I pulled spain out of it to show it was a ramble.
Your strawman argument notwithstanding, it's still completely common knowledge
Not a strawman - just demonstrating that saying something 'common knowledge' (the fallacy argumentum ad populum) does not back up your statement in any way, shape or form.
that Stallman's goal is to get rid of proprietary software and have everyone using Open Source, because he considers proprietary software to be evil.
You have subtley changed your argument there - before it was "Stallman wants to ban proprietary software", now its "get rid of proprietary software" (by providing a better alternative thats precisely what he's doing).
I never said Stallman wanted the government to "ban" proprietary software.
Right - but you did say people like RMS actually believe that you should not be allowed to use proprietary software
And you've talked about coercicion, and imposition on your will in this thread. Who can possibly 'not allow' , 'coerce' and 'impose' on you to use free software?
What did you mean by 'not allow', 'impose' and 'coerce' if you didn't mean government regulation?
I've backed up Stallman's position countless times and could continue to do so indefinitely.
Whoops! Did you mean to write that?
Whoops - typo. He's a Welsh born US citizen.
Allright, I'll conceed that Cuba does not have 'better' health care than the US - perhaps it would be more accurate to say it has better healthcare than most countries with a similar GDP.
I guess its a little unrealistic for such a poor country to have better healthcare than the US.
Maybe because you're so willing to repeat the lies of totalitarians.
Which part was a totalitarian's lie?
When I said better healthcare? Perhaps I shouldn't have used the word 'better', rather 'free, universal'.
When I said cuba had a lower infant mortality rate? Perhaps I should have added that gathering statistics about infant mortality across countries has too many variations, which perhaps make them not directly comparable?
Would that have made you happy? Or was something else I said the 'lies of totalitarian?'
Sony's problem is obvious - its British Born, US citizen CEO, Howard Stringer
Stringer was head of Sony US prior to becoming the first US born CEO of a major Japanese firm. In Sony US, content was were the profits were, and Stringer obviously thinks this will be true of Sony Worldwide too. He was behind Sony's DRM initiatives and the company certainly appears to be run with the content being king to the detriment of the electronics division.
If I was a shareholder, I'd be calling for his resignation.
Oh, how convenient. You didn't have time to refute every point.
*sighs* - OK little boy - I'll refute your points so you don't have another tantrum, but first, Spain.
Not even close to being correct? Spain is certainly in the bottom 2; the only other contender being its Iberian neighbour Portugal.
It's not close to being correct no.
1) Spain's GDP per capita is 25% larger than Portugal's GDP per capita - I'd call 1/4 'not close'
2) There are other, poorer Western European countries. Spain is not 'certainly' in the bottom 2.
Tell me, have you seen either of those countries? Have you seen outside the major Spanish cities? Between the two, I think I would prefer Portugal. Interesting that you would also fixate upon the most tangential of my points; a clear sign of your desperation.
No, it wasn't the most tangential of your points - all of your rambling post was tangential. Take the above paragraph for instance. How is it relevant that you think portugal is nicer than Spain? Does it matter if I've been to Spain or not? Does it matter if there's poor areas in a country if you're measuring the wealth gap between countries?
I presume you're ADD?
Anyway, on to your original post. Allow me to go through it point by point:
I very much doubt that the US has far fewer government controls. In accordance with the wishes of people like you, that hasn't been true in a very long time. You've also failed to isolate every other factor that may play a role, e.g. the size of the respective countries, and the demand for higher speed broadband in the US vs. in other countries. Therefore, you've proven nothing.
And why exactly is Cuba a "poor country"? Couldn't have anything to do with it's economic system could it? After all, just look at all those rich non-market countries like...
Strawman. I didn't say one way or another why Cuba was poor - I just noted the fact that it has better (free, universal) healthcare than the US.
As for better healthcare, while I have never been to Cuba, I doubt it, for the simple reason that people like you said the same thing about the Eastern Bloc (remember us?), and that was blatantly wrong. Furthermore, many Eastern Bloc countries were richer than Cuba, and as they were unable to succeed, I doubt an island in the Caribbean ruled by a Spaniard dictator (Spain is the poorest Western European country) is able to succeed where so many others who were more likely to succeed failed.
Rambling. You start with healthcare, but don't say anything about healthcare. The former Soveiet Satellite states are irrelevant to this.
But look, don't take my word for it. Every year, hundreds of thousands of Cubans who are convinced that you are wrong risk life and limb to escape Castro's fun land. You don't have to risk life or limb to live in your utopia; it's far easier for you to relocate. Frankly, I wish citizenship was transferable to people like you, who possess US citizenship, but do not vaue it in the least, could transfer it to people like me, who do not possess US citizenship, but would value it far more than an ingrate like you.
Strawman. I didn't comment on the economic conditions in Cuba (the main reason for the refugees)
Oh, and I'm not a US citizen.
P.S. I notice that your handle is "Whiney Mac Fanboy." Interesting that you are not a "Whiney Fanboy" of a computer designed in many of the worker's paradises you keep having (fluid) dreams about e.g. former Eastern Bloc Countries, former USSR, PRC, DPRK, SRC, etc.
Strawman. I didn't say it was a workers paradise. Offtopic. WTF do the eastern bloc counties have to do with this discussion (and I don't really care why they're important to you).
P.P.S. Funny how most of the people who constantly whine about Bush being a dictator idolize Cuba, which is run in a far more dictatorial fashion than Bush's tiny mind could even begin to fantasize about.
Offtopic. I said nothing about Bush. Strawman, I didn't say I idolized Cuba.
Some advice for you: Try and stay ontopic and people might take you seriously
Is Perth WA the astronomer's paradise I've always imagined it must be?
Checking out this map of light pollution taken from space, I doubt it.
But I guess it would be easier to drive from Perth to somewhere without light pollution then say western europe, india, or either of the US's coasts however.
Well, the OP's comment was more of an OT rant, which rambled too wide to really disupte (I mean wtf does bush have to do with anything? and whats with the implication that I think Cuba is a 'workers paradise'?)
*shrug* I thought I'd just pluck out the most obviously incorrect point in the OP's rant to show that they're pulling facts out of their ass.
A: Higher population density
I can't believe how often this is used as a legitimate justification for the US's crap broadband.
Manhattan island is one of the most densely populated parts of the world. And Broadband is still expensive and slow. If population desnsity is the problem, why does this happen?
I'd also like to see a comparison that includes the middle-class tax rate. Personally, I'd rather have to pay for my bandwidth than end up paying significantly higher taxes to subsidize cheap Internet connections for everyone else.
Yes - you're quite right, the only thing the extra tax is going to do is subsidise internet connections for crack whores. Never mind subsidised health care, housing, a social net (so the children of said crack whores won't end up stabbing you for the $2 in your pocket), etc etc etc.
I believe in a capitalist market, but if you can't see some of its failures & areas where it needs to be regulated, then you're deluded.
As I don't have time to refute every point in your stupid little rant, I'm just going to choose one.
Spain is the poorest Western European country
Incorrect - and not even close to being correct (hasn't been the case for over 20 years).
Dumb, dumb, dumb.
The United States has more pure land mass than all of the countries listed put together.
Yes, but what about countries which who's land mass is large - but a non-pure alloy of some sort?
(Countries like Australia are a similar size to the US minus alaska, but with a population of only 20 million if you want to play the 'big open country' game).
As any libertarian will tell you, government regulation and meddling in a market can only hurt consumers.
It's for this reason that the United States, with fewer government controls has a superior and chepaer broadband, telecoms network...oh what? Crap.
Turns out for some things regulation is better - look at how a poor country like Cuba has better healthcare (with lower infant mortality rates) than the wealthy US.
Oh, and I note they don't have sweden on the list where (last I heard) you could get 100Mbps for something like 30 euros/month in a large city.
You mean "low profit" like slashdot.org is(n't)? The rules have long since been broken.
.org? Probably true, but not relevant to this thread. The GP was saying that registrar of .com/.org/.net/etc domains should be low profit, nothing to do with net companies using .com, non profit organisations using .net & commercial companies using .org.
I'm guessing you mean slashdot doesn't belong in