That's exactly Hollywood's business model. They've been screwing California out of taxes for generations.
They have also bilked my country out of something like $375 million (local dollars) over the last 15 years or so, even though nobody can actually determine that we get any sort of return on that "investment".
The last time Warner Bros. threatened to take a movie away from us, our government gave them $50 million extra and altered the employment laws to prevent local workers from taking industrial action if they didn't like the work conditions.
Apparently there are "jobs" involved.
No, no, that can't be right. I thought the NHS was going to get an extra £200 million per day after Brexit.
That nice Boris said so, and he's not a dirty lying self-interested scumbag, is he?
You're all over the place, make your mind up. Either there's no left in the US political system, or your nice Mr. Clinton was actually really right wing, what with all his deregulation and so on.
To be fair, it was that weird Mr. Reagan who started the whole thing. He was really good at getting Americans to vote against their own interests.
Also good at avoiding going to jail.
Thanks A/C, that is very informative.
It looks like they may have defrauded banks. You can rip off as many little old ladies as you can, but play fast and loose with banks' money and you're in big trouble.
Also, their CEO is Ted Farnsworth, and we all know what a terrible job he did at Planet Express in the early 3000's.
...folks like going to the movies and would go more often if the price was lower.
You make a good point there. The evenyoungerones like going to superhero movies, but as I am an old youngone, I have pretty much seen them all, several times over the years.
Therefore I resent paying $25 per person (in my local money) to see some something that is not new to me.
If they charged ~$5 each, we could go nearly every week.
I seem to recall Obama blaming a failing housing market and rapidly rising unemployment on Bush
That's because George II was in charge when the sub-prime mortgage crisis happened. (Not that I imagine for a second he understood what was going on).
I'm sure Jimmy Carter blamed everything...
Would that be the same Jimmy Carter who was defeated by that Mr. Reagan who colluded with Iran to keep a bunch of hostages in prison until after the election?
Then never complained about it?
I am pretty sure it is.
Refusing to take personal responsibility for your actions is the foundation of the left.
Stop pretending there is any left in US politics, there is right, and a far right and your comment just confirms you don't understand any of it.
One of the lessons the US military learned from Vietnam was that a volunteer army works better than a bunch of draftees.
Another lesson they learned is that they need to control the message, which is why reporters were "imbedded" with units during the invasion of Iraq.
There is no way the military were going to let independent reporters report on what was actually going on. (At least while it was happening).
They have also allied themselves with the most effective propaganda machine the world has ever known, and going by most of the comments here, they have been very successful.
Have you ever watched the NFL "Salute to Service" round? Have you ever wondered how much the military pay the NFL to stage those Nuremberg rallies? It's quite a lot.
Neither the NFL, nor the military want to talk about paid patriotism, because it goes against the idea they're trying to sell you.
As a non-American, I enjoy your type of football, but that particular kind of ra-ra militarism looks a bit threatening.
For a country that sees itself as the good guy, you start an awful lot of wars. I wonder who benefits?
look at all the options someplace like the Soviet Union offered its citizens.
Ah yes, because there are only two possibilities, either good ol' freedom loving USA, or nasty Soviet Union. There's no way there could be any other kind of society.
People sometimes confuse economists for scientists, but they're not.
Economists are either priests, or acolytes, depending on how senior they are.
Economists brook no dissent, and punish heretics severely.
Do not make the mistake of listening to the advise of an economist. Listen to your accountant instead, they're just like economists, but useful.
Oh, yes. That's the other great thing about private prisons.
We must remember to earmark some of that sweet, sweet taxpayer money for more propaganda about what a bad thing Socialism is though.
Those poor people might start getting the wrong idea.
...they turned the screws tighter on their existing customers...
I understand that's why the massive multinational corporation I work for is beginning the process of getting rid of Oracle.
Every supplier we have is happy to negotiate price when the time comes, but Oracle raised theirs and refused to even speak to our CEO.
They will regret that one day. It won't be this year, but the time will come.
There's actually a lot of money to be made out of imprisoning people.
I mean, obviously not for poor people, they're the ones we're putting behind bars, or paying a pittance to be the guards, but for rich people, it can be a great thing.
3 ISP's? Really?
New York is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, with a population of ~ 8.6 million and that's the best you can do?
That's a totally broken system, and the fact you think a choice of 3 in New York is good is a bit odd.
As far as making their investment back, TFA explains
despite years of federal subsidies and many state grant programs.
They're being paid to supply rural Internet, and they still won't do it.
Thanks. Great post. That's pretty much how I feel about Mr. Musk also.
Just as an aside, do you think Gavin Belson from Hooli on Silicon Valley is based on him?
I'm saying that if you do some research about the awful list I posted above, you might wonder who the good guys really are.
United Fruit (as just one example) made Guatemala an absolute hellhole for the locals for most of the 20th century. With the help of the US Marines.
What makes you think the US gives a toss about human rights?
Here's a quick list of human rights abusing dictators the US has installed or supported or both over the last 70 years or so:
Franco in Spain
Suharto in Indonesia
Hussain in Iraq
Pahlavi in Iran
Pinochet in Chile
various Somozas in Nicaragua
Ubico & Castillo Armas in Guatemala (among others).
Marcos in Philippines
Frankly that's just off the top of my head without thinking about it too much.
If you think manufacturing is coming back to the US you don't understand how multinational corporations work.
But based on you wanting to nuke China I am pretty sure you don't understand much.
I am not disagreeing with you, but go and have a look at one star reviews on Google Play, a whole bunch of them consist of "Does not work. Help".
People are idiots.
You wouldn't steal a handbag.
You wouldn't steal a car.
You wouldn't steal a baby.
You wouldn't shoot a policeman. And then steal his helmet.
You wouldn't go to the toilet in his helmet.
And then send it to the policeman's grieving widow.
And then steal it again!
Downloading films is stealing. If you do it, you will face the consequences.
They made the mistake of being somewhere where they could be arrested.
The Microsoft people who call my wife are pretty obviously in India.
The investment scammers I have been getting lately are also calling from some third-world country I would think. I read somewhere Indonesia is popular.
If they make enough money I'm sure it's not hard to bribe whoever they need to so they can stay in business.
I have nothing against Elon Musk really, but he is as you say, an egomaniac billionaire.
I think he got so angry about being called out because the stupid submarine idea was so obviously just a PR stunt.
Also, there is a certain don't-give-a-fuck type of Englishman that is just not impressed by money, and is quite happy to call a spade a spade.
Slashdot Mirror
That's exactly Hollywood's business model. They've been screwing California out of taxes for generations.
They have also bilked my country out of something like $375 million (local dollars) over the last 15 years or so, even though nobody can actually determine that we get any sort of return on that "investment".
The last time Warner Bros. threatened to take a movie away from us, our government gave them $50 million extra and altered the employment laws to prevent local workers from taking industrial action if they didn't like the work conditions.
Apparently there are "jobs" involved.
No, no, that can't be right. I thought the NHS was going to get an extra £200 million per day after Brexit.
That nice Boris said so, and he's not a dirty lying self-interested scumbag, is he?
You're all over the place, make your mind up. Either there's no left in the US political system, or your nice Mr. Clinton was actually really right wing, what with all his deregulation and so on.
To be fair, it was that weird Mr. Reagan who started the whole thing. He was really good at getting Americans to vote against their own interests.
Also good at avoiding going to jail.
As far left as the US gets right there youngone.
There you go, assuming I live in the US.
Thanks A/C, that is very informative.
It looks like they may have defrauded banks. You can rip off as many little old ladies as you can, but play fast and loose with banks' money and you're in big trouble.
Also, their CEO is Ted Farnsworth, and we all know what a terrible job he did at Planet Express in the early 3000's.
...folks like going to the movies and would go more often if the price was lower.
You make a good point there. The evenyoungerones like going to superhero movies, but as I am an old youngone, I have pretty much seen them all, several times over the years.
Therefore I resent paying $25 per person (in my local money) to see some something that is not new to me.
If they charged ~$5 each, we could go nearly every week.
I seem to recall Obama blaming a failing housing market and rapidly rising unemployment on Bush
That's because George II was in charge when the sub-prime mortgage crisis happened. (Not that I imagine for a second he understood what was going on).
I'm sure Jimmy Carter blamed everything...
Would that be the same Jimmy Carter who was defeated by that Mr. Reagan who colluded with Iran to keep a bunch of hostages in prison until after the election?
Then never complained about it?
I am pretty sure it is.
Refusing to take personal responsibility for your actions is the foundation of the left.
Stop pretending there is any left in US politics, there is right, and a far right and your comment just confirms you don't understand any of it.
One of the lessons the US military learned from Vietnam was that a volunteer army works better than a bunch of draftees.
Another lesson they learned is that they need to control the message, which is why reporters were "imbedded" with units during the invasion of Iraq.
There is no way the military were going to let independent reporters report on what was actually going on. (At least while it was happening).
They have also allied themselves with the most effective propaganda machine the world has ever known, and going by most of the comments here, they have been very successful.
Have you ever watched the NFL "Salute to Service" round? Have you ever wondered how much the military pay the NFL to stage those Nuremberg rallies? It's quite a lot.
Neither the NFL, nor the military want to talk about paid patriotism, because it goes against the idea they're trying to sell you.
As a non-American, I enjoy your type of football, but that particular kind of ra-ra militarism looks a bit threatening.
For a country that sees itself as the good guy, you start an awful lot of wars. I wonder who benefits?
look at all the options someplace like the Soviet Union offered its citizens.
Ah yes, because there are only two possibilities, either good ol' freedom loving USA, or nasty Soviet Union. There's no way there could be any other kind of society.
People sometimes confuse economists for scientists, but they're not.
Economists are either priests, or acolytes, depending on how senior they are.
Economists brook no dissent, and punish heretics severely.
Do not make the mistake of listening to the advise of an economist. Listen to your accountant instead, they're just like economists, but useful.
We must remember to earmark some of that sweet, sweet taxpayer money for more propaganda about what a bad thing Socialism is though.
Those poor people might start getting the wrong idea.
I understand that's why the massive multinational corporation I work for is beginning the process of getting rid of Oracle.
Every supplier we have is happy to negotiate price when the time comes, but Oracle raised theirs and refused to even speak to our CEO.
They will regret that one day. It won't be this year, but the time will come.
The "U" stands for Universal. You would get it too.
I mean, obviously not for poor people, they're the ones we're putting behind bars, or paying a pittance to be the guards, but for rich people, it can be a great thing.
Very profitable.
Go on, I'm listening...
New York is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, with a population of ~ 8.6 million and that's the best you can do?
That's a totally broken system, and the fact you think a choice of 3 in New York is good is a bit odd.
As far as making their investment back, TFA explains
despite years of federal subsidies and many state grant programs.
They're being paid to supply rural Internet, and they still won't do it.
Meanwhile in the US, the nation's president thinks...
whatever he's paid to think.
Thanks. Great post. That's pretty much how I feel about Mr. Musk also.
Just as an aside, do you think Gavin Belson from Hooli on Silicon Valley is based on him?
I'm saying that if you do some research about the awful list I posted above, you might wonder who the good guys really are.
United Fruit (as just one example) made Guatemala an absolute hellhole for the locals for most of the 20th century. With the help of the US Marines.
What makes you think the US gives a toss about human rights?
Here's a quick list of human rights abusing dictators the US has installed or supported or both over the last 70 years or so: Franco in Spain
Suharto in Indonesia
Hussain in Iraq
Pahlavi in Iran
Pinochet in Chile
various Somozas in Nicaragua
Ubico & Castillo Armas in Guatemala (among others).
Marcos in Philippines
Frankly that's just off the top of my head without thinking about it too much.
If you think manufacturing is coming back to the US you don't understand how multinational corporations work.
But based on you wanting to nuke China I am pretty sure you don't understand much.
Don't leave reviews if you are uninformed.
I am not disagreeing with you, but go and have a look at one star reviews on Google Play, a whole bunch of them consist of "Does not work. Help".
People are idiots.
So what I'm getting from your post is that you would go to the toilet in a policeman's helmet.
You wouldn't steal a handbag.
You wouldn't steal a car.
You wouldn't steal a baby.
You wouldn't shoot a policeman. And then steal his helmet.
You wouldn't go to the toilet in his helmet.
And then send it to the policeman's grieving widow.
And then steal it again!
Downloading films is stealing. If you do it, you will face the consequences.
They made the mistake of being somewhere where they could be arrested.
The Microsoft people who call my wife are pretty obviously in India.
The investment scammers I have been getting lately are also calling from some third-world country I would think. I read somewhere Indonesia is popular.
If they make enough money I'm sure it's not hard to bribe whoever they need to so they can stay in business.
I think he got so angry about being called out because the stupid submarine idea was so obviously just a PR stunt.
Also, there is a certain don't-give-a-fuck type of Englishman that is just not impressed by money, and is quite happy to call a spade a spade.