Unlimited was a bad idea to start with. Imagine an electric company that had an unlimited electricity plan. Instead, data needs to be priced like a bulk commodity, just like electricity, or water, or natgas. This means it should be cheap enough that no-one worries about using data, but they don't OVERuse it either.
And talk and text should be treated as data. The notion that they are different is outdated, and warps that price structure of all mobile services. Text should be so cheap that it is offered for free when you buy a phone. Phone service should all be VoIP, and as such should cost a few dollars a month. Heavy duty downloaders should pay their fair share according to their usage, but there should rarely if ever be a bill for more than $150 absent your phone becoming part of a botnet.
The world has changed. It's time to stop living in the 90's.
How is playing by the rules cheating? If you don't like the rules, change them. Don't blame people for using the same tactics that have been used successfully in the past.
Implying the US wasn't in a death spiral at the time due to money printing to cover out of control spending, and was saved at the last second by Volcker's ultra ballsy move to raise interest rates to 20%, an action that had nothing to do with who was in the white house.
Implying every Fed chairman after Volcker hasn't been a flaming Keynesosexual.
That is why we don't have a democracy. If we did, we'd still have Jim Crow laws, which were quite popular among the people. Tyranny of the majority is tyranny. I could care less about the will of the people when the collective will calls for suicide.
So you would rather that he fall in line with a corrupt system that cheats him and his supporters at every opportunity? I've never seen so many people at any campaign event as I have seen at Paul's, despite a total media blackout.
But hey, if you like the way things are going in this country, keep doing what you have always done, and vote for only mainstream R and D candidates. If you happened to vote for the loser, at least you can say "don't blame me, I voted for Kodos".
This is the last chance for America. Obama and Romney are the Same, just like Obama and McCain and Bush were the same. A vote for them is a vote for the status quo, which is pulling a Thelma and Louise as we speak.
I love people who claim that reality is what they say it is because they said it. That is why I watch Bill O'reily and masturbate to the thought of WMD's in $ENEMYOFTHEWEEK's hands.
I'm not expert in that field, but it seems to me that the reason for the switch to be shut off is temporary, but something about the misfolded proteins doesn't allow the switch to turn back on, even though it should.
Any person found to be emitting any amount of CO2 will be detained for permanent questioning under the Patriotic Clean Air and Water Anti-terrorism Act. Only government officials are allowed to emit CO2.
You were asked to expound on why those ideas are extreme, but you refuse to do so, and you use BS womanly excuses ("if you don't already know, then I'm not going to tell you").
So maybe you should actually lay out your reasoning, rather than simply dismissing all alternative points of view out of hand?
Also, I am not the person you were originally replying to. You will notice my username is not xiver.
Not of the extent of ours. Ours compares with Rome and Yuan China directly, as in all cases, the empire was militarily unassailable until well after the economy had completely failed (the population of Rome had fallen to less than 50,000 by the time the barbarians, sponsored by the Eastern Roman Empire, finally took over), and extended across nearly all of the known world, with nothing but a few weak enemies and numerous client kingdoms which were allied with them. The Soviet example is probably our best hope, but the Soviets had, by the nature of their endeavors toward communism, enabled systems that would automatically provide for the most basic needs of the people, where we are fully dependent on the continued existence of the status quo. That is, most or all Soviet citizens had plots of land for growing food outside of the city, and free public transit to get there. We, obviously, do not.
The second best case is to follow Yuan China, where a civil war erupted, but only a few tens of millions died (far fewer than during the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty), and a new Dynasty was established years later. The Ming Dynasty started off with total enslavement of the countryside, forming self-sufficient farming communities with zero social mobility allowed. This somehow lead to an agricultural boom. The literature is not clear as to how this actually happened. Peasant farmers do not as a rule produce large surpluses. But this was a boon to city dwellers, who experienced a golden age that lasted for many hundreds of years thereafter. I would posit that international trade had a lot to do with that, along with the adoption of a silver standard (vs the old copper cash system and the repeatedly hyperinflating fiat regimes of the last two dynasties).
That would be nice, but most of the examples of major empire breakups that I know of include major depopulation events and/or a thousand years of darkness, war, and ignorance. Maybe we'll get lucky though.
Yes, competition is good. Diversification of markets is also good. Some people don't mind paying more, and giving up more to fly super safe, while others do. Let them choose their airline accordingly.
The Federal Reserve Bank is blatantly unconstitutional, and highly destructive. It should be ended.
The income tax code is far too long, and has been totally corrupted to the point that none of the largest companies pay any damn taxes. Further, income taxes don't contribute that much to the Federal Budget any more. They basically just cover the interest on the debt.
How about "mathematical models come up with answers that are contrary to reality pretty much every time because they are based on false assumptions"?
You really want to stay in Afghanistan? Why? What good are we doing there?
Social Security isn't breaking any "perfect" budget. It has grown totally unsustainable, and we have to phase it out before it collapses, leaving a generation of retirees with literally nothing.
These aren't quick fixes. They are hard. They are painful. But they have to be done to avoid collapse.
Federal law overrides state law only where both have standing. The Feds have ZERO standing for INTRAstate commerce. That is 100% CLEAR in the constitution, but the foolish Federal courts have allowed it.
You've got some wires crossed, there. You are confusing libertarian and conservative. Libertarians are divided on abortion, with some seeing a little human with it's own rights, and others seeing a woman with absolute right to bodily integrity (I am in the latter camp), gay marriage should be moot as marriage is a contract between two people, and the government should have no role save perhaps to keep a copy of said contract, and drugs should be legalized, because any line between what is and isn't illegal is totally arbitrary, and governments shouldn't have arbitrary power, no matter what good they claim they might do with it.
Actually, they do, and they did. Right here in the US, we had something very close to a free market from the end of Reconstruction until 1913, when we adopted a mixed market with the adoption of a central bank. That period of time coincided with the greatest economic expansion in the history of mankind, before or since. The mixed market we adopted afterwards has slowly slid from mostly free market towards mostly fascist since then. Corrupt government officials (mayors, sheriffs, governors, etc) in the south went fascist a lot faster than they did in the North and the West.
Slashdot Mirror
Unlimited was a bad idea to start with. Imagine an electric company that had an unlimited electricity plan. Instead, data needs to be priced like a bulk commodity, just like electricity, or water, or natgas. This means it should be cheap enough that no-one worries about using data, but they don't OVERuse it either.
And talk and text should be treated as data. The notion that they are different is outdated, and warps that price structure of all mobile services. Text should be so cheap that it is offered for free when you buy a phone. Phone service should all be VoIP, and as such should cost a few dollars a month. Heavy duty downloaders should pay their fair share according to their usage, but there should rarely if ever be a bill for more than $150 absent your phone becoming part of a botnet.
The world has changed. It's time to stop living in the 90's.
How is playing by the rules cheating? If you don't like the rules, change them. Don't blame people for using the same tactics that have been used successfully in the past.
Implying the US wasn't in a death spiral at the time due to money printing to cover out of control spending, and was saved at the last second by Volcker's ultra ballsy move to raise interest rates to 20%, an action that had nothing to do with who was in the white house.
Implying every Fed chairman after Volcker hasn't been a flaming Keynesosexual.
That is why we don't have a democracy. If we did, we'd still have Jim Crow laws, which were quite popular among the people. Tyranny of the majority is tyranny. I could care less about the will of the people when the collective will calls for suicide.
Reagan did it. Not exactly the guy that Repubs love to hate.
What, so the only way for us to get oil is to invade oil rich countries?
Are you suffering from some form of organic brain dementia, by any chance?
So you would rather that he fall in line with a corrupt system that cheats him and his supporters at every opportunity? I've never seen so many people at any campaign event as I have seen at Paul's, despite a total media blackout.
But hey, if you like the way things are going in this country, keep doing what you have always done, and vote for only mainstream R and D candidates. If you happened to vote for the loser, at least you can say "don't blame me, I voted for Kodos".
This is the last chance for America. Obama and Romney are the Same, just like Obama and McCain and Bush were the same. A vote for them is a vote for the status quo, which is pulling a Thelma and Louise as we speak.
I love people who claim that reality is what they say it is because they said it. That is why I watch Bill O'reily and masturbate to the thought of WMD's in $ENEMYOFTHEWEEK's hands.
I'm sure you mean the will of Diebold.
As Stalin pointed out, it isn't the votes that matter, it is who counts the votes that matters.
Except that the delegates that you and the MSM count as being Romney's are 75% Paul people, and they are unbound by party rules.
Whoops.
He is no longer seeking primary votes, and is instead focusing 100% on taking delegate positions. This race is not over.
Not all misfolded proteins are prions.
I'm not expert in that field, but it seems to me that the reason for the switch to be shut off is temporary, but something about the misfolded proteins doesn't allow the switch to turn back on, even though it should.
Any person found to be emitting any amount of CO2 will be detained for permanent questioning under the Patriotic Clean Air and Water Anti-terrorism Act. Only government officials are allowed to emit CO2.
You were asked to expound on why those ideas are extreme, but you refuse to do so, and you use BS womanly excuses ("if you don't already know, then I'm not going to tell you").
So maybe you should actually lay out your reasoning, rather than simply dismissing all alternative points of view out of hand?
Also, I am not the person you were originally replying to. You will notice my username is not xiver.
Not of the extent of ours. Ours compares with Rome and Yuan China directly, as in all cases, the empire was militarily unassailable until well after the economy had completely failed (the population of Rome had fallen to less than 50,000 by the time the barbarians, sponsored by the Eastern Roman Empire, finally took over), and extended across nearly all of the known world, with nothing but a few weak enemies and numerous client kingdoms which were allied with them. The Soviet example is probably our best hope, but the Soviets had, by the nature of their endeavors toward communism, enabled systems that would automatically provide for the most basic needs of the people, where we are fully dependent on the continued existence of the status quo. That is, most or all Soviet citizens had plots of land for growing food outside of the city, and free public transit to get there. We, obviously, do not.
The second best case is to follow Yuan China, where a civil war erupted, but only a few tens of millions died (far fewer than during the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty), and a new Dynasty was established years later. The Ming Dynasty started off with total enslavement of the countryside, forming self-sufficient farming communities with zero social mobility allowed. This somehow lead to an agricultural boom. The literature is not clear as to how this actually happened. Peasant farmers do not as a rule produce large surpluses. But this was a boon to city dwellers, who experienced a golden age that lasted for many hundreds of years thereafter. I would posit that international trade had a lot to do with that, along with the adoption of a silver standard (vs the old copper cash system and the repeatedly hyperinflating fiat regimes of the last two dynasties).
That would be nice, but most of the examples of major empire breakups that I know of include major depopulation events and/or a thousand years of darkness, war, and ignorance. Maybe we'll get lucky though.
What does a US senator have to do with your state debt? If you are having debt problems in your state, you need to talk to your STATE senators.
Yes, competition is good. Diversification of markets is also good. Some people don't mind paying more, and giving up more to fly super safe, while others do. Let them choose their airline accordingly.
The Federal Reserve Bank is blatantly unconstitutional, and highly destructive. It should be ended.
The income tax code is far too long, and has been totally corrupted to the point that none of the largest companies pay any damn taxes. Further, income taxes don't contribute that much to the Federal Budget any more. They basically just cover the interest on the debt.
How about "mathematical models come up with answers that are contrary to reality pretty much every time because they are based on false assumptions"?
You really want to stay in Afghanistan? Why? What good are we doing there?
Social Security isn't breaking any "perfect" budget. It has grown totally unsustainable, and we have to phase it out before it collapses, leaving a generation of retirees with literally nothing.
These aren't quick fixes. They are hard. They are painful. But they have to be done to avoid collapse.
Federal law overrides state law only where both have standing. The Feds have ZERO standing for INTRAstate commerce. That is 100% CLEAR in the constitution, but the foolish Federal courts have allowed it.
You've got some wires crossed, there. You are confusing libertarian and conservative. Libertarians are divided on abortion, with some seeing a little human with it's own rights, and others seeing a woman with absolute right to bodily integrity (I am in the latter camp), gay marriage should be moot as marriage is a contract between two people, and the government should have no role save perhaps to keep a copy of said contract, and drugs should be legalized, because any line between what is and isn't illegal is totally arbitrary, and governments shouldn't have arbitrary power, no matter what good they claim they might do with it.
Nice use of labeling to prevent open and honest discourse. You get a troll of the hour award.
How about a Constitutional Amendment banning the states from adopting Jim Crow laws, rather than simply wiping our asses with the document?
Actually, they do, and they did. Right here in the US, we had something very close to a free market from the end of Reconstruction until 1913, when we adopted a mixed market with the adoption of a central bank. That period of time coincided with the greatest economic expansion in the history of mankind, before or since. The mixed market we adopted afterwards has slowly slid from mostly free market towards mostly fascist since then. Corrupt government officials (mayors, sheriffs, governors, etc) in the south went fascist a lot faster than they did in the North and the West.