Two results of this:

1. It destroys free enterprise and competition.

2. It creates a system where those who create can only do so in limited venues, and for a limited time before they're thrown on the rubbish heap. And those who create get an even smaller share of the rewards (no more tenure because you built a ten million dollar product).

Really, really sad state of affairs is this post industrial feudalism

Well, that rather goes to the core of the problem. And I'd note it's far more than the government contracts: it is the flood of WWII and Vietnam vets who took degrees from the GI bill; it's the education system that this nation built up; it's the industry and work ethic of the people that built the economy that made IBM possible.

But these days, our system is set up to reward those who maximize profit. Outsourcing, layoffs and liquidations are rewarded with bonuses to those who do those thing. Destroying industry, infrastructure and innovation are seen as worthy goals, not as things to be avoided. It's all about short term gain, not about long term sustainability. Throw in the fact that we're destroying our education system, and things look pretty grim.

Unless you change these things, the guy who took the date to the dance is going to find her in the proverbial back alley working tricks every time.

When all that remains in the US of our technical industry is management, it will be only a matter of months before we lose that as well.

No, it'll be those who actually build and create that'll get shown the door.

Actually, the US lags behind other Western democracies in the things you enumerate as being overly costly.

So those that the system has entrusted with overseeing our business and industry sends our jobs to second and third world nations - and they reap huge bonuses for doing so, and thereby, destroying our economy and nation.

That might be true if one were arguing, say, the existance of God.

However, in the case where there is a dispute between two parties, when the person arguing has a vested interest in one side, that absolutely impacts the validity of the argument, and colors its interpretation.

Unfortunately, while the same grease that makes it go 'round also makes it a filthy place at times.

What do you mean, the big boys shell out a lot of bucks for astroturfing and posting under false premises? Tell me it ain't so!

He robbed them of a chance to humiliate and control.

It's not about seeing you naked, it's about them knowing that you don't want them to see you naked and publicly grope you, and being able to do it anyway.

You've got nothing to hide if you're not a criminal, but only criminals... now.... hide nothing.... *head explodes*

Problem is - there just isn't enough "honest work" to go around. Automation, consolidation - that WalMart cheapness comes at the expense of jobs.

The unfortunate thing is that the telemarketing companies never provide you with anyone that you can talk to other than the marketeers. I do what you do - tell them not interested and to remove me from the list - but it annoys significantly that they get to intrude on me, but there's nothing I can really do about it, and no one at their end who I can force to listen to my complaints without being a jerk to a working stiff.

He's on the sex offender list now.

I'd say he made a sacrifice of something significant and meaningful.

Didn't this guy know that it's ok to touch, but not to look?

I suspect that this site, due to this thread, would now be considered a site that one had to "opt in" to view.