Capital is the retained surplus of value earned from previous economic exchange. I use productive wealth to mean the application of that capital by private industry and citizens of their own free will without interference from centralized power. It's not about government vs private industry but about centralized planning vs a free-market economy. Put the top 1,000 economists in charge of centralized planning and they will be no match for the collective intelligence of an economy whose millions of participants make self-interested, rational decisions that maximize the value they receive and guarantee the most effective use for all factors of production.

I rationalize the existing way of doing things simply because it works.

That's an interesting perspective considering America was founded on the back of a tax revolt. The subsequent success of the country was built upon laissez-faire economic policy, a success so great that its momentum alone is still accruing benefits even with the progressive movement toward higher effective taxes/overhead and government involvement. If you want to persuade me otherwise you'll have to look a little deeper into history than just yesterday.

As of 2012, Google had 18,500 employees in the USA, with a YoY employment growth rate of 33%. The "broom closet" is reserved for countries that like to confiscate productive wealth and burn it in the most unproductive manner manner possible. If countries want some of that wealth for themselves they can change their tax policies.

The country where the corporations are based, along with whatever country their shareholders live in. Any country can get some of that wealth and job creation for themselves by halting their confiscatory taxation policies.

I root for the team that provides sustainable wealth creation and jobs.

Yes, corporations are sociopathic while governments are sane. Be careful which team you root for.

Jesus there are already too few telecom companies in the USA as it is. If they're dead set on upgrading their position from oligopoly to monopoly then let them do so but regulate their rates like we do other natural monopolies. I imagine they'll quickly lose interest in merging.

:snicker:

load testing and performance bottlenecks"

That's great but how about we teach the average American how to spot Europe on a map first.

That's like going to jail over making 'Howard the Duck'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmp5dgzeZuk

"No, it also takes a seller of such weapons. And there aren't any, or we'd have been sweeping up the remains of some city, political center, or major chunk of infrastructure by now."

So because to our knowledge nobody has ever sold a rogue nuclear weapon to someone in the past that means it will never happen in the future? And you can leave out the government propaganda nonsense - I don't believe in government any more than you do.

They advertised and sold a product promising to secure customers' data yet they intentionally put an algorithmic backdoor inside that could be used not only by the US government but also discovered and used by hackers to compromise customers' security.

Like most criminals they probably never expected to be caught.

I'm more surprised that civilization has lasted this long considering the greedy nature of man. It only takes one wealthy wackjob to buy a chemical or nuclear weapon and use it to kill millions of people.