this kind of attitude isn't going to allow musicians to snort coke off've hookers, is it. what's wrong with you.

What is wrong with you people (no, not you brain-dead basement dwellers - you, the majority of your countrymen and the policymakers).

You need to be prevented from travelling overseas or having any influence on world events until you've achieved civilization according to a modern definition of the word. Warning: this probably means getting decent healthcare too. ie.Healthcare with a primary goal of *drumroll* providing health (omg!) to your population rather than as a secondary but necessary expense of profiting from them.

Really, I'm so sick of hearing USA USA USA trumpeted from every fucking orifice. Fix your shit. Fix the imbalances in your society and maybe things will start to heal.

More openness ("Here's more detail on all the immoral stuff we do") ? Nope.

Which mimics massive and creepy privacy invasion - for profit.

Will there be no end to the protectionists' backlash?

Because! Get over it. If things were meant to make sense, scientists would run the world.

You could hide in a US consulate if someone retaliated at the US government's foreign policy via you. It seems fair that the citizens should pay for this as foreign policy is created on their behalf..

You forgot to mention that visitors may have their laptops and other electronics stolen on entry or when straying close to the border; that they can then be legally molested; that when driving around, anyone may be stopped by the police and have their money and valuables stolen without recourse; that when they arrive home their house may have been taken by the state without their being accused of a crime - likewise their bank accounts may be frozen; that should they actually be accused of a crime, there's a high chance that additional charges will be levelled so-as to encourage an out-of-court settlement; that people in other countries have had their freedoms removed as a result of pressure via your government from your entertainment cartels.

It's a shame that the rest of the world don't get a vote. That seems fair given that your filthy and corrupt system allows politicians to be put into power by corporate interests and then pressure the rest of the world's governments to further those mundane financial interests.

Your system would make the phrase "filthy and corrupt" unwilling to be smeared by association with it.

It's a sad day when big business is more corrupt than the government :(

Your wikipedia link reads like a description of the current situation.

"Hardly" is going too far. Why not just come out and say it - not a single word of truth is printed unless it benefits someone with power.

One could invest in Tech stocks then use the profits to selectively bribe members of the courts system to act in a manner which from the outside looks consistent with justice-for-all.

As far as I know, it's very very rare that such a widget is of such clever design that you freeload on someone's hard work. What I think is the case (on basis of a thoroughly non-scientific survey, sample-size 6, personal observation) is that any ingenuity in the design is spent in making sure the widget in question can't be second-sourced without infringing on some sort of patent. E.g. by adding a special notch, a special hole, or simply making the dimensions so that the widget is unlike any other on the planet (and any other widgets won't fit) and that regardless of extent of use, environmental conditions, time zone.., the widget dependably develops a fatal fault one nano-second after the warranty elapses.