Your solution is to buy a home (which is probably in desperate need of replair) in the slums where there are no jobs? That doesn't even make any sense. o.O

I live in a modest home, under 100k in 1999, and I make six figure salary. My neighborhood wasn't "horendously expensive" but my taxes are, they are currently higher then my mortage payment. At the height of the housing bubble there was a money grab by the local government, they had everyone's home reassessed and bumped up the taxes considerably. Now we are paying taxes on homes that are assessed at almost double what they were previously all so that a cabal of republicrats could snatch up land via eminant domain and grant overprices development contract to their friends and family. That people can't afford their homes in my neighborhood now has very little to do with wanting to own an oversized and over priced house and all to do with corruption within the government and unscrupleous businessmen who control it.

"...The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?"

The indie game scenes is still out there creating some wonderfully beautiful, challenging, and meaningful games, and making money to boot. The universe remains in balance.

...so I could care less I guess. :)

I'd rather learn through self motivated education + online lectures + a high calibur mentor (even if it's just fetching their coffee for 8 hrs a day). I'd rather learn by doing and immersing myself in the trade/science then sitting in some lecture hall with 300+ other idiots, all frantically scribbling notes down from some professor who'd rather be somewhere else and can barely speak english (no offence intended, one my favorate profs was indian and was terribly difficult to understand while he was lecturing).

I personally don't know, but what they shouldn't be doing is passing laws that help their friends keep a failing business a float and instead use that time to determine what it is they need to be doing to ensure the safety and welfare of it's citizens and the environment they live in.

It's quite clear, however, that they are more interested in making money for their friends while the world burns around them.

sure because if you give away your recorded music ($20) to all your fans you could possibly entice them to come to an even more mind blowing concert, where they are willing to spend money on not only the tickets (say $50), but also perhaps the T-Shirt ($20-$50). Maybe they like you so much that they go to more then one concert in a year (another $50 + new T-Shirt $20-$50). And hey, you come around again the next year playing the same tracks ($50 + yet another T-Shit at $20-$50). If they are really popular, perhaps they can televise it on Pay per View to all those fans who couldn't get around to attending the live show even!

"But what about all those poor record company employees that don't get to make any money... Well perhaps they can get jobs designing T shirts, promoting the Acts, dishing out the hot dogs and beers, or if they are really desperate, pushing the broom at the concert hall.

See how that all works?

Okay, no problem.

Clarification: I'm complaining about the government creating trivial and unimportant laws (ie pandering to the recording industry) while the world as we have come to know and enjoy it, is being destroyed.

Um... I don't think you read the OP's (my) statement with the right context in mind. I'll give you a hint, the people that I am referring to that are a "joke" are our elected officials, also know collectively as "the government".

Ironic? Nice try. Go back to QQing about being moded a troll, it was more insightful.

I live in new jersey, a few thousand miles away. What would you like me to do about the oil disaster? Fly a plane to New Orleans, then drive a car to the shore to hop on a boat which will putter out to the scene in hopes of scooping up some oil at which point I'll be told by BP that I'm not allowed to be there, sending me back through that chain of events in reverse? What does reading and posting on slashdot really have anything to do with the topic except to inform and generate discussion about the topic? Really, what's your point?

I'll tell you what I am doing, to the best of my abilities... With the exception of getting to and from work and picking up groceries, I'm not joy riding around in my fucking car. I ride my bike or take the high speed line to travel locally. Whenever possible I'm going to refrain from using as many oil based products as I possibly can. I'm going to make sure I utilize digital downloads for software or entertainment media rather then contribute to creating yet more packaging waste. I don't use plastic bags when i go shopping. I recycle as much plastic, glass, and paper as they will let me. I do as much as I can to make sure that whatever waste I do generate is properly disposed of. I'm seriously considering moving out of the car centric suburbs where every road is a highway and the infrastructure was design for driving in a car everywhere, pedestrians be damned. And yes, I do not purchase any music from any record labels who believe in this insane copyright war against their own customers (not that I would ever listen to that crap music even if it was free). There is plenty of awesome music out there by musicians who really just care more about sharing their music with the rest of us rather then fame and wealth.

Ultimately, over the last several years, I've been working on decreasing my contribution to companies and business practices that are wasteful and to which I have a fundamental philosophical disagreement with as much as I possibly can. I've been speaking out whenever possible when I see people and business doing something that I believe is inherently wrong such that others are made aware of it and are given the opportunity to think about it and make up their own minds as well as to if they wish to support such madness as well.

My point still stands, that the government, republicrat that it is, is more concerned about their business partners making a buck than anything that would seriously benefit the citizens of this country. While everyone seems to be flag waving and voting their party lines, in hopes that they will be the next person to be handed free money, the planet, our home, is being destroyed at a record pace. So yeah, our government wasting time and energy to ensure that a hand full of greedy evil bastards and whinny welfare musicians get mandatory handouts for life while it does absolutely nothing of any value to ensure the integrity of the environment we live is IS A FUCKING JOKE. I also add that it's completely corrupt and worthless for any but a select few who value anything but their own selfish desire to generate needless wealth.

What are YOU doing?

Hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil are spewing into the Gulf of Mexico each day, an entire ecology is dying, and these assholes are fucking worried that some moneyless students aren't buying enough Britney Spears.

I'm going to call bullshit on this one.

The viewer is NOT the customer. The Advertisers are the customer. You are just an inconvient reality of their business model. ;)