The Soviet Union had a certain amount of Democracy, too.

The trouble comes when you try to use "the people's" resources to challenge the current power democratically.

Want to use the people's radio station to argue against the current regime, for example?

Sorry, but duly elected representatives of the people don't believe that's the best use of the people's property.

And by the way, the duly elected representatives of the people think your share of the people's food should be reduced.

That's how you get a one-party democratic state.

So, no studying PtoE, company fundamentals, etc. etc. Further proving that the Stock Market is almost entirely disconnected from the underlying companies. Basically, it's a Ponzi scheme.

This is true mostly for new or trendy companies in trendy spaces. Boring companies that have been around for a long time are often priced based on the future dividends they're expected to pay. They don't get any attention, though, because those that make money on speculating can't make any money by trading them. The speculators and brokers don't want people paying attention to fundamentals. Volumes would plummet so how would they make money? There would be no churn. And then they'd have to sell the million dollar Manhattan apartment where they keep their mistress.

It's similar to the difference between trading Beanie Babies (or whatever faddy collectible is popular now) and something like wheat.

The US government would have invested Social Security in the Stock Market, but they can't find a spokesperson from the financial industry you can advocate the scheme without drooling at the prospect.

The US government already invests that money by spending it and leaving a bond in its place.

And how did they invest it? Well, there are some big craters in Iraq and Afghanistan now. Bingo halls and casinos also seem to have profited.

He seems to have intuited this.

"Conservative" means different things in different countries. It even means different things in different US states.

In the USA, "conservative" might mean an advocate of small government and reduced government power, or it might mean a pro-life social conservative looking to restrict abortion or anything in between.

If privacy is a voter's primary concern in the US, it's probably best to vote based on the individual candidate's position than on the candidate's party.

Why promote a PhD? 75% of US professors are adjuncts and earn less than $24,000/year. Good luck with that ivory tower dream. Learn plumbing.

A non-tenured adjunct lecturer became President of the USA, so there's that, too.

Openings are rare, though.

Using renewable energy to tap unrenewable energy... Seems not really enduring. Why not just use directly the renewable energy in first place?

Because oil isn't just used as energy, though it often is.

Petroleum is a miracle substance from the standpoint of its chemistry. It would be hard to imagine modern life without all the chemicals and materials petroleum makes possible.

Burning such a flexible, important substance as fuel is terribly foolish.

I think his 50% tax burden number comes from including Federal income and payroll taxes, State taxes, and local taxes.

That's probably correct only for highly paid professionals that get most of their income by selling their skills. Anyone with income that comes from wealth isn't paying anywhere near that.

The tax code in the US at all levels is incredible stupid.

But the 50% number isn't connected too terribly much with the lack of hiring, though. If you ask a business people why they aren't hiring many will tell you that they just don't have enough time to both run their business and worry about all the extra bureaucratic hassles that come with employing someone -- that might include paying some taxes, but it also includes liability and regulatory concerns.

Employing a new worker is like walking through a minefield. You might have seen job advertisements asking only for those that are currently employed. This is an attempt to avoid all those disasters that come with hiring the wrong person.

The only Bacteria that are scary are anti-biotic resistant ones, all the rest can be cured with a dose of anti-biotic.

Don't be so dismissive.

I realize the plague is so dark ages and that we have antibiotics, but from 1990 until 2010 the overall mortality rate was 11%.

People still die even with antibiotics.

The plague exists in the wild in many western states of the USA.

Colorado just had four cases in the past few months.

Men in general seem to have less tolerance for what they perceive as error and a greater willingness to fight to correct error.

That's not the say that men are more often correct than are women. They just seem more eager to do battle, even if it is from behind a keyboard.

Anyone that's been involved in an edit war of wikipedia knows that the winner is often isn't the one with the best grasp of the facts, but it's the one least willing to give up the fight.

Many engineers don't understand that business people are engineers of a sort, too.

What we all should do is realize that we're all part of a team that can't work without the participation of everyone. Mutual respect is key.

Many skills are needed if a firm is to survive.

In Switzerland the slowest speeds you commonly get are about 15 Mbits/s...

And yet the report cited shows that only 45% have access to speeds above 10Mbps and 23% of access to speeds above 15Mbps.

Five US states have more people above 10Mbps than Switzerland.

And one of those states by itself, New Jersey, has almost a million more people.