Is there air?

Another time I wish /. allowed editing posts.

It's an alien planet! Is there air! You don't know!

OK, over half are millionaires. They are millionaires before they get to DC. My point is that they use the office to make even more money, both while they are there, and after they retire from office. Not sure how a big pay increase fixes that.

Further, they all take campaign donations, regardless of their wealth. That influences them before the even win an election. It will be more difficult for for poor/middle class people to raise money for a campaign. Do you propose that we pay everyone who runs for office too?

I must have missed the part in the article that said they were to be used for programming. The idea is that students use them for studying for all classes. With Chromebooks, it needs to be pretty much all web-based, but that should be doable. If they are teaching programming, they can get a few Raspberry Pi modules (kidding) or a few regular desktops with whatever OS you want to teach in.

More than half of the politicians in DC are millionaires, so how might that play into the "incompetents" factor? Once they are there, they all learn pretty quickly how to get money from lobbyists, as will as line up post-political employment by doing 'favors' for corporations that end up getting the a spot on some board of directors for one or more firms.

Considering how well our local governments, LEO, and Congress have been at doing that, I suppose any suggestions by you or me couldn't make things worse.

Actually, the jury foreman stated in a post trial interview that he told the rest of the jury that because the code from one example of prior art couldn't be dropped into the iPhone and run, it wasn't valid as prior art. This was against juror instructions, and the rest of the jury went along because he claimed to know what he was talking about. http://www.bbc.com/news/techno... http://www.groklaw.net/article...

Well, Apple has a patent on their magnetic power connector. We were using magnetic power connectors for counter top fryers decades ago. Apparently, Apple was the first laptop manufacturer that remembered those appliances, and boom, "on a computer" makes it patentable. I just don't agree if you say it wasn't obvious, at least to anyone who remembered those fryers.

My first, cynical thought was that they did it because the businesses told them that doing so would reduce their profit margins.

Or maybe gentrification runs out the poor, hard working population along with the poor, criminal riff-raff.

That's pretty much what I was thinking. A Corolla gets 30/40 mpg, is just shy of $17K starting, and carries at least 4 people. I just don't see anyone buying a Smart car unless they are trying to be trendy.

That's why we have so many illegal immigrants. "If I don't hire them (for peanuts), my competitors will and I'll go out of business!" Democrats see illegal immigrants as future voters, Republicans see them as cheap labor. Same with H-1B visa workers. Eliminate or reduce the H-1B visas and eliminate illegal immigration and wages will go up. Your comment only applies when our Congressmen game the system, and not even then precisely. Employers pay the prevailing rate, which often would be higher than minimum wage if there was no gaming. The comment about CEO pay is a non-sequitur for this topic.

Except that Citizens United works like this: A rich guy and a poor guy both go talk to a politician about an issue. The rich guy stuffs money into the politician's pocket, the poor guy can't. Guess which way the politician votes? When all men were created equal, apparently that doesn't include influence in the laws that are passed.

Neither unions or corporations should be allowed to steer money to politicians. If corporations, unions, and individuals are limited as to the monetary influence that can make, that levels the playing field.

Because you can't compete with people who game the system?