No joke, unfortunately. A buddy of mine used to manage an air ambulance service for a large hospital. Mostly went alright, but every now and then the copter would go down. They flew at night sometimes, in mountainous terrain sometimes and in all kinds of weather. It was all too easy to hit a ridge or tower. Don't have to hit 'em hard either. A little unexpected nick of a tower or tree limb snag can be catastrophic.

"People" don't invest much really. It's primarily funded from the government/utility complex. Damn little independent true free market investment in these massive farms.

Here you go: Elephant Low Freq Defense

What is austerity, in this context?

I've never had it explained to me. It seems to mean that people aren't getting as much free or cheap stuff from the government as they want.

If your definition of austerity is not getting enough of other peoples stuff, well, screw you.

Option 3: Don't grow crops in places where crops die in desertification.

TED Talk

You are correct sir! I'm astonished by the number of people that look at ANY situation and that stock response is "Raise taxes somewhere", never lower them somewhere for equity.

I'm old enough to remember when we didn't sales tax in my home town. I was just a kid but I was flabbergasted when the stores started adding extra money to the cost of things over and above the tagged price. Now the bastards have gone berserk. There must be 4 or 5 separate tax districts in the town I live in now. I had to write tax software to handle sales and it is insane.

Thank your lucky stars they weren't insisting on Eunuchs programmers. And yes, I'm too lazy to make the obligatory Dilbert link.

NOTHING THE GOVERNMENT "PROVIDES" IS FREE! /shouting

Great galloping $deity! Who is really that stupid?

The military is "free", right? You didn't get a bill for the latest military action did you? Oh wait, it costs a freaking fortune. If you pay taxes you paid for *some* of the military action. A great deal of the cost is simply being passed on to "the future" along with all the other "free" services delivered by the government.

There is no perpetual motion machine. There is no system that provides output without input and the government is a FAR from frictionless engine.

If you want to say that the current U.S. healthcare system is extremely screwed up, I agree wholeheartedly.

There are a number of serious problems with cost merely being one. As for ObamaCare, anyone who thinks that adding thousands of pages of new legislation created in secret meetings with the insurance industry and passed in late night voting will simplify healthcare and lower costs in the U.S. is a moron and every legislator that voted for it is a scoundrel and a thief.

That's just like the term "progressive". I know people that consider "progressive" to be the ultimate compliment.

Actual conversation: "Oh, I can't believe those neighbors turned out to be such jerks. They seemed so progressive!"

Progressive taxes, progressive politics, etc. Never real thought about to *where* are we progressing.

Really? How? You damn sure can't do that with your residence.

In most, if not all of the U.S., if you make too much money selling a house, you can get hit with capital gains. But if you lose money, too bad. In some states, merely moving out of state after a sale triggers a tax on ANY amount over the buying price.

I agree in general that these things might contribute, but I want to look at this through the lens of low income in the U.S.

Calories aren't the issue these days, it's crap carb calories. Low income = obese in America these days.

I suppose, but running around is free, pretty much.

I'm old. When we didn't have any store bought toys, we played with sticks and tin cans and cardboard boxes and matches(!) when I was a kid in the 50s and early 60s. When bored enough, we'd dig holes in the sides of hills to make caves. I'm still amazed none of us died in a collapse.

See the point above.

I'm not a Luddite by any definition. I've been coding for over 30 years. Grew up going to Radio Shack for surplus parts before Tandy made it into a retail toy store. I grew up mostly as the only child of a single working mother. This whole issue is pretty complex.

I just know it irritates the hell out of me to be in a restaurant and watch a small child trying hard, and failing, to compete with it's mother's phone for attention.

Just seems wrong to me to charge people a fee for spending their own money.

A lot of this discussion would go away if the government didn't want unlimited power. It baffles me that people are constantly claiming that the U.S. doesn't have enough government.

Damn, folks, really?!? We have a massive, unpayable debt in the U.S. right now. Over 100 trillion once SS and Medicare/Medicaid obligations are figured in.

That ain't enough already? Jeez.

There are private companies that have this down pat. A friend of mine is a sysadmin for a company that "records the call for quality assurance" for clients ranging from banks to the DOD. Many, many terabytes of data acquired yearly. They accurately transcribe all calls to get CC info, health data, etc. They also analyse the calls for stress, etc. to judge the call center performance.

It's pretty un-nerving what they can do and this is just one company with home grown, or at least home modified software. I have no problem assuming that the government has this or better.

Only at big family dinners! BTW, our church has no antipathy to divorce either, just recommends trying to work things out when possible, but no stigma.

Thanks. We of course told our kids to NEVER do something that risky!

One took our advice, lived together for a couple of years and appears to have a great marriage. We're watching to see how the other one does.