Batman's a scientist!

This is how an american responds to suggestions that work in other countries: "But we're like, so .. different man. You can't possibly understand the challenges we face."

It's horseshit.

It also doesn't apply to things people can go without and things people cannot go without. That is a sliding scale. I wish people would get it through their skulls that free markets are not free when consumers are not free to not participate at all.

To say nothing that market sellers have every reason to try and make those markets as non-transparent as possible - people do not magically gravitate towards honest sellers any more than they magically gravitate towards some kind of mathematically pure value. You know why advertising, marketing, customer relationship management, etc exists? You are easily manipulated. We all are. Doesn't matter that much when it comes to luxuries. When it comes to what should be basic needs, you really don't want every market seller to realize that 20% of their customer base accounts for 80% of their profits.

Holy fuck, did you just equate the law of gravity with ... laws of economics? You mean the equation that hasn't changed since the dawn of the universe with .. what the fuck, a law of economics?

Since that's a lot of information, and welcome at that, why wouldn't you specify your country?

Good god, that is some stupid sauce. It's a good thing you don't always act in your own self-interest, no matter how hard you try.

I wouldn't disagree with what you say, in general, except for, "Profit motive is the most moral engine of economic progress."

It's false to suggest that we are forced to choose and follow only one motivation for economic progress. Also, the profit motive may not explicitly discriminate (I find that assertion pretty assailable in and of itself), but it's perfectly capable of implicitly discriminating.

I believe you are confusing the simple elegance of the profit motive for inherent moral value.

Man, I hope you don't buy bottled water.

Which out of the many countries with single payer health care has outright banned smoking other than from public indoor places (and reasonably close to the exits thereof)?

Ironically, which country without seems to have more and more examples of governments that are enacting rules that punish smoking in private time/places?

Should it be any surprise that since a single payer system can spread the risk more since neither insurer nor insuree gets to choose whether or not they are in the pool, it tends to be less aggressive about attempting to regular personal choices in lifestyle?

To be clear, he just means all games will have an MP component, not that all games will required to be played online. The 'always on DRM' is falling out of favour with developers (Ubi has backed out this practice over the past few months) for all the reasons gamers dislike it.

What on earth would a government be doing running a bureau of investigative journalism? Investigative journalism exists *precisely to* enhance the transparency of governments, companies, and individuals who don't want to be.

Of course can know, you can just distribute the interpreter with the script.

It wasn't critically panned. (It's 80 at metacritic.) It's actually a pretty fun game.

Never mind that technically, it looks better than anything else out there, save for Crysis 2 and maybe BF3. Calling Carmack is a fossil is hilarious.

If you don't have anything informed to say, you could try saying nothing at all.

RTFA much? The coffin is not a mock funeral for the respective prime ministers, but rather for the 'death of science'.