Pretty bad business model. If you have to rely on illegal labor, then you not only have a bad business model, but you are a criminal to boot.

Of course, because I was being terribly facetious. But the argument that higher minimum wage causes unemployment is based on ideology, not math.

The exact same concept would be true if average wages went up. Not completely linearly, of course. because the poorest workers tend to spend more of their income on necessities, while the wealthiest tend to save or invest more.

But the argument, when reduced to it's basics, is that the higher the average wage, the higher the unemployment rate. Utter bullshit. At least in my case, the more I made, the more I spent, and the more I saved. I'll bet it's the same for other people.

Which argument, oddly enough, completely ignores that the consumer is the largest driver of the economy. How can the largest driver of the economy dive the economy when they don't have the money to do it. The early 2000's credit fest probably won't be repeated, as people tried desperately to hold on to their standard of living by going further into debt.

This is not complicated math. If on average, people buy new cars every 5 years, there will be more cars bought than if they bought on average every 10 years.

Another very simple example - My sister has bought exactly 1 computer since 2001. I've bought 10. Who has pumped more money into the economy? Even if the fact that a lot of that goes to China, it still helps with the employment of the sales people at the store. I used that example for that reason.

Call it the trickle up theory if you like. People making money buy stuff. The more stuff bought, the more people work.

Even more, with Government inefficiencies, does it make any sense to allow businesses to pay a wage that requires it's workers to be on the government dole?

I might have much better things to do with my decreased taxes.

This is what I've been preaching for years. What is pushed as "modern capitalism", is pretty much slash and burn. Make no mistake, the real beneficiaries of the working poor are their employers. Via a socialistic program that takes money from you and me, and redistributes it to the employers profit.

Amazingly enough people put up with it.

I am against wage restrictions in general. If you look at Europe, the countries with stronger economies tend to have the fewest working restrictions,

I am against them in principle. Problem is, the minimum wage has been kept artificially low for a long time now. That has created a completely skewed economy, and when a company is allowed to direct it's employees to the welfare system, that just isn't right. The existence of that is a serious symptom of an underlying problem. SO they might be a necessary evil.

You think that Germany's economic system isn't very restricted? The only country among the top ten with a triple-A rating (they are number 4) utilizes a "social Market economy, which is very interesting, but completely impossible in the USAat present. Parts of it are in line with what I preach as the best way to run an economy. It's Capitalism with a moral underpinning.

It's a great read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...

Rhine Capitalism. is pretty active in regulatory measures, considered the direct highway to hell in our system. And no one plans and implements with greater precision and effect than the Germans. It also takes the people in it's country into account. Yet another great read here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...

Basically, it doesn't require it's citizens to be the main enemy of the economy. And damned if it isn't working well. In a system like that you don't need to force employers to pay their employees. They are all pretty much pointed all in the same direction. I think it is a good model. Any "ism" - socialism, capitalism, communism, fascism, will fail and fail big when people try to make it pure. It's because no 'ism is perfect.

But capitalism tempered with moral underpinnings? Pretty much the best thing going in my book.

Screw big-media mergers. We need more competition as the current oligopolies have some of the worse customer service records there are, and high prices compared to the rest of world, even in denser population areas where the "rural long wire" argument doesn't hold up.

Oligopolies & monopolies almost always result in crappy service/products/prices.

The "economies of scale" argument for defending them is weak. That claim was used to protect the Detroit Big 3, but the Medium 7 from Japan came along and kicked the Big 3 in the ass.

I'll take the downsides of (alleged) lack of "economies of scale" over the sloth of oligopolies.

I have only 2 realistic ISP choices in my area, and it's not rural by any stretch. It's a hefty suburb right next to a major city. And both suck. The pushy sales persons on the phone eventually admit their service sucks when presented with undeniable evidence, but will blatantly make the argument, "Okay, we suck, but we can get you crappy service at a better price than the other crappy guy". Even they know they suck; they just claim they suck for less $ (at least until the "special offer" period runs out).

It's like two satan's arguing, "Okay, yes, we are hot here and your ass will indeed get burned off. BUT, we have better elevator music to listen to while you fry."

Because cheap. Becausd they value the cheap more than their fellow citizens. Frankly, I think that any employer that knowingly employes an illegal alien should be stripped of their citizenship, then put on the plane with all the drugged deportees. Land them in in whatever country we're shipping them to at the moment .

Then they can come back into America as an illegal alien. If they get shot by border patrol trying to cross into the US Fucking excellent!! Rough justice, most fitting.

You did answer your own question. The subsidies allow WalMart ot pay lower rates than tehy would otherwise have to. If no one could survive on WalMart pay, they wouldn't work there, and th reates would automatically go up.

Once again, you answerd the question. They don't have to pay enough to live on, and part time jobs will allow the employer to not pay any benefits

Lest ye put the part time situation at the feet of the current administration, it has been going on for years. I remember when Sears turned most of their employees into part timers in the early 1980's.

The part time/no benefits model is something that companies use that can really give the shareholders big boners. But it does tend to come at a cost - it burns a big bridge, and is therfore used as a last resort, because it you use part time employees, you get part time employees.

So in this recession, people are desperate to work at whatever they can get. So they take those 32 hour a week, no benefit, not full time jobs.

Frankly, I think that puts the lie to the "lazy American won't work" meme.

So anyhow, waddya want? The companies won't stop until you tell them you won't accept any less pay and benefits, and we have a surprising number of people that think they need to get poorer in order to get the money they deserve. If they could get you to work for the wages they pay the illegals, they would. Or less.

It's a sad day when so many people buy lottery tickets as their retirement plan.

Wouldn't you expect someone who runs privacy organizations to have already rooted his phone?

It sounds like the bloatware is his biggest problem, and I just got a Moto X for the same price as an LG Optimus. Vanilla Android and no bloatware.

Umm, entertainment? Like going to a party and chatting with friends, I learn something everywhere, but mostly here, I just discuss, sometimes argue. But seriously, most of it is just entertainment.

There is a whole world out there of people playing with obsolete technology. It's not always nostalgia either.

How about hit and miss engines? Now there's some obsolete tech. But people are still messing with them

Home made engine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

And since hoomins always take things to the semi - insane level, a Fairbanks Morse monster that someone is restoring for viewing pleasure and/or horror.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

There is more to life than Windows 8 and smartphones. All we wanna do, is have some fun, I got the feeling, I'm not the only one.

Well, there is the matter of today's internet. Anything that is posted pisses someone off. Mention Global warming, or gay marriage, or gun control, or Guvmint intrusion, or Tesla's and those folks will descend on you like carrion flies.

That being said, I used W8 for a year, and it elevates Suck to a new level. The Start menu? Meh, that's just one itty bitty step into that cesspool of suck.

W8 Works. It really does. But as a UI, and for system maintenance the verdict is in - Do Not Want. And the fanbois can call the rest of us stupid assholes all they want.

After all, we all do put Slashdot use on our resume don't we?

After all, we could be checking out our Facebook pages, or maybe playing Angry Birds.

You know - important stuff that shows our amazing productivity, focus on what counts in life, and wise use of our time instead of screwing around with an old Amiga.

Rush Limbaugh called. He wanted us to tell you that you're a little over the top.

I'm afraid to google "fat aggie".

I'm going back to my 1942 Corona typewriter with the "t" slightly raised.

Can't wait for an app that would allow anyone to be completely anonymous, even from the almighty Goog'lord.

The NSA's probably got them in stock.

NASA's vaunted "Asteroid Redirect Mission" is now widely regarded as crap.

ALL suggested manned missions seem contrived. We don't really need space humans at this point; robots do raw space exploration cheaper.

It's better to think about it as preparing for future colonization when technology catches up someday to make self-sufficient colonies viable. Issues related to astronaut health and emergency rescues are probably the most important lessons to be gained.

Another possibility is an orbital lab, away from Earth. If we bring back Mars samples, we probably don't want to risk contaminating or infecting Earth with Mars "bugs" until we know more. Thus, the sample analysis labs should probably be in a wide orbit.

What we really need is something like a space Lego set that can be reconfigured for multiple kinds of missions. But, maybe that's not entirely realistic. As software people know, making something generic is not without trade-offs and usually extra complexity.