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Comment Re:Don't stop at Paul Allen (Score 1) 219

I understand that it's currently popular to be seen to be engaged in charity, CSR and the like, but consider the benefits to society that Jobs has already provided just by pursuing a profit.

I don't need to be a fanboy to appreciate that Steve Jobs, by doing what he does extremely well, has provided employment for thousands of people and an improved standard of living for millions. I understand that it "looks good," to do charity, but is it really necessary so long as an individuals actions lead to a benefit to society?

This article speaks more of national service than charity, but I still believe it is a good read and we should all remember that in a free society, a person who participates in the market serves his or her countrymen in an immensely powerful way.

Please have a quick read, I think it's important to remember: http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2011/Seagrenservice.html

Comment Re:The sugar lobby is worse than oil company lobbi (Score 1) 1017

If you are familiar with American presidential politics, then you are aware of the outsized influence that Iowa* has on the outcome of elections. It's not any surprise that the famers there constantly get more attention than they would otherwise probably deserve. This manifests itself not only in HFCS but also in subsidies for ethanol.

*For those not familiar with American agriculture, Iowa is famous for growing corn.

Comment A real shame (Score 5, Interesting) 394

I'm not sure where to find a list of treaties that the United States has failed to honor (did a quick search and nothing obvious popped up), but it seems to me that as time goes on the Americans are losing more and more credibility on the world stage. The start of the real decline seemed to happen with the latest invasion of Iraq and really accelerated through the term of G.W. Bush. This is my perspective as a non-American living outside of the United States, but do the majority of people inside the U.S. realize how much they've lost on the world stage over the past decade?
In a way the decline reminds me of the local police - 30 or 40 years ago the local police were your friend - someone you could go to and talk to and who would be willing to help you out. These days it seems like you're best off staying as far away from the police as possible.
Does anyone else see things in a similar way?

Comment Re:Just a bit more than an iPhone (Score 1) 337

How many people buy a simlock free iPhone vs a subsidized one?

Living in Asia, I would hazard a guess that at least half of all iPhones sold worldwide are unsubsidized.
If anyone has specific information, I'd love to see it, but I literally know of no individual (outside of my North American friends) that has a subsidized phone of any sort.

Comment Re:Yay! (Score 1) 440

Yet that top 1% control 99% of the capital. It looks like that 37% is a fucking good deal. For them.

That number of 99% is probably way too high. They likely control far less than that. (For those lazy to click, the link claims that 42% of wealth is controlled by the top 1%)

Senator Bernie Sanders recently claimed (3:16) that between 1980 and 2005, 80 percent of all income has gone to the top 1 percent of wage earners.

Comment This reminds me of Howard Hughes' Glomar Explorer (Score 2, Insightful) 223

This story reminds me of Howard Hughes' Glomar Explorer.
The whole story is fascinating, but the gist of it is that in the 70's the CIA located and wanted to raise a Russian sub from a depth of more than 5000m (17,000 feet or so). They contracted Hughes through a CIA shell called Suma Corporation to build the Glomar Explorer and get the sub. The story sold to the public at the time was that Hughes was building the Glomar in order to mine the sea bed for the abundant minerals that were available there. Despite the CIA's best efforts to keep a lid on the story, the story was broken by the LA Times in February of 1975.

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