Then care to explain why it is not worth zero?

Dont forget to go to work tomorrow so you can get paid in yuor "worthless" currency... Later you an use it to get a coffee and groceries..

"Cash" is backed by the government that printed it.

Bitcoin is backed by?

This is a good "fast read" and an interesting view from a high ranking US marine.

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

They'd just do what they currently do.

Put the IP offshore and "license" it back domestically.

We didnt make any money as we had to pay such high fees to our (Cayman, Ireland, Luxembourg) based subsidiary.

If you really want to fix the tax system, tax corp income the same way personal taxes are done, on total earned less deductions, not on "profit".

" And the actual metric you attempt to generally cite is bogusmips."

Here is a citation for you:

"This week the International Monetary Fund updated its data on the world economy. For the first time it ranks China’s economy as the world’s biggest in purchasing-power-parity terms. Historians, though, point out that China is merely regaining a title that it has held for much of recorded history. In 1820 it probably produced one-third of global economic output. The brief interlude in which America overshadowed it is now over."

http://www.economist.com/news/...

I struggled with this problem for some time as well and found the "BEST" soloution...

Gift cards....

I had an old gift card with a zero balance. I entered in the numbers, including the CVV code and apple was happy and allowed me to create the account.

If they try to use the card, naturally it will be declined but it isn't even in my own name in the first place (gift cards dont require your detail since they are "stored value" cards.)

Fun Fact... It use to be called "Berlin" at one point in time

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

Probably do to many reasons, but these two stand out.

1) Our "love affair" with the car.
2) Our (Canadian) governments love affair with taxing gas.

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

Taxes are the single largest component in the cost of gas here, and then the government actually charges HST (Harmonized sales tax) on top of that. So basically a tax on a tax.

Ajax (small town to the east of Toronto) just had its municipal elections as well.
This year they even allowed voting over the internet yet the turnout was still shockingly low.

"The turnout was 33.4 per cent, the highest the Town has achieved since the early 1990s. In 2010, the turnout was 25.4 per cent."

So if you look at it from past years, it has improved, but even after making it easy (do it from home) most people still didnt bother?

I too ride bombardier train cars daily (GO transit) and they are actually pretty really nice. I would say it is fairly rare that they have "Door" issues (doors fail to operate correctly). Not bad considering in the winter you sometimes find them covered in ice and snow as people get on and off the train and the cold weather outside.

Flip side, I have taken the "metro north" more then once (NEW HAVEN LINE) and some of those cars are terrible (old, smelly, dirty, broken, etc). and also bombardier leading again to potential maintenance issues.

Dude, are you aright? Not all worked up over a simple conversation?

So, in the ISP business model these two points have NO weight on costing?

1) vast difference in country size
2) legacy reasons

Finland may have more "competition" due to point 2, which is a structural difference. In the US/CA competition is often lacking.

For point 1, i notice you have done what you termed "changing the goalposts" and said you will lay cable at the same price/customer when i simply asked if laying 2000 miles costs the same as 200.

In some parts of the the US/Canada you find a lot of small "towns" which are at least 100 miles from the nearest city. Does the fact that the town is small and the distances are great not account for the cost to wire up such a small place in the first place?

Thanks for the post, very useful and insightful.

I've not moved the goalpost by the way, i stated upfront there are at least two reasons for this.

1) vast difference in country size
2) legacy reasons

Is it reasonable to assume the cost of laying cables thousands of miles is the same as hundreds? If so, can i hire you to lay cables 2,000 miles for the same price you would lay one 200 miles?

Lastly, if you can quote where i talked about population density being an issue that would be handy.

A lot of these welfare/secion 8, people are just milking the system.

Almost every week there is stories about "spouse in the house" or other welfare abuses.

Spouse in the house - welfare mother claims no spouse, has kids and needs welfare but yet the husband does live in gvt subsidized housing with her.

" Everyone should be, as much as realistically possible, born with equal opportunity"

People are born with equal opportunity (for the most part) but not everyone wants to take it, many are rather happy living off the taxpayers.

I work 40 - 50 hours a week and have to pay for my dental coverage in Canada, while welfare case get it for free, Is that equal? How did the dentist get paid when he serviced the welfare cases, tax dollars?

They need to cut back on benefits to encourage them to go to work, not give them more.

Was Finland's cables laid in the early 1900's by companies granted near monopoly status in exchange for installing "the last mile"?

As i said, there is also a large legacy component to account for the differences.

That is great logic you have there. Finland (303,890.0 square kilometres) should have the exact same internet at the exact same cost as the US (9,147,420.0 square kilometres).

You also miss out on the legacy aspect, when and why the original cables were laid in the US vs Finland.