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Comment Re:If at first you don't succeed... (Score 1) 262

because you're spending $60+ on the cost of entry, and when the reviewers are embargoed there's just no way to tell if you're going to get screwed

I didn't realize that playing a game the day (or week, or month, or year) that it is released in any way shape or form increases the enjoyability of the game. It's not like the content of the game changes, does it?

Not that it excuses Ubisoft from releasing a shit product, I'm just saying that (in my opinion) there is no reason to play the game the day it is released. I'd rather wait a year till the price of the games come down, and the hardware to play them on gets cheaper.

Comment Re:easy (Score 2) 208

They shouldn't be getting their $3 billion back: they took a foolish risk and need to suffer the consequences.

I respectfully disagree. They are entitled to get their money back, per the contract that was signed. All debtors of the company have the same entitlement to get their contractually obligated money back.

Now, where that money comes from is a different story. Not a dime of it should come from anybody that wasn't directly involved in the fraud. Any executive/board level people that were involved should be stripped of any and all assets, then the company should be liquidated, restructured, or whatever it takes to satisfy the debtors. If someone wants to pick up the pieces and build Zalaman 2.0, that's for them to decide.

Comment Re:Uhhh (Score 1) 907

But we also have legal protections to insure that punitive and fiduciary measures don't create undue hardship. We have a pretty good system that does alright at balancing the risk-mitigating concerns of the creditor with the basic needs of the debtor

Normally, I would agree with you, with the exception of Medical bills. A garnishment that takes1/3 of your net income for medical bills pretty damn close to an "undue hardship". I don't care who you are, when someone takes 1/3 of your income as the result of an incident you have no control over (unforeseen medical problem) there is something wrong with the system.

Yes, this is a personal experience. Yes, we had medical insurance ($3,500 individual deductible) and a company sponsored "Flex Spending" account ($1,000) and a steady job (Been there for 17 years). Too bad it's a 17 year job at Walmart, and pulling $2500 out of your ass for unforeseen medical issues isn't a trivial problem to solve. And contrary to popular belief, if you don't pay your medical bills they don't just magically become the hospital or insurance company's problem. They will come after you, and they will get their money.

Comment Re:in other words (Score 1) 194

That really is an excellent question. It's tough to answer, beyond the usual "Why SHOULDN'T we have free healthcare, you a heartless asshole."

My initial though is, I am entitled to healthcare because we live in a civilized country, and it is the moral thing to do. And people have a basic right to live out their natural life alive. If someone gets dragged into the hospital dying, your choices are to help him or let him die. Human beings, for the most part, are designed to be compassionate. The "I'd rather just let him die" people are in the definite minority. (Again, leaving the financial argument out of it) Now you just have to figure out how to pay for keeping that person alive.

And to me, it only makes sense, purely from a financial perspective. I pay $XXX per month, my employer pays $YYYY for "Health Insurance". I use quotes because it's not really insurance. I carry car insurance because if something catastrophic happens to my car I will need a new one. If I don't have car insurance I don't get a new car. If I don't get a new car, my life will be significantly inconvenienced, but I'll still be alive. I carry health insurance because if I don't carry it and something catastrophic happens they will still do what is reasonable and necessary to make sure I don't die. Wait, what? Yup, it still gets paid for. They will ruin me financially if I don't have insurance, but they aren't going to lock me out of the hospital, and SOMEONE is going to end up paying for it.

So, now we have the insurance companies. Their job is solely to sit between me and my hospital. And they "earn", collectively, over $13B in profit annually to do so. That's a shit load of money. And that is just the profit. That come's after they have paid their thousands and thousands of employee's salary. I know it's the norm to hate on insurance companies, but holy shit, what value do they add to this equation?

Comment Re:in other words (Score 3, Interesting) 194

This whole argument revolves around Obamacare. You can argue its effectiveness till you are blue in the face and never get anywhere. You would be more successful arguing about religion or programming languages.

It boils down to one simple question that you have to get consensus on before you can move forward: Is healthcare a basic human right? I specifically left out words like "affordable" and "quality" because they dilute the conversation. It is simple, if I am sick am I entitled to get better? I would love to hear somebody answer "no" to that question, and offer a reasonable justification without using any terms related to affordability, money, insurance companies, or quality of care.

So, assuming you are all with me on the basic right to healthcare, we dive into the money part of it. Which is what all of the bitching is actually about. Everybody has the right to get well, who pays for it? The current solution is that everybody has to buy health "insurance". If you can't "afford" it the gov't will help you pay for it. This is where the current administration looses me. And since this is Slashdot, why not use a car analogy. The gov't assumes that at some point, everybody in the country is going to have to get from one place to another, so they make it mandatory that everybody must own a vehicle. If you can't afford a car, they will help you buy one. Some people will drive their car every day, some cars will sit in the garage all day every day. Yes, in theory, everybody will be able to get where they need to go when they need to go there. But what about all of the money wasted on the cars sitting around not being driven, where has that gone? You can bet the guys at GM, Ford, Toyota, et al. are happier than pigs in shit. They just broke every sales record they have ever set. That is my frustration with Obamacare, the gov't just handed truck fulls of money to the insurance companies (who have been continuously turning record profits.)

Comment Re:Follow the money (Score 2) 393

I don't feel as though it is the gov'ts job to be running interference for it's constituents. Actively sabotaging somebody else's constituents, so that their constituents have an easier path to success, is not the American way. Well, it is the American way, but it isn't supposed to be.

Comment Re: Bullshit (Score 1) 200

Surprisingly, IN MY EXPERIENCE (In Minnesota), the DMV was an absolute nightmare, even compred to Comcast. I have lived in Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and now Minnesota. MN has BY FAR the worst DMV. It took me 3 hours and four trips to two different buildings get my drivers licenses and vehicles registered. Comcast, on the other hand, was insanely painless. I stopped in their store, grabbed a cable modem, went home and plugged it in. Now, let's not talk about the time that they shut my internet off for no reason, blamed it on "security" (apparently someone had walked into the store using my address to start up a new account). Since it was after 8PM the sales office was closed and they couldn't turn my internet back on. It took an hour, but eventually I got through to a call center in CA that was able to turn it back on.

Comment Re:Speculation... (Score 1) 455

How about we just get the gov't out of the way? If a company chooses to sell their cars directly from a website, or a gallery, or a dealership then that is their prerogative. If their chosen distribution model isn't what the consumer wants then they either adapt the model or they go away.

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