cpu6502, do you remember if you were in Luxembourg in the eighties when this happened?

Absolutely not. My Shakespeare quote was there precisely to ensure you that I do not automatically believe that someone is what they say they are.

Wonderful reply! I like the symmetry of it and how you manage to bash both sides. :-) Perhaps you're even right. I mean, correct.

It's interesting that you mention left wing, because already when you said right wing, I wondered what you meant by it. I'm often fuzzy regarding what should be called one or the other (if the terms are at all relevant outside the French revolution), so I'm collecting samples of how other people use the words. Today, I'm sampling you. :-) What do you have in mind when you call Hitler the movement right wing? (Amusingly, we're talking about the National Socialist German Workers' Party, but what's in a name?) Supporting the crown and the estates? Dismantling the state ("taxation is theft")? Encouraging capitalism? Belief in Christian ideals? Those are traits that I see as characterising the Right in one context or another. (Though I don't see them as particularly representative of the Nazis.)

So, ITA Software makes an "airfare search and pricing" according to Wikipedia. Is there a big deal around this? Is that a problem that requires a sophisticated algorithm? I mean, how can you run a big company around this? If there is something technically interesting to it, it would be nice to know. (Also, it would be a motivation for bringing this story up on Slashdot at all.)

A friend of mine had to have surgery. His is only a semicolon now.

For us who aren't familiar with this visa system, whom did Palmer do a service by calling attention to the situation?

Breaking one of the rules of grammar, say, by using while the way the Slashdot summary does, might be the means by which one conveys precisely that innuendo. If the speaker overall cares very little about the rules, I'm afraid no one would perceive their intentions as that subtle signal would be drowned in the flood of noise.

Mess up how the Internet is supposed to work? I'm not sure I follow you. Why would there be drawbacks if specifically universities and labs paid more as opposed to if everyone else paid more? What if prices do go up? Lot's of things cost me more than I would like them to. Can you make all prices go down, please? Except when I sell something. I'm afraid I'm not convinced by your argument.

Oh! Well, if that's the case, I'm convinced!

Let's just peacefully explore the issue. I'm still trying to find my own stance here, entertaining opinions without necessarily embracing them, putting forward an argument to see what will be said against it.

Firstly, I don't think it would ever go that far. If no one is using a phone at all, then certainly there is money to be made from providing a service that is at least usable. At least as much I'd say we can expect from the invisible hand. Secondly, some would argue that regardless of whether I die or not, it is immoral to force anyone (a telecommunications provider) to offer services it doesn't want to offer. Taking it further, what if we, the people, felt we needed communications services and forced you to provide them? If the invisible hand hadn't already compelled you to provide it, would you be fine with the visible hand "compelling" you?

Hey, are you trying to discredit me as someone who has taken an economics class or someone who has taken too few of them?