To put things into perspective an extra $7/day would mean 28% boost to average per-capita GDP. And once that money enters the economy it really turns into $35, since banks loan it out five times over. Russian people could live a heck of a lot better if they saw any of that wealth. Instead, they're getting tax hikes later this year to help pay for government pensions.

BTW, are you one of those paid pro-Putin shills I keep reading about? To state, point blank, that the government in Russia is interested in eliminating corruption is just not the kind of thing someone would say without getting their hand greased.

Um, no. You don't have to rely on government to get good education. You just need a brain and a student loan. Second, you don't have to start as a hired worker, though it's not a bad option, and you certainly don't have to be in your 40's before you start your own. Sergey Brin is 38 (billionaire since his early 30's). Zuckerberg is 27. Russia makes trillions on oil and gas, Russians should live like kings.

Russian government is not interested in getting rid of bribery because they rely on it for their own prosperity. Putin would not have $30K watch if it wasn't for bribery. Medvedev would not have a $20K Leica digital camera (+20K watch). Their tax declarations are pathetic. Their incomes don't match their lifestyle by several orders of magnitude. Their "friends" control something like $150B+ of wealth. Do you seriously think they P&M don't take any of that to themselves?

I have news for you, wealth was not fairly distributed even in the USSR. Some had more than others.

And where did I say anything about "fair" distribution of wealth? There's no such thing. There is such a thing as living without bribery and theft.

Oh no, the US has a ton of problems. But it it's nowhere near as bad as today's (and tomorrow's, for at least another few years) Russia. Here, you can easily live your entire life without giving or receiving a bribe. There, it's just a fact of life, and some fairly mundane things just can't be done without bribing someone. Here, in a court of law, you actually have a pretty solid chance of getting a fair trial. There, you have to bribe the judge and hope to god that your opponent did not pay more (or is not a government bureaucrat; if so you can die in prison for no fault of your own). Here, when a police officer stops your car, he has a legitimate concern about the way you're driving, there it's to shake you down. And so on and so forth.

This _will not_ end well. They now have a whole generation of people in their mid- to late 20s, born in early to mid-80's and raised without fear. Given the lack of upward mobility, these folks are now wondering why is it that a bunch of Politburo style old farts are running the country and not sharing the wealth. Given the lack of the proper political system, the only way for these folks to get what they want will be to overthrow the government one way or another. I give it another 5 years. Putin will not complete his third term.

The difference between the US and this is that in Russia this is paid for with enormous amounts of taxpayer money (hired drummers alone at a pro-Puting meeting cost something like $800K), and people are threatened with pink slips at work unless they go to pro-government meetings. When you live hand to mouth and don't have any savings, the prospect of getting fired over some BS meeting is pretty scary. And when the election time rolls around, they stuff the ballot boxes, and then if that proves insufficient, simply rewrite final counts when no one is looking. That country is truly ruled by a bunch of crooks and thieves. Can't wait to see the Russian people to hang them on the "teeth" of the Kremlin wall. They did this a hundred years ago, they can do it again. Russia just can't catch a fucking break.

Not daily, that's too often (at least for the more senior folks). If you're doing something hard, you can't really finish a cohesive unit of work in a day. Here's how I do it in the project I run. We have a planning meeting every Monday. It lasts anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. During this meeting we discuss what was accomplished over the past week, and plan out the next one or two weeks (usually one). That's it. During the week we just, you know, talk to one another and resolve issues as they come up, and not stress about what we are going to say at our next standup meeting. Works great!

How about we instead turn our rightful indignation against Big Pharma and ask why the fuck is it not legal to buy the same drugs from Canada for less? When I moved to the US, I was shocked by how badly US residents are being gouged when it comes to pharmaceuticals. Nowhere else in the world do drugs cost as much as they do in the US. In some places the same exact drugs by the same exact companies are sold at 1/5th to 1/10th the price.

http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com/images/07-minister.jpg

I think I'm hearing familiar intonations there.

Most companies don't allow shorting or hedging company stock, at least to higher level employees. Some don't allow it for anyone. This creates conflict of interest.

Why would anyone want retarded shit like this? I mean, seriously? Who has windows this small? How much would it cost if it were the size of a real window? And even if it was remotely affordable, why? It will never be as good as a window at light transmission, and it will never be as good at showing images as a real display.