I think the difference in these numbers is "nationwide" and what it might mean. Google could probably easily equip the same number of subscribers as Verizon with fiber for the same cost or less; however, there are some middle-of-nowhere places that would require a much more significant expenditure per potential customer than the places Verizon has deployed. Maybe to run a line to everyone everywhere costs $140 billion, but to reach, say, 30% of the population would cost $25 billion.

I think I would agree that Dropbox is more technically advanced; however, I would say that Skydrive (for good or ill) is also more ingrained into the Microsoft technology stack. Office 2013, SharePoint 2013, and (I think) Windows 8 have the ability to use it. In Office I think it is the default now which will probably trip a few people when they go to browse for their file and mistakenly saved it on Skydrive instead of their local box.

Straight Talk's unlimited everything is $45 / month. Virgin Mobile is $35 / month. Boost is $50 / month. MetroPCS is $40 unlimited 3G coverage. All of these are still a lot more expensive than the $25 unlimited plan, but it's not as large a gap as $65 vs $25.

Sure, if I expend more effort, I can use the clunky copy and paste functionality and open the app I want and still lose functionality: no Siri integration, for example. I can even use the crappy mobile version of Google maps, giving up speed, Siri integration, etc., delivering a worse experience than before. All of this makes my life harder. IMO the Android way of handling this is pretty good, and Apple should look into stealing the idea for at least mapping and navigation.

You mean, before the car improved the worldwide transportation network? And I take great offense to "lazy fuckmobile." I must be a lazy fat ass if I don't want to bike for 30 miles to reach the nearest airport (and I guess a plane is even lazier than a car) or 100 miles to the beach or 20 miles to visit my family.

Communism is an economic system, whereas democracy is a political system.

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." The problem is the average voter is merely an average; what they demand and deserve affects the saner parts of the populace just as it does the less clear minded.

Hyundai, BMW, Toyota, Honda, etc. all have plants in America. So we have those, at least. Apart from that, the coolest American car is probably the Tesla Roadster. Maybe a Jeep.

If anything, those couple trillion not only didn't make the price of gas lower, they made it higher by destroying equipment, driving off workers, and generally making Iraq not a safe place to do business in. Those couple trillion were meant for the enrichment of a select portion of the population, not Joe Sixpack.

I think part of the reason we Americans are so spread out is because of the enormous costs of urban areas, at least some of them anyways. In my neck of the woods, years of artificially limiting density, height, and building moratoriums have resulted in an increase of suburbs outside of the urban core. The urban core, because of artificially limited supply and intense demand, has become hellaciously expensive. We're talking $600K for a 700 square foot condo with high condo fees and taxes.

Needless to say, businesses and workers have begun to move out, but they brought the same "let's limit development and density" attitude with them. So there are now suburbs to the suburbs and so forth, resulting in some unfortunate folks who commute 50 miles each direction because they can't afford to live in the city. I think in order to really get America urbanized the artificial city costs need to be addressed. We should be making it easier for e.g. high density offices / apartments to be built, not make complaints such as "ruining the character of the city" and decide to ruin entire regions for the sake of keeping your house price propped up.

Not all of us have the luxury of public transport. Hell, housing prices in this area are so inflated some lower income ($45K or less) people have to drive at least two hours each way just to be able to qualify for housing.

I don't live in the Bay Area, and the closest bookstore of any kind is at least 40 miles away. It may even be further; the closest ones were Borders, and those are now closed.

So 15 minutes is not far at all.

Depending on the area, it can be fairly easy or highly difficult. I just started in IT, and the job market here (D.C. area) is fairly strong. Further south in VA, and the pickings become slim.

Depending on how much cheaper your area is, you could be coming out ahead of those $100K+ folks in, say, the DC area, New York City, etc. I know that if I had my salary in the part of South Carolina where part of my family lives, it would be an almost palatial lifestyle. Housing costs are at least half of what they are in my area. Gas is also nearly a dollar per gallon cheaper. I could take a fairly hefty paycut and still have the same standard of living.

No, the 70s Chrysler is fine only at very low speeds, such as a fender bender. I own an old (60s) vehicle, and have been rear ended in stop and go traffic. My truck came out in better shape than theirs. However, if they were going more than 5-10 MPH, things would have been quite different. Let's take a look at some videos, shall we?

1960s Crash Tests, mostly GM vehicles I believe.