Of course people are using those. It's just that a lot of people want to be able to pick and choose *which* tools they're using.

Also, just recently been forced to use Lync and the bloody chat history is in a fscking folder in fscking Outlook and can't be refererenced from the actual chat tool itself. That doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

And that's just one of several dozen idiotic design decisions. Don't get me started about the ribbon, combined with a non-sensical 'regular' menu in certain places. It's a hodge-podge of different styles. The UI designer should be shot, preferably several times just to be sure.

At least in the Netherlands, the social democrats (PvDA) were infiltrated by what is now called Neo-liberalism, while the population was sleeping and not caring too much, because everyone could buy a new car every couple of years and go on holiday twice every year. The labour party's most prominent 'labour' leader (Wim Kok) is now sitting on the board of Shell. So yes, that slogan goes up in the Netherlands as well

Now people with average wages, something that was more than enough to pay for a family or 4 people in the 80s (corrected for inflation), are now having trouble to pay all their bills at the end of the month.

I am actually hoping that with new technology like 3D printing, some of the means of production move away from large corporates to individuals, but there is no easy way to undo damage done by privatisation of public assets, barring a new government just confiscating these assets.

Ah yes, the land of the free. Sounds more like you're prepping for war.

At some point I'd like to travel the US from coast to coast to see the beautiful country side. Apart from not feeling like being irradiated and/or violated at the border, posts like this make me postpone any travel to the US more or less permanently.

This would be the only true form of democracy. As the US Constitution says 'for the people, by the people' (or is it the other way around) any other form leads to dictatorship.

That is how social democratic countries have been functioning in western Europe, until politicians started to see Euro signs and handed over their national sovereignty to Brussels.

In the Netherlands, In the 70's, all education, including tertiary, were free (as in free beer). Up until 1999, I paid about $15/month (which was automatically deducted from wages) to be completely insured for ALL medical expenses. Public services were in the hands of the government, which wasn't always the best service, but it was usually stable and reliable. After privatisation, prices have soared and assets like the phone network, paid for by tax payer money has literally been sold for 1 guilder (at the time) (about $0.60 US), while all tax payers are now again paying for the privilege to use that infrastructure, because it's owned by a private company. In the meantime reliability of services has reduced, since maintenance costs money and cuts into profit margins.

Right now, students opt to not get tertiary degrees, because the financial burden is getting to high and instead of paying $15 US, we now pay 120 Euro/month with a 500 Euro excess, which still doesn't cover everything. Payment is mandatory, but there are people who can't actually make use of healthcare, because they are so strapped financially that they have to choose between paying the excess or pay the rent.

Regulation on rent in the meantime has been greatly decreased as well, meaning that rents have risen dramatically,while the building of cheap homes has been actively been discouraged. At the moment, people who rent and want to move to a similar house in the same city (even if it's to something a block away from where they are living now) can get a 30-40% increase in rent, because their current agreements fall under the old legislation, while the new contract will be drawn up under the new legislation.

Most nations in western Europe had social democratic governments, the only reason this has changed is because of greed, with politicians and bankers cashing in, by making services that should be owned by the public 'more efficient' by privatising them.

Only if there is a demand for more production and only if the workers have the correct skill to produce that production. When labour is off-shored, demand for products actually drops, since workers will have less money to spend; it's a downward spiral that can only be broken if there is free travel for people across nation states.

Corporations don't have the artifical boundary not being able to operate outside their inital borders, but are capable to set up shop anywhere. Real people, on the other hand, are bound by artificial impediments like work visas and are unable to do the same.

So now instead of using two interfaces to interact with my OS (mouse and keyboard), I'll be using three different interfaces, with the added down side that every time I want to use this third interface, I have to bend forward over my desk, raise my arm and make a smudge on my screen.

I'd rather press CTRL + arrow left/right keys to switch to another virtual desktop where I have my media-player open already (yes, not using windows) while keeping my hands always in the vicinity of my keyboard/mouse and my screen smudge free.

What? Germany is an enemy now? You're off for a better part of a century

If only. The problem is that the US doesn't do that. The US is toppling democratically elected governments with puppet dictatorships, because the democratically elected government is not biased towards the US enough and would actually like to use their resources to their own countries benefit

The US government fights proxy wars abroad, then leaves the battleground in ruins, abandoning everyone who's still alive after US troops are gone. (Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan)

The US is sticking its nose in other peoples affairs at the detriment of everyone involved except for the US (you even screw over your supposed allies). It's no wonder there are a lot of people pissed of at the US government, and in turn at US citizens who defend their governments actions.

I am very sure that if the US government would treat other nations/people as they would like to be treated themselves, people would be somewhat less pissed off. Instead I see a culture where greed, selfishness and pettiness are the norm.