Race to the bottom then? You know, the European countries that are doing good are doing so by not allowing themselves to compete head on with slave labor in China...

Apparently, scientists in Japan are extremely concerned that Japanese users of Twitter are frequently reporting spontaneous nosebleeds.

Is it only Twitter causing nosebleeds or are other social media site users presenting similarly?

Despite what your third grade communist fearin' teacher might have told you. After $9 million a _year_ you can't honestly say that the person in question is generating enough raw wealth to be 'worth' it. They're just able to obtain it through a combination manipulation of the political system, military power and indoctrination of the working class. The Koch brothers are a prime example. Their money comes from gov't contracts to run hospitals and gov't granted mineral rights. They add no value to either process. They're just good at manipulating the gov't and the populace to increase their wealth.

The super rich didn't 'earn' their wealth. They the gov't to obtain and maintain it. You can argue they shouldn't be allowed to do this, but you can't stop them from doing it. Their wealth makes them too powerful. To ignore that fact not only plays right into their hands, but it's pointless too. I've said it before, I'll say it again: Gov't is a tool. The rich are going to use it to their advantage. The only question is, are you?

I've known people on gov't assistance. It's a few hundred dollars a month and you have to be making about half the poverty line to get it. If you're sister is on gov't assistance for real then there's something wrong with her. I don't mean that as an insult. I mean there really is something wrong, and she needs the help. You don't get enough from the gov't to live, you get enough so that if your family is giving you a lot of help you can just barely eat.

Is this an astro turfer or something? I'd like to believe noone is this much of a jerk in real life...

you increase the top earner's rates on income over a certain amount. In the 50s and 60s we had the highest growth in real wages and middle class incomes the country (maybe even the species) has ever seen with a 90% top tax bracket. How? Because that 90% wasn't a flat "Give us 90% of your income" it was "90 % over 1 Million" or about $9 million in todays money. So if you made over $9 million dollars in a SINGLE YEAR then you paid 90% of that to the gov't. This kept wealth inequality in check and forced top earners to really work for that money over $9 million. If you wanted to be filthy, stinking rich you really had to work at it (people still did). Meanwhile gov't programs redistributed the wealth. Maybe not evenly, but it's better than phoney job creators hording it and holding up human progress by sitting on their fat rears with all the money in the world...

Nonetheless, the stock price is actually a bit lower than before the 5c/5s announcement.

This is normal. Almost all Apple announcements have been followed by a drop in the stock prices:

• 2001: Introduction of original iPod. AAPL fell 5%
• 2002: Macworld Expo keynote: AAPL fell 4%
• 2003: Macworld Expo keynote: AAPL fell
• 2004: Macworld Expo keynote, introduction of iPod Mini. AAPL fell
• 2005: Macworld Expo keynote: AAPL fell >6%.
• 2008: Macworld Expo keynote, introduction of Macbook Air. AAPL fell >5%.
• 2008: WWDC keynote, introduction of iPhone 3G. AAPL fell 2%
• 2010: Introduction of original iPad. AAPL fell after second day.
• 2010: Introduction of iPhone 4. AAPL fell 3%.

 

stock prices for high-tech companies are not a valid way to measure the company's success in the marketplace

Precisely.

not everyone knows this, because it's bullshit. Bureaucracy isn't adding to the cost. Most of the time the cost is in line with private interests. It's just that when the gov't loses money it's just lost, but when the big corps lose money the gov't bails them out.

The most common reason you see gov't "waste" money is when they're pumping money into the economy to keep it going because too much of the wealth has concentrated at the top. You're not seeing waste, you're seeing socialism in the only way Americans can stand it after decades of anti-socialist propaganda from our corporate masters...

I keep hearing this. The paper work adds little or nothing. If you've ever worked with any large organization they always have large paper work requirements. It's necessary to keep employees from embezzling and/or giving juicy contracts to family.

The 30% comes from the fact that gov't contracts usually require higher paid union workers because a lot of the time the contracts are social programs designed to spread wealth in disguise. Think they old public works projects but without the stigma.

... his obviously satiric post ...

Thanks for that. I thought it was obvious. But these guys nearly had me providing an interlinear translations along the lines of ...

But then again perhaps an ironic statement is not itself the clearest way to alert the slower reader to the presence of irony.

The committee members that push it through will get swanky positions with the industries that benefit from DRM. And since the world economy is crashing and only a few are going to live the good life I suppose I can't blame them...

[Y]ou're a grade A asshole- I'll give you that.

Grade A? Why thank you. One does try one's hardest. I'm relieved that you failed to mention the nicht I carelessly omitted from the second German sentence ... you're too kind. And if I might repay your compliment ... however much you may lack of it yourself, you are at least able to acknowledge talent in others.

... your assberger's ...

Talk about bringing a knife to a gun fight. Seriously, if you can't do wit, don't even try. Go away and read some Oscar Wilde first, or watch a Woody Allen movie or two, or take lessons, or something ...

Is this practice meant to discourage regulatory capture, replacing it with some sort of regulatory "catch & release?"

From the details you provided, it sounds like you neglected to order a pizza before calling the fire department — is that what happened?