I'm SO happy that I pay for software. I don't have to deal with all of this open source drama bullshit, and have to worry about when somebody's temper tantrum decides to end or radically change some software that I rely on for my business. My eyes glazed over halfway through the story summary, and I really don't care.
I agree with you in concept, but how does Windows 8 fit in with that world view?
I think we'd (the Linux community) be a lot farther ahead if they got together and implemented a single solution that solved all the known requirements.
I agree. As long as it is mine, Mine, MINE, MINE DAMNIT!!!!!!!!!
The picking of that solution is the hard part.
What is covered is that they're making the best decision for themselves
What does that even mean semantically, if the utility buyers assign to things is projected onto them by the suppliers?
Lets imagine ants. As a colony they gather the closest richest food source they can find.
Suppose a supplier puts out some food. The ants discover it and start harvesting it.
Then a competitor 'opens shop'; he's a bit closer, and his foods a bit richer. The ants discover it, and gradually they shift to the new source of food.
That's "capitalism" in the sense that the ants are collectively making the best decision for themselves. They've preferred the new source because its better utility. They harvest more energy and spend less energy doing it.
So far so good.
Then the first supplier wants to get the ants back. He could move even closer, or make his food even richer. He could clear route to his cache of predators... he could do any number of things to compete, to become the ants 'preferred choice'.
But he doesn't. He just goes and paints a strong pheromone trail to his cache. This literally overrides the ants decision making process, and they follow the new strong trail.
Are they making the best decision for themselves?
That's what sophisticated advertising is... it literally short circuits and reprograms our decision making processes to change how we value something.
Its a continuum of course... every external stimulus impacts us in some way, and I'm not suggesting we must block everything that influences us, so don't throw that straw man up.
But modern adverting is reaching levels of sophistication that are a whole different ballgame from more mundane examples of things that influence us.
any tactic that depends upon your enemy being stupid is doomed to backfire
I can't be bothered... but you can look for yourself
Economics makes no such claim that people act under "rational self interest" or that people are well informed. It's not even covered in an econ class one way or the other, you'll just never hear it. The laws of economics apply regardless.
It starts to come up when you discuss philosophical issues pertaining to economics. For example, the idea that capitalism allocates resources efficiently per-supposes the parties are acting with rational self interest. I think we would agree that if the parties are acting irrationally, or against their own interests that the resultant resource allocations will not be efficient.
Taxes are the lowest they've been in half a century.
Tax rates, maybe. But tax revenues tend to be in a fairly consistent range regardless of the actual rates.
Tax Revenues Return to Historical Average
Since World War II, tax receipts have averaged around 18.1 percent of GDP. Receipts have fallen due to the recession, but as the economy recovers, they will rise above the historical average level by the end of the decade, even if all the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts are made permanent.
There was a hack in some early NTSC TV sets which actually did have a bias for white people. NTSC has a luminance channel and two color channels, which are converted to three color channels to drive the CRT. Because the color channel bandwidth was limited and the signal level wasn't that consistent, some early color receivers had a special case for "skin color". When the two color channels, treated as a vector, were in the "skin color cluster region", they were pulled to that value, which was set for "white" people. Even if the other colors were way off, the skin colors would be consistent.
But that hack went out with vacuum tubes.
The Actual Pauline Kael Quote—Not As Bad, and Worse
The clearest example of the bizarrely naive quality of hermetic liberal provincialism was attributed to the New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael almost 40 years ago, and has been discussed in right-wing circles ever since. It went something like this: “I can’t believe Nixon won. I don’t know anyone who voted for him.”
Ain't that the truth, when I explain the premises of climate change is in a neutral voice I get modded +5, when I explain what I think of the quality of the premises I get modded - 1troll
There is no constitutional mandate for a standing army only the ability to raise, or more specifically pay for, an army for two years. Two years does not equal a standing army.
That is two years at a time, not two years total. The Army can exist indefinitely, just its funding has to be approved for no more than two years at a time. They can keep approving new funding, and that is what has been done for a very long time now.
What is hear on the news (CNN, the Daily Show) or from my family is the Tea Party is mostly about bringing back racism.
That is a calculated political attack, it isn't true. You may recall that Herman Cain was strongly supported by the Tea Party in the presidential race.
The US Air Force is formerly the US Army Air Force.
The participants of the original Tea Party would remember this precedent: Jefferson Versus the Muslim Pirates
"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." - Voltaire
