Don't give facebook your number.

Don't give facebook your real name.

Don't give facebook your real address.

For optimum protection, don't use facebook since you can be identified through your social links.

Starbucks has been doing that in england for about 10 years.

I think businesses ability to do that is coming to an end. Increasingly, if you do business in an area, you will have to pay taxes in that area.

Yet
"On average, 1,276 manufacturing jobs were lost *every day* for the past 12 years. A net of 66,486 manufacturing establishments closed, from 404,758 in 2000 down to 338,273 in 2011. In other words, on *each day* since the year 2000, America had, on average, 17 fewer manufacturing establishments than it had the previous day."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michele-nashhoff/manufacturing-jobs_b_1382704.html

I think it's great if we SHARE the fruits of all these automated jobs with the rest of society. But at least half the population doesn't want to.

And robots don't pay social security tax. (Time to make a property tax/social security tax that applies to robots).

At some point, americans have GOT to start getting the cheaper medicine, cheaper DVD's, etc. that other countries are getting. We can't continue to pump money out of the economy for more than another decade or so.

I love the way the article talks about these robots in the hands of the "factory workers" when it means the "factory owners".

Sounds like a stiff property tax on robots is in order to me, if for nothing else except to prevent civil unrest.

Your right... when someone uses profanity in front of children, we should send them to hard labor in prison for 5-7 years.

And for stealing a CD from a store, automatic 7-10 year prison terms.

And for getting in a fight at a bar, an automatic 8-12 years prison with no parole.

And if they download a single song, fine them $150,000 dollars! ...
Oh wait... ...
I guess we ARE doing the last example.

It really wasn't police.

It was a combination of generational forces.

A lot of boomer criminals just got too old to keep being criminals any more. And the gen X'ers and Y'ers behind them were to few in numbers to fill the shortfall.

Lead has also been implicated.

New investigative techniques (like DNA) did help the police be more effective- at least where the police didn't unholy fuck it up.

In my case, my only contact with police when my car was broken into and there were clear fingerprints on the glass was for them to blow it off-- not even collect fingerprints.

They are clearly much more interested in parking on the freeway collecting tickets than investigating minor crimes.

Exactly.

Once you are in custody, it's very hard to commit suicide in anything but very painful ways.

It's really pretty monstrous in a way. You are forcing them to stay alive while you punish them.

Thirty years ago he might of run away.

But with the surveillance and computers today, you essentially can't run away any more.

Hell, he probably would have served a few years (which would have been ridiculous to begin with) and then be released.

Ultimately there may be a scapegoat at MIT and in the attorney general's offices but no one will really pay for harassing this young man to death for what should have been a 15 to 30 day jail time plus maybe a fine.

Our government is way to happy to put people in prison for years for minor crimes when a short jail sentence would put most people on the right path (assuming they can find work afterwards- otherwise you just turned them into a permanent criminal).

I know! Because superman canon is stable and hasn't changed a half dozen times since the character was created.

Same for Batman. These are the same characters they've always been.

Except for the reboots.

And the re-envisionings.

And the reimaginings.

And the reinterpretations.

It's funny... if you want to make a story about "Snow White" or "Cinderella" or "Jack and the Beanstalk" or Vampires or Dracula or Oberon or Titania ....

You are free to. Because copyright has been perverted by immortal corporations.

It has to change. These characters need to be released to the public domain so others can use them to tell interesting stories. That's explicitly why copyright was created in the first place.

Even with current bandwidth, video quality has dropped every year for the last five to seven years. Dish, Cable companies and netflix are compressing the hell out of the video. It's past the point where you can't see it.

Actually our system is

"No insurance? Go to the emergency room!"

Okay so we bill you $1500 instead of you paying $20 at your doctor's office.

You can't PAY $1500?

Okay- everyone ELSE will cover your $1500 in their insurance bills!
Or the local tax payers will make up the hospitals losses.

Net effect-- tax payers and those with insurance pay for health care for the uninsured -- at much higher rates than if they did it through the front door.

Most hospitals in the US are required to accept patients. They can't turn them away.

But... instead of really fixing the problem, they can just patch it- and then the sick person is back in the emergency room again in a week.

The affordable care act says: You MUST have insurance. If you don't, we'll fine you "$X". However, if you are poor, we'll subsidize you $Y to get insurance.

I hear the ultimate goal is single payer.

Unfortunately, since they control the media and one of the political parties- they were able to use the abortion social issue and the prayer social issue combined with the media to brainwash lots of people into doing just that.

Hell- I've seen people making 50k frothing at the mouth over higher taxes when the effect on them would be about $75 bucks a year and lack of raising taxes would mean they would get benefits cut.

As I said, they were literally voting to slit their own throats- and totally pro wealthy.

If the occupy movement did anything- it put the 1% on everyone's mind and pulled away the curtain for a few months.

It does for...

The beach front property, best hotel room, best cell phones, best food, best alcohol, anything at all which is collectable, the mountain ski lodge, the first class seats on the plane, seats for the opera, etc.

Say there is 1 best apple, and 8 average apples and 1 crappy apple.

1 person has 98 dollars.
the other 9 people have between 10 cents and 25 cents.

First iteration.
The wealthy person gets the best apple for 26 cents. And still has over 97 dollars to get the best tv, the best signed baseball, the best artwork, etc etc.
The rest pay some price under 25 cents.

Second iteration
The wealthy person buys all the apples and sells them for 1 penny more and now has 98 dollars and 9 cents. he may even destroy a few of the apples to maintain price.

Third iteration
The nine either vote for higher taxes or they get violent.

Your figure is probably from one of the articles quoting 2007-- a singularly bad year for the wealthy due to the equity collapse.

More recent figures...
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-57391283/income-inequality-1-percent-still-going-strong/
2009-2010
The top 10 percent in the U.S. take now take home nearly half of all income (47 percent), driven by the top percent who account for 20 percent.

So logically, the top 10% should pay at least 47% of the taxes with the top 1% paying about 20% of the taxes.

The entire bottom QUINTILE (20%) earns only 5.1% of the total income of the country- so at best, they should pay 5.1% of the taxes.

But the fact is they pay high fixed taxes ( sales tax, cell phone tax, booze tax, cigarette tax, property tax in their rent (don't even get to deduct it), etc. while the top 1% pay under .03% on the same fixed taxes, they need to pay less than 5.1%. I really think they are so poor that they should pay no federal taxes. As it is, the fixed taxes take up 12% of their income and social security and medicare are taking another 15% for 27% of their income gone in taxes.

Healthy for our economy?

Hell- it's not healthy for our nation.

Seriously... "let them eat cake" and all that.