The short answer is: Because communism has already been tried and it doesn't work.

In a longer answer: Human beings, more or less, have the drive to get ahead. Call it evolution. Call it basic human laziness. Because sure enough you'll be working your ass off and then turn around and wonder, "Why am I working MY ass of when I'm just going to get the same amount of food and supplies as my neighbor? And my neighbor is a slug who's sits around watching TV all day?" And pretty soon almost no one is producing because there is no incentive to do so and up crop the breadlines and only those in the black market get ahead.

And even if you decide to just drop out and grow your own food or fish for your dinner, the state/federal government wills still want to tax you for whatever they feel you owe. That didn't go away under communism either. Because taxes are the only way the nanny state can keep supporting the slugs watching TV all day.

"As a resident of Utah I can't help but notice that national news always seems to revolve around polygamists and bass-ackwards politics. Woo Utah!"

After reading comments following this...

"As a resident of Utah I can't help but notice that Slashdot news always seems to revolve around polygamists and bass-ackwards politics. Woo Utah!"

Fixed THAT for ya!

Hidayat Sudirman, a 25 year old civil servant from Singapore, bought a 14-inch Asus laptop from a stand at his local IT fair on the understanding that it was a brand-new device. When he got it home, however, it appeared not to be the case.

So he didn't buy this at a store or from Dell/HP/whatever. He bought it at an IT fair in Singapore and they LIED and said it was new?

This is news?

And just wondering why the "censorship icon" is missing from this story. Yes, it may be disgusting, but it's not illegal. It IS however, censorship.

But Vulcan's live longer...he's actually 120, depending on the time space continuum....

And now do you need us to explain the 1900s being the 20th century, 2000s being the 21st century, etc?

You are NOT smarter than a 5th grader! ;-)

They're reporting that the earthquake warning system DID work, but you've got to wonder how much warning did they get. Report are that "Hundreds of bodies found after 23-foot tsunami strikes northern coast of Japan." There is also a passenger train unaccounted for.

Doesn't say that. Commentary fail.

What the article actually says:
"HB220 would require schools to teach students that the U.S. is a compound constitutional republic and about other forms of government such as pure democracy, monarchy and oligarchy along with political philosophies and economic systems such as socialism, individualism and free-market capitalism. The Senate passed the bill with no dissenting votes Monday."

Sounds like a well-rounded course. So unless you're only wanting to teach from one side, I don't see a problem with this.

My comment isn't about open source. It's about piracy. The argument is the people in poorer countries can't afford to pay the software cost and turn to pirated copies. Theory being that if the cost was relative to what they could afford, they'd buy legit copies. My point is someone who is getting Windows/Office for free is not going to turn around and pay for it at a reduced cost as long as the "free" version is available.

Of course the question begs: How are people who are living in such poverty able to afford computers or other electronics in the first place, much less the music or software to run on them? Often these electronics are priced much HIGHER than they are in developed nations.

But they've got that new iConstitution app...

...nothing will ever beat the price of FREE.

Considering politicians are trying to kill the space program.

In this case it's most certainly government control, not the stereotypical greedy corporation. Most of the latter is based on Hollywood portrayals.

"To enhance the power of politicians who want to control everyone's lives?"

Fixed that for you.

I thought CF cards were on the way out. I've got an older Kodak that uses the CF, but most everything else I see uses SDs.

I wasn't so much thinking of photo storage or transferring photos as much as I would rather have a removable/exchangable disk vs. having to upgrade to a larger internal drive and port over everything via USB.