That's quite true that they're limited by their fingers but the difference of a few rounds a second is considerable if the spree goes on for a few minutes which most do; 2 extra shots per second x 60 seconds/minute x 2 minutes = 240 extra bullets. I don't think we should be comparing your fire rate to a pro like the guy in the youtube video but there has to be someone with equal pistol/file skill that has compared fire rates including reloads. It's such a simple thing to test and would put this whole argument about clip capacity limits to rest.

The guy in the video managed to average 3 rounds per second using his 6 round clip. This is much slower than what can be done by a carbine and that's not taking into account the fact that he can only store so many clips in a position on his body which can be quickly taken from without looking at it. You're argument also assumes that Torres was trying to shoot as many bullets as fast as possible which is dubious considering his firing speed. Finally, even marines and people who frequent firing ranges can't speed reload like that. It takes a lot of practice and most people will fail miserably at it when the adrenaline kicks in.

I'll admit that I was only thinking of the last couple shootings which were committed using carbines but overall pistols do come out ahead by a small margin compared to assault rifles/carbines. I say small margin because even though in many cases the suspects were also armed with pistols, their primary weapon was a rifle.
http://www.nycrimecommission.org/initiative1-shootings.php

They're using mortars and AK's, neither of which are legal in the USA. The gun-rights advocates are defending possession of firearms which are decidedly not capable of equaling military firepower. I most definitely want us to keep high caliber small arms and sniper rifles as a deterrent against tyranny but carbines really aren't needed and are the weapon of choice in mass shootings.

Afghanistan was costly for the USSR because they were fighting rebels armed with the latest US military hardware and training. Check out "Charlie Wilson's War" for the docudrama about the conflict.

Right, but it may have in fact meant something outside of College so I was covering both bases with my comment. I'm sorry if that wasn't clear from what I wrote. I also assumed you fit into the category of people for which you were referring because you made such a negative comment in response to what I wrote. It was a calculated guess but you really didn't give me much information to figure out why you were calling me a stoned pinhead. I should have just ignored your negativity and tried to address the confusion but that's hard to do when someone pisses you off.

The personal attack response isn't a US thing as far as I know. The research I've read so far on the subject indicated that It's caused by disassociation from community. In essence people don't realize that there really is another person on the other side of a text based conversation.

If your point was simply that some people want to go through life in a different order then I totally agree with you. On the other hand, if your point was that they are enjoying themselves more by choosing a path that either doesn't involve college or involves a education track which doesn't develop a marketable skill-set, then I'd say they're being shortsighted and should re-evaluate both their goals and plan to accomplish those goals.

I have no idea how you you would think I was baked based on what I wrote.Are you trying to protect your lack of accomplishments through the use of humor?

College is very enjoyable. It may be challenging at times but most people would never trade their college experience for anything. I love what I do for a living as result of my degree but I'm happy that society values my skills so much.

I went to Oregon State University and paid in-state tuition which has a massive discount. Like I wrote earlier that was per year and it did take me 5 years to complete my BS. I did complete 2 years of internship level engineering work while going to school as well though.

There are cheap but excellent schools out there. I paid 12k/year (all-inclusive) for an engineering degree that paid for itself in just one year. The people with all this debt aren't good higher education shoppers, both in terms of school selection but also degree selection. Or maybe they just weren't cut out for getting one of the degrees that actually pays off.

I think there's an analogous practice for ISPs, Gym's, Clubs and Telecoms. They all charge a subscription fee for their services but if everyone actually tried to use their service at the same time, they couldn't, because in all of these markets the suppliers over-subscribe their services. This allows them to be more efficient and charge less for their services. In the case of banks, they don't charge anything for most of their services and even pay us for keeping our money safe. Just as described in what you quoted from wikipedia.

I'm sure there are other industries with similar practices but they aren't coming to my mind immediately.

Regarding the emergence of central banks. They are largely private enterprises and could have been created by private industry had it had the foresight to do so. The greatest problem with our modern banking system is accountability. The banks know that the Fed will bail them out and bank customers know that the FDIC will give them their money back if the bank doesn't. This leads to banks with very low liquidity taking even greater risks with their customers' money. To solve this problem congress could bring back Glass-Steagal, raise liquidity requirements and break up bank monopolies so that no bank is large enough to hold our economy hostage.

I agree with everything that you've written here except that it would be better to say that the banks are an integral part of the regulation of commerce rather than that they are wholly dependent on government for their existence. The former is a quick summary of your point while the latter makes an unsubstantiated claim which cannot be proven and ignores the history of the banking system. We both know that banks work without a nationally issued currency as they did for hundreds of years so claiming that they wouldn't exist without it makes no sense. But saying the US banking system is tightly integrated with monetary policy is right on point.

One of the articles linked to by the wiki article you provided a link to describes exactly how the banks existed pre-federal regulation; They issued their own currencies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bank_Act

I'm not understanding how a bank's existence depends on government decree. Banks will accept whatever common currency is available. Like any other service based business, they have no physical product. And like pretty much every business on the planet, they depend on a common currency to function. The world economy would fall apart without common currencies issued by the public and a vast majority of products could never be made without one.

While I recognize that some aspects of the villains in the novel also exist, it's to the same degree as the heroes... just like any novel.

Banks have existed long before they were regulated and just because they are regulated they are not government enterprises. Much of their business goes on without any governmental oversight. Their primary means of exchange (not a product) is government issued currency but if people decided to start paying for things in bottle caps then they would accept bottle caps.

Your point about the villains and heroes in the book is still valid though. Unfortunately, I know of very few 1%'ers who don't participate in political bribery or manipulation.

I'm sure if she wanted to just copy what her third grade teacher did it would have been a cake walk. Coming up with new ways to teach is very difficult and was probably a requirement of the assignment since plagiarism is grounds for getting expelled. If the bar for a meaningful job is that it requires someone smart enough to get an engineering degree then there's very few people with meaningful jobs out there. At my engineering school the joke was that you should join the College of Business.