They explain it to customers all the time during their negotiations.
"Yeah it will sell for triple my offer at an auction, but you will have to pay $$$$ upfront for catalogue fees and appraisal, then a percentage after sale, and it may take 6 months to sell".

People go to a pawn shop because they need money TODAY, bills have to be paid.
They dont have any money for upfront costs, they cant wait months for the sale. They need that cash in their hand asap and thats what a pawn shop specialises in.

Of course intelligent and talented people are wanted, those sort of people improve the economy, its essentially headhunting talent from other countries.
There is no need for more unskilled workers, there are enough low skilled workers already looking for jobs.
The high minimum wage (A$15.51 for fulltime adults, even more for casual employees), plus further retirement benefits and compulsory insurances on top means there are less low skilled jobs available.
Bringing in "cheap immigrant labour" does not help the manufacturing industry etc. Because they still have to be employed on a high wage by law, which makes the job impossibly uneconomical compared with outsourcing to China.

I would clone whoever wins my auction wants cloned. Assuming there were limited clonings on offer, or I had the exclusive single use of the machine that use would be worth billions.
I dont want a clone of myself or anyone else, they are just a different person, a year later their paths will have diverged and they will be very different people. Pointless.

There are people who would pay huge sums for their choice of clone though. With my billions I would have no need for silly cloned supermodels or lame things like that.

Thats basically what the EU wants isnt it?
They want every website to give you a popup asking if they can set a cookie on your browser.
Of course if you say No the website cant store your choice in a cookie, so your going to have to say No every time you visit.
Sure browsers could be modified to always say Yes/No.....oh right thats exactly what they already do now.

Browser cookie blocking is superior, so why not just keep useing that instead of misguided server side permissions?

"Imagine a world without Publishers, where the folks working at the studio still get paid for the work they do"

Someone has to put down the money upfront.
There may be two years worth of development before the game goes to market, thats two years of wages, rent, PC's, electricity, insurance. Then you have to put down more money for the production of physical media, even at $2 per DVD+Case+Manual its big money to lay down. There is also the legal minefield with various game mechanics patented, hand over more cash for legal experts to evaluate. Then pay for your game to be classified in a bunch of countries, who all want you to pay their fee before being allowed to distribute within the country.
Marketing makes a big difference, stands at E3 aren't free, many publications will only run your "sneak peaks" for payment, games shops will only display your posters and give the premium shelf space for payment.

All that has be paid for before you start seeing any return, where does that money come from? Dont expect a bank to just swing your game studio a few million worth of loans.
Return on investment is not a guaranteed thing, plenty of games fail to break even.

Its often the publishers paying all these upfront costs with advances to the games studio.

Sugar cane. Grow it, cut it down, ferment it into ethanol, burn ethanol as fuel.
The problem is rainforests get cut down to grow it, and it replaces food crops in third world countries leading to famine for the poor locals who can no longer to afford the inflated food prices due to less food supply.

I drive 450 miles a week just commuting to work.
The running costs are nowhere near your figures, I would be broke if they were. Nothing close to $20k is being spent on my transport costs, I would sure as hell notice if it was.

Come up with all the theoretical operating costs you want. I have "mythbusters" style of real world testing proving running costs is nothing like your figures.

Apple probably has a patent for "buttons in a consistent location on a device with round corners" so Android had to remove that feature to avoid spending years in court.

If they are conscious then thats pretty cruel to them, but I cant see a reason they wouldn't be anaesthetised.
They dont feel anything or suffer if they are KO.

Something like 15 million chickens are killed daily worldwide for food, how is the deaths of a few rabbits any worse?

Are those things a major problem for the sewer system?
There is more risk the water supply will be poisoned than the "garbage sewer". The garbage tubes also suck air, so unless someone rewires the system to reverse there is no threat of gas to come out of the residential tubes.

Surely Google made Motorola agree to some sort of non-compete clause?
Buying a mobile device company sounds a lot like competing, trying to rebuild the division they just sold off for massive amounts of money?
Buying an early player in the mobile device market suggests they are after patents and prior art which protects them from other patents.

Raises a question about whether Google got the full mobile package, or if Motorola kept some patents, IP and key staff on hand in order to stay in the mobile technology sector?

Yep and its still the same story there, only takes one state to block it.
I predict there will be a dispute about what classifies as 18+, religious groups will want the current 15+ to become the new 18+, with what should be 18+ remaining banned from local sale. Backwater religious dominated state wont get their way, so will refuse to sign the new legislation.

Not holding my breath for any advancement to actually take place, all that will happen, if anything, is that current 15+ games will require 18+ photo id to purchase like alcohol.

"I live in australia and similarly have never seen guns in public"

Besides every cop, private security guards, and once you travel 100km out of the citys every farmer has a rifle in their ute.
Australia is a big place, leave the sheltered world of the city and suburbs and guns (rifles, not handguns) become a standard household item.

Whatever happened to just charging a fee for attending the course?
Stop trying to make extra money through textbook "upsells". Be upfront and honest by charging the book fee as part of the upfront course fees and give each student a copy.

"In my laboratory, we use ozone to purify water (read: kill bad things therein). It's nasty stuff, but it's so reactive (therefore lethal to buggies) that it disappears really fast."

Whats nasty about ozone? Its just O3.
Causes things to oxidise but isnt toxic. You breath it every time you use a laser printer or photocopier, and they use it in swiming pools now (for the same water treatment as you), they use it in hydroponics to destroy mould spours.