human being are more similar than they are different.
We are so highly co-operative that the very idea of the self is slightly ambiguous.
We are only cooperative to fulfill our various individual desires. It is the individual in the and his selfishness that makes the paradigm churn in the first place. Not sure that's true. Solitary confinement causes profound personality changes in a great many people. Basically it seems that if their "self" is not reflected from society, they lose all sense of self. Don't confuse the poor man with facts.  |
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Why would another city be able to weld much cheaper than a city that was built on welding? Did they have incredible new technology that produced better welds for a fraction of the cost? Or were regulations involved?
The main cause would be globalization. Welding could be done much cheaper on the other side of the world. Low tech jobs are the first to go. What's the average union salary versus the average non-union salary? Don't forget benefits. What is the minimum wage in the US? How does that compare to a union salary?
I have absolutely no idea. But I do know that neither can compete with an Indonesian salary for the same job. Are you suggesting that the government programs he mentioned in the video were not applied in Detroit? Or are you disputing that those programs existed at all?
I understand the video was biased. I believe he was a republican? Regardless, you seem to ignore the issues due to your own bias. Maybe you could point out some of his specific errors, so I know what you are talking about?
I am absolutely biased. We all are. I'm a very pragmatic person though, and I like to do things that have been proven to work. Or at least avoid things that don't. One of the things he pointed out was the test results in school, and then blamed that on the teachers union. While they could be a problem, it's unlikely that they're the major part of it. More likely are a myriad of other things, social and financial status of the family for starters. Unless you have an agenda to discredit unions. Are you suggesting Toyota's awesome cars from the 80s destroyed Detroit? Or another city was able to produce automobiles cheaper than Detroit? How would they be able to do that? I thought the automobile industry was quite competitive.
What I'm suggesting is something like that. While I wouldn't point at Toyota specifically, I'd say that the both the politicians and the automakers failed to fully grasp globalization, hoping that things would fix themselves. Mind you that I haven't studied Detroit specifically. The CEO of FIAT has an interesting analysis about the automotive industry where he predicts that in a decade or two there will be about 5 motor companies worldwide. 1 in Europe, 1 in the US and 3 in Asia. Fiat isn't one of those five, and will have to consolidate with a partner. You have the same problem with your steel industry and I'd wager that you'll see some major restructuring in that area too. It's only in the start phase yet. |
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We really don't have quite as much time as you think. Regarding deforestation, 80 percent of the earth's forests have been destroyed.
Eighty percent.
As China and India (that's more than two billion people) migrate to western lifestyles, the demand for resources is going to skyrocket. And so are carbon emissions.
Fun fact: The yearly increase of CO2-emissions from China are roughly the same as Germanys total yearly CO2-emission. And you know what. We can say fuck-all about it. You really can't say to someone: "I'm sorry, you can't be allowed to have what I'm currently having". "I'm starting with the man in the mirror, I'm asking you to change his ways". M. Jackson. |
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I'm sorry you didn't like it. I agree, the attempted humor was lame.
Regardless, something brought the once great city of Detroit to it's knees and until I see evidence to the contrary, I will continue to blame central planning. Detroit isn't the only example of cities in the US that have been (or are being) ruined by the politicians who run them.
Jon Stewart was funny when he was on MTV. He should find some new material, the talking heads ridicule themselves well enough.
A town not too far from my summer home used to build ships. Big ships, exported to countries all over the world. Then in the 70-ies customers realized that welding could be done much much cheaper elsewhere and that the hull could cost significantly less. The shipbuilders then had a choice, keep doing the "advanced" part, which was the bridge and those parts, or keep trying to produce the whole ship. They chose not to change their product, and now there are no shipbuilding going on there any more. That city is now far from its former glory, although not as bad as Detroit appears to be. Can you see any way that the politicians in that city could have avoided the scenario they're in Had the shipbuilding industry instead fired 70% of their workforce they might still have been in business, but the city would still be pretty much screwed since when a large employer downsizes to that degree there will be cascading effects where suppliers also will have to do lay-offs, which will impact shops, theatres etc. The city would still be in almost the same sorry state that it's in today. Rising unemployment correlates with a rise in crimes, and children who don't see any future for themselves tend to do bad in school. Also, the guy is blaming unions for the state that Detroit is in. Does he realize that salaries in the US can never drop to the level to be competitive with the salaries in many/most asian countries? The cost of living is too high in the US. The guy did a bad analysis based on his agenda. There might be a nugget of truth buried in the garbage he's spewing, but given how he mishandles all other data, nobody will give it any credibility. Except those who share his agenda naturally. |
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Woah, that was dumb. It's like this one http://bit.ly/cRR0GG except this is actually done with a sense of humour. |
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Maybe the riverbed or the borders of the river, but maybe not all of the water flowing by/thru per se. It would depend on who's downstream of me. Another edge case I suppose, but not impossible to envision.
Edge case? This is already a source of conflict in Africa, and will undoubtedly increase in the coming years. |
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Congratulations. I just destroyed my bitcoin stash of about 30 coins due to a brainfart. I transfered my coins to a wallet on another computer and before the backup had a chance to run on that machine I reformatted the drive, destroying my coins.
I hope the value of your coins go up, and I'm officially out of the bitcoin world. It was fun while it lasted.
So you're "officially out of the bitcoin world" because you lost $180 of wealth? You've posted almost 500 posts... isn't that a bigger investment? Nah, I just think that the libertarians should have someone from the real world to talk to every now and then. The simplistic view of the world they have must be challenged every now and then, or the circle-jerk becomes self sustaining. The thing is, when I had a small stash I could experiment, try building small apps and such. Now I have nothing to anchor me to bitcoin and will probably invest my time elsewhere. I might cpu-mine a little on my work machine so in a year or two I'll have a BTC again. And if bitcoin ever becomes the $100000/BTC someone predicted I'll be happy. In the more likely scenario where bitcoins aren't worth any money I've just created a little more heat around my workspace which isn't bad in my climate. I still think cryptocurrencies are interesting, but I think I'll just wait for googlecoin or something similar to show up. |
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How did a thread about socialism become a thread about the environment!?
I am very confused.
Well Socialism is an murderous system, all socialistic movements did murder the intelectual class first as they came to power. Its a principle that Lenin did discribe in his teachings. i suggest you educate yourself a bit about history: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uwggPP17IEReally? All the social-democrats in Europe have secret death-camps where they kill off the intellectual class as soon as they come to power? Good to know, I might have to watch out. Or is it perhaps that certain authoritarian governments, regardless of ideology, have a tendency to kill off opponents? |
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PS The sooner oil is depleted, the better. We could finally take on new energy sources with full force.
You have no idea what oil does, do you? It's EVERYWHERE. Shampoo? All oil, from the content to the bottle. Computers, houses,cars, food, medicine? Significant portion of oil there too. I hope you're not attached to your current lifestyle because it will change significantly. Yes, I know oil won't be completely depleted, but it will be too expensive to use for everyday applications and people. |
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Congratulations. I just destroyed my bitcoin stash of about 30 coins due to a brainfart. I transfered my coins to a wallet on another computer and before the backup had a chance to run on that machine I reformatted the drive, destroying my coins.
I hope the value of your coins go up, and I'm officially out of the bitcoin world. It was fun while it lasted.
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Socialism destroys any natural incentive that comes from human desire and puts it in the hands of elected bureaucrats that are incapable of true failure. They get paid no matter how well their mandates work and can only be fired every term or so. That's assuming they are held accountable. There's no competition to do that.
In conclusion, due to little true accountability and the inability to fail, socialist services are inherently inferior in terms of product output and the vast amount of inefficiency required to generate said product.
That's true. Financial rewards are the only motivators for humans. No one ever does anything if they don't get paid. All humans lack pride, honour, self esteem and other things that would make them do a good job in any situation. |
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What if God did it.....through evolution?  Because you're not American I don't expect you to research his positions, but I do expect you to not to bash his policies when you don't know what they are. His policies would be good for America and good for the rest of the world. No he is actually a sincere, faithful Christian. If this is a big issue you might want to examine your prejudices. Yeah, that's a great argument. If you want to call natures laws for "god" then you're in great company. Einstein did the same apparently. Too late, I'm already researching him a little. US policy have a tendency of affecting the rest of the world. Also, I would like to know why the guy is so loved. I don't see anything great about the man (yet?). Yes, I'm prejudiced against religious people. I know this. And shit like this is why: http://www.lifenews.com/2011/06/22/ron-paul-would-sign-planned-parenthood-funding-ban/Why on earth would anyone want to punish poor and uneducated women? But then again Christians have a long tradition of misogyny. |
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No one company could ever run a cryptocurrency that would have the same qualities as Bitcoin. That would defeat the purpose.
Ok, what's the quality that googlecoin can't have that bitcoin has today? Decentralization? If it were run by one company then it would by definition not be decentralized. Of course, Google can just take the Bitcoin source, strap their name and logo onto it and release it as Googlecoin on github, but what would be the point of that? It could still be decentralized, even if it's run by google, just pegged against their services. Or do you mean decentralized development? Project management? |
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Then googlecoin will show up with the same properties but guaranteed to be used to buy google services and you'll have a working cryptocurrency. I think it's make or break time for bitcoin around now, and break looks more likely.
IMHO.
No one company could ever run a cryptocurrency that would have the same qualities as Bitcoin. That would defeat the purpose. Ok, what's the quality that googlecoin can't have that bitcoin has today? |
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You make a lot of great posts in this forum, but I'm not going discard all your valid points simply because you are wrong about one of them. My default position is that I tend to think that evolution isn't as clear-cut as most people make it out to be, but I'm not going to try to defend this position as I have spent very little time researching it. The main point is that I believe Ron Paul to be correct about the Wars, the economy, the Federal reserve, taxes, the Constitution, States' rights, abortion, the war on drugs, US foreign policy, the history of Iran, etc. This single point where he is stuck on his religious ideology in regards to evolution is a very minor point and will have negligible effect on his policies and actions as president. It amazes me that people would be willing to disregard all his other positions because of a personal belief on a fairly inconsequential issue.
Thanks. I'm not trying to make great posts, I'm trying to break up a bit of the circlejerk going on in these forums. It annoys me. I agree that evolution isn't clear cut in all areas and that there are errors or omissions in the theory, however when it comes to Evolution vs "God did it" then it's very clear cut. Ron Paul seems to have similar views to me when it comes to certain things, wars and balanced budget seems to be two issues where we agree, but to be fair I haven't studied his policies to any greater extent. Withdrawing from NAFTA and WTO seems to be something to be expected with someone with political asbergers, and not something I agree with at all. Same for the minimal state, however less regulation in certain areas doesn't sound like a bad thing. As a non American I really hope he's not elected since his policies seems to revolve around the "Me me me" ideology. And with the status that the US still has in the world, that wouldn't be good. To be honest I just think he's trying to make himself electable by appealing to the god-crowd, and that's not what I call honest. I hope that's the case, because if not then he's not connected to reality and having people with life and death decisions in their hands listening to their imaginary friend is just scary. |
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You want to know why I don't buy bitcoins?
I have zero interest in rewarding miners or early adopters. If I mine myself I get a few coins and the house gets a bit warmer. If bitcoin takes off I'll make some money, perhaps, and if it doesn't then no harm done. Buying is just rewarding the early adopters, and I don't think they deserve that reward. If the early adopters wants bitcoin to take off then they should start buying stuff, anything, with it. Preferably from stores that doesn't immediately exchange btc to dollars but instead buys something else with btc.
People with thousands, or tens of thousands of btc needs to make sure there's an economy here, or btc will continue down the drain and fade into history as a nice experiment.
Then googlecoin will show up with the same properties but guaranteed to be able to buy google services and you'll have a working cryptocurrency. I think it's make or break time for bitcoin around now, and break looks more likely.
IMHO.
Edit: Reworded for clarity.
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strict internalism = invalid
argumentless opinion = meritless noise I think the argument were in the PDF which was DL;DR. |
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Fortunately for me, that isn't an argument that I made. I can't even see how you came to the conclusion above by distortions of what I said, unless you just didn't bother to read them and just jumped in. I would agree that all humans are equal under the law, but certainly not identical. Again, it's not relevant that one person can be more influenced than another. It's a prerequisite of an adult that s/he be able to rationally control their own deviant tendencies regardless of whether those tendencies are the result of nature or nurture.
If you ate lead paint as a child, and then go out a do crazy things as an adult, is that cause and effect? Clearly it is not ... That's what I took issue with. It can absolutely be cause and effect for one person but not for another. Are you responsible for your own actions? Yes. Can blame for bad actions be shared with an enabler of those actions? Absolutely. |
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No, he is saying that outside influences have no bearing on the morality of the choices, and thus little to no bearing on the type of response from society's justice systems. Having a mental dysfunction is already a consideration in the modern concept of justice and morality, it's just not an excuse. If you ate lead paint as a child, and then go out a do crazy things as an adult, is that cause and effect? Clearly it is not, considering the large number of people who were also exposed to lead as children who did not grow up to be clockwork orange characters. And the excuse about the kind of family one is born into is just as faulty, for all of the upstanding and generally successful people who came from broken, criminal and dysfunctional family influences.
No matter what kind of devil made you do it, you are still responsible for the consequences of your actions. That is the very definition of adulthood.
So all humans are created identical and there's no way that a certain thing can influence a person more than another? While I agree in principle, it's still argumentation I would expect from a person with a very black and white view of the world. A young, and/or very naive person. |
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