Re: What money? [Way off topic] (was Re: Guy Steele interview in

Matthias Buelow wrote:
> He was speaking about the developing world, where Coca Cola does not
> have the image of the happy, sweet lemonade, that it does in the
> western industrial countries.  In some, the company is rather seen as
> an oppressive killer.  See: http://killercoke.org/ for one example.

Well, in countries where human rights violations aren't really
prosecuted, about *every* company violates those rights.  Sadly.

I don't think that their American headquarters endorse that,
though.  It's probably under the hood, so that the local managers
can show off a couple % more profitability.
 
>
>
> Ah..  Free software = communism.

I said minority.  Myself, when I was an idealist a couple years
back, thought that all software should be free (like RMS).  Now I
see that it's better to voluntarity trade software (or even
components), so that people can keep being employed.  (When Linux
would be good enough for anything sometime, why wouldn't IBM stop
employing so many hackers?)

If that means (like Apache, PostgreSQL) having several companies
teaming up to build a big software, so be it.
 
>
>
> Hehe.. I guess with Dell it's quite the other way round -- give us
> your stuff at a cut-yer-own-throat price or we'll start selling AMD.

Yes, but why don't they just do it then?  Whatever the customer
buys will be built more.  Selling two kinds of CPUs would
automatically lead to the same CYOT prices, since Intel would have
to allow Dell to produce systems as performant as AMD, but at
roughly the same price.  With direct comparison of Intel and AMD
systems from Dell, most people would start going for AMD I think.
 
>
>
> In this "unfree, bureaucrat" country, at least people don't get kicked
> out in the street, having nothing to eat.  Or using one credit card to
> pay off the other.  Or doing 3 jobs and still not have enough to pay
> for living.  And politicians get fired when they get paid by the
> industry.  But of course that's probably all evil communist stuff
> aswell.

They don't get kicked out in the street, because they don't get
employed in the first place!  If I had a company there, I wouldn't
employ anybody, since it Germany you can't easily fire people when
you don't need the work anymore!  Instead I would probably go for
contractors in other countries (or even move the company there!).

People have debt, too, in Germany.  Ok, in the US that seems to be
really a big problem, but that might be due to structural problems
(schools are financed by their district taxes, so poor districts
basically *have no school*, no books, and thus can't have any
chances).  Also, the US have neither a good welfare system nor
fail minimum wage.  A guaranteed free per-capita income could fix
that, both in the US as in Germany.

Policitians don't really do anything when they're corrupt.  Maybe
it seems like that, but I guess Scandinavia is much better in that
respect than the ever-more-corrupted Germany.  Nobody gets
punished, ly; well, normal citizens do if they commit petty
crimes.  That's because those citizens don't make the laws I guess.

--
Murphy's Golden Rule:
Whoever has the gold, makes the rules.