I’ll be honest with you: I’m way too drunk to give this post the consideration it rightfully deserves. I’ll be back later, once I’ve sobered up.

Here’s the thing: I’m Danish, right? I believe - wholeheartedly - in the notion of ‘social democracy’: That corporations should be subordinate to the State, which should in turn be subordinate to the Citizenry which it supposed to serve. It’s not a problem if a society gives rise to a corporation good at their job - that’s great! - it’s a problem when said corporation no longer thinks they’re subordinate the the society that initially nurtured their growth. Then they become a metastasized cancer slowly killing their host organism. A net negative as opposed to a positive. A malignant tumor to be excised with extreme prejudice.

Mario’s slimmer brother had a point there. And that’s why he scares the piss out of worthless executives everywhere. They know they’re pure poison, but they don’t want the host to realize it. That’d undercut their profit margin. To put it in the words of “The Cowboy” of Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive”:

“Beautiful evening.”

“Yeah.”

“I want to thank you for coming all the way up here to see me from the nice hotel downtown.”

“No problem. What’s on your mind?”

“Well now, here’s man who wants to get right down to it. Kinda anxious to get to it are ya?”

“Whatever…”

“A man’s attitude, a man’s attitude goes some ways… as to the ways his life will be. Is that something you might agree with?”

“Sure.”

“And did you answer because you thought that what I wanted to hear, or did you think about what I said? And answer because you truly believe that to be right?”

“I agree with what you said. Truly.”

“What did I say?”

“…That a mans attitude determines to a large extent how his life will be.”

“So, since you agree, you must be a person who does not care about the good life.”

“How’s that?”

“Well, stop for a lil’ second. And think about it. Can you do that for me?”

chuckles “…Okay. I’m thinking.”

“No, you’re not thinking. You’re too busy being a smart-alec to be thinking. Now, I want you to think. And stop being a smart-alec. Can you try that for me?”

“Look. Where is this going? W-what d’you want me to do?”

“There’s sometimes a buggy. How many driver do a buggy have?”

“One.”

“So let’s just say, I’m driving this buggy. And if you fix your attitude, you can ride along with me.”

“Okay.”

…There’s a great deal to be learned from that interchange, especially in context.

I agree. What the US have got isn’t classical Capitalism - it’s Corporatism, which is pretty much the diametrical opposite. I have zero problem with people taking a risk and benefiting from getting it right, particularly if they reinvest all the proceeds in performing solid R&D, creating new products to address real problems and / or create jobs. So long as they pay their fair share of taxes. And their fucking employees.

Instead, what we’ve got is people who - unlike actual capitalists - do not want honest competition. What they ideally desire is a monopoly, or, failing that, a cartel. Both virulently anti-capitalistic notions. In fact, what they really want in extremis, is for the State to be a corporation: Democracy annulled in favor of a Board of Directors telling everybody else what, when and how to do anything and everything. And there’s a word for that kind of central planning: It’s Communism (except, to be fair, ideally in a Communistic system the citizenry would be staffing the committee, not the owners - that’s never what actually happens though).

Edit: Heh. People really don’t have a counterargument to offer. Only downvotes. Pathetic.

Maybe you should go and learn what capitalism really is, and why that isn’t what you currently have. While you’re at it, look into what ‘corporations’ originally were and how they were meant to function (and, importantly, cease to function). Then contrast that with what you’re calling corporations these days. It’ll be instructive, I promise.

You might want to read Naomi Klein’s ‘No Logo’ (which kept me sleepless for days on end) or, you know, any book really.

Very interesting, although I’m going to withhold judgment pending some serious peer review.

Edit: One person doesn’t like peer review to be part of the scientific process.

Well, I do have a missing molar serving as an example of why you don’t take up a national-level light weight boxing champion on the offer of an unsupervised bare-knuckle spar in a backyard ‘just for fun’.

No, I don’t want to talk about the follies of my youth, but thanks for asking.

Even my ancient, cheap AKG K-55’s still sound great.

Yes, that does sound like the most difficult part of the endeavor. I wish you the best of luck and hope for your success.

While I don’t have any personal experience with their current lineup, I’ve never known anyone to have complaints about their quality. My own 30 year old Dali’s still sound as great as they did when I first got them.

Yeah: A decent pair of AKG headphones :)

More seriously, Dali makes some really nice sounding speakers for their small size and relatively low price.

I don’t see the benefit of the extra level of indirection. Why not just hire a housekeeper to do the same work better without the unnecessary $20k telepresence platform? Sure, it might benefit the creators in harvesting subsidized motion and interaction data that they can later use to cut humans out of the loop, but what’s the benefit to the customers paying for it?

…“aren’t”. What’s “ain’t” a contraction of, exactly?

I agree with the sentiment though.

C’mon now. If the powers that be had synthesized a scapegoat to take the fall, s/he would have - somehow - been a gay Mexican Jewish NEET FTM transsexual communist and a member of at least three street gangs and two cartels, not to mention a long time supporter of the Democratic party, complete with fan posters of Biden and Harris plastered on the wall, right above the neat typewritten and signed manifesto.