serious stuff

That's funny, coming from a pathetic loser in the part of the world, that started two world wars.

--
You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense.

Deutschmark

The people you elected in your government have been doing that for you.

Perhaps, but the public road in front of your house is paid by some Chinese blokes who will want their money back some day. Better start saving because that money will have to come from your pocket one way or another.

--
Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply
indicates you are not using the right tools...
nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.)
--------------------------------------------------------------

t

Belgium was productive when it had iron and coal mines. These are now worked out and have long since closed down. It now gets by, but it's no Germany.

Not in this context. Jeffery Sachs was referring to the power of the rich to bribe politicians - or to put it more diplomatically, to influence them by offering to fund their re-election campaigns. In a modern economy this lets you makes stuff happen that makes it easier for you to sell the stuff that you make, despite the fact that you are using advertising to persuade people to buy stuff that isn't good for them. Fox News is a prime example.

According to Jeffrey Sachs, the rich in America have got more influence on the political process than in any other technologically advanced democracy; the members of the Communist Party in China probably have an equally disproportionate influence on their society, but in China accumulating cash for yourself isn't actually seen as a virtue, and can get you shot.

"Ideas" can be valuable in their own right - think patents, games, books, films, hedge funds. A networked computer in every home is getting us a long way towards your ultimate 3D printer.

No. It's largely about representation - just as the American War of Independence claimed to be.

It's lots of different life-styles. Iran's current government wants the same kind of politcal influence for senior figures in the church as the Christian Right wants in the USA. Liberal Muslims are no more enthusiastic about this approach than liberal Christians in the US are about bans on abortion and same-sex marriage in the US.

The Eurozone doesn't have to try very hard to keep religion orthogonal to politics - not all that many people in Europe take any religion very seriously, and those that do are mostly elderly. Very few young people take religion seriously.

Many of the people who emmigrated to the US did so to escape religious persecution (and to be free to persecute those of their neighbours who didn't share their particular religion) and you do seem to be few generations behind Europe in this area.

The Greeks managed to get way behind. The state of US schools, bridges, dikes and roads suggests that you are a long way down the same road.

Very awkward. The process of getting back to reality can be painful, and raving lunatics like the Tea Party can exploit the awkwardness. It isn't economic disruption that creates the real problems, but the political opportunties the disruption offers to political extremists. The German National Socialists are the nightmare example, but Lenin's putsch in 1917 exploited the same kind of mess and ended up killing even more people.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

ive the message.

Socialism works remarkably well in Sweden, Norway and Germany, and none too badly in the Netherlands

rife.

Kids take a while to absorb the message - growing up doesn't happen overnight.

ing, it doesn't really matter what they think they can prove.

But they know more than you do, and are correspondingly more likely to be right. The "northern Europe is protestant and therefore economically successful" hypothesis doesn't work when tested in detail.

ism

Obviously not.

=A0A little salt makes a big difference.

And getting excited about an irrelevant difference. It looks significant to you because you take religion seriously, and think that the formally religious are better behaved than those who don't practice a recognised religion - a proposition with no objective support.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

You say the difference is irrelevant simply because it doesn't suit your no= tions. It certainly isn't irrelevant to those trying to do business in Asi= a.

Since you are not an historian, you choose to believe those historians who = suit your view of the world (you're not going to tell me you were an eyewit= ness or that you have read all the primary sources?) and you have also deci= ded I must know less, just because I do not agree with you.

Next you leap to the conclusion I take religion seriously because I have su= ggested it plays a role in a nation's identity and culture. Then you try t= o change the subject with an accusation for which you have no basis i.e. "think that the formally religious are better behaved than those who don't practice a recognised religion"

Somewhere along the line you managed to get your head jammed full of stereo= types and prejudice.

I see you guys have a lot to say, any one with experience or are you all the 'armchair' politicians ???

Rheilly P

reality,

You're troll-feeding a Slowman-wannabee. No feed/no forum. ...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, CTO | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at

| 1962 | I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

You Europeons need to study up before you make such absurd statements. The public road in front of my house was put in by my homebuilder, then dedicated to the city, who maintains it using taxes on the gasoline I buy. ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Armpit ;-) ...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, CTO | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at

| 1962 | I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Me? My experience is designing electronics and running a buisness; the electronics works and the business makes money and pays salaries. In those areas, experience does seem to improve skills. In the areas of economics, politics, and governance, experience seems to, if anything, make performance worse. The "top experts" in banking, finance, economics, and government have perpetrated a couple of decades of economic crisis and misery, and keep being blindsided by events. They keep getting worse.

I am reminded of the experiment in the military where the graduates of the Cooks And Bakers School were given the final aerial shooting exam of the Aerial Gunners School, and did better than the regular guys. Economics is like that, the more study and experience you have the less you know.

John

notions.

I say the difference is irrelevant because religious orientation doesn't seem to make much difference to peoples behaviour with people outside of their immediate congregation. Try and find some objective evidence that supports any other point of view. Western businessmen find it harder to deal with Chinese businessmen than with Korean businessmen because the Chinese have a long tradition of dealing with other Chinese, and not all that much experience with westerners, who they regard as barbarians. This is rather more important than the fact than roughly one in five Koreans is a protestant.

It's worse than irrelevant, it's misleading.

o suit your view of the world (you're not going to tell me you were an eyew= itness or that you have read all the primary sources?) and you have also de= cided I must know less, just because I do not agree with you.

You obviously know less because don't want to know. You've snipped the reference to the historians' debate

ism

which includes

"In a paper published on November 10, 2009, Harvard economist Davide Cantoni tested Weber's Protestant hypothesis using population and economic growth in second-millennium Germany as the data set, with negative results. Cantoni writes: =93 Using population figures in a dataset comprising 276 cities in the years 1300-1900, I find no effects of Protestantism on economic growth. The finding is robust to the inclusion of a variety of controls, and does not appear to depend on data selection or small sample size. In addition, Protestantism has no effect when interacted with other likely determinants of economic development. I also analyze the endogeneity of religious choice; instrumental variables estimates of the effects of Protestantism are similar to the OLS results.[7]"

The myth is busted. I don't have to read the primary sources to be sure of that.

suggested it plays a role in a nation's identity and culture. =A0Then you t= ry to change the subject with an accusation for which you have no basis i.e= .

on't

That's exactly what you were claiming when you said it was easier to do busness with Korean protestants than Chinese heathens. It's certainly easier to business with Koreans than with Chinese, but religion has got nothing to do with it - apart fom evidencing a higher regard for Western delusions amongst Koreans than Chinese.

eotypes and prejudice.

It's hard to avoid this, but I do try and test my stereotypes and prejudices against objective evidence - not a skill you seem to be willing to exercise, otherwise you wouldn't be wasting your time boosting Weber's long-exploded myth about the economic advantages of being Protestant.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

On a sunny day (Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:29:18 -0600) it happened " snipped-for-privacy@att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz" wrote in :

It is difficult to describe infite, but you can just use that oo symbol. Obummer's is half of that: 0, and yours seem to need no zeros at all.

Or maybe they put the zeros at the end, it was 01, but they wrote 10.

Have fun, I sure do:-) LOL

On a sunny day (Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:35:35 -0500) it happened Jamie wrote in :

That is tricky, I dunno if you have a house, but those things are taxed, so unless you keep giving gov money, it will just go back to them. That is why communism is more fair. You only are made to THINK you own something in capitalism. In fact if you do not pay all those required 'taxes' then you will be locked up too, so much for your freedom.

Little ant both ways. Well, and that is one way of looking at it. Then there is the ant-eater... Nature, fascinating.

Recently did see a program about weapons, in nature, from plants to humans. They now have a taser that actually has the whole taser gun shot out of a barrel. So you can taser somebody far away. Did not know that., My defence system against tasers: I just remembered these old middle ages metal suits... Why all this? You will need it when you go protesting against ever higher taxes.

hehe :-)

On a sunny day (Sat, 12 Nov 2011 00:56:09 -0500) it happened "Michael A. Terrell" wrote in :

reality,

Well Germany is doing a lot better than you ATM. And loser? Were you in Vietnam? See, your precious [sick] US always loses, it has too, because the wars are just to fuel MIC (Military Industrial Complex), to create jobs, if there was a clear winner and it was the US there would be no more need for that MIC. And YOU were the cannon meat in their play. Double loser you are.

Now design something.

Or else go away and suck your d*ck.

More proof that you know nothing about history.

Have you been there lately? How about EVER?

Do you know what it is like there now?

Do you know anything about those that left?

You are lost, f*****ad.

Tell us where we have lost again, idiot. Go ahead. Make a list for us. I dare you.

ANd you dopes here call me a troll and call me immature?

Hahahaha! This "Jan" dope is WAAAAAAYYYYYY out there!

--
You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense.

Well there ya go, give 'em a call and help out :-)

Rheilly P