My jaw has dropped - the day has finally come where me and Ralph Nader agree on something. No, I didn’t turn into a tree-hugging, big-government xenophobe whose fans all have dreadlocks and listen to Bob Dylan nonstop, but he penned an article in the Post this week about the problems of American capitalism. If I may quote the best movie of the year, Minority Report, “the system is perfect, I know that. The flaw is human. It always is.” If you don’t care what I have to say about capitalism, skip a few paragraphs down, cuz I have a lot to say.First of all, my feeling is that the biggest problem in American capitalism is corporate welfare. There is a scenario in America where the government seems to thing that because a company is big and employs lots of people (or an industry, like farming, employs many people) that it needs to be protected and recieve incentives. For instance, there are no private communter trains in the US that I know about. They’re simply uneconomical. Why? Because we spend a huge amount of negotiating and military dollars on insuring that oil pipelines stay open for gasoline (Yes, I know that only half of oil goes to gas, but it’s still the major use). If we forced these externalities onto the gas companies, gas would be more expensive and train travel would seem more economical. Not to mention that car owners already paid for roads and external goods which make driving possible, yet don’t have to pay for private railroad to be laid. For farming, farmers whose goods would cost way too much to compete against foreign food get subsidies so that they can keep farming. In steel, Bush and the Congress passed a pork barrel deal to protect American steel by setting up tariffs on foreign steel.

Now, I understand it’s not a fair world. But subsidies aren’t the answer. The answer is limited trade with nations who don’t meet international environmental and worker safety regulations. If steel is made overseas with no worker safety or care for the environment, of course America can’t compete. Sometimes it can’t be made fair. But there should be more of an effort. And the problem is that no Congressman is going to go home to his constituents and tell them that he just passed a bill that cost them their jobs, whether fair to everyone else in the country or not.

Now the problem comes when you get rid of the subsidies. They need to be phased out over time. Oregon’s economy is still screwed because of the Owl debacle that led to thousands of loggers being laid off and dozens of communities being destroyed. If you’re going to change the rules, it should be done over time.

The other problem lies with public companies, which is where I disagree with Ralph. Ralph thinks the problem is that the “corporate cronies” on the boards don’t listen to the owners (shareholders in the case of a public company) and merely report income. The owners have no real way to change what’s going on. But the problem is that when a company is public, long-term strategy can’t happen. You *have* to show revenue growth to keep your stock price from tanking (and thus the company not having enough capital to cover its expenses and get loans). Private companies don’t lie on accounting numbers, because they literally would only be lying to themselves.

Ok, here’s my last economy comment. Taxes should be totally restructured. Get rid of Social Security altogether and replace it with “senior welfare” which would work the same as SS except that only people who needed the money would get it (my rich grandfather gets Social Security just like everyone else, what ridiculousness) and take it out of the general tax fund. Then figure out the cost of acceptable but not fancy food, housing, clothing and other true essentials for every tax filer (for instance, single person, married couple with 2 kids, etc.). Once your income passes the limit, you pay a straight percentage tax on any income higher. The tax rate is reset every year to reflect the annual budget, so that deficit spending would be impossible. In this way, people would pay exactly what government costs and would be more likely to pressure their representatives not to waste money. Corporate tax would be gone, too. First, smart corporations know how to get around paying it already and second, the owners already pay taxes on the money and taxing them twice is unfair. This system would be simple (saving billions of dollars and productivity hours on tax filing). Say the federal budget is calculated so that the percentage would be 23.4% once you’re past the limit. You simply pay 23.4% of your money. Simple, huh? And it’s fair - everyone pays fairly, but everyone can afford their house at least.

A really wierd cartoon. People have a lot of free time.

Capitalistchicks.com. “We’d like to change the view that all capitalists are grizzled old men reminiscent of Ebeneezer Scrooge. We are intelligent, we are chicks.”

So I’m at the U of O EMU the other day, and I walked thru the multicultural offices to get to the bathroom. A sign on the front door of the Gay and Lesbian (and transsexual and I’m not sure what else - they should call themselves the PWPRDLSU or People Who Pat Robertson Doesn’t Like Student Union). A sign on the front said “Feel free to come in…or come out or whatever.” I laughed.

I’m obsessed with Dance Maniax. And that link is for a machine for sale for 1500 + shipping. A little much, but…=). Here’s a good Strategy Guide. This strat guide is really funny too, I recommend it.

Search for final prices on Completed ebay auctions. That’s useful, heh. I could never find it before. I should make a videogame price guide or something.

You know you want your friends and family to know peace, love and videogames.

If you like Sasha’s remixes and his break-heavy trance, check out his artist CD - Airdrawndagger (similar to what Oakenfold did with Bunkka) coming out in August. Len has a new CD coming on September 13th, too, which’ll be tight.

The UPS man? The Saudi down the street? Help the government in an exciting new internet game, Spot the Terrorist. On a related note, the plans for the WTC site are being put up, and the families and friends of the victims are causing a hullaballoo. They refuse to let anything be built where the two towers once stood other than a memorial. All the designs incorporate a memorial of some type, and I know there’s a need to be sensitive to the feelings here, but if we didn’t build at the site of any tragedy, there wouldn’t be damn thing built in the world. For cryin’ out loud, Hiroshima was rebuilt entirely. Just put up some beautiful new buildings and a park with a memorial. How hard is it?

Australia is now like Europe is that the government wants to ban fun. Not exactly, but they are trying to ban car commercials that show cars doing something other than driving legally. The Mazda Zoom kid is headed to jail, hehe.

I bought one last thing for my computer. It’s this tight TV Tuner. What it lets you do is plug in cable and DVD/videogame players for your computer monitor, so you don’t need a separate TV in college. Comes with S-Video for good picture. My games will look tight on the LCD monitor. It was sorta expensive, but still cheaper than even a small TV and much easier to transport.

Finally, Porn Clerk Stories: The Weblog. This lady Ali works at the porn store and has lotsa funny stories. I’m sure some of my friends will be subjects of similar stories when we’re 40, heh.

DJ Marky & XRS - LK (MC Stamina Remix).
Brazilian DJ Marky produced this tight track with a spanish guitar and addictive vocal hooks by MC Stamina. “It’s the way…that we play this sound. It’s the waaaaaaaay that we bring this sound to you.” It was wierd, I had Winamp on random and right after I listened to this song, and old song I have (well, a year old) called “Carolina Carol Bela (Marky/XRS Remix)” by Jorge Benjor y Toquinho played. It was the same song without the vocals. I guess it was off of Marky’s first CD “Audio Architecture” and that Jorge Benjor is just another pen name of Marky and XRS. If you feel this, it’s from a hot new style called “sambaloco” which is basically Brazilian techno.Also “Boomerang” by Cirrus.
This is a tight female vocaled track that reminds me of Sneaker Pimps, Kosheen or BT’s “Dreaming”, except the singer sounds a little like Shakira. Very cool. I want more Cirrus tracks, but I can’t find any more on Audiogalaxy. I might have to give up and buy the CD, heh. “She Moves” by Karaja is a vocal trance track with an addictive “La, La La, La La La La” chorus. “Move For Freedom” by Lovestern Galaktika Project is the unofficial Loveparade trance anthem with a catchy synth line about 2 minutes in. Finally, the hottest track other than Hot in Herre from the new Nelly CD is Nelly’s “Nellyville”. He has a conscience in this song about his ideal city with lyrics like “Imagine blocks and blocks with no cocaine, blocks with no gunplay.” Clever wordplay and comedy is also found with “Ain’t no trials, it’s automatic, you drop ‘em right where it happen/ You do unto others if you don’t want it don’t do the cappin/ Think that’s cool? 40 acres and a mule/ Fuck that! Nellyville - 40 acres and a pool/ Six bedrooms, full bath with a jacuzz’/ Six-car garage, pavement smooth/ Both front and back deck ‘nough room to land a jet/ And you ain’t reached the city, that’s just the projects/”. Too bad he wastes his talent on the terrible new single “Dilemma”. Peace.