The problem is this is wishful thinking.

Unless you're a shareholder, you don't get a vote on how corporate funds are spent. There isn't an opportunity cost argument here unless you believe in state ownership or heavy intervention far beyond the level of regulation we have now.

Of course the government should incentive net benefits to society, say through subsidies or tax benefits, that the market undervalues such as health or transportation which has externality benefits that capitalism doesn't capture effectively. But that's a far cry from indicating specifically where it should be spent.

right. and what tries to stop corporations...or anything for that matter from encroaching on our civil liberties too much? Gov't.

What stops gov't from doing the same? People. People have a pretty good track record of stopping gov't that goes too far armed or not. Are people generally slow to react? sure...but they do eventually react to injustices. If gov't really did not rule by the consent of the governed, there would be heaps more unrest, There would be actual revolts happening on a semi frequent basis instead of just people threatening to revolt/secede for the sake of drama.

The problem is, we have a non-insignificant number of people who seem to honestly think corps should run everything, or at the very least, there should be little to no regulation. Like I said, right now, it's chaotic because we have far too many people who all want different things. Over time, we're going to see what works and what doesn't and things will generally settle down. bad ideas do eventually get thrown out and good ideas get implemented instead. Part of the problem is that we are in the middle of big technological changes that radically change how we live compared to even just 100 years ago. Again...chaos ensues when new things come up and it just takes time for people to figure it out, adapt, and accept change.

Honestly though, no one has yet to successfully explain how society without gov't...or amoral corporations works. who distinguishes between the amoral corps and the good ones? are there good corps in a non-statist view? if there are...then don't there have to be good gov'ts out there too? Or are we back to the viewpoint of all gov'ts are bad...but some corps are good...I don't see how you can objectively make that distinction. How do you prevent stuff from just devolving into "might makes right" no one seems to be able to answer that one. I think the human race as a whole has collectively decided that rule by force is not preferred. There are just too many people that would take advantage of and screw over other people. or are you honestly advocating a kill or be killed situation here? Again, I think people have decided as a whole that they don't want that.

There's just too much subjective viewpoints instead of objective ones.

I'm sorry, but you've got one heck of an uphill battle trying to convince people that gov't is inherently bad. Sure you've got a lot of loudmouths making a lot of noise about how they think gov't is corrupt, but that's a far cry from actually abandoning gov't. Lots of people bitch about gov't, but don't actually see a lot of people escaping it. We see it every election cycle "if so and so wins, I'm leaving the country" yet they never do.

regardless of what side of the aisle you sit on, for all the bluster and rhetoric most people would rather have gov't run by the party they don't like than have no gov't at all.

Kevin O'Leary needs to be punched in the face. I know, violence is wrong, but when an uber wealthy fellow openly declares the world's poorest are a just a hard days work away from his status, he needs to punched in the face for it. Every time he says it someone has to inflict enough physical pain on him until he learns to stop doing it. He probably won't learn why, but at least he'll learn to stop.

I say that as someone largely pro-capitalist. Human beings are easily corrupted, and terrible people are drawn to wealth and power and work harder to achieve it. Capitalism at least pits them against each other in trying to get or make more stuff. The one thing that capitalism has a strong historically track record for is growth. It leaves more stuff for everyone to share, though it does nothing for distributing it better. Wealth redistribution schemes though invariably lead to less and less left to be redistributed. In short, capitalism rewards hard work(albeit not even-handedly) while socialism does not. Hard work means more stuff, less work means less.

Of course if you take either to extreme they are both awful, you've got to have a middle ground. Ideally you want that middle ground to be reached and agreed upon democratically. America is imperfect, terribly so, but it's IMHO a far, far cry closer to the ideal than most anywhere else in this regard.

@Trancecoach
@vadeosaft

I agree with you on a lot of these points about men, but you are using the vilification/ignorance surrounding the portrayals of men in the media to justify the portrayal of women in the media. Neither set of stereotypes is preferable, but justifying one bad portrayal by saying "men have it just as bad or worse" doesn't make for a good argument.

@Stu
I don't know what you're referring to. Here is what I found:
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/emily-ratajkowski-interview-blurred-lines
This?
That's not really an explanation of what the song is about. And if it's supposed to be poking fun at those types of stereotypes, I feel they did a poor job. Come on, this is a far cry from A Modest Proposal in terms of sarcastic social criticism.

Competing private security or insurance would be far cheaper and much more efficient and effective than the state-imposed police force that we have now. Chief among the many reasons that it would be an improvement is the fact that it wouldn't be a monopoly (which are invariably rife with corruption and abuse). Of course, this doesn't include the millions of others who are willing and able to defend themselves on top of that.

Do you think police services are "free?" Even if you happen to be a nonproductive tax consumer, you still pay for it in other ways (especially if you're a minority or unlucky enough to be born into the wrong "class").

Here is a link to lengthy PDF essay on how a stateless society would deal with law enforcement, courts, prisons and such. Because a fundamental truth about life is that it cannot be fully predicted (a truth, I might add, that seems to elude the central planners and government bureaucrats much to our horror and detriment), we cannot know 100% as to how law enforcement would work in the absence of the current state-imposed police force. But imagination and logic help guide us into trusting a free society.

The author uses his own knowledge, logic, and imagination to posit, for example, that prisons would actually need to compete to attract prisoners, as clients. The author sees that as both making prisons more secure and preventing prisoner abuse -- a far cry from the prisoners-as-chattal, state-contracted, crony-"semi-private" prisons that we have today.

An interesting read.

Your video, Far Cry 3: WTF?, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

This achievement has earned you your "Pop Star" Level 26 Badge!

3 more comments have been lost in the ether at this killed duplicate.

This video has been declared a duplicate by the original submitter; transferring votes to the original video and killing this dupe - dupeof declared by Zifnab.

*dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/Zero-Punctuation-Far-Cry-3-Blood-Dragon

mm Yea I screwed up the channels buuuuut *dupe=http://videosift.com/video/Zero-Punctuation-Far-Cry-3-Blood-Dragon

(no I can't actually invoke that but still)

If you're a fan of first-person shooters and haven't played Far Cry 3 yet, it's about as essential as breathing.
If you have qualms against installing shit, spyware services that fail at being steam equivalents, or pose as being anti-piracy (is there a difference?), don't play Far Cry 3.

Your video, Review - Far Cry 3. Best reviewer since Zero Punctuation, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

It's interesting that the controller is not really "disruptive". No love for us lefties as usual.

Using the tablets/phones out there as controllers makes a lot of sense.

But really that controller needs a bit of work.

These Android consoles will do well based on their cost. Sony and Microsoft have only sold about 70m units each I believe. There's scope to sell to far more people in a different part of the market.

That said I'm playing Far Cry 3 at the moment and a magnificent experience like that might not be seen too often on these new platforms.

I won't go on about the worst as I'm just trying to forget them and it's boring.

FILMS
Dredd. Well cast, looks great, a lean story and a well wrought vision of Mega-City One. Loved it. The soundtrack is great as well.

The Avengers. More superhero films should be made like this, particularly when handling multiple characters. Better than any of the preceding films that built up to it.


GAMES
Far Cry 3. Haven't finished it but this is a wonderful open-world shooter/stalker/explore-em-up. A self-contained world that totally convinces.

X-Com. Great remake/reboot/whatever. This could have gone wrong so easily but speaking as a fan of the orginal 1994 classic, this got far more right than it got wrong.


BOOKS
Sadly, I don't recall reading much this year. In fact I may not have read a book at all. A friend is obsessed with Murakami so I may start there in 2013.


MUSIC
I'm accumulating music fairly organically and randomly from Youtube viewing, games and other sources. But I can't really recall any of the big releases this year. The one thing that made me smile though was Gangnam Style.

TV
Just Breaking Bad. TV is so bad in the UK right now I've long stopped watching it.

An interesting difference in the case of China's offenses:
"After several such attacks since 2010, the government has ordered all schools to beef-up security and the official media stopped reporting the incidents to avoid copy-cat imitations."

A far cries difference on how the American Media reacts. They can't wait to get the scoop and evoke the biggest reaction. As far as they are concerned - it makes Good TV, which is sickening. The media is currently having a frenzy over this one vying to see who can get the best interview/scoop.