Traditional human government consists of thieves and murderers. By adopting the electoral process, we have weeded out the murderers.
This is actually about as good as it gets.
The theater example is why I sneak in food into them. When food is comparable to admission price which is pretty much the same as two new movie rentals around town, I just can't pay that. I know it's not the theater's fault, but they should really pass the buck back and overhaul the system so that the studios no longer rape them like that.
How did that come about anyway? Was it always like that?
If not, it reminds me of the publishing industry. There's one a$$hole back in the 70s I think who came up with the genius idea of buying back unsold books from the retailers I believe, and that in turn has lend to prices going up 10X-11X since then, with no end in sight. One dumb move snowballed through that whole industry and they've been unable to dig themselves out from under it ever since.
Oh, for those who say that competition keeps businesses in check... fat chance. Maybe in the past, but not now. Now, most places adopt an almost "industry standard" pricing scheme, offering only minimal differences in prices between competing companies.
Medicine and the almighty dollar... all that's given us is a handful of erectile disfunction medications in the last decade, and no new antibiotics since before I was born. Yes, there have been some incredible advances, that's for sure. But in the last 15 years or so there's been way too much concentrated on cosmetic sh!t.
Hee, the perfect image this conjures up is from Falling Down, where Michael Douglas is looking up at the outside of the mansion and asks "Cosmetic surgery bought all this?" Hell, that movie is 100% perfect for this thread.
Back to topic, though; money is all the vast majority of people care about. Try nosing through some of the Bush vs Kerry threads, it's amazing how many say they'll vote Bush on the sole account of his tax breaks for them.
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