h a l f b a k e r yPoof of concept
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Amongst others, the Republican Party in America these
days has something of a demographic problem.
I propose they re-purpose the nearly-indestructible and
ubiquitous See N Say toy with the party's talking points,
which never change anyway. Accuracy is expected to be
favorable in comparison
to a sampling of conservative
media.
In this way, the party can communicate their philosophy
en
masse without the expense of continuous media
coverage
(which can get expensive for pensioners and rural
southerners), and they can capture the next generation,
who will be subliminally-pulled towards familiar phrases
by
the time they are of voting age.
"Taxes are bad. Booo!"
"Here's what a semi-automatic rifle sounds like..."
"The immigrant says... 'bomb! steal! destroy!'"
"Listen to the elephant..."
"Newwwk-u-lar"
"The donkey says 'tax... spend... abort!'"
"Markets save everything..."
[link]
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Considering the roots of the term 'conservative' and
'liberal,' having a liberal version pine for the
'establishment' seems a little backwards in some
fashion. |
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Perhaps it could re-work poetry as well?
Feed in |
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"Give me your tired, your poor
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe
free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming
shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to
me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" |
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"Bugger off back where you came from.
We're full". |
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Ah, the old "You'll have freedom of choice,
whether you want it
or not" paradox ... |
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The problem is one of scale, I'm afraid. In any industry where there is a low barrier to entry, free markets do create choice, since if the current participants don't, anyone can enter them in competition. |
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For something large enough or expensive enough like a cell-phone network or Wal-mart's network of stores and volume of orders, the level of initial investment to compete puts it largely out of the hands of potential competitors. |
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The debit card fee issue actually somewhat reflects this, because there are still local alternatives, which gave people somewhere to run to when they needed to. |
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these are regulated monopolies[21], not free
markets.
You wish you had a free market in wireless, you'd
be paying $50 for a phone that works on any
network long ago. |
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Markets, like democracy, are merely the best
flawed way. Politicians, though, love to get their
cut -- like the USF taxes -- originally put in to
support wiring telephones in rural areas -- which
are literally raping telecom service providers. And
it's their interference in markets that largely
reduces their effectiveness. |
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Speaking of markets, attended a dinner with
about 6 doctors last weekend. Funny how not a
single one of them wants their kids to be in
medicine. That'll be fun a few years down the
road. But we'll be covered, that's the good part. |
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And as to the sentiment -- I would say, let the
sequester kick in and stop hyperventilating over
the cliff. It was a law that was passed to cut the
debt, shared sacrifice and all. |
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Ray, you're going to have a version for "pay their
fair share and play by the same rules"? I could
definitely use that when I eat something that
disagrees with me, rather than stuffing two
fingers down my throat |
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//you'd be paying $50 for a phone that works on any network long ago// |
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Why do you think that? Nothing requires any company to allow a phone to access it's network. |
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because there would be competing networks (as
there are already) where there's less regulation -- like
in WiFi |
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Why do you think that? A cell phone network large enough to cover a significant number of people (and their daily movements) is a massive expense, so very few competitors are going to be able to enter it. If you're talking about a network that covers the country, it gets even worse. There's a reason we have a few massive companies today instead of the many we had a decade or so ago, and it's primarily related to the advantage of already having a massive network. |
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And as far as more networks, that also means that your "any network" phone is going to have to access a very broad radio spectrum, which is going to drive the cost up. Unless you're talking about all of these providers (that are going to appear from nowhere) using the same spectrum and technology, in which case they will be stepping all over each other, and no one will be able to actually hold on to a call. |
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//so-called 'free market' system pushed on us by the
'Conservatives' is even more oppressive than what the
government's doing.//. YAWN |
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That's why they had to build the Wall in Germany to keep
all the West Germans from escaping from all that free
market stuff to the certainty of a sensible government run
system free for everyone. |
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BTW, politics don't go over well on the HB guys. |
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There's no such thing as a free market when there are too few competitors and too many barriers to entry, as given enough capital the market domineers can essentially buy the opinions of the consumers. Koch industries, for example. |
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