Weekend Open Thread → Just plain effin tired of it all...

I say nationalize all carriers. It's the people's money that keeps the infrastructure growing and running. The corporations just horde all the money that's collected to pay off lobbyists or other government agencies to dictate stupid policies.

Eliminate data caps and ridiculously overpriced internet connections. Instead of cheering how much worthless paper you collected in a quarter, how about celebrating and rewarding people on how many peoples lives you improved.

The monetary system we have today is worthless paper, backed by nothing. I'm tired of hearing all the whining about why we can't do this or why we can't do that because it's not cost effective. BS!!! The same BS was used 100 years ago to destroy Nikola Tesla and his creative spirit. He had a way to deliver electricity free to the people, and the bankers said, absolutely not.

Call this a rant.. I really don't care, but I'm effin tired of this BS economic system that is controlled by bankers and corporations. Communism doesn't work, and neither does Vulture Capitalism.

There's millions out of work and losing their homes and it's NOT their fault. Unemployment is realistically at around 40% and not the myth of 7.8%. Once you run out of benefits, you are no longer counted as unemployed.. That's a documented fact.

Perhaps we need a extinction level event to spur radical change. It's disturbing to be living in a era of time when we have all kind of technology advancements, but most are shelved or bought up and dismantled because there's no money to be made from them. It doesn't mater if it would revolutionize the world. It's all about the almighty effin buck.. Which is effin paper!!!!

Imagine that.. the lack of us advancing to greater and better times is the lack of effin worthless paper, backed by nothing.

The unemployment stat you are looking for is the U6 number., currently 14.4%.

As bad as the carriers are, the government is worse and woefully incompetent. There is no more corrupt or greedy organization in the nation than the Federal Government. European style quasi-socialism doesn't work and leads to persistent debt and unemployment. Even in Germany, unemployment is increasing, 8th month in a row and currently 6.8%. Now keep in mind that high number is still near their 20 year low. You want 8-10% U3 unemployment (15-20% U6) to be the new normal? How about $9/gal gas...what do you think that would do to our fragile economy? Naw, I don't think you want that.

Perhaps if American's still had a work ethic you could make it work but given Gen Y is a bunch of lazy narcissists and politicians dumb as shit, it is doomed to failure; we would end up like Greece (not that we aren't already heading that way thanks to a new plurality of low information "Obama-phone" voters with an unprecedented sense of entitlement).

Meanwhile you can get Straight Talk for $45. I have 100min voice unlimited txt and data from T-Mobile for $30. It's hardly breaking the bank.

Wow.

What do you think would happen if you nationalize the carriers?
Shortages and rationing.
Poor service.
Black markets and blacklists.
Systemic failure.

Caps will only exist as long as necessary to stem abuse. Carriers will always resort to "unlimited" tiers when they can, since the public will pay more for the assurance they bring. (Just try to illustrate the annual savings achieved on measured _anything_ to a typical consumer, you won't last two minutes).

Broadband is cheaper than ever, the result of greedy corporations, not your congressman. Do you really want to turn your internet connection over to the folks that run the Post Office, the TSA, Fannie Mae, the FCC and the FDA?

The millions who are "losing their homes" are at fault, they paid too much and borrowed where they weren't qualified. Why are my tax dollars being used to bail them out?

Perhaps what we need is for individuals to grow up and take responsibility for their own lives, rather than believing they're entitled to have someone else subsidize them.

If you really think your usage cap or internet rate is a problem, do what the rest of us do - earn more money (work two jobs, get a raise, invest in yourself, audit your balance sheet), use less data, or move to greener pastures.

your taxes aren't being used to bail out people who lost their homes because they made bad decisions in getting loans. your taxes are used to bail out the banks that made bad bets with packaging mortgages as securities and then using AIG as insurance on those bad bets.

as for nationalizing the carriers. you use public utilities don't you?? are they in massive disarray?? I didn't say have the current government take over the carriers.. I said nationalize them. Mainly to provide them as a necessity and not just some profit driven technology that only 4-5 major corporations have control over.

As for getting another job or asking for a raise or moving to greener pastures. You sir are obviously out of touch with reality and probably work in a job sector that pays it's people far too much to sit on their asses doing nothing..

Our taxes were and are being used to bail out errant homebuyers, directly and indirectly, by the hundreds of billions.

I won't go into 100 pages of detail, but just for instance - consider the effects of a short sale. The bank is paid with our tax money to take a loss, relieving the homebuyer of his obligation, and the home "owner" gets debt relief, which is normally considered TAXABLE INCOME, but the government now waives the tax. Given that we're not running a surplus, that means another taxpayer is making up the difference, or we're borrowing it from our kids.

Public utilities are a mixed lot. At best, if they provide a competively priced product while paying public union wages, they're shorting maintenance and long-term investment while using public subsidy. At their worst, they're just another tax mechanism, as they are in Los Angeles. At least with [rofit-driven publicly-traded utilities, they have incentive to be efficient, and a fidiciary responsibility to their shareholders; you can choose to buy the stock and share in the dividends, rather than just being forced to pay homage to the government.

As for getting another job - trust me, I know how hard it is. We closed our payroll several years ago, as have ALL of my peers, thanks to California state regulation, workers compensation, and tax policy.

Thats where greener pastures come in. Half of the aforementioned group migrated to Texas, Florida, offshored or moved overseas to more business-friendly climes. Sometimes you have to physically move. THAT is "reality". We've done it several times before, and most likely, we'll be forced to again.

You mean go back to Government sanctioned AT&T monopoly where the only phone one can get is a rotary.

I think you just ranting, and contradictory, nationalization will cause a huge layoff at private firms. instead of Cable, Wireless, telecoms in my town competing for my business you only have the government telecom office.