Presidential Debate

[Nielk1]

Clever enough to find a backwards N though...

Find, yea, its right there after the Z in the alphabet.

[Feldheld]

Both candidates are a torture to watch. I really cant bear either of them. When I see clips of them talking I immediately click them away. And of course Romney wouldnt make any difference. He only would drag out the big bang a little more than Obama would. So I wish Obama wins because the sooner the economy crashes the softer the landing will be.

[Psychedelic Rhino]

Here you go. If you watched the debate and remember Romney's rant on China ~ "stealing our patents, undercutting products by counterfeiting IP", etc., did that strike a nerve? Did you believe the Chinese are openly ripping us off and don't give a crap if we know?

Well. . .let me show everyone a clear, in-your-face example and, hehe, share an easy and dirt cheap way of getting into R/C.

Check out the price of these two high-end RC simulators, (Phoenix 4 & aerofly 5) .

Roughly 380$ for both. Now lets add several more notable RC (and pricey) sims and package them up all on 2 hand labeled DVDs and ALSO sell the keycode USB adapter dongle that plugs into the back of your transmitter to hack each of them. Probably a legal street value of well over $600. A couple are fully up-datable, and provide servers for online competition, also accessible. Oh. . .and let's sell ALL of these for $19.99 on an open Chinese website!

Yes we complain and threaten with the debonair eloquence like some president of the Harvard Law Review. But all that we get back is a fist pump and a big silly smile. Only problem is, that fist-pump is well centered over the crotch.

Maybe we need someone to take off the economic kid-gloves.

[MrTwosheds]

Maybe we need someone to take off the economic kid-gloves.

Yes, you need to stop charging ridiculous prices like 380$. In most of the world this is a prohibitive price (= to an average annual income in some places). If you charge rich nation prices, then you limit your market to rich nation customers. Don't be surprised when someone else takes the rest of the worlds customers from you. Would you buy it if it cost an average annual American income? Its called free market economics, something rich nations have not really fully understood yet it seems.

[Feldheld]

One more reason why Romney will be even worse than Obama.

Protectionism made the Great Depression.

Free markets are the solution but that takes balls which people lack today. People want the nanny state, and politicians want to be nannys. That works until they run out of other people's money. Next stop: fascism.

[MrTwosheds]

Free markets are the solution but that takes balls which people lack today.

Well as long as you don't mind the cost. A global free market has never been tried before. There will probably be a slow convergence generally bringing most national wealth creation levels closer, but probably leaving the poorest economies to fail entirely while the richest struggle to maintain the standards they have become used to. I don't think it will be too long before the process brings a return of the cold war conflict mentality with division and protectionism becoming the norm once again.

[Feldheld]

It will be more like 1930. The Euro will fail, then the Dollar. Then what to do with the gazillions of government depending sheeple bred and imported during the welfare dacades?

Pretty much the same situation that brought about a Hitler in Germany or a Roosevelt in the USA. Roosevelt wasnt a fascist but his economic methods werent much better. His protectionism made the depression great and prolonging. Only the end of the war brought an end when Truman refused to continue the crazy government spending of the depression and the war years.

[Psychedelic Rhino]

Yes, you need to stop charging ridiculous prices like 380$. In most of the world this is a prohibitive price (= to an average annual income in some places). If you charge rich nation prices, then you limit your market to rich nation customers. Don't be surprised when someone else takes the rest of the worlds customers from you. Would you buy it if it cost an average annual American income? Its called free market economics, something rich nations have not really fully understood yet it seems.

Obviously blatant piracy went completely over the head, and the concern for the price-point of a product was the only thing recognized. And a competitive price-point determined by nothing more than what it takes to load up another company's IP and software on some cheap DVDs.

No wonder why politicians don't bother to listen to the general public.

[Ded10c]

It's up to China whether or not they want to respect anybody else's patents. Realistically, there's nothing Romney can do about it anyway, so what's the good in complaining?

[Psychedelic Rhino]

It's up to China whether or not they want to respect anybody else's patents. Realistically, there's nothing Romney can do about it anyway, so what's the good in complaining?

Oh, there's quite a bit he could/can/will do.

The question is, will it cause a trade skirmish and cause more problems than it solves?

[Red Spot]

How much will that which he can do impact China, and how much wont but might damage some on the US' team, including the US itself?
'Realisticly' speaking there is very little anybody can do vs China and its upcoming economy. We 'kapitalist' go there cause its cheaper to produce stuff there, so people with money probably side with China. The 'numbers game' is lost before it even starts. What does that leave? Saying the US no longer wants to trade with them? Which only takes us back to my original question, wether it wont actually hurt the US itself.

I personally think the US would be better of trying to be friends with China instead of trying to tell it what it needs to do as that might just result is some form of second Cold War, one the US wont win ..

[Psychedelic Rhino]

'Realisticly' speaking there is very little anybody can do vs China and its upcoming economy. We 'kapitalist' go there cause its cheaper to produce stuff there, so people with money probably side with China. The 'numbers game' is lost before it even starts. What does that leave? Saying the US no longer wants to trade with them?

I freely admit I take advantage of dirt cheap products from China. I have found it's well worth the hit and miss quality for many things. When quality is of utmost importance, I look elsewhere. But if it's a tool I'll use just a few times, or merchandise that's hard to 'screw up', I'll buy from there no question as I alluded to above.

What is frightening is the idea, and very real possibility, China's auto industry will ramp up the quality and innovation to match the auto makers in the west. That would be truly devastating.

However, we may be seeing the beginnings of a labor revolution. One example that was hard to hide was the Foxconn mess. I'm sure there has been dozens like it all over China, but were successfully kept under wraps. The great thing about social media is the ability for everyone in China to see while they work for peanuts, the west enjoys the results of their pathetic wages.

[Red Spot]

Only part of the story BFT, do you have any idea how many chinese travel around the world and buy at the most luxurious stores there are. Over here people even advertise going to china in order to start a carreer as you can grow very fast in position as the company(country) grows.
I can at least tell you from personal experience that every 'semi'-tourist site in my country is heavilly visited by chinese, all year round.

I think China will simply start being more and more realistic towards its employees/citizens once they start pushing the autorities to give them those rights. They have too much to lose from losing control and too little to gain by keeping an iron grip on people. Pretty much the same as it works in western countries, you demonstrate a bit and cripple the company in the process after which they bend and everybody goes back to doing his/her job with the feeling they gained something.

[Ded10c]

It's up to China whether or not they want to respect anybody else's patents. Realistically, there's nothing Romney can do about it anyway, so what's the good in complaining?

Oh, there's quite a bit he could/can/will do.

The question is, will it cause a trade skirmish and cause more problems than it solves?

Well, yeah, he could go that way. What I meant is that he can't make any laws that would change that.

[Psychedelic Rhino]

Only part of the story BFT, do you have any idea how many chinese travel around the world and buy at the most luxurious stores there are.

Also remember, you could only be seeing the one percenters, as they are well over 1.3 million.