forward thinking about the UI

[Amedee Van Gasse (ub)]

On Tue, November 24, 2009 18:17, Liam Proven wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 4:56 PM, Michael Haney <thezorch at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 9:44 AM, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> [Shrug] Outside of the USA, I'm afraid the rest of us can't fathom
>>> your network squabbles. The rest of the world went GSM about 15-20y
>>> ago; all our phones just worked, everywhere, so we have a working
>>> world network. The US with its small number of monopoly telcos and
>>> broken cell networks is like a museum piece to us. You guys were still
>>> using /pagers/ a decade after they were history everywhere else, which
>>> is what led to those hateful Blackberry things.
>>>
>>
>> The United States is being held back by the Oligarchy who are the real
>> rulers here.  Until we wrestle control of our government out of the
>> hands of the richest 2% of the population this country will never
>> truly be free.
>>
>> In America money can buy you anything, even your own Congressman.
>
> Well, I'm not sure I'd go that far myself, but I can't really disagree.
>
> ISTM that if there is one overall trend I've seen in my 42y of life,
> it is that in the developed world especially, the gap between rich and
> poor has widened. It's not that the poor to middle-class are poorer -
> they're not, they're by and large better-off - but that the rich are
> much much richer and more conspicuous. Indeed consipicuous
> consumption, in my youth a tasteless sign of poor manners, is now
> hailed & lauded. I find shows like "Cribs" to be appalling, vulgar &
> deeply nasty, myself - possibly some of the nastiest of reality TV,
> itself an unpleasant genre.
>
> I have no idea of any possible solution to this, though.
>
> Norway has the highest standard of living in the world, and the
> norwegians pay very high taxes, discouraging anyone from getting
> /really/ wealthy. Top executives mainly seem to get benefits in kind,
> not money. That seems to work pretty well for them...

How did we go from user interfaces to the comparison of tax systems in the
world?