Greetings to all on 8-8-8 olympic Friday.

In the infamous words of my old friend Brian,

"Beijing is odd this time of year."

Go for the gold!

iPhones for the masses! (Lenin would love that one!)

Michael

I do not like that people are having business with dictatorships. That means that we do not care if we were not affected by ourselfs from offenses against human rights. I do not only speak about olympia, I also speak about economy and cheap manufacturing! Think about when unwrapping your Apple products... :finder:

Stonefred,

Vg8snn.

We live in a time where the greed of money and power prevail over anything else. The philosophy of 'If I can make a buck (or mark-sorry 'euro') at the expense of someone else, so what." is prevalent everywhere.

In America, where we have migrated towards consumer services, since cheaper global industry has closed most of our plants, even that is severely affected. Outsourcing is on the lips of any business owner or stockholder. If you can provide a similar service, (it does not matter if it is as good, just as long as you provide something comparable) cheaper, then go for it. Who cares about the over 20,000+ people in the Tampa Florida area alone who were without jobs due to outsourcing to other countries for customer service support. The company makes money.

Perdect Example--

Haribo!! My favorite. I grew up on Gummi Baeren (ich bin geborren in Wurzburg).

Now we can buy at our local Wal-Marts a 5 oz. bag of Haribo Gummis for less than $1.00 US. The trade off? They are no longer made in Germany. They are now made in Hungary. WTF? For a while, we hade some made in Spain. these did not taste like Haribo gummis. Yech!!

Globalization is the evil of our current generation. And mixing it with a Communistic government makes for a potential fireball. Where the dream was of a one class utopian society, now the reality is of two classes- Rich and poor.

The middle class of America is is danger of being the next extinct creature. I am sure this is happening in Europa also?

Marx stated 'religion is the opiate of the masses'. Well, with today's world issues, I needs to get me some old time religion and lots of opiates.

Yes, Beijng is odd this time of year. iPhones for the masses!!

Michael

People piss and moan about the gap between rich and poor, but in most democratic first world countries there is an overwhelming growth of the middle class. Their will always be poor people, some people are just really stupid, or lazy and they are poor, that is just the way, and vica versa. It has got a lot better, a few hundred years ago almost everyone was poor and dying at thirty. If you want even less of a financial gap the only option seems communism, which = FAIL. I think a good degree of socialism is a happy medium, without profit driven everything like the states people will be taken care of.