Yeah, I guess most Americans don't think about importing prices or parts availability as much as our foreign counter-parts. For us, stuff is "just there" for the most part when it comes to building new machines.
I'd gladly trade slightly more expensive video games for universal healthcare and decent internet at sane prices with universal availability.
(11-08-2014, 01:29 AM)MaJoR Wrote: [ -> ]I'd gladly trade slightly more expensive video games for universal healthcare and decent internet at sane prices with universal availability.
Well, about the internet thing. I know that the companies here are totally disgusting sometimes, but another problem with the USA is simply the size. It would take a lot of work to get fiber rolled out everywhere, especially the more rural states/areas. Healthcare, however, is not a topic I would want to debate. That's just one big can of worms waiting to be opened :S
Trains have the potential to be great, but here in the us, they are pretty much always awful. They usually take 2x longer to get somewhere than driving, and cost 2x more, and that's if you're by yourself, whereas you can drive 4+ people for the same cost, and they are massively inconvenient having to schedule everything around train schedules which often run less than once per hour. They definitely can be nice though. The subways in nyc are great, and other countries that actually care about having usable public transit aren't nearly so bad.
@ThorgiantheUltimate
While that's certainly a contributing factor I doubt it's the main reason. Costs for backbone infrastructure at every level have dropped exponentially over the last 10 years. That includes maintenance as well as laying down new infrastructure. Yet we haven't seen a significant increase to speeds and prices have either remained the same or gone up depending on the company.
RachelB Wrote:The subways in nyc are great
wat
(11-08-2014, 02:43 PM)NaturalViolence Wrote: [ -> ]@ThorgiantheUltimate
While that's certainly a contributing factor I doubt it's the main reason. Costs for backbone infrastructure at every level have dropped exponentially over the last 10 years. That includes maintenance as well as laying down new infrastructure. Yet we haven't seen a significant increase to speeds and prices have either remained the same or gone up depending on the company.
Lie I said, the companies indeed are terrible. I'm only stating another reason for the already bad situation. It's funny though, the amount that Comcast was willing to pay for Time-Warner could have covered a LOT of that infrastructure.
So Rockstar has cut content in the latest update for GTA: San Andreas across the board even for those that purchased the game prior to the update. Hooray for digital distribution? :/
Sure it's seems like a miniscule deal at a glance that it's some measly songs but content is content, what could it be next? It could become a widespread issue with more games having content cut after purchase, publishers could cut content after release then resell as dlc. What if some publishers decide to cut entire missions, videos, characters, weapons, models, voices or alter them after purchase?
Best start keeping regular backups of digital copies and/or have a physical copy on hand.
There's a shitstorm brewing in the Steam discussion hub for this game:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/12120/discussions/0/
As a Student I get to use the Subways and Trains for free on week days and even off of weekdays a measly 2 dollars will get you where ever you want to go.