Balta1701

Lest it ever end...

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 03:26 PM) Don't you mean the Saluki Steve Finley? The part of him that hit those HR may not have been developed until after he graduated.

I'm about to remove fluids from my body via needle, not introduce them.

Don't think i'm clicking on that.

Balta has lots of things around that emit x-rays.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 02:01 PM) First off, has no one bought equipment, built new factories, hired new employees, issued new stock, or floated new bond issues in the last 30 years? That is all risk. Anything that comes with a cost, or potential cost, is risk. No one built new factories in the 1940's-1970's?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 01:23 PM) Where was it ever written that risk takers are obligated to share their rewards? I still don't understand the sense of entitlement to someone else's risk's payoffs, when the reality is if that person hadn't taken their risk you'd have nothing. Isn't the idea that the rewards for risk takers are limited a basic tenet of free market capitalism? At least in the sense that if I invent something new, product or service...either someone is going to come along and offer a competitive item at a price below my item, or someone is going to figure out how to do a better item at the same price? The only way that would break down is if you had something else, say like a government or a near-total monopoly, where someone was taking various measures to make sure that competitive services/products did not come to market, or if they did come to market they had the same price inflation.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 10:38 AM) While I agree with you that someone gets those gains, it's not us. While we all wish the corporations would increase our pay by 100% every year since they're making so much money due to increased productivity (assisted by computers or not), I've also accepted reality and that's not going to happen. But in a competitive system...a free market system, the one thing that shouldn't happen is that the owners slice of the pie always grows. If the slice of the pie for ownership grows in one area, then I ought to be able to undercut that business in price by starting my own company. Or, I ought to be able to attract that company's better employees by offering better wages/benefits, weakening that company in the process.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 10:38 AM) I thought there was some nice return last night. Hell the Packers had a kick off return for a touchdown and they haven't done that since 2001. Except there were what, 8 touchbacks, more than ever in a single game at Lambeau?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 10:34 AM) We'll see how that works out. I'm a big seller on the Bears this year. I think the changes in the kicking game are going to really, really hurt them this year. The offense was 2nd to last during the last season in drives of 70+ yards and they were 2nd in average field position. that means the defense is going to have to shoulder even more of the load than they already have. I am predicting ugly things from the Bears this year. Something like 5-11 or 6-10. I've been wrong before (see: 2011 White Sox) but I really like what the Bears did this year. Went into the offseason with a list of issues that needed fixing...and have added a player or multiple players that should provide an upgrade at each of those positions. O-Line...the catastrof***, added a first round pick, shuffled things around, got younger, got bigger, look a lot stronger, added a (hopefully) much better blocking TE. Running game...2 yards and down Taylor is gone, Barber and Bell. WR....added some height, everyone else winds up in the system for another year. D-Line...Harris is Gone and replace by Okoye. Secondary...Meriweather could be a major upgrade. About the only places where the Bears could get worse are...as you noted, the kicking game, and the couple big vetereans on defense who might get old (Briggs, Url, Peppers). If there's no obvious falloff from those 3, I don't know how the team can get worse.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 10:25 AM) I think the Packers offense has a chance to average over 30 points a game this year. They have to play the Bears. Twice.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 10:20 AM) Do you have a source for those numbers/ I'd like to note...I googled for it and couldn't find it.

QUOTE (VictoryMC98 @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 10:12 AM) Gotcha, for every dollar the GOV Spends on infrastructure building, they get back 104% back in taxes. I believe it is the only ROI that is positive in regards to GOV spending. That number seems incredibly precise. I'd imagine it varies a lot depending on the type of infrastructure spending, how needed that infrastructure spending is, and the interest rate the feds are paying on debt.

Very easy and tasty choice.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 09:55 AM) Dude, you're never going to win this argument. They think that having a cell phone is mandatory in today's society. Xbox's and multiple tv's and premium cable aren't luxury items. And you guys think "Being able to have an infected tooth treated so you don't die" is a luxury item.

I can throw things back at you with the same number of anecdotes. Reduced/vanished health care benefits, vanishing of Pension plan replaced by 401k (requiring everyone to become a stockbroker), longer hours, less overtime, spouse working longer hours also.

Aside from anecdotes though can you actually offer any legitimate evidence that "manual labor" has somehow become easier? I can offer some evidence in the reverse actually...life expectancy is at least a non-terrible proxy for the amount of punishment a body has taken over its lifetime (lots of other things go in...all of which play into the argument about how easy the poor have it). Amongst high income groups, life expectancy has been increasing at a solid rate pretty much forever. However, amongst low income groups, it's been stagnant, to the point where there is a growing gap in life expectancy between upper and lower income people.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 09:41 AM) I'm not one of those guys that was going around calling Gordon Beckham the Bacon Slayer and claiming he was a future Hall of Famer, but Beckham does have one hell of a glove. I don't know if Lilli can give you that night in and night out. He's shown he can do it in the OF.

The broken hand on Lillibridge means I have to choose between Dunn and a giant fried chicken.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 09:36 AM) The typewriter did increase productivity when it was invented, but in comparison to a computer? Not even close. In the early 1980's, computers started to become mainstream in the office, and very shortly after they appeared in homes. A computer is a quantum leap in innovation over a typewriter, making the typists job much easier in that they can now save documents, quickly edit documents, print off multiple copies, etc...something that they couldn't do very easily up until then. Ok, fine, you don't like the typewriter? Mass production, standardization, and electricity. All of those drove enormous productivity jumps. Productivity has been going up steadily for the whole century. The difference after 1980 is that the gains from that productivity stopped being shared.

I'd like to note that I'm impressed about the number of people saying a team that gave up 34 points at home, didn't make a strong showing on defense, and was 1 yard away from a chance to tie the game at the end, is the class of the NFC.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 09:29 AM) That game last night was f***ing awesome. I have no idea why Payton would call a run to end the game when their run game was so ineffective, though. Did you see the 4th and 1 pass implosion earlier in the game that led to a 20 yard sack on Brees?

Really? Batter him up.

Perhaps you're not fully chicken, just partially.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 09:07 AM) It will be interesting to see what his playing time looks like next year, and where he plays. Depends on whose job it is to decide that.