Has anyone ever given any thought as to why there are so many poor in the world? Take a minute to think if there is X amount of currency in a population equal to Y and 10% of Y controls 80% of X what is left for the remaining 90% of Y? Greed is the worlds major problem and no one faces that fact nor will the situation improve. What is a fair share among a growing world population? Is the MPAA complaining because they are not profitable OR because they are not making every last cent they would like to? They obviously see the population (Y) as their consumer base and expect an income to be produced by each of them, including those who financially are least able to afford the price of their products. Just how much is enough? We have minimum wage laws, how about a maximum wage law? I'm resolved to the fact that the rich will just get richer and the poor will just get poorer. Think about it.

I'll tell you the reason i think no ones doing anything, and that's because if everyone in the world achieved the quote "American Dream", everyone would be broke. Some are probably saying "huh" right now, but think about it. If everyone is a godzillionair and drives a BMW, and eats at fancy restaurants everyday, whose the one whose gonna work at the restaurant so everyone can go their. Whose gonna work any of these quote "Blue collar" just-above-minimum wage jobs if everyone is out being a rich slob. My point, the American Dream is BS because the truth is that everyone can't achieve the american dream because one person's wealth is contingent on a great many more people's poverty.

First off all, most of the people in these blue-collar just-above-minimum wage jobs are working illegally because they are illegal aliens. That is the ONE thing that I hate about immigrants, they work for PEANUTS and drag down regular people's wages.

Second, the American Dream is not BS. EVERYONE in the WORLD could make 100,000 dollars a year at their jobs, and we would STILL have BILLIONS of dollars for the super rich.
That is how much the economy of the world has grown in recent years. The multi-billionaires and Republicans are just getting too greedy for their own good.

Third, these dogs should have been given to Homeland Security, and trained as bomb-sniffing dogs, not drug dogs.
Frankly, legalize drugs and ALL the murders, robberies and other bullshit connected to prohibition against them will go away, just like the crime connected to alcohol went away when they were made legal.

"EVERYONE in the WORLD could make 100,000 dollars a year at their jobs, and we would STILL have BILLIONS of dollars for the super rich."-

You need to get ya fax straight. FIRST OFF, there 6.5 billion+ people in the world, give them all 10o thousand dollars and it comes out to like 650 trillion dollars. Unless your Dr. Evil, that much money does not exist. Infact the US alone isnt even worth a 10th of that figure. Dont believe me, go to the CIA's website. The worlds worth is close to 60 trillion. So if i take your BS figure, taken into acount this info, everyone would have close to 9000 dollars, but hey there's plenty of room for billionaires concidering this.

Bottomline- technology is one thing, but dont come at me trying to kick knowledge about people without doing your homework, son.

Im sorry, that got me mad now. Cause i can tell you exactly where you stand. Your white, probably racist( not to say all whites are racist, just more than i care to think of; atleast in the US), if not your on that white-man's burden bullshit, you live in the US, your a C- student, you worst subject is history, you live in the south, youve never left the country, and you never watch the news.

- how close am i-

To add to what i was saying before, outside of the G-8 nations the average person lives on two dollars a day, which couldnt buy a pot to piss in in the US. You think cause you live in candyland( the US), like me, that that's a reflection of how the whole world lives, when really its a distortion. You need to spend some serious time realizing that things is this world arent all like people would want you to think. Sort of how they say theres equal opportunity for education but then the government spends millions more on the upkeep of suburban schools than the ones in the inner city. They also say racism is dead, but then a year ago i saw an episode of dateline talking about how some companies were telling their employment officer to pick whiter sounding names. On the episode they tested this theory by having a black woman fill out like a dozen application under her real name and then a fake one(white one), and wuoldnt you know it, the black one got none and the white one got atleast 5 or6 intervues. Who woulda thunk it? So open your eyes, cause Jesus wasnt white, Christmas was originally a paegan holiday, and the government REALLY IS LYING about 9/11.

this forum has nothing to do with race, this is about sniffer dogs being used to find dvd's.

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"this forum has nothing to do with race, this is about sniffer dogs being used to find dvd's."-

Nope, but when someone singles out a race like that Ima call it the way i see it( a biggot).

"most of the people in these blue-collar just-above-minimum wage jobs are working illegally because they are illegal aliens."-

Just thought youd like to know that according to the U.S. Department of Labor, in 2004 there were 1,681,000 whites working at or below minimum wage, compared to 250,000 Hispanics/latinos- or as Chris1000 proabably knows them boarder hoppers.

Bottomline- Getcha fax straight.

no kidding, how the hell did we get to discussing race or if Jesus was white????? i thought this was bout a waste of my hard earned tax dollars and the fact that DOGS R TRAINED TO SMELL DVDS!!!! Maybe Im wrong?

Oh, and Chris1000, wtf r u talking bout, ya legalizing crack and murder WILL DEFINITELY make the world a better place....R U F@$KING CRAZY???? I guess ignorance is bliss.

Racism isn't what AD's for, we're here to shout at FACT in disgust.

They forgot to include that dogs are able to smell the extruded plastic case not the DVD inside the case. So a statement like this one "Lucky and Flo’s immediate success in locating DVDs in transit offers us a new and highly effective means of detection for counterfeit discs." comes very close to eeking out damned near anything said by George W.

They trained 2 dogs to identify a very stinky plastic... sheesh. Now training them to identify and eat a Uwe Bohl dvd in transit could be a real public service!

And the worst bit about this is it's pretty much right on my doorstep, Stansted's under an hour from where I am, and chances are I'll be flying out from it, with CDs on my person. No DVDs though, so the dogs can kiss my ass. Well, dogs are cool, but the people who trained them can kiss both my ass and the dog's ballbags.

My parrot got tired of all of the testing I put him thru and flew away on Sunday!!! If anyone sees an African Grey flying around out there, please let me know. No joke!!! This forum has gotten way out of control and everyone needs to kick back and laugh at the facts at hand. What a waste of money and resources!!! This blows me away. How can a dog distinguish the difference between the CD's and DVD's? Better luck to them next time for I see this going nowhere and I personally think they are a huge joke!!! LMAO!!! LOL!!!

fact and MPAA made an unwise decision to train Lucky and Flo to locate DVD's. Lucky and Flo would have a better life stopping drug trafficking. I feel sorry for MPAA, fact,raymond leinster and mary callahan. I didn't capitalize their names because they are lifeless bodies.

Hoe much $$ did those overpaid Greedy Basterds pay to train these dogs? Wouldnt the $$ be better spent feeding a small country in Africa, or helping underprivledged children who rely on welfare to put food on the dinner table at night? it makes me sick to know that people like myself have to burn rented movies in order to have a semi decent dvd collection cause i cant afford to go out and buy dvds on a regular basis and play them on a high def tv cause im one of the countless "working poor" in the U.S.

Too damn right...

I think the real question is, what happens to us, the consummer, after that momentus breakthrough...ya right..

Will they rob us of our privacy?

The legit customer ALWAYS suffers the most.

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Good Rants! Politics are us! Get Involved! Get Angry! Make Change Happen! Love to All!

Parrot came down out of tree. Guess he decided DVD's taste better than tree bark!!! Back to the training!!! Sprinkle Chille powder in your packages. Cool hand luke... he has it figured out!!! LOL!!!

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I believe it was my post on May 14th that created the divergence of this thread to various other subjects, and it confirms my theory that we live in a divide and conquor world. As we (the not in power people) discuss a subject, any subject, related to an imposition on our way of life we begin to diverge from one another based on the rhetoric. In order for change to come about requires a massive amount of support to converge. For the masses to gain some control over their governments and the actions of their governments requires the masses to combine into a united, not divided forces. Race, religion, and other variations between us, (the masses), are irrelevant. We should focus on the laws that are being made which have effect on each of us no matter what our differences are otherwise.

The MPAA and the sniffer dogs are the subject of a much larger and very complex situation which was my original intent to point out. Laws are passed primarily to protect the wealthy, and in this case action is taking place which only insure the wealthy are able to increase their wealth.

I live in a third world country and until recently found it very easy to live on the equivalent of $1 per day. Currently we, (2 adults and 2 children) live on the equivalent of about $6 a day, half of which goes to having an internet connection and half for lifes necessities. Most of my friends and neighbors live on about $2 a day, and pay no taxes, own their property and houses, and are for the most part debt free. They cannot however afford to purchase legal CD's or DVD's and with the cost of CD-R and DVD-R media being just cents and not dollars opt for the cheaper version. Microsoft and other companies have created versions of their products which are some what limited in features to be sold at a reduced price here, and even at that price you're talking of several months of income to purchase.

In summing up, the problem is profit. Businesses look at how they can increase their profits. Unlike oil, where prices vary based on supply and demand, many products can be produced well above what is necessary to meet demand. So the bottom line is what is an acceptable profit? The MPAA has no limit on what they consider to be an acceptable profit. If they were making a profit selling 1 million units at $20 each, and the demand went to 20 million they might quickly increase production to 20 million and raise the price to $25 seeing an easy increase in profit possible.

What is the answer? Limit wealth accumulation, and tax accordingly. In the developed world just eliminate taxes on those who earn less than the average or maybe even the median income.

Perhaps a thread should be created elsewhere to continue this subject as it relates to not only the MPAA but many if not most of the problems faced by the worlds masses. One thing I would like to point out is that we should divide in to but 2 camps, those in control and those under control. In each camp there are many differences between us, race, religion, education, ethnicity, etc. but those differences should not be allowed to become a part of the discussion. The real problem to be solved is how to improve everyones lot in life, before a small number of the worlds inhabitants gain control of everything.

$90/month for internet? I assume that's because you're including computer costs and electricity in that.
But I totally understand that viewpoint, and I rarely pay for what I don't feel is worth the money in these terms.

z9999

Good point!!! Everyone should read your post and learn from it. I think evreyone should learn something from this posting and come to realize the points that you have brought about!!!

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People seem to be looking way outside the box on this one!!!

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sammorris - Well, it's actually slightly over $100/month for internet access now due to exchange rate changes and that doesn't include anything else. I'm on a 2way satellite connection which is all that is available where I live.

On FACT and the MPAA - We narrow our view too often while the issues we face are much more complex. We need to try and focus on the root problem and by doing so we will find that many problems which seem unrelated to each other have an identical root cause. In simple terms that is money, or in the case of the MPAA and FACT, profits. Neither of these groups are facing financial ruin or bankruptcy, and although I have no data or facts to back up my supposition, I would expect to find that the music, movie, and all entertainment industries are quite profitable. The problem is they see that they could possible reap even greater profits if they were to force more people to shift their purchasing power from necessities of life such as food, housing, clothing, and medical care to their products instead. So you might say the basic problem facing us in todays world is increasing greed. Personally, when I was young I had dreams of becoming a millionaire and living an easy life. As I grew older I found that as just a common worker I was not going to achieve such a dream, and more so I found that unlike many of my co-workers I was not interested in accumulating all I possible could until the point of death. I found that life was not just working and accumulating and I retired early. After 9 years of retirement I feel I made the correct decision and although I am not wealthy by any means, I live comfortably and can acquire all the necessities of life. Many friends continued to work and many will work until death I'm sure as they have no limit as to what is sufficient when it comes to money. Why do we have inflation? Why do currencies change value in relation to each other? Why do governments have to increase their budgets anually?
The dogs trained for sniffing, as I understand, was not a tax dollar expense, but instead funded by profits earned. Taxes are one example of how money is misused, and we might see that profits are another. Not only are consumers taxed by their governments, but indirectly by businesses who pass their expenses on to the consumers. A multi-million dollar advertising campaign is not absorbed by the business owners, but added to the cost of the product being advertised, and often to the price of several unrelated products as well. If you purchase products based on a celebrity sponsered commercial you are supporting cost inflation of that businesses product(s). With a growing world population you might think that because the consumer base is growing companies could begin to reduce their prices to account for increased sales, but in many if not most cases the opposite occurs, especially if the demand will bear the price maintenance or even an increase. Does that mean that the workers producing the product will all see large or related salary and wage increases? Not usually, as the largest distributions go to the upper levels and a small portion sometimes gets distributed to the lower levels.
So although taxes didn't fund the dog sniffing training, it was funded by consumers who legally purchased the products the dogs were trained to sniff out.
How does a business lose money? When a product is produced there is a cost of production, which is the combined cost of materials and expenses directly related to producing the product, labor, machinery, slectricity, etc. On top of that is unrelated production expenses, the salaries and benefits of the executives, directors, and so on. A business sets a product price which covers all those costs based on the consumer base purchasing the product. In nearly every case the bulk of the profits from sales go towards covering the salaries of the executives, and more profits benefit those at the top more greatly than those producing the labor. One way of reducing costs id downsizing the workforce, but how often do you see downsizing of the executives? A business fails when it can no longer produce a profit great enough to offset it's expenses. It might be that if the executive salaries were eliminated the sales would show a large profit, but the burden is placed on those at the bottom and seldom will you see the top make sizeable concessions in order to keep the company afloat.
As for the music industry, do away with the recording companies and let bands propogate their works over the internet freely as a means of advertising, much like the radio and MTV is used. They could then give concerts to earn their living and at the same time put many executives out of work.
The American dream should be discarded as it is only a means of accomplishing disaster. How many could achieve the American dream, especially now that it has become a limitless accumulation of wealth? Would it not make more sense to have a world of nearly equals as far a wealth is concerned? Such would mostly eliminate the need for welfare, and foreign aid. Prices could then be controlled more easily, and inflation would be less a problem. And most of all, the poor dogs could begin to live their lives as just normal dogs again.

A couple of questions:
Is crime more prevalent in a society of equals or in a society with great variation of wealth?
Why are not exorbitant pricing, or salaries and bonuses considered crimes? (Yes I know, because we foolishly spend our money.)

Yes, the profits are from stealing from others through court cases. And the more they get to do with the profits, the more profits they source.

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Unlike oil, where prices vary based on supply and demand,??? Hey z9999 wake up and smell the coffee. The oil companies totally control prices. You think there's no collusion? Well, my friend, the oil companies intermingle their product in a way that Texaco gas could actually be Conoco, Mobil might be BP,etc.,etc.,etc. If they are co-mingling their product, how can they NOT be price-fixing? (Just some food for thought).