If this is hypocritical, so is paying the lower tax rate than his secretary, even thought he complains about it. Anyone thinking its hypocritical is missing the point. He does it to show it exists. Sure, you can not do it, and donate to the government on your own, but that's not fixing the problem. The small number of donators can't fix the deficit on their own. It takes a law that required everyone to play ball in order to fix the problem.
Both are deception. How one is worse than the other I have no idea. The difference is, due to our capitalist upbringing, the former is considered justified and just "our way of doing business". That's probably rather unique (this distinction you're drawing) compared to less capitalist cultures.
This is different because of what is being cut. I can't remember having used one of those "goodies". They end up like the "toys" that come in cereal boxes: junk you throw out every Spring. And something as personal as a case is something stylish people would rather pick out themselves.
Firstly, we're basically talking about the mission statement of the retail stores. It was originally to provide a great experience. Now it is maximize profit. This is definitely a big deal. No longer giving away junk was not a change of Apple's mission statement.
What does that mission statement mean to the customer? Well... I would lean towards believing many customers are loyal to Apple due to quality. It is logical to think Apple believe[s,d] in quality because it lends to customer satisfaction, which lends to brand loyalty. If customer satisfaction is no longer their driving motivation... does that mean Apple has killed the very reason their customers are loyal to them? Those "goodies" probably were never considered the very reason Apple has brand loyalty. If it was, Apple was able to change that reason to a new reason (quality).
Secondly, how much a customer can trust the word of a salesman is often determined by whether the salesman is commission or not... there's a reason people pay attention to it. This is far larger than no longer giving away items which were never used & thrown away. Although the employee don't seem to be paid via commission now, they basically still are (points tallied on how many high profit items are sold).
The main thing keeping me from switching from AT&T to ST right now is 1) the disconnect fee (1.4 yrs left on my contract and 2) iPhone 5, if unlocked like 4S, will probably be 4G and might not get as good of speeds on ST
This is how they luck us in, even though we'd truly prefer to be somewhere else.
This sounds like a repeat of when Europeans came to the Americas. There were no environmental issues (other than natural ones) in the Americas before "Land Ownership". Land Ownership created deforestation and pollution, not the other way around.
Deforestation causes erosion of top soil, nutrient imbalances, dust storms and land slides. Even the type of farming that goes hand and hand with land ownership causes environment problems.
This view seems like foolhardy view, endorsed because of its prevalence on earth in powerful nations.
Regarding point #2, poverty is relative. Although you may consider not having internet to be poverty, much of the world couldn't care less about it. Hunter/Gathers native to Sudan, central, and south africa live the way they do because it is considered to be their culture (they choose to do it). So there is no "poverty" to be talked about. "Being behind" and "Building wealth" sound like nonsense that they deliberately want no parts of. Their state is not something they're trying to get away from. It is desired. So your notion of 'not owning land' put them in this position is false. Their will-power is why they live traditionally, not land ownership.
Living natively didn't cause the land grab. Other people's notions of land ownership is what caused the land grab. If it were not for people who think they own land, there would have been no land grab...
There is no lacking of tracking built into bitcoin. In fact it's exactly the opposite. Everything is tracked within bitcoin. The one exception is with stolen bitcoins, like what had happened. Those bitcoins show up as owned by the rightful owner... And when spent and tracked, would appear to have been spent by that person, instead of the thief.
If bullet number 4 is correct, it sounds like a good idea. I would have to see proof that bullets 2 and 4 are correct in order for me to agree though.
3) is far fetched and would be catastrophic regardless, and 1) may not be viable because the 15 days of the month where the far side of the moon is facing the sun, it isn't facing the earth. If placed on the other side, 50% of the month, earth would be blocking out the sun on the moon's surface, and the other 50% of the month, the near side of the moon wouldn't be facing the sun.