wcw43921

Expectation vs Reality
 

 

Well, I'm told that J. K. Rowling is a billionaire because she wrote some books that a lot of people liked, and had the luck or foresight to insist in the copntract that she get a cut of any spin-off profits from merch and movies. I don't see how she robbed or cheated anyone.
 
An unusual case to be sure, but it's an "existence proof." If one can exist, so can others.
 
It's why I no longer feel outrage at high-paid athletes or entertainers, when so many obviously more worthy people toil for modest wage. Consider everyone who enjoys watching, say, LeBron James play basketball. Millions ever game. Imagine each one of them could pay ten cents directly to him in appreciation. Clearly, he soon becomes a very rich man. And can one say that each of those millions did not receive ten cents' worth of pleasure? Repeat for actors, musicians, etc.
 
I am willing to extend this exercise to providers of other goods and services, dividing profit gained by the value gained by others. BUT... In such cases, everyone in the supply chain for providing those goods and services has a right to a share as well. If the business model that makes a few people very rich depends on keeping most people's wages artificially low, there is certainly unfairness that should e corrected. Or if the wealth comes from rent-seeking rather than honest competiton for customers.
 
Returning to J. K. Rowling, it is likely she would not be as wealthy as she is if all the people making the Harry Potter merch in Third World countries were paid a share rather than, well, Third World factory wages. But she would still be very rich.
 
I see the problem as less that some few people are so very rich as that so many are so very poor. And that their poverty is not an unfortunate natural event, but deliberately created by those who would rather extract wealth than create it.
 
Dean Shomshak
 
 

"Let me get this straight--you rolled an eighteen/ninety-six for strength---and you're making the character a wizard?"
 
"Hey---how often do I roll a seventeen for intelligence?  I'm not going to waste that score on a fighter."

Don't be ridiculous. Trump is obviously Chaotic Evil.

Here are a few superhero characters I created using some form of CGI a few years ago: Fiero, Firephoenix, and Interceptor.
 
 

This well-experienced superhero comes to us from the work of Andreas Englund--
 

 
Don't let his age fool you--he can still dish it out with the best of them--
 

Why am I laughing at this?  I shouldn't be laughing at this.  What kind of horrible person am I?

It may not be a real entry, but it is still worthy of scorn.  And thus--I'm going to scowl at you.
 

 
Don't you dare look away, Dadgammit.

It may not be a real entry, but it is still worthy of scorn.  And thus--I'm going to scowl at you.
 

 
Don't you dare look away, Dadgammit.

Thank You.  Let's see what everyone can make of this---
 

Hey DT--you ferocious little ball of fluff and rage--it's been nearly two weeks since anyone's posted to your image.  Ya wanna pick a winner, or should I just claim victory and run roughshod?

Patience is like a rock-solid alibi: The time when you most need it is the time you're least likely to have it.

My brother says he's never liked guns, or the sort of people who fetishize them. But he now admits he has a better idea of why a sane and responsible person would want to own one.
 
My mother still owns the little farmhouse where she grew up. She hopes to pass it to my sisters when she dies. My brother visits every couple weeks to do mow the grass and do other maintenance, though sometimes it's not possible for more than a month. The house's neighbors know him by now.
 
Last September, we got a letter from one of those neighbors asking, "Someone's living in your house. He acts strange. He says he inherited it. Is this true?"
 
No, it wasn't. We had a squatter: a felon who'd been in jail for several years on several charges, including drug abuse, with mental issues as well. Turns out the sheriff's department knew him well. They said they'd actually been out to the house before, at the neighbor's request, but the man -- I'll just use his initials, J. P. -- gave a story about inheriting the property, with names of our relatives, and no obvious criminal activity was taking place, so they left him. With our assurance that no, J. P. did not have our permission to live there, the deputies eventually caught him on the premises and arrested him.
 
When my brother drove out, he found that J. P. had tossed the house, stolen a bunch of stuff, and ripped up floorboards and part of the attic. Items stolen included the LPs and record player he brought there. Realizing there was only one place nearby those could be sold, he went to the local antique store and, yup, there were his records and a bunch more of the stolen items. J. P. had invited the store owner in to buy whatever he wanted. Fortunately, my brother also knew the owner for many years from buying used records, so we were able to get most of the items back.
 
But the shop owner was able to explain why J. P. was tearing up floorboards. He thought there was Klondike gold hidden somewhere iun the house!
 
Still, J. P. was under arrest, caught red-handed. Problem solved, right?
 
Wrong. A judge released him the next day. Over the next few months he returned to the house to fish in the cesspit with a magnet, dig up flowerbeds, steal the chunks of opalized petrified wood my sister used to mark the graves of her dead cats, move the cross and statue of St. Francis, hack at one of the chimneys, and otherwise intrude. At least he can't get in the house anymore -- my niece and nephew-in-law changed the locks and installed an alarm system.
 
Despite the overwhelming evidence of J. P.'s continued trespass, though, the cops say there's no point in arresting him again. He'll just be out the next day because the charges aren't serious enough. J. P. was arraigned, but God only knows when the trial will be held. At the time, the county D.A. said, J. P. was already awaiting trial for other charges from 2018.
 
It's really discouraging when cops tell you, "The system is broken."
 
My brother still makes his visits to tend the property, but he does not feel safe doing so. It's hard to feel safe when you know there's a deranged drug addict who thinks that your house is his house, and reportedly boasted that he's going to take over the neighborhood with his weapons and live there with his girlfriend. And any cops are a half hour away.
 
And that's why my brother says he understands why people own guns.
 
Dean Shomshak

Marriage comes with a lot of legal and financial perks that shackees don't get. As well as some responsibilities.

'You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain
Too much love drives a man insane
You broke my will, but what a thrill
Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire'

I'm grateful Injustice Superman isn't real. I'm grateful the Brightburn kid isn't real. I would very much like the true Superman to be real.
 
 
I guess it depends on whether or not you believe fundamental human nature is evil -- that power inevitably corrupts. Superheroes were conceived to give us hope, to inspire us to be better.

Possibly.  But generally economies of scale and expiration of patent periods tend to mean that eventually treatments would become affordable to the masses.  
 
From a gaming standpoint, one could have an Everyman extended lifespan, 1 point(200 years or so), and then have Age: 80+ and Age: 120+ as viable complications.  It would also explain why everyone looks the same age in comic book universes, even when characters have been around 60+ years.