a moralist debate occurred around the smokers corner at work today; idle boastfulness resulted in a who has more dvds than whom. normality dictates this to be a no starter as 'er in doors boasts a legion of dodgy foreign dvds that beggar belief and leave one reaching for the middle ages when eyes could not be polluted by such utter shite.
however today the hobbit claimed to have near one thousand dvds stretching from tv programmes to films, to wier's way to pirate movies accumulated on scratched discs living nearby the shire somewhere. defeat was inevitable yet the issue remained; remove the hobbit's dodgy pirated dvds from the equation and did he/she/it really 'own' more than 'er in doors and i?
inclusion leads to acceptance of the crime, albeit a minor infraction. pirate dvds are a piss poor crime but a legal infraction none-the-less, so surely none inclusive in a debate that gravitated around "who was sad enough to spend more of their sparse pennies on luxuries more than the next?".
anyways, hyperbole is best requisite here - maybe. a ned that danders around and breaks a wing-mirror on a crappy 'citreon zx' has committed a crime. the ned's elder brother than meanders later and breaks the whole windscreen also commits a crime - and in comparison a greater one at that. the owner of said 'zx' is the victim irrespective of how severe the crime; damage is still done and ergo some poor sod aspiring to own an audi has to foot a bill for essential car repairs.
so; poor audi aspiring sod needs to get the car to the garage. a broken windscreen ensures the car is not driven but a wing-mirror, well that's easy to drive with... but then fife constabulary turn up and notice the 'road traffic violation' and proceed with their customary response - points on ones license.
a crime committed, irrespective how small, turns the victim into a criminal. that's the problem here - well it's a problem endemic with the whole country. the audi aspiring victim cannot afford to go to the garage every time the young decide it's fun to wreck the place. not because wages are too low but because taxes are too high. by the time 22% is lost through income tax and a further 11% through national insurance they discover a pay cheque one third less than what was earned. after paying a 'second mortgage' (known in labour circles as 'council tax') to ensure a roof over head the realisation that people in britain work 179 working days paying off tax hits home. this is soon followed by the realisation that garage owners have their own 'business rates' to pay; the cost of fixing that 'minor crime' of cracking a windscreen suddenly becomes a decision betwixt buying the kids milk and re-placing the mirror - well, no wonder the aspiring audi driver took the risk. victim becomes the criminal...
so, the point. a few years ago i bought die hard 3 for £9.95. this week i bought still game series 5 for £16.95. at over a pound a year rise in the cost of dvd's will mean a two to three hour will cost over £21 when new by the end of the decade... the victim - those who pay, the criminal - those who pirate.
in otherwords; it does not matter how sad moive buffs are for spending money they can ill afford on luxuries, it matters that only that the more pirated movies out there the more film makers charge to prevent lost revenue. so i don' care i have less dvd's than the hobbit, i care only that every dvd i own was bought and i didnt contribute to some poor citreon driver getting pulled over by fife constabulary for something they could not prevent.
however today the hobbit claimed to have near one thousand dvds stretching from tv programmes to films, to wier's way to pirate movies accumulated on scratched discs living nearby the shire somewhere. defeat was inevitable yet the issue remained; remove the hobbit's dodgy pirated dvds from the equation and did he/she/it really 'own' more than 'er in doors and i?
inclusion leads to acceptance of the crime, albeit a minor infraction. pirate dvds are a piss poor crime but a legal infraction none-the-less, so surely none inclusive in a debate that gravitated around "who was sad enough to spend more of their sparse pennies on luxuries more than the next?".
anyways, hyperbole is best requisite here - maybe. a ned that danders around and breaks a wing-mirror on a crappy 'citreon zx' has committed a crime. the ned's elder brother than meanders later and breaks the whole windscreen also commits a crime - and in comparison a greater one at that. the owner of said 'zx' is the victim irrespective of how severe the crime; damage is still done and ergo some poor sod aspiring to own an audi has to foot a bill for essential car repairs.
so; poor audi aspiring sod needs to get the car to the garage. a broken windscreen ensures the car is not driven but a wing-mirror, well that's easy to drive with... but then fife constabulary turn up and notice the 'road traffic violation' and proceed with their customary response - points on ones license.
a crime committed, irrespective how small, turns the victim into a criminal. that's the problem here - well it's a problem endemic with the whole country. the audi aspiring victim cannot afford to go to the garage every time the young decide it's fun to wreck the place. not because wages are too low but because taxes are too high. by the time 22% is lost through income tax and a further 11% through national insurance they discover a pay cheque one third less than what was earned. after paying a 'second mortgage' (known in labour circles as 'council tax') to ensure a roof over head the realisation that people in britain work 179 working days paying off tax hits home. this is soon followed by the realisation that garage owners have their own 'business rates' to pay; the cost of fixing that 'minor crime' of cracking a windscreen suddenly becomes a decision betwixt buying the kids milk and re-placing the mirror - well, no wonder the aspiring audi driver took the risk. victim becomes the criminal...
so, the point. a few years ago i bought die hard 3 for £9.95. this week i bought still game series 5 for £16.95. at over a pound a year rise in the cost of dvd's will mean a two to three hour will cost over £21 when new by the end of the decade... the victim - those who pay, the criminal - those who pirate.
in otherwords; it does not matter how sad moive buffs are for spending money they can ill afford on luxuries, it matters that only that the more pirated movies out there the more film makers charge to prevent lost revenue. so i don' care i have less dvd's than the hobbit, i care only that every dvd i own was bought and i didnt contribute to some poor citreon driver getting pulled over by fife constabulary for something they could not prevent.
.gif)
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