See this is why political discussions are terrible on internet forums. Reason 1: there is no civil debate, only insults and defensiveness. No one ever says, "Interesting point, but I disagree", they say "Well I guess your stupid" Reason 2: half of the statements made are so absurd that saying "Well I guess your stupid" actually isn't that bad a response. Until this place is a community, where most posters know eachother and can be comfortable engaging in a political debate without automatically insulting eachother, lets just let it go.

Point out where I ever said he was stupid. I said there were no cogent sentences, which if you read the post was true. I will allow for that as he is speaking a non-native language. But I backed up all my points with research and links. I don't think my statements about the healthcare system were outrageous, possibly exaggerated, but not outrageous. I wasn't the one who said he was full of BS, he said that to me. As an investor I have a point to make about the American economy for sure because it's not weak right now, in fact, considering the housing bubble burst it is surprising we didn't see a pull back like the internet bubble burst in 2000. You're right there are fine points of debate, but he decided not to acknowledge the taxes (which is the majority of funding for healthcare both in Canada and Europe) and that the Healthcare system has flaws (namely long wait times for various treatments and no competitive nature for business which does not spur development and research, when an institution is funded almost soley by the government for business there is no obligation to compete and perform, which is evidenced by the lower per capita research, and technology access when compared to the American market). I don't think their doctors are incompotent, Canada actually has a very good system as far as I can tell for physicians, just saying the incentive to be better is lacking, which a free market provides.

K Wad... where do you live? I had the pleasure of trying to find two Wii's this season and could only find PS3's in the stores. I ended up buying the Wii's for $500 and $380 respectively on Ebay. At first, I almost bought a PS3, but since the Wii was a drop in the bucket compared to the PS3, I bought that. Very happy I did. Nintendo has created a new Genre that will redefine casual gaming. Right around the time that Gamestop announced that they had PS3 in stock at 100% of their locations, I started looking for the Wii's. I have 6 stores in my area and none had stock of Wii's, but all has PS3's. This is in Scranton, PA. I also looked in Orange, Ca. Of 66 stores, 22 have PS3 in stock. The one that had Wii's sold out before my bro made it there. There is one main reason why i belive the Wii sales will remain stronger then the PS3. I doubt that there is anyone left that has $600, wants a PS3, and cannot find one. On the other hand, many people are having trouble finding wii's, and the ones that are seeing them are buying them impusively, because they are such a good value.

I didn't say Stromprophet in my post at all. I was just pointing out that this thread had devolved into a political debate, and that very little of it made any sense. (As a Canadian, I can safely say your points on healthcare don't make any sense at all). But I wasn't going to post that, because it serves no purpose. I post on another forum where political debate happens often, but the people there know eachother, and there is often lively and insightful debate. I imagine that could happen here too, some day. Some time when there is a large group of established posters and a general sense of community (and a user mod or two to ban trolls). Part of the problem is that a forum is a terrible way to debate politics. It's an incredibly broad subject which shoots off in thousands of tangents. Human conversation ebbs and flows to meet the changing nature, but the full post nature of a forum is terrible for it. Every post becomes an essay, and then the next post becomes a counterpoint essay. Unless the whole group is mindful of the flawed discussion system and not going to take everything personal with knee-jerk reactions, it can be made to work. When this place has seen some more time go by and people have 1000+ posts, I imagine there will be a decent network of intelligent and understanding individuals to have these discussions and help guide the new arrivals. Till then, I'm gonna stay away from it.

http://www.itrackr.com/details.aspx?pid=4 Here it says national availability for the Wii is 25% and 46% for the PS3. The only thing I have to say is they both did a better job than 360 of getting the consoles out to the market. 360 had production issues until the end of April. I think may was the first month they weren't having shortages. It's (Wii) been at every single target in Indianapolis for more than a day now. So if you want one you can get one, just a little leg work. You might not be able to walk in, might take more than one store. But you WILL get one if you look.

Actually, even I can't understand some of what I've written. Must have been in a hurry. Anyway, you see my point. And you can spin it every way you want (delay for transplants are caused by strict controls for example, we sure enough don't pay 50 % taxes, ...), you're still spouting BS, you're entitled to believe it. I mean, you couldn't understand a system where we don't let poor people die because they can't pay for health insurance.

I wish that was the case here (in Oz land) :( The entire country has been Wii-free for about 6 weeks - its still on "pre-order" basis from what I gather. Many of the employees I talk to at ToysRUs/EB stores are really annoyed (because they haven't been able to pick one up yet... :P). If only they were region free. Seriously though, I hope Nintendo manages to upp production soon (700k / month just isn't enough). Its great for the launch window, but its sucky compared to the demand. With 350k going to Japan, 300k going to the US - that leaves a measly 50k for the entire of Europe. So we'll be lucky to get 5k / month :((

Before you suggest people don't know X about Y, maybe you should look into it more yourself. A declining USD, which hasn't been in decline for 30 years, it's been fluctuating up and down, it's been going down MORE lately than it has up in the past, is an indication of how weakening your economy is comparing currency from one nation to another. I live in Canada, and our tax rates aren't 50%. You're a complete MORON if you think that's how it is. If you make less than 26K a year, and for some reason you think it's 20K, even more moronic is you think the income tax is 50%, they don't touch your income. You get it all back. The tax rate is actually about 30% for the average worker, and it's slightly higher as you make more money, but not by much. I may not know a lot about economics, or a lot of things for that matter, but I do know stupid people. You sir, are stupid.

I don't know what this recent babble of country economics is about, but I just had to post this very well timed linked http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic. This is just the kind of stupid statements that SCEA makes. And for people who think the only people that follow what company execs are saying, are sony bashers........... what? do you just follow companys blindly? almost all gamers know(through PA, gaming sites, etc) what gaming companys are saying/doing. And I'm sure some people are going to be offended by company practices to the point where they do not buy from that company. Company image is a very important aspect of the corporate world, brand loyalty, etc. these flurry of ignorant arrogant statements WILL hurt sony.

Exactly. The console and games themselves are the most important thing I consider when buying a system...but it's a lot easier for me to buy from a company like Nintendo that is much more welcoming to new customers. Also, you hyperlinked the period at the end of your sentence...probably should edit that...