Hautamaki

Ah hah but the point of the movie was to make the audience like Jordan Belfort and enjoy going along for the wild ride with him and then only later, like a day or two later when the spell has worn off, realize that they liked Jordan Belfort, who was and is actually a despicable monster, and then take a look in the mirror and realize 'I would be a monster too if I could. The reason I'm not a monster is not because I made a moral choice not to be monstrous, but because I'm actually too weak, too meek, too harmless to be a monster.' But harmlessness is not equivalent to 'good'. Being good requires one to be capable of being a monster, and then choosing not to be. And who among us even has the capability of making that choice? Not many.... so do we hate Jordan Belfort because he's a monster? Or merely because we envy him his self-actualization? Until we have self-actualized ourselves, that question is purely academic and hypothetical. Only those who are capable of doing harm gain any moral 'points' for choosing not to. So perhaps our society, instead of preaching essentially docility and harmlessness, should be preaching self-actualization, the attainment of power, and then the choice to use that power for good, instead of condemning power as evil in its own right.

What do you think of the 'step 1--be attractive' meme? Is that harmless fun, a harmful misconception, or 'funny because it's true'?

The thing with Apple is they use Foxconn, which is a taiwanese company that has a mega factory in China which at its height employed over a million people. During the course of their worst ever year, 2010, 15 people attempted suicide of which 10 died. 10 deaths per million is actually about equal to the baseline rate for people in that socio-economic status in China.

benefit

Sorry, I'm an English teacher. Just can't let that slide.

Thanks to eatsleepshit.

He left at 17... at 17 no 'normal' kids are getting laid in China. Nearly all Chinese kids are virgins until university at least, and I'd say that a fair percentage of people make it through uni without sex. I know a 30 year old attractive Chinese woman who was a virgin because her parents had her on 24 hour lockdown until they found the perfect husband; it's completely different. Even for kids who want to get laid, which sure it's plenty, the logistics make it impossible. It's not like they can just hop in a car and drive somewhere private, or spend time alone in each other's houses unsupervised, that would never be allowed.