Why are Sony Wegas so damned heavy?

[eppie]

It seems like you are a believer in "the american dream". (to Rhydderch Hael, ( I had some problems quoting))

Question: what if everybody played basketball like Michael Jordan do you think we would all make the amount of money he is making?. The american dream says everybody can make it. What it does not say is that not everybody together at the same time can make it, there is not enough money for everybody to be a millionair.
Not everybody who is poor is lazy. I think most of them are not actually.

[Count Duckula]

I'm sorry... I consider a forum where the prevalence is a population of young minds with a (seeming) overabundance of disposable income (or daddy's weekly allowance) would be a SUPERB place to discuss the merits of thoughtful spending or service to one's community over the sating of one's own personal "I must have this" wishlist.

I'm sorry I'm so late getting to this dead horse over here, but wanted to take my own crack at it.

I spent the past hour rambling on about me. For someone who claims humility, I sure do spout off about myself a lot. :unsure:

So what about a dependency on stuff? I have a dependency on stuff, namely my car and my computer. They are essential to my life as I live it at the moment, and are named appropriately, one after a favorite song, and the other an in-joke too indelicate for Loungers to hear. ^_^

And the local Goodwill recieved several useless Christmas presents, the type where people give things just to feel nice and say they've given you a present. Stuff like pretty boxes and doilies and the godawful jewelry box the same relative gives me year after year since I was 10, and ended up giving the last four to Toys for Teens with a few beaded trinkets inside where hopefully someone can enjoy them.

And the food drive we held so the local food bank could be restocked after Christmas, and so pantries and shelves across campus could get rid of unneeded and unwanted foodstuffs.

And the $20 in one-dollar bills in my jacket pocket, and how they'd get stuffed in the Salvation Army cans until they ran out, except the lady playing carols on her accordion got coffee as well.

I also drink, swear, park illegally because it pisses off Campus Safety, and wander naked through the halls to the delight of my hallmates and disgust of my dormmates.

I'm only human.

(EDIT - The part the forum ate: Six years ago I bought a pair of Reeboks from a shoe store. Does this mean I support overseas sweatshops? No. It means that I own a comfortable pair of shoes that have remained comfortable, if out of style, for six years. They weren't all that fashionable when I bought them, and many theater sets and Girl Scout camping trips later, they're still together with minimal signs of wear. Although I try to shop locally and "buy American," much of what I own can be considered carmic fatalities due to their origins. Then again, much of what I own has been scoured and handpicked from secondhand stores, meaning my junk has gotten some use by somebody else. And if that doesn't curl your wig, next time you gas up your Geo Metro, try to choose a gas station that isn't backed by South American despots or Middle Eastern royalty. Hard to find, eh?)

DeeBye, I hope you enjoy your TV, and may it shine brightly upon you and your son the first day you sit down to play your first video game, or watch your first hockey match. Or see romantic tearjerkers with Mrs. DeeBye. Or when you invite the guys over to watch Big Important Hockey Stuff. (Stanley Cup? Not too familiar with sports of any kind.)

Nico, may I remind you that I still have your helm, and no, I'm not giving it back, because it's in the hands of a young liberal mind with a seeming overabundance of disposable income, M&D's monthly allowance, and the good grace and humor to cheer on than interject sourly and dourly.

Humbly yours,

(EDIT: Aight, is there any time where I write something and DON'T sound like a snotball? If there's ever been such a time, please tell me. The forum ate a chunk of my post--what gives?)

[Nystul]

Question: what if everybody played basketball like Michael Jordan do you think we would all make the amount of money he is making?.

If everybody played basketball for a living, we'd all be dead pretty fast. On the other hand, if Jordan had never played basketball, millions of people would have missed out on a truly incredible feats of human accomplishment, both entertaining and inspiring. The marketplace economy does a pretty good job of helping guys like Jordan find their calling without pushing so many people into basketball that other important businesses can't find workers. What would be the alternative? To have the government choose what job is right for each person and pay everyone equally? I don't see that working well in practice.

What it does not say is that not everybody together at the same time can make it, there is not enough money for everybody to be a millionair.

You have a hangup on money. Especially in the age of "electronic money" it would be quite easy to make everybody a millionaire. Just give everyone a bank account and deposit a million dollars in each, easy. The real issue is the creation of goods and services. There are not enough goods and services available to allow everyone to live like a millionaire. What spurns the creation of such goods and services? People doing productive jobs. What inspires people to seek out the most productive job possible? That would be the "American Dream".

Not everybody who is poor is lazy. I think most of them are not actually.

The poor in the United States are usually poor by virtue of their own bad decisions and/or laziness. For those who fit this category there should be (and in many places are) programs available to help move them into the work force, and the true exceptions to this should (and generally do) at least have their basic needs covered by government and or private institutions. But the worst thing to do is to take the poor people who are capable of working and give them goods and services with no strings attached. That is essentially encouraging them to be unproductive leeches. Rehab them into a job... perhaps on a Sony Wega assembly line.

[Occhidiangela]

EDIT: Forgot about the title change, this a reply to Nico. :unsure:

Glad to see you are feeling well enough to mix it up: your outspoken style and hard edged humor have been missed by this rogue. ;) Alsoi glad to see that you admit knowing the audience here well enough to know the reaction you would evoke. (A- on the troll :D ) . . . but I won't tip my ratty old golf hat just yet.

I just spent $190 dollars on a 3" Magnum 12 guage Remington 870 pump shotgun. It can kill feral hogs and small deer whose meat value far exceeds the price of the gun, per pound, if I supply the value added of hitting them with well aimed deer slugs, gutting them, cleaning them, and quartering-butchering them. I could, if I so chose, donate the meat to "the poor" (lots of them down here, along with the 25% illiteracy rate in our locale) except for all of the g&^%$# regulations on food handling that forbids me from doing so -- to whit unless I pay significantly out of pocket to do so. Geeee, for the do gooder socialists, my labor is of decidedly low value, though blame must be shared by the Shylocks of the world and their tort fetish for the current state of play. So, I give it to family and friends who I can trust not to be d***heads.

Said shotgun is also suitasble for blowing away those who would presume to dictate to me how to spend what I earn: uh, except of course Mrs Occhi . . . she is safe. :) Or, more appropriately, to deal with anyone who breaks into my house. If you lived here in the Nueces Strip, you might underestand how probable that is.

That's enough caffeine induced foaming at the mouth for one morning, one handed typing sucks. (Hand injury, broken bones)

[pjnow]

Hah! I've got that beat. I have a 36" Panasonic Tau - 227 pounds, fortunately, unlike the Wega, the stand for the Tau has wheels.

Why is it so heavy - glass. Flatscreens have a very thick piece of glass ( on a Tau the Glass is 3 3/8 inches thick ).

[Occhidiangela]

The poor in the United States are usually poor by virtue of their own bad decisions and/or laziness. 

And not infrequently due to bad luck, inability to get affordable insurance, and even getting over sued, not to mention getting taken to the cleaners by white collar criminals( to include union officials) via embezzlement and abuse of their pensions.

There are a lot of ways to end up poor, many of which do not involve sloth.

[Artega]

Amazing how quickly this topic got derailed by a single post -.-

As for WEGAs... Meh.

It's just a TV. My 15" color TV works fine for what it's usually glued to: Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, or Animal Planet. "GameCube" is also another frequently-used "channel".

I saw a WEGA at the local Best Buy last week, and all I can say is "Wow." The image quality on those things is obscene! Have fun with it, DeeBye :)

[jahcs]

That looks like a great tv DeeBye! I hope you enjoy it for years to come. The price on it isn't too bad either.

I remember when I bought my second tv. (The first was a 17" SONY trinitron I bought from my parents that they bought in 1979.) I saved for nearly a year and finally got a 32" Magnavox. There was a break-in at my duplex about 3 months later and it was stolen.

Begin rant: :angry:
It really made me mad that the thieves felt they were entitled to the stuff my roomate and I worked hard for, saved and planned for, and finally purchased legally. That because they wanted something (a new tv, cash, cash for drugs?) they felt they could just walk in and take it (actully they forced the door with sledgehammers and crowbars) from someone who had worked for it.
End Rant.

But I'm feeling much better now. :)

[kandrathe]

I hear they are very popular with the welfare crowd. ** :) I hope you know I'm ribbing you. I too am a consumer who according to the Clinton era tax reforms am considered "wealthy". I think if you have a job in America you are considered upper middle class now. Anyway, sounds like you bought a great TV and at a great deal to boot. Congrats!


** Actually, I only know of two people indirectly who have been on welfare, other than the extremely elderly who lived way beyond their own expectations.

One was a co-worker of my father's who got laid off, when I was 10 years old (circa 1971). My mom was peeved because everytime they came over to our house their 5 kids always had on brand new clothes and they were allowed to go play outside with me and my sisters in them. That, and they drove a 1970 model Cadillac.

The other was the daughter of a friend of my moms who fell into the sloth category and decided to get pregnant and have 2 kids rather than work. Not that she got pregnant as an accident mind you, she was pretty uncomely and had to try very hard to find guys who would sleep with her. It took her about two years of struggling with minimum wage jobs before she was able to accomplish her goal. Now of course we have "Welfare to Work", so she only gets to lay on her back for a limited amount time before her aid gets cut off. More of a safety net, rather than a hammock.

My mother-in-law was a Social Worker here in Minneapolis, before she moved to California (San Diego county, where she is currently a Social Worker). The impression I get from her is that the majority of her case load could do more for themselves if they were motivated. Any money you report that you have earned is directly deducted from your aid money, so why have all the hassles of getting, and going to a minimum wage job when it does nothing for you monitarily (and probably costs you some in clothes, bus fare, etc.).

[kandrathe]

I thought it was from the enriched uranium fuel in the nuclear core. They consume so much power that I understand the "new" EPA requires them to have their own self contained fusion reactor. Of course, when you switch them off the excess current flows back into the power grid.

[Phyloxerra]

Howdy,

I know how you feel. I have the Sony Trinitron XBR 32" which is the model that turned into the wega. It tips the scales at an astonishing 171 lbs. I like you had never before witnessed a tv that weighed more than some small cars. It took 4 ppl to get it up the stairs in my house. Oh, and I think that tv at that price is an absolute steal. I forget the exact price I paid for mine, but I beleive it was a little less than triple what you payed. Good luck with your tv and I hope you have fun with it.


Scotty

[Bone]

I'm a little late, but I'll give it a shot.

Nicodemus Phaulkon writes:

All of which doesn't change the fact that a TV at 1/4th to 1/8th the price would have more than sufficed. I don't disagree with a market economy... I disagree with excess. To me, purchasing a TV for 8x the needed amount simply because it's "cool" doesn't meet justification; it's excessive and repugnant.

It is only through extreme arrogance that you presume to tell someone else what would "suffice" or what is "needed" or what is "excessive". The arrogance you promote is anti-ethical to individual liberty. Each individual makes their own decision as to what they need and what is excessive. At that point they are on their own in their efforts to procure those things.

IIRC, I believe the WEGA TVs are so heavy due to the glass and technology used to produce its flat screen. Sony also manufactures special TV stands designed for this extra weight, as well as adding support straps.