Telephone companies: no more voice, please!

This message is addressed to telephone companies. They struggle in understanding that there is a new world outside: the Internet! Please, let us choose how to communicate. Please, free us from the tyranny of telephone numbers and land-line cables.

At home, ADSL can be replaced by cables or optic fibers to convey more rich media. Telephone numbers can be replace by a wealth of VoIP services (Skype, Google Voice, etc.).

Thes VoIP services can now run on all mobile phone platforms (iPhone, BlackBerry, Symbian, Android, Windows Mobile, etc.). This means that classical voice communication is no longer needed to be offered by the telephone carriers. Only Mobile Internet (UMTS, HDPSA, etc.) at reasonable rate is indeed necessary.

Internet replaces telephone communications for good. They are cheaper, richer and more efficient. But telephone companies seem not understand it. They keep offering rates for both voice and Internet communication, while it would be reasonable to offer them separately.

I hope that somebody else will agree with me and start a movement to fight this tyranny.

I work in one of the "top 10 universities for adults" in the world.

MSN encarta published an article where it reviews the top 10 universities for adults.

Here is the motivation:

Webster University, St. Louis, Mo.

Webster focuses on practical majors in areas such as procurement and acquisitions management, and human resources development. That's one of the primary reasons 96 percent of Webster grads find jobs or continue their education within six months of turning the tassel.

Course schedules are flexible and students might take advantage of exchange or travel-study options. Dual-degree capability and a strong alumni network can help motivated grads land a job more easily.

I currently work as an adjunct professor at Webster University's Swiss campus and I am very proud to be part of this institution.

Support the economy: spend more and pay less income taxes...

I wonder if this idea has also been explored and discussed. I don't know how to search for it. So, I simply state it and see if somebody reacts.

Everybody agrees that economy is healthy if people spend money by purchasing produced goods. Everybody knows also that when you buy goods you pay one tax: TVA.

So, the reasoning is simple. One of the reasons why I cannot spend money for purchasing goods is because I owe income taxes to the state, which in turn already takes money from me through TVA.

So I propose that you pay income taxes only on earned money that you don't spend in goods and for which you already have paid TVA. This measure would push people in spending more their earned money because they can deduce this money (not the TVA, but the whole amount) from incomes taxation.

You would pay instead taxes for earnings from financial speculations and interests.

My question is: is it feasible? Are there any problem with this proposal?

I really hope somebody react to this post.

The future of Italy is in its past.

Where are the economic opportunities for Italy? They are mostly in its past!

Where exactly? In its culture heritage, in its wonderful resorts, in its beautiful lifestyle full of art, music and fine food.

If you were about to choose a place where to install a R&D center for a big company, would you chose a place where living is easy? Yes of course!

But why this does not happened in Italy, which fulfills this requirement? The answer is simple: all the rest is missing!

What is basically missing is infrastructure for business, lightweight bureaucracy, an international environment (Italians who live in Italy barely speak their own language), business and technical skills of local people (here I mean not just managers, but ordinary people), competitive universities and research centers.

So what? Maybe our last chance to survive an economical disaster is to capitalize on our past: history, art, fine food, music, ...  Somebody already calls Italy the "World's Disneyland". Why not? Entertainment is big business and we possess the necessary "know-..." What is missing now is the "how"!