[Geek] Dammit!

Now I know that Guild Wars Collectors Edition is sitting at home waiting for me to play I'm somewhat distracted and don't want to be at work! Damn!

I like the idea of MMORPGs but this is the first one without a monthly subscription (I will get to play it about 2 evenings a month on average). It also happens to be the top game at MMORPG.com...

[Distraction] Controversial sociological hypothesis

I was having a 'discussion' earlier this morning with my cow-workers over my theory that you can estimate a lower limit for someone's intelligence by how much they earn. With the exceptions of dumb luck, illegal activities and third world countries that don't have first world job opportunities. I challenged them to provide counter-examples (ie. someone that is dumb that earns a lot) to disprove my theory and they did eventually manage to come up with footballers and porn stars, and for a different reason artists.

I think the ability to earn money, however you do it, is a good measure of the lower limit of someone's intelligence because at the end of the day there is only a finite amount of money in this country as defined by the Bank of England¹ and therefore we are all in indirect competition for it. This is achieved by value being placed on goods and/or services and that being represented by an income.

So with the footballer and porn star arguments, it just shows what strange things humans place value in! Art I believe has its own value, but not one that many modern-day capitalists have much time for.

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¹ - On a side note, how do they govern and introduce new money into the economy? I realise that introducing more money without controls makes inflation spiral and devalues the currency against foreign currencies, but where does it enter the economy? With the government? UPDATE: This seems to give a good idea of how it works (and the effects of hyper-inflation) - through loans to businesses.