SO. Which IS more important to humanity: Facebook, or Portugal? The Register, it would seem, has ruffled the feathers of some sensitive Portuguese folk by merely reporting the, er, facts as presented to us by consultancy outfit Deloitte, which – having been paid by Mark Zuckerberg's company – claimed that Facebook's global economic value was $227bn (stop sniggering at the back). Naturally …
"...has ruffled the feathers of some sensitive Portuguese folk....."
Problem is I'm not Portuguese, but I am a EuroBrit (Not EWEKIP) living here and have known the country for decades. Its a much richer environment than Zuckerworld....
I am sensitive about this issue, but my feathers are more of the TUX variety owing to living 90% of the time in a rarified Pengunitis-infected environment. XFSEE!!
Come on guys, everyone knows that it's a simple fact that Facebook is THE most important thing in the world!
Think of it this way, how else would I, your boss, know what you do in your time off? or how would I, your government know what you plan to do next week? or how would I, your wife/husbend know that you are chatting up a new guy/gal on facebook?
Put simply, we need facebook it is a vital communication tool which benefits everybody equally. Without bookface we would be still living in the dark ages.
Facebook is THE single most important thing of all time!
Besides, who gives a darn about some silly little country when we have Facebook?
In the words of Metallica, "Sad but true".
PS: Keep clicking those ads! kthxbye.
"Yeah, in 100 years the United States of Europe* Administrative Area 13, formerly known as Portugal to those old enough to remember."
Yeah, in 100 years the United States of Europe* Administrative Area 13, formerly known as Portugal to those old enough to remember.( all references. having been removed from the interwebs)
To compare GDP (annual income) with total asset 'value' - if you added up the value of Portugal it's a lot more than FB.
But it's interesting to see how many countries have a lower GDP than say, Google. Income 2012 was $50 Billion, which is more than the GDP of about 130 countries! Facebook income last year was about $10 billion which is more than the GDP of about 70 countries (and doesn't include Portugal - a lovely place)
I tried matching company turnovers to GDPs not long back using wikipedia - while the figures aren't directly comparable, let alone reliable, it was the quickest way to get a feel for a hunch/concern I have that we now have corporate bodies (MNCs, multinationals, call them what you like) which have more economic power than some countries, aka tax jurisdictions. (Someone has also done a similar exercise mapping English counties to African countries - the most heartbreaking statistic I know is that economically we seem to put the same value on DRC (area 905k square miles, pop'n 77m) as we do Devon (area 2.5k square miles, pop'n 750k). )
Thinking about companies again, if taxes exist for the good of society, but the corporate body does not consider itself a part of that society, can we be surprised when the corporate bodies start to operate in their own, rather than the society/tax jurisdiction's interests? Especially if they are "bigger" than the tax jurisdiction...
Why publish this ...
SO. Which is more important to humanity: Facebook, or Portugal? (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/20/which_is_more_important_to_humanity_facebook_or_portugal/)
when you've also published this by the same author ...
Facebook is MORE IMPORTANT to humanity than PORTUGAL (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/20/facebook_global_economic_value_is_227_billion_dollars_claims_deloitte/)
?
Might as well have popped a poll into the Conservative offices on the lines of more powers (but not money) to the security services, for all the expected answer was to be.
(minus the percentage of the flippant, the jokers and the clearly insane) the denizens of these forums are hardly likely to be the most avid adherents to the church of facebook.
Here's how it goes ...
Every time you give a snipit of personal information to Zuck he is going to try to match it to other snipits. It's not the crime, friends, it's the trial.
If Zuck finds you guilty of being who you say you are, then you have been found guilty before your trial. This is an old philosophical friction between English Common Law and the Napoleonic Code. It turns out that neither ECL or NC had any intention, no way, no how, of codifying a presumption of guilt. Full Stop. But there was a question of excessive remand - can Zuck lock you in Facebook and throw away the key ? Zuck wants this pressing question decided no time soon, but certainly not before Waterloo is refought and and the video posted for all to see. Zuck is a firm believer in Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Speech.
In the meantime, you're guilty of being you because English Common Law and the Napoleonic Code can't make up their minds. EU, are you buying this nonsense ? I would hope that Portugal isn't.
The "right to be forgotten" is an appeal of a completely bogus "guilty" verdict by a self-appointed judge.
Must be an American - I have never had issues drinking the water in Portugal.
Another +1 for Portugal - They hate the Germans and wont allow them to steal all the pool chairs/loungers by sneaking down at dawn and draping towels over them.
- 1,000,000,000 for the EU - SuperBock was 9p a bottle the year before joining the EU - it was 59p the year after joining !!!!!
+1 I am an American and have never had issues with North, Central or South American beer. My countrymen who want to drink water should know the risks. As that great American philosopher W.C.Fields said, "Never drink water, fish fuck in it."
+1 x -1,000,000,000 for the EU. I never realized you could buy just one bottle. You've two hands, it doesn't seem right, somehow. That said, the European Space Program would be a lot easier to manage if the citizens in the former Portugese colony of Brazil would just stop drinking up all the rocket fuel (Cachaça).
But the 'value' of a country is far greater than its GDP. GDP, in so far as it's anything, is the country's annual turnover, not its "total value". The equivalent figure for Facebook would be its annual turnover, which is a shade under $8 billion.
So Facebook is worth about 1/30 of a Portugal (what's that in Waleses?)
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