Caveat: Subsidize This

Did you know, back in September when I bought it, my cell phone here only cost $30?  I mean, the actual little physical gadget – there was still the calling plan, and all that, too.  But anyway, the reason it cost me $30, and not $200 (the price on the box, roughly), was because we registered it under boss's name.  Because Danny is a citizen of Korea, the Korean government pays for the rest of the price of the cell phone.

That's right:  the Korean taxpayer makes sure that every Korean citizen is guaranteed a rock-bottom-priced cell phone.  Talk about subsidies!  I thought California water subsidies were bizarre, but this was amazing. This might explain why Korean cell phone adoption rates are among the highest on the planet, and also why Korean companies such as Samsung and LG have managed to catapult into positions of global market dominance.  Ain't government subsidized capitalism swell?

In other news, I just got to watch the "Star Wars" episode of the TV series "Family Guy."  I'd never seen this before.  For some reason the scene where Luke Skywalker chops off Danny Elfman's head with his light saber, after finding that John Williams had been killed by the storm troopers, made me laugh for a long time.  I don't understand why that happened.  Then there's the moment when Redd Foxx gets his fighter shot down by Darth Vader and he shouts "I'm comin', Elizabeth!"

I bought some Korean pickles.  I didn't even know they made them, but they were pretty good – pickled with hot peppers included.  Interesting flavor… they could grow on me.

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