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The VAT is about replacing the bulk of the corporate tax, which we are not collecting anyways. It is not a tariff, since a tariff is applied ONLY to imports (mexico's tax is TECHNICALLY a VAT, but then they give a tax break to nearly everything mexican made; that is what is driving production to Mexico).
By simply dropping our corporate taxes on American-made goods/services, and replacing with a VAT, it makes sure that we collect the tax that we would have collected with corporate taxes.
And automobile production has NOTHING to do with tariffs. Hell, Tesla is building in CA and will be doing just fine.
Have you seen the wonderful imported cheese selection at the grocery stores? That is because we do NOT have a tariff on cheese. Bush DID talk about doing it, but that was because Europe was playing games with beef.
Here are a few, and you will notice that it does NOT include cheese other than Roquefort cheese.

May be a day late and a dollar short on this response but that is not a good analogy. Client side validation is not swapping stickers, it is handing the customer the label maker and letting them choose their own price. Sure it has a suggested price as the default, but without checking the accuracy on the server side you are letting the customer pick which ever price they want and you accept it because that is how your system is set up. It is like the credit card company that did not verify their own contract when it was sent back by a customer. If your system is set up to auto accept what the customer said you are going to have a bad time.

Wow. Just spotted this response, and can't help but replying.

All hand labor, no. That hand labor is critical to the product's profitability, yes. Could we produce the exact same product at that volume in this country without a heavy cost increase, no. We would change the product and produce it with virtually no employees. It would employ a lot of construction folks up front and a smattering of maintenance folks during its operation.

First of all, 200 million widgets, even as complex as smartphones, can be built by a few thousand people today, easily. Foxconn is the tenth largest employer in the world because they use people as robots.

They now work diligently to keep the extent of that secret, but it was clearly reported as recently as 2012. I can't find the detailed engineering analysis I read a couple of years ago showing why the iPhone design required hand assembly whereas others could be assembled entirely without human hands. Too bad, it was much more technical than the following two links on the work conditions required to produce iPhones at such a high profit level - though you might notice the following statement in the first.

"Both the iPhone and the iPad are assembled almost entirely by hand. Three hundred and twenty-five pairs of hands per device, to be precise, over a period of five days."

• 10 Surprising Items Made by Hand
• What happened after the Foxconn suicides

Most security updates aren't hardware specific.

But the system images are. That's kind of the point.

and then Google only promises updates for 18 months

Actually, that's:
- Three years from when the device first became available on the Google Store
- Or, 18 months after the device stopped being sold on the Google Store
For how long does Apple promise to support their handsets?

Apple is currently supporting every phone that has been released since 9/2011

While it is true that the oldest phone Google is directly releasing updates for (Nexus 4) was released on November 13, 2012, the HTC HD2, a Windows phone released in November 2009, has community-released ROMs of Lollipop. Does the iPhone have that? No, the iPhone can't have that. If you want to limit it to official vendor support of devices that originally shipped with Android, we're looking at support dating back to 2010.

http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/01/google-wont-fix-bug-hitting-60-percent-of-android-phones/

You do realize that the security hole in question is a bug in WebKit, which is more Apple's than Google's; Blink, which replaced WebKit in Android in 2013, is a fork of WebKit, and the issue has been patched there already. Google hasn't actively developed Apple's WebKit since it forked off Blink. Also, Google didn't say they wouldn't issue a patch, only that they wouldn't write one:

If the affected version [of WebView] is before 4.4, we generally do not develop the patches ourselves but do notify partners of the issue[...] If patches are provided with the report or put into AOSP we are happy to provide them to partners as well.

WebView 4.4 is where they replaced WebKit with Blink. They are no longer developing WebKit, so it is a reasonable position.

No less reasonable than Apple, at least. I do miss Snow Leopard.

Also, Google not writing their own patch for a 3rd-party library (WebKit) does not negate the 24hr turnaround I've seen on many issues since I've had a Nexus device; something, again, Apple and Microsoft literally never do.

All of that said, I do think Google screwed the pooch by allowing manufacturers to bake their own ROMs; that's why I own a Nexus in the first place. Android's ability to be customized to allow for quick access to apps and information (literally tap from the lock screen, then unlock) far surpasses that of iOS, which is why I prefer Android on the device I carry with me to pull out of my pocket when I want/need to access information quickly; it does lose that advantage on a tablet, which is typically only picked up to perform tasks (rather than the fetch information), which is why I also have an iPad.

What happens is called deflation, and in a modern economy it's very, VERY bad.

Krugman, is that you?

Deflation is bad for banks, (they are making less profits on interest loans), it's bad for governments and corporations that rely in ever-increasing prices to show growth and pay past obligations with the promise of future growth. One of the reasons for first world governments' interest in increasing immigration is to offset the flat birth rates - their social welfare and entitlement systems rely on an ever-increasing labor force to pay the entitlements.

The wealthier you are, the more you want to avoid deflation. That is why the Federal Reserve works so hard not only to avoid deflation, but to avoid deflationary tendencies in ANY market - because they work for the wealthy.

What's bad about deflation for the poor and working class? Nothing, it's great for them. A deflationary period would certainly improve income inequality. That gap has been widening so long because of the currency manipulation to ensure money (fiat currency) loses value continuously.

Jeff Nielson wrote an article that explains it a lot better than I can.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought people were starving in China and a very few (1%) can actually afford an iPhone or a new computer.

You're wrong.

http://www.zdnet.com/chinas-internet-population-surges-to-564-million-75-percent-on-mobile-7000009813/
http://www.minyanville.com/sectors/global-markets/articles/Apple-Inc-Doubles-iPhone-4-Sales/6/21/2013/id/50472
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-26/apple-iphone-share-shrinks-as-china-s-huawei-to-zte-lure-users.html

The market is huge, closer to 50% than 1%, and Apple's sales, while growing rapidly, aren't as large as Samsung's or growing as fast as those of Huawei or ZTE.

It should be obvious that there are a lot of reasons besides poverty to prefer other smart phones over Apple phones.

"Japanese scientists have located rich deposits of rare earth elements .. The cumulative effect of these finds could significantly weaken Chinese control of 90% of the world supply of rare earth metals, which the Chinese have been using to flex their muscles."

How is China forcing the US to buy cheap rare earth elements from China? link

GM said it best the day before the FaceBook IPO: "FaceBook Ads Don't WORK!"

http://www.minyanville.com/business-news/markets/articles/facebook-ipo-gm-advertising-pullout-ford/5/16/2012/id/41053

You ain't seen nothing yet.

I've been tracking what a lot of the writers at Minyanville have to say about various things. Mauldin especially has done very good work on what the debt is going to do to us. Compound the collapse of the Euro due to their situation, and I think we are due for a very big fall.

Some of the other indicators are that if you look at the stock market, it's been very boom and bust since the Depression (not much data from before). It' basically goes in 17 year cycles, (Slow Growth from 1932-1949, accelerating from 1949-1966 (This 34 years was unnatural due to the recovery from the Depression and WWII and the US being the only economy not devastated by the war IMO). Then 1966-1983, flat for 17 years. 1983-2000, the debt boom compounded with the tech bubble, 17 years. Now we are in year 11 since the boom. Any ideas on when we'll be seeing better times? Not for the next 5 year by cyclical estimates. Maybe more if the effects of recent measures extends this (a reverse of the boom after the depression) compounded by the wreckage of the policies of every administration going back to Roosevelt's New Deal and Johnson's Great Society, and every kick the can down the road Congress and administration since.

If you read John Mauldin's book, Endgame, about our current situation, he explains the bind the government is in. If you look at part 1 and 2 of his chapter on basic economics, you might get an understanding of how there is nothing the government CAN do, at least not actively. Obama wants you to believe he can fix these problems, but he can.

From the first page of part 2:
--------------------
Now let's go back to our first equation. You remember,

GDP = C + I + G + Net Exports

We'll spare you the mathematical rigmarole, but if you play with this equation some, you come up with the following:

Savings = Investments

That is, the savings of consumers and businesses are what's available for investment in businesses, which grow the economy. But there's a rather large but.

Those savings are also what finances government debt. Unless a central bank elects to print money, government debt must be financed by the private sector. That means if the fiscal deficit is too large, it will crowd out private investment. But as we've seen, private investment is what fuels productivity growth, so if you don't have enough savings to satisfy private investment needs, you're choking off productivity growth and the creation of new jobs.
----------------------

As you can see from what Mauldin explains here, Government spending hinders job long term job creation. Obama's solution is not the medicine for fixing our situation, it's the poison that's making us sick, just as all of the spending under Bush did the same. On the other hand, reducing spending, and reducing the red tape that prevents companies from hiring workers should allow (over time) entrepreneurs to create the jobs we need.

If you read John Mauldin's book, Endgame, about our current situation, he explains the bind the government is in. If you look at part 1 and 2 of his chapter on basic economics, you might get an understanding of how there is nothing the government CAN do, at least not actively. Obama wants you to believe he can fix these problems, but he can.

From the first page of part 2:
--------------------
Now let's go back to our first equation. You remember,

GDP = C + I + G + Net Exports

We'll spare you the mathematical rigmarole, but if you play with this equation some, you come up with the following:

Savings = Investments

That is, the savings of consumers and businesses are what's available for investment in businesses, which grow the economy. But there's a rather large but.

Those savings are also what finances government debt. Unless a central bank elects to print money, government debt must be financed by the private sector. That means if the fiscal deficit is too large, it will crowd out private investment. But as we've seen, private investment is what fuels productivity growth, so if you don't have enough savings to satisfy private investment needs, you're choking off productivity growth and the creation of new jobs.
----------------------

As you can see from what Mauldin explains here, Government spending hinders job long term job creation. Obama's solution is not the medicine for fixing our situation, it's the poison that's making us sick, just as all of the spending under Bush did the same. On the other hand, reducing spending, and reducing the red tape that prevents companies from hiring workers should allow (over time) entrepreneurs to create the jobs we need.

OP reminds me of...

Remember google buzz and all the privacy issues?

http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/google-google-buzz-google-lawsuit-google/11/4/2010/id/30935?page=full

When you do things for users with your applications that compromise their personal data, and don't let them consent to it, then your software has a problem. Do you realize the line for a coder between app that messes with you and app that works ONLY as it should is very grey?

Steve Jobs was the vey definition of a magnificent bastard. The guy made some poor choices in his life, as have we all (a life without regrets is a very sheltered one indeed.) He obviously had issues, with his naming a computer after his daughter Lisa while at the same time denying her and all. It's worth mentioning though that he and Lisa were eventually reconciled :

"Steve Jobs did eventually claim paternity for his out-of-wedlock daughter and opened his home to her during her teenage years. He sent her to Harvard where she realized a flair for writing and earned her chops at the Harvard Crimson and The Harvard Advocate."

I highly recommend reading an article titled Groupon is Effectively Insolvent in which the author draws a compelling parallel between Groupon and a Ponzi scheme.

1) http://www.minyanville.com/special-features/articles/steve-jobs-apple-buddhism-beginners-mind/5/19/2010/id/28278
2) http://www.bluejaguarmedicinearts.com/himalayan-crystal-salt/
3) ... you know what? You really just don't have a sense of humour.

just gonna dump Skype because it's owned by MS now

I have three platforms of interest: android, playstation3, and desktop linux. Add to that the next Wii that is probable for next year. Only two of those currently enjoy support, and they're both linux. Given a reasonable alternative which had a critical mass of users, then the answer is Yes.

I think your point about the XBox is underrated and I fear that Microsoft intention is not, as others say, really the customer base. I think it could very well be a defensive move as well as a technological grab. Primarily Microsoft wants to control the "living-room hub".

Microsoft's Skype acquisition is likely an attempt to position the Xbox 360 and other Microsoft platforms as a standard communication vehicle, in addition to its entertainment offerings

Note the lame post-facto "sorta apology" to the readers.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/how-will-japan-earthquake-affect-apples-ipad-supply-chain/9763

Authorâ(TM)s Note: A number of readers have complained that this article is insensitive to the pain and suffering of the Japanese people. Please accept my sincere apology. I have friends and former colleagues in Japan and I offered them my prayers for their safety and recovery last night. I have been to Japan and have a respect for its traditions and people. The devastation from the quake is terrible.

At the same time, my editorial mission here is to look at Apple, its products and markets. If that appears callous, I ask your forbearance. Some of the comments in the story were made several months ago, so please keep that context in mind.

http://www.businessinsider.com/gene-munster-apple-supply-demand-2011-3

Apple's supply chain is likely temporarily going to be affected by the Japan earthquake and tsunami, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster writes today, but demand for Apple products is stronger than ever, he says, and that should ultimately drive shares higher.

Hilarious phrasing here, "not much impact - more worried about the impact in the next quarter":
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12782566

"In the short term, there won't be much impact," said chief executive Yang Yuanqing of Lenovo. "We are more worried about the impact in the next quarter."

No shit? Employee absences common?
http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=774&doc_id=205416&f_src=internetevolution_gnews

Getting raw materials supplied and distributed remains a challenge in Japan. Disruptions to the country's transportation systems have made employee absences common. Interruptions in Japan's electricity supply have hindered maintenance of sensitive processes such as semiconductor lithography. Because of the setbacks, Apple delayed iPad2 shipments by one week from the original March 25 launch to allow it to catch up with production, given the shortfall in Japan-sourced parts.

But don't worry. Apple's supply chain is very robust and you'll be able to get your iPrick in time for Christmas.
http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/thestreet-apple-supply-chain-japan-supply/4/4/2011/id/33755

Apple's (AAPL) supply chain remains robust, according to analyst firm Canaccord Genuity.

"While we believe supply could be tight for the industry due to Japan, we believe Apple is leveraging its dominant market position and will fare much better than competitors," wrote Canaccord analyst Michael Walkley in a note Monday. "We believe suppliers will likely provide Apple with preferential supply, as Apple is often the largest customer for many suppliers."

you have RTFA

Well, via Apple Insider I found a more complete detailed account with AT&T's response:

"Transparent and accurate billing is a top priority for AT&T," an AT&T representative has responded, speaking with MacNN. "In fact, we've created tools that let our customers check their voice and data usage at any time during their billing cycle to help eliminate bill surprises. We have only recently learned of the complaint, but I can tell you that we intend to defend ourselves vigorously."

It is odd that it seems to only be reported by iPhone and iPad users.

Apparently, some pilots agree with me. See http://www.minyanville.com/dailyfeed/american-airlines-pilots-revolt-against/?camp=syndication&medium=portals&from=yahoo

Student loans provided by the Federal Gov. have the same effect as mortgage loans provided by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae- they raise the price of the underlying product. Just like cheap credit inflated the cost of housing, gov. provided loans are inflating the cost of education. In addition, educational institutions like to tempt students with the promise of high paying jobs (just like that house will be worth more in the future!), leading many students into oppressive debt burdens. Unlike many home loans, however, default on a student loan is a lot more problematic.

If education had less government subsidy, it would probably be cheaper or at least more cost effective. Everything the government subsidizes to "help the people" distorts markets by raising the price or over production. It can also encourage other risky behaviors. This is not to be confused with long lead time gov. led efforts, such as basic research, environmental studies and the like, in which a "market" either would not exist or would be dysfunctional due to lack or participants. Government clearly has important roles. Providing student loans is not one of them.

Multinationals, by definition, would be dealing across state lines, and would fall under the interstate commerce clause.

Do you really think the small government folks that are showing up at the tea party events really want to get run over by the large corporations?

My 'shrink the feds' position isn't about anything that allows large companies to have more power over people. It has to do everything with the fact that most of the money in the budget has nothing to do with protecting us from large business. Social Security, Medicare, Welfare, the Bush drug program, etc. don't protect us from anything except our own frivolous spending, and aren't needed. If people made realistic assessments about how much money we need to save for retirement and emergencies, then the none of those programs would be necessary because we would all have the money we need to pay for those expenses in the bank. Specifically, we've deluded ourselves into thinking that 30% of our income is a reasonable amount of our income to attribute to buying a house. If you set that amount closer to 10-15% (and forced banks to use that as a reasonable limit for house buying purposes), and add the 20% of your paycheck the government takes to pay for those insurance programs, you would have 30% of your income to set aside. If you saved that money, and our government had reasonable levels of debt so as not to encourage inflation, you would never need the help of these government programs. If these programs were made voluntary, I would be much happier if I didn't have to pay for a dime in exchange for not expecting to ever collect a dime. (My income is below $50k, so don't think I'm currently so well off that I don't worry about my current financial situation. Unfortunately I didn't read Dave Ramsey's book until after I bought my current house.)

I saw an interesting article today about our government debt situation. Basically, pundits that compare our situation to the Euro debt situation and claim we are OK are ignoring the amount of debt that the states owe, and not just current debt, but future debt.

The small government folks are concerned about the government taxing our money, and wasting it by guaranteeing it to government contractors, the civil service unions in guaranteed pensions, and other spending that I never voted for or approved.

And that's the crux of the problem. Once upon a time, 40-80 years ago, this government setup these programs, and we the people who are living under them never got to say yes or no, and many of the programs will be bankrupt before we ever get any money back, much less what we put in plus interest. We should be turning these into optional insurance, and requiring them to stay afloat without bailouts.

So how do you explain this story (linked from The Daily WTF)? If you read the story, you'll know that both the exchange and the company had lots of protections built in to prevent the situation, and this story is about what happened when every single one of them had a technical problem or a person telling them to go ahead and do it.

Last week there was a rumor that Qualcomm was going to buy ARM. Now there's speculation about Apple.

It's possible that Steve Jobs took the Qualcomm rumors seriously, and bid for ARM just to make sure that Qualcomm didn't end up buying the company.

http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/arm-holdings-apple-nokia-oem-semiconductors/3/8/2010/id/27176

The notion that "anybody can make it in the US if they work hard" is a fairy tale.

Seriously. Be born rich. That's the way to go.

The notion that the notion is a fairytale is a fairytale. People love to blindly spread memes like this because they enjoy feeling sorry for themselves, but it simply isn't true:

Rags To Riches Billionaires: "Almost two-thirds of the world's 946 billionaires made their fortunes from scratch, relying on grit and determination"

That doesn't mean everyone can end up a billionaire, but it's simply false that this notion that 'anyone can make it' is a fairytale; it's borne out on practically a daily basis. If you open your eyes and look, you'll find true-life rags-to-riches story under every second stone you turn --- especially in the USA, but also these days frequently in places like China. But yeah, not everyone is born hard-working, I guess, so keep sitting and feeling sorry for yourself and you'll definitely ensure that nothing ever changes for you.

Rags to Riches CEOs

7 greatest celebrity rags to riches stories

Rags to Riches

Entrepreneur takes women from rags to riches

Rags to Riches billionaires

Asian American Rags to Riches Sagas

Case Study: From Rags to Riches (Brenda French)

Cordia Harrington: From Rags to Riches Success Story

Local cosmetics magnate reveals rags-to-riches life story

China: A rags-to-riches story to dream about (Yan Huiyan)

China’s paper magnate is a rags-to-riches story, literally

Rags to riches: Bill MacAloney: from orphan to successful business owner to CBA

From rags to riches: Filipino weavers trade up

Etc. etc. blah blah ... I could go on pasting these stories in here all day. Nothing worse than listening to whiny losers feeling sorry for themselves that they weren't born rich.

We lose out on the global economy, which is largely responsible for the last 20/30 years of growth, everyone pays higher prices and things are no longer done best or cheapest, they're done in isolation.

The benefits of growth accrue to business owners and shareholders, not to workers... use "we" carefully in such context.

Real wage growth has stalled since the 1970s, after CPI/inflation, and wages have been in decline for most of the decade. Since the 1970s, wage growth has been stalled relative to CPI. Your current paycheck may have a bigger number on it than last decade's, but that increase has been wiped out by the growth in prices you're touting.

Slashdot readers may disagree with this, but that's probably because tech workers earn higher wages on average ... but that doesn't change the macroeconomics.