You first have to define "income" and doing that is actually quite complicated.
I think that you are confusing the difficulty of defining income and measuring income. It is quite clear that the tax code is intentionally over complex to the advantage of those that will save the most by hiring CPAs to take advantage of the complexity. A CPAs value should be in the standardized measurement and presentation of financial information. Instead, it is knowledge of the arbitrary, arcane, obtuse and entirely inefficient system of rules that drives a CPAs value. CPAs benefit from fixing the metaphoric windows that are systematically broken by the government on behalf of the most wealthy and highest income earners each year.
Sales Tax based solutions *always* favor the rich...
You seem to be entirely ignoring the automatic rebates that are just about universally included in any consumption tax system proposed in the past 20 years. Rebates, in addition to social and economic safety net policies, make consumption tax systems as progressive as Congress wants and does so more efficiently than any other system of taxation.
There is no longer a gold standard (or fixed exchange rate of dollars and goal). When it existed in the USA, it had nothing to do with a monopoly over some good.
...we realistically traded it [gold?] for OIL we didn't have but was sold in dollars...
I don't think that I can help you on this part. I don't even know what you are trying to convey.
You started off strong, though slightly off-topic, with your true comment about people often confusing deficit with debt. But your comment degraded quickly as you continued. Thanks for letting us know that you are confused... I hope I've helped.
Are these the same shareholders that elected those who committed the fraud?
Probably not. Shares trade daily, so the two sets are most likely not a match. Also, most companies have a significant percent of shareholders via pension, 401K and mutual funds. The individual shareholders in these cases don't get to vote for board members. Since fund administrators often abstain from voting by policy, it is not unusual for a large shareholder (like Michael Dell) to effectively control the vote. Also, it is not unusual to have only those that support the CEO to be nominated for a board position, effectively giving any shareholder actually interested in voting out current board members no feasible option to do so.
Right now, when a family member or friend asks me what type of computer to get, I start my reply with, "I wouldn't buy anything from Dell". But after that, I don't have much useful advice. Just knowing that Dell is an unreliable reseller of PCs isn't exactly the answer that they are looking to find out. I would recommend paying a little extra for reliability, but what manufacturers and resellers are reliable? If someone seems open to it, I recommend system76.com, but most are not. What say you, slashdot reader?
I have no problem with you valuing your safety and comfort. But you are not baring the full costs of your decision to drive a car that pollutes more than another. The USA should really try to compensate for these externalized costs through higher gas consumption taxes and less oil industry subsidies.
I guess you'd rather that person have a second vehicle manufactured for him, which he can separately maintain, insure, and store somewhere. That's super efficient.
For many situations it is often more cost efficient to rent what you need for the short amount of time that you will need it.
The feds actively forced the banks to make loans to unqualified people using a typical carrot and stick approach. The stick was to threaten bringing them in for congressional hearings for bogus crap to make it impossible for them to do business. The carrot was to use Fannie and Freddie which are government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) to buy all the known-bad debt from the banks.
If you are really interested in knowing about major contributor to the bubble in the Real Estate, Mortgage, and related Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) and Credit Defalt Swap (CDS) Markets, you should read up on Magnitar. I wish I had a clear answer on how to safeguard the non-participaing public from Magnitar-like problems. I'm sure it would have something to due with finanial regulation in the form of capital requirements, total leverage ratio limits and transparentcy in transactions for partisipants in CDO, CDS, and all other current and future financial markets.
Like I said, I'm not convinced yet. I'm quite sure that I'm not the only one. I hope that doesn't discourage the catholic church from making the tremendous effort that will be needed to actually change permanently into something more respectable. But I'm not sure they believe a change would be beneficial.
It also wasn't reported to the police, as was the standard in the church then.
It will take my lifetime for me to be convinced that this is no longer the policy. For me, the catholic church and it's representatives have lost the benefit of any doubt in all aspects of their operations. The organization needs to go to great lengths for a long period of time before I will even consider listening to its ideas about morality. In the mean time, I'll look elsewhere.
Terrible summary again. In good/. fashion I didn't RTFA....
That's OK. In this case, the summary is the article (or TFA, if you prefer slashdot colloquialism). The only link in the summary is to the website of the payment service described, namely, EasyPayUganda.
It is actually very interesting to me that Canonical does not have a hardware offering and does not seem to be partnering with any hardware makers to customize Ubuntu for that company's devices. I don't understand why that is, but maybe it is just under the radar or they have good business reasons.
So, it's easier for the banks to be responsible for analyzing EVERYBODY'S transactions, which are complete black boxes to them?
Or, is it easier for us to log into our online account once or twice a week, scan our virtual checkbooks of 20(ish) transactions and say, "Yup, I remember buying all that stuff"...?
You've illustrated the cost to the bank(s) but not the total cost to the public. Without even valuing individuals time or other costs, you could simply multiply the annual cost of Quicken by the number of customers to get a number that is far less than the amount of money that a small bank would have to spend to reduce the cost of fraudulent transactions more than the increase of internalizing the cost now born on victims of bank fraud.
About that comment you linked? Interesting, and he makes a good point about identity theft
Maybe you misread the quote from Bruce Schneier that said:
The actual problem to be solved is that of fraudulent transactions.
...the costs in time, stress and hassle are entirely borne by the victims.
I'm not sure I see what liability for identity theft has to do with the efficiencies of who should be ultimately responsible for monitoring an individual's banking transactions for fraud.
Because it is the fraud that is the problem. The banks role is to enable the fraud; yet they share the cost with the ultimate victim.
Whatever happened to taking a little personal responsibility?
I'm all for personal responsibility. However, since it is the bank's and possibly the merchant's mistake for processing fraudulent transactions why should I be responsible for cleaning up their mess? Obviously, I will because it is my money (and possibly credit record), but only because I have limited recourse with the people that made the mistake.
Wow if you keep that money in your bank account each month over your life time you'll save enough for an iPad.
You earn points for rewards.
Some debit cards offer this, some have sweepstakes and giveaways. Most people don't and shouldn't care about the up to $200 per year in cash back. Good service is more valuable than that.
You get protection against fraud.
Debit card offer that too.
You often get warranties on things you wouldn't normally get.
If by often you mean one almost always already has insurance against those items then yes, often. How many people actually make a claim on the insurance/warranties that cards offer. I'm so uninterested in this that I don't even know if this is offered with debit cards. So you may be sort of correct here.
You should read John Whitley's comment. Why can't you see the inefficiency of every individual verifying transactions compared to a central processor of transactions baring the burden.
I've got an idea. How about the credit agencies be required to inform me when they give out reports about me?
You're proposal only provides people with a low cost resource to discover fraud that has already been perpetrated. It does nothing to prevent or even deal with the fraud.
I guess this is a step in the right direction. But let's not convince ourselves that this is the solution to credit/bank fraud.
A collection of texts covering a sequence in Real Analysis (covers calculus concepts from an analytical point of view) and Number Theory available under a free of charge license to students using it for self-study. Probably beyond your current interest in math.
Maybe "axilmar" is more interested in the ethics of AI than commercial gain. Maybe "axilmar" is getting ready to create a free cylon project that will eventually be completed by a Scandinavian student. Although "axilmar" never completes his own project, he'll consistently complain about the name of the newer, complete, more popular project and its derivatives. "Axilmar's" efforts will shift to creating and running the Free Cylon Foundation (or FCF). He spends the majority of his time give strikingly similar speeches over and over around the world. Despite the absolute consistency of his message he and by association the FCF are increasingly seen as a fringe political group. Despite the FCF's best efforts to promote the rights of the Cylons and hope for peaceful coexistence, the world's civilization eventually falls into chaos as the Cylons engage in war against humanity. Not long before his death at the hands of a cylon as he tries to convince the cylon that he's more righteous than other humans, "axilmar" is overheard muttering some complaint about a printer...
... I vote Republican because I don't want a 50% overall tax rate.
a) If you voted for Democrat(s), you would not be supporting a 50% overall tax rate.
b) While Democrats tend to vote for more government services i.e. expenditures, often without raising tax revenues to pay for it, Republicans tend to vote for eliminating tax revenues, often without eliminating government services that they finance. Neither situation is in the best interest of the citizens of the USA as they increase future taxes more than otherwise be prudent.
That's one reason I consistently vote for people that are not endorsed bay any political party for the Federal or State office I'm casting my vote for. Last presidential election I voted for Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, NJ. I'm willing to vote for a Democrat or Republican that supports the public funding of federal election campaigns as advocated by fixcongressfirst.org. But only for one term.
Is this the slippery slope to further government mandated lists and registries?
no.
Because a slippery slope argument is a logical fallacy, therefore false by definition. The introduction of an animal abuser registry does not necessarily lead to nor is it a prerequisite for other criminal offense registries.
That being said, I think criminal offense registries are inherently a bad idea. A good idea would be to extend incarceration sentences and reduce parole eligibility for violent crimes.
I never heard of Ushahidi before. But from Phoenix666's description and the website (Ushahidi.com) it seems like it would be much more valuable than facebook if people know about it.
Dear Fucktarded PR-Challenged Fatty-Haters at @SouthwestAir: Your "apology" blog is insulting, redacted bullshit. FULL details in two hours.
According to TFA Kevin Smith claimed to be sitting in the seat with the armrests down before he was asked to leave the plane. He also claimed to have purchased only one ticket when flying the first leg of his trip. He was kicked off on his return leg.
The Southwest PR people seem to be stretching the truth in their side of the story. I think that the Southwest policy to require the purchase of two tickets when some one cannot fit between the armrests of one seat is generally a good one. However, I think the pilot was overzealous in enforcing the policy. Southwest has not apologized for the mistake they actually made. They merely said, "we're sorry that you don't like our policy." They need to say "we're sorry that we misapplied our policy," in this instance.
Slashdot Mirror
You first have to define "income" and doing that is actually quite complicated.
I think that you are confusing the difficulty of defining income and measuring income. It is quite clear that the tax code is intentionally over complex to the advantage of those that will save the most by hiring CPAs to take advantage of the complexity. A CPAs value should be in the standardized measurement and presentation of financial information. Instead, it is knowledge of the arbitrary, arcane, obtuse and entirely inefficient system of rules that drives a CPAs value. CPAs benefit from fixing the metaphoric windows that are systematically broken by the government on behalf of the most wealthy and highest income earners each year.
Sales Tax based solutions *always* favor the rich...
You seem to be entirely ignoring the automatic rebates that are just about universally included in any consumption tax system proposed in the past 20 years. Rebates, in addition to social and economic safety net policies, make consumption tax systems as progressive as Congress wants and does so more efficiently than any other system of taxation.
...the $13Trillion in US national debt
The debt is LARGER.
The USA's national deficit in 2009 was $1.4 Trillion. The USA's total (or gross) national debt was, as of July 29, 2010, $13.2 Trillion. The post you replied to was correct.
... we had a real GDP back then.
Real GDP is a relative measure of the economic output of some predefined region in a particular year adjusted for inflation from some base year.
...we monopolize the new gold standard
There is no longer a gold standard (or fixed exchange rate of dollars and goal). When it existed in the USA, it had nothing to do with a monopoly over some good.
...we realistically traded it [gold?] for OIL we didn't have but was sold in dollars...
I don't think that I can help you on this part. I don't even know what you are trying to convey.
You started off strong, though slightly off-topic, with your true comment about people often confusing deficit with debt. But your comment degraded quickly as you continued. Thanks for letting us know that you are confused... I hope I've helped.
Are these the same shareholders that elected those who committed the fraud?
Probably not. Shares trade daily, so the two sets are most likely not a match. Also, most companies have a significant percent of shareholders via pension, 401K and mutual funds. The individual shareholders in these cases don't get to vote for board members. Since fund administrators often abstain from voting by policy, it is not unusual for a large shareholder (like Michael Dell) to effectively control the vote. Also, it is not unusual to have only those that support the CEO to be nominated for a board position, effectively giving any shareholder actually interested in voting out current board members no feasible option to do so.
Right now, when a family member or friend asks me what type of computer to get, I start my reply with, "I wouldn't buy anything from Dell". But after that, I don't have much useful advice. Just knowing that Dell is an unreliable reseller of PCs isn't exactly the answer that they are looking to find out. I would recommend paying a little extra for reliability, but what manufacturers and resellers are reliable? If someone seems open to it, I recommend system76.com, but most are not. What say you, slashdot reader?
I have no problem with you valuing your safety and comfort. But you are not baring the full costs of your decision to drive a car that pollutes more than another. The USA should really try to compensate for these externalized costs through higher gas consumption taxes and less oil industry subsidies.
I guess you'd rather that person have a second vehicle manufactured for him, which he can separately maintain, insure, and store somewhere. That's super efficient.
For many situations it is often more cost efficient to rent what you need for the short amount of time that you will need it.
The feds actively forced the banks to make loans to unqualified people using a typical carrot and stick approach. The stick was to threaten bringing them in for congressional hearings for bogus crap to make it impossible for them to do business. The carrot was to use Fannie and Freddie which are government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) to buy all the known-bad debt from the banks.
Paul Krungman has been explaining since at least November 16, 2008, 5:36 pm. That the Fannie and Freddie (which are no longer GSEs but now 100% government owned through conservatorship) played only a small role in contributing to the Real Estate Bubble. He's linked to supporting evidence of this claim provided by Mark Thoma. He has also provided evidence that the Community Reinvestment Act played only a minor role as well. And he continues to provide more evidence this month.
He has even argued that the USA's federal government should continue to "keep Fannie and Freddie fully engaged in the mortgage-support business" as a form of quantitative easing, at least until the economy (as measured by the unemployment rate) continues operate below capacity.
If you are really interested in knowing about major contributor to the bubble in the Real Estate, Mortgage, and related Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) and Credit Defalt Swap (CDS) Markets, you should read up on Magnitar. I wish I had a clear answer on how to safeguard the non-participaing public from Magnitar-like problems. I'm sure it would have something to due with finanial regulation in the form of capital requirements, total leverage ratio limits and transparentcy in transactions for partisipants in CDO, CDS, and all other current and future financial markets.
Like I said, I'm not convinced yet. I'm quite sure that I'm not the only one. I hope that doesn't discourage the catholic church from making the tremendous effort that will be needed to actually change permanently into something more respectable. But I'm not sure they believe a change would be beneficial.
It also wasn't reported to the police, as was the standard in the church then.
It will take my lifetime for me to be convinced that this is no longer the policy. For me, the catholic church and it's representatives have lost the benefit of any doubt in all aspects of their operations. The organization needs to go to great lengths for a long period of time before I will even consider listening to its ideas about morality. In the mean time, I'll look elsewhere.
Terrible summary again. In good /. fashion I didn't RTFA....
That's OK. In this case, the summary is the article (or TFA, if you prefer slashdot colloquialism). The only link in the summary is to the website of the payment service described, namely, EasyPayUganda.
It is actually very interesting to me that Canonical does not have a hardware offering and does not seem to be partnering with any hardware makers to customize Ubuntu for that company's devices. I don't understand why that is, but maybe it is just under the radar or they have good business reasons.
Are you talking about something like System76?
So, it's easier for the banks to be responsible for analyzing EVERYBODY'S transactions, which are complete black boxes to them?
Or, is it easier for us to log into our online account once or twice a week, scan our virtual checkbooks of 20(ish) transactions and say, "Yup, I remember buying all that stuff"...?
You've illustrated the cost to the bank(s) but not the total cost to the public. Without even valuing individuals time or other costs, you could simply multiply the annual cost of Quicken by the number of customers to get a number that is far less than the amount of money that a small bank would have to spend to reduce the cost of fraudulent transactions more than the increase of internalizing the cost now born on victims of bank fraud.
About that comment you linked? Interesting, and he makes a good point about identity theft
Maybe you misread the quote from Bruce Schneier that said:
The actual problem to be solved is that of fraudulent transactions.
...the costs in time, stress and hassle are entirely borne by the victims.
I'm not sure I see what liability for identity theft has to do with the efficiencies of who should be ultimately responsible for monitoring an individual's banking transactions for fraud.
Because it is the fraud that is the problem. The banks role is to enable the fraud; yet they share the cost with the ultimate victim.
Whatever happened to taking a little personal responsibility?
I'm all for personal responsibility. However, since it is the bank's and possibly the merchant's mistake for processing fraudulent transactions why should I be responsible for cleaning up their mess? Obviously, I will because it is my money (and possibly credit record), but only because I have limited recourse with the people that made the mistake.
If you have a credit card you pay off every month
You don't have to do that with debit cards.
you get an interest free loan for a month.
Wow if you keep that money in your bank account each month over your life time you'll save enough for an iPad.
You earn points for rewards.
Some debit cards offer this, some have sweepstakes and giveaways. Most people don't and shouldn't care about the up to $200 per year in cash back. Good service is more valuable than that.
You get protection against fraud.
Debit card offer that too.
You often get warranties on things you wouldn't normally get.
If by often you mean one almost always already has insurance against those items then yes, often. How many people actually make a claim on the insurance/warranties that cards offer. I'm so uninterested in this that I don't even know if this is offered with debit cards. So you may be sort of correct here.
You get NONE of this with a debit card.
I beg to differ...
You should read John Whitley's comment. Why can't you see the inefficiency of every individual verifying transactions compared to a central processor of transactions baring the burden.
I've got an idea. How about the credit agencies be required to inform me when they give out reports about me?
You're proposal only provides people with a low cost resource to discover fraud that has already been perpetrated. It does nothing to prevent or even deal with the fraud.
I guess this is a step in the right direction. But let's not convince ourselves that this is the solution to credit/bank fraud.
Some no cost resources that I don't think were mentioned:
A three part self-test/review of fundamental Calculus skills. The first 6 questions in the part on Trig, Logs and Limits are prerequisites to a first course in elementary calculus.
A collection of articles with intuitive explanations of math concepts many people find too abstract.
A textbook, "Elementary Calculus: An Infinitesimal Approach", available under a creative commons by-nc-sa license. Covers Calculus I/II material.
A collection of texts covering a sequence in Real Analysis (covers calculus concepts from an analytical point of view) and Number Theory available under a free of charge license to students using it for self-study. Probably beyond your current interest in math.
I have have mod points but no way to mark this -1 Fail.
Maybe "axilmar" is more interested in the ethics of AI than commercial gain. Maybe "axilmar" is getting ready to create a free cylon project that will eventually be completed by a Scandinavian student. Although "axilmar" never completes his own project, he'll consistently complain about the name of the newer, complete, more popular project and its derivatives. "Axilmar's" efforts will shift to creating and running the Free Cylon Foundation (or FCF). He spends the majority of his time give strikingly similar speeches over and over around the world. Despite the absolute consistency of his message he and by association the FCF are increasingly seen as a fringe political group. Despite the FCF's best efforts to promote the rights of the Cylons and hope for peaceful coexistence, the world's civilization eventually falls into chaos as the Cylons engage in war against humanity. Not long before his death at the hands of a cylon as he tries to convince the cylon that he's more righteous than other humans, "axilmar" is overheard muttering some complaint about a printer...
... I vote Republican because I don't want a 50% overall tax rate.
a) If you voted for Democrat(s), you would not be supporting a 50% overall tax rate. b) While Democrats tend to vote for more government services i.e. expenditures, often without raising tax revenues to pay for it, Republicans tend to vote for eliminating tax revenues, often without eliminating government services that they finance. Neither situation is in the best interest of the citizens of the USA as they increase future taxes more than otherwise be prudent. That's one reason I consistently vote for people that are not endorsed bay any political party for the Federal or State office I'm casting my vote for. Last presidential election I voted for Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, NJ. I'm willing to vote for a Democrat or Republican that supports the public funding of federal election campaigns as advocated by fixcongressfirst.org. But only for one term.
+1
no.
Because a slippery slope argument is a logical fallacy, therefore false by definition. The introduction of an animal abuser registry does not necessarily lead to nor is it a prerequisite for other criminal offense registries.
That being said, I think criminal offense registries are inherently a bad idea. A good idea would be to extend incarceration sentences and reduce parole eligibility for violent crimes.
...the return on investment of this $25 million dollar plant is estimated to be in just over three and a half years...
Beware of the salesman that quotes a Return on Investment in terms of time.
I never heard of Ushahidi before. But from Phoenix666's description and the website (Ushahidi.com) it seems like it would be much more valuable than facebook if people know about it.
Dear Fucktarded PR-Challenged Fatty-Haters at @SouthwestAir: Your "apology" blog is insulting, redacted bullshit. FULL details in two hours.
According to TFA Kevin Smith claimed to be sitting in the seat with the armrests down before he was asked to leave the plane. He also claimed to have purchased only one ticket when flying the first leg of his trip. He was kicked off on his return leg.
The Southwest PR people seem to be stretching the truth in their side of the story. I think that the Southwest policy to require the purchase of two tickets when some one cannot fit between the armrests of one seat is generally a good one. However, I think the pilot was overzealous in enforcing the policy. Southwest has not apologized for the mistake they actually made. They merely said, "we're sorry that you don't like our policy." They need to say "we're sorry that we misapplied our policy," in this instance.