The reason that H1-Bs have to pay into social security is so that they system stays solvent longer. You don't get to collect, but you have to pay. This does show where the program is flawed and that it is similar to a Ponzi scheme (I know it isn't a true Ponzi scheme but has some similarities) in that it always need new people paying in (especially those that will never collect) so that it can continue to function.
firmly believe the gov't will piss away all my Social Security 'savings' before I hit retirement age.
I hate to break it to you but they have already pissed away all of your social security "savings". The lock box you hear about is just filled with I.O.Us (government bonds). In years where Social security takes in more than it gives out (probably all years until recently) the government borrows from social security thus adding to the bonds that are held by the trust fund. That money is then added to the general fund and pissed away. Now this in general works well if you have increasing funds entering the social security program, but we really don't any more with the current economic down turn and beginning of the baby boomer retirement. When/if we climb out of this recession there will be a few more years where social security takes in more than it pays out. The real problems arise once social security needs to start cashing in those bonds, and gets worse once there are no bonds left to cash in. When social security starts cashing in bonds congress will have to either cut back on spending since they no longer have that source of revenue, or raise taxes to keep spending levels the same. Things will really start to get harry when social security no longer has bonds to cash in as at that point they can't meet their obligations and will only be able to pay out a percentage of their promised benefits, or go and seek additional revenue from the general fund.
Also keep in mind that you only pay in half "your money" to social security the other half is paid by your employer. Each pay period they take 6.2% from you pay while your employer also pays in that same amount on up to $106,800 of income currently, or in the case of a self employed person you get stuck paying the full 12.4%. To further worsen the current problems social security is facing there is a 2% deduction in the employ contribution so they are only paying 4.2% but their employer is still paying the 6.2% rate. The current benefits are based off of your highest 5 years of income up to some maximum so there is a maximum benefit for social security.
Its not just web developers who get billed out a 10x what they bring home. At my company I was a lead on a project and found out for T&M work individual workers are billed to the customer at about the same rate.
Sounds similar to my experience when I was younger and didn't know my rights, but was still a cocky little 20 year old ass hole. I was driving back to my apartment after working a 9 hour shift at my regular gas station and then an 8 hour shift at another one that was short on people. It was about 11:30 pm on a weekday and I was coming off the freeway onto surface streets (right by by regular gas station) and while on the ramp heard someone peel out from the stoplight. Sure enough a couple seconds later when I reach the top of the ramp behind me is an Eagan cop with his flashers on. I go and do what I am suppose to do which is pull off to the side of the road so the cop can pass. Unfortunately for me the cop stops behind me and thus begins the standard inquisition:
Cop: License and registration
Me: Hand over license and registration
Cop: Do you know why I stopped you
Me: No
Cop: I heard you peel out from that stop light
Me: No I was coming off of 494 on the ramp. Besides this car is physically incapable of peeling out from a light. (It was an 85' Olds Cutlass Supreme with the 3.8 v6 that was really worn out as it had about 240,000 miles on it, lots of valve train chatter, leaked and burned oil, mis-calibrated computer controlled carb, and would foul the plug in cylinder #4 in about a month)
Cop: Where were you going?
Me: None of your business.
Cop: what is in you vehicle?
Me: I don't have to tell you.
Cop: Sir, I am going to have to ask you to step out of the car
Me: [steps out of the car]
Now the field sobriety test, which I didn't pass because I was just exhausted. So I get shuffled off to the cop car. The cop then goes and opens my car and proceeds to empty the contents of my car onto the road. After emptying the trunk.
Cop: Why do you have all these tools and car parts in here?
Me: Because I drive a fucking piece of shit car that breaks down a lot and I don't want to be stranded. (I kept all of my tools, a spare set of belts, spark plugs, and a few other odds and ends in the trunk)
Cop: You are free to go but you need to pick up all your stuff otherwise you will get a ticket for littering
Me: How about you pick up my shit that you dumped on the ground or I will report you for littering
Cop: Pick it up now.
Me: What is your badge number
Cop: (provides badge number I forget what it was)
The cop then proceeded to sit behind me in his car the whole time I load all my crap back in my car. The next morning I went down to the Eagan police station to file a complaint. Nothing ever came of that. Granted I was an ass hole but so was the cop.
I find that the problem is with going from windows to anything else. If you know one flavor of Unix the others aren't fairly easy to pick up. On any given day I may work on Linux, AIX, Solaris, OpenBSD, HP-UX, or windows. I prefer any of the others to windows even with their own idiosyncrasies and I was a windows user for a long time. I got my feet wet on *nix with X and now prefer the good old command line for a lot of what I do.
Well part of me does enjoy seeing vengeance metered out as probably most people do, but I could be wrong on that last bit as I am kind of a vengeful ass hole. This is why I wouldn't make a good judge.
Tainted jury pool. If people have outside knowledge (what these e-mails present) it can taint the jury pool and cause mistrials. As such the only evidence allowed in a trial is what is presented by the lawyers. Personally I may have had an issue with this in a civil suit. I had detailed knowledge of the area as it was behind the gas station I had worked at for 4.5 years in high school and part of college. I was upfront when questioned during jury selection as they wanted to know if anyone had detailed knowledge of this area. When I responded the lawyer for the plaintiff went to the judge to get me off the case because I had outside knowledge of the area. He was overruled as it really wasn't germane to the case.
This is where the true issue is. Also for those of you who really like a good conspiracy the whistle blower was found dead and police ruled that it wasn't suspicious.
Ok so since I have a blog would you mind if I wandered over to your house opened your garage (if your car is there) and did a complete inspection on it and then held it up as an example of the poor care you take of your car. All without your knowledge. Now I wouldn't be depriving you of anything only uncovering information. Also you wouldn't mind if I popped the locks on your car so it can't be my fault for unlocking your vehicle since obviously you are using the weak locks provided by the manufacture.
That is the problem. As much as I enjoy this happening to them the harder fall will (may) be the convictions that could have come from this. I think it is the instant gratification vs. the delayed gratification issue. If I was going to give you $10 now or $100 in a couple of years what would you take?
Personally I would have loved for this to have just been a criminal investigation which is should be, but I do get a fair amount of satisfaction from seeing this happen to them.
I wonder if this is because of the alcohol consumed they feel inspired, or at lest more open to new ideas. I know a professional artist ( yes he actually makes a living off of painting ) who claims that his best inspirations come while intoxicated.
I am not saying that this was a good thing, just that "it couldn't have happened to a nicer company". Personally I hope it affect the prosecution of these cases as it would be nice to see a perp walk for some executives for once who are actively trying to screw people.
Pay back is a bitch. As others have mentioned this may not be the best thing for the criminal investigations, but it will be interesting to see how News Corps responds to this since it was apparently ok for them (a private entity) to tap other private entities' phones and e-mails.
Simple answer is it allows a better allocation of resources. In this case it would be energy and capital. A true capitalist should be all for this as it makes a more efficient market, but most who claim to be true capitalists aren't.
There a people who actually do this. My father needed to replace the toilet in his old house and with the poor plumbing from the 1920's the modern low flow toilets just didn't work. As we aren't that far from Canada my father took a day trip up there to buy an old style 5 gpf toilet.
There are a couple of good ways to prevent ice dams. The first it to properly insulate your attic, and the other is to go and buy a roof rake and get rid of the snow on your roof. Granted if you live in a snowy climate you should probably do both as better insulation will help keep your house warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, and if you have a winter like the one we had last year here in Minnesota it is a good idea to clear the snow off your roof so it doesn't cave in.
Black shingles may actually make ice dams worse as they will melt snow farther up the roof only to have it refreeze once it gets down to the eaves and overhangs, thus actually causing ice dams. This is the basic process which forms ice dams warmer air melts the snow (usually from poor insulation) and it trickles down the roof until it gets above the eaves where it is cooler (no heat from the house here) and refreezes. There were several houses in my neighbor hood that had issues last winter, either from ice dams, or cave ins.
That is what they are good for. It is nice to know that there are some who don't push BS like I mentioned. My wife got taken once when she went to one and bought some allergy "cure" for like $15. It was homeopathic and claimed to be really strong, the "active ingredients" were listed at 200x, the inert portion was salt water at a 5% concentration. The cure was to flush this mixture (really just salt water) through the sinuses and symptoms would go away. She did see an improvement when doing this and wanted to get more but I explained that she could get similar results by just using water from the tap with a bit of salt in it. My little "cure" worked and you can buy a lot tap water and table salt for $15. She now only goes to get her back corrected every couple of months.
Along the same lines I heard a story form a coworker who use to be in the Marines. When he was in they had 2 radios for the motor pool the PRC-77 and PRC-169 (I think those are the correct number) and PRC would be pronounced prick. Well as with all things new recruits working in the motor pool would be sent to go see the quartermaster (at the base he was at it was a Master Sergeant) to get a new PRC-E8. This usually ended with the ones who sent the new recruit off to get the PRC-E8 in trouble.
But that would ensure that he couldn't get a nice high paying job after he finishes with the current administration by working with a major lobbying firm or government contractor. It is no different from those who go into the military stay for 20 years (at around age 40) and then go off and "work" for a defense contractor. Not only do they get the nice pension, but they make a metric ton of money at these companies.
In particular, Kundra is worried about the "mosaic effect," the unintended consequence of government data sharing, where data sets are combined and layered in ways that can strip away privacy and pose security threats.
Now granted he probably isn't concerned with the privacy of the individual citizen but that of government officials, but at least it sounds like there are some privacy concerns.
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The reason that H1-Bs have to pay into social security is so that they system stays solvent longer. You don't get to collect, but you have to pay. This does show where the program is flawed and that it is similar to a Ponzi scheme (I know it isn't a true Ponzi scheme but has some similarities) in that it always need new people paying in (especially those that will never collect) so that it can continue to function.
firmly believe the gov't will piss away all my Social Security 'savings' before I hit retirement age.
I hate to break it to you but they have already pissed away all of your social security "savings". The lock box you hear about is just filled with I.O.Us (government bonds). In years where Social security takes in more than it gives out (probably all years until recently) the government borrows from social security thus adding to the bonds that are held by the trust fund. That money is then added to the general fund and pissed away. Now this in general works well if you have increasing funds entering the social security program, but we really don't any more with the current economic down turn and beginning of the baby boomer retirement. When/if we climb out of this recession there will be a few more years where social security takes in more than it pays out. The real problems arise once social security needs to start cashing in those bonds, and gets worse once there are no bonds left to cash in. When social security starts cashing in bonds congress will have to either cut back on spending since they no longer have that source of revenue, or raise taxes to keep spending levels the same. Things will really start to get harry when social security no longer has bonds to cash in as at that point they can't meet their obligations and will only be able to pay out a percentage of their promised benefits, or go and seek additional revenue from the general fund.
Also keep in mind that you only pay in half "your money" to social security the other half is paid by your employer. Each pay period they take 6.2% from you pay while your employer also pays in that same amount on up to $106,800 of income currently, or in the case of a self employed person you get stuck paying the full 12.4%. To further worsen the current problems social security is facing there is a 2% deduction in the employ contribution so they are only paying 4.2% but their employer is still paying the 6.2% rate. The current benefits are based off of your highest 5 years of income up to some maximum so there is a maximum benefit for social security.
Its not just web developers who get billed out a 10x what they bring home. At my company I was a lead on a project and found out for T&M work individual workers are billed to the customer at about the same rate.
Anything important still happens behind closed doors in smoke filled rooms. We just get to see the posturing and cock waving on the floor now.
Sounds similar to my experience when I was younger and didn't know my rights, but was still a cocky little 20 year old ass hole. I was driving back to my apartment after working a 9 hour shift at my regular gas station and then an 8 hour shift at another one that was short on people. It was about 11:30 pm on a weekday and I was coming off the freeway onto surface streets (right by by regular gas station) and while on the ramp heard someone peel out from the stoplight. Sure enough a couple seconds later when I reach the top of the ramp behind me is an Eagan cop with his flashers on. I go and do what I am suppose to do which is pull off to the side of the road so the cop can pass. Unfortunately for me the cop stops behind me and thus begins the standard inquisition:
Cop: License and registration
Me: Hand over license and registration
Cop: Do you know why I stopped you
Me: No
Cop: I heard you peel out from that stop light
Me: No I was coming off of 494 on the ramp. Besides this car is physically incapable of peeling out from a light. (It was an 85' Olds Cutlass Supreme with the 3.8 v6 that was really worn out as it had about 240,000 miles on it, lots of valve train chatter, leaked and burned oil, mis-calibrated computer controlled carb, and would foul the plug in cylinder #4 in about a month)
Cop: Where were you going?
Me: None of your business.
Cop: what is in you vehicle?
Me: I don't have to tell you.
Cop: Sir, I am going to have to ask you to step out of the car
Me: [steps out of the car]
Now the field sobriety test, which I didn't pass because I was just exhausted. So I get shuffled off to the cop car. The cop then goes and opens my car and proceeds to empty the contents of my car onto the road. After emptying the trunk.
Cop: Why do you have all these tools and car parts in here?
Me: Because I drive a fucking piece of shit car that breaks down a lot and I don't want to be stranded. (I kept all of my tools, a spare set of belts, spark plugs, and a few other odds and ends in the trunk)
Cop: You are free to go but you need to pick up all your stuff otherwise you will get a ticket for littering
Me: How about you pick up my shit that you dumped on the ground or I will report you for littering
Cop: Pick it up now.
Me: What is your badge number
Cop: (provides badge number I forget what it was)
The cop then proceeded to sit behind me in his car the whole time I load all my crap back in my car. The next morning I went down to the Eagan police station to file a complaint. Nothing ever came of that. Granted I was an ass hole but so was the cop.
I find that the problem is with going from windows to anything else. If you know one flavor of Unix the others aren't fairly easy to pick up. On any given day I may work on Linux, AIX, Solaris, OpenBSD, HP-UX, or windows. I prefer any of the others to windows even with their own idiosyncrasies and I was a windows user for a long time. I got my feet wet on *nix with X and now prefer the good old command line for a lot of what I do.
I thought BSD was dead Netcraft confirmed it.
Well part of me does enjoy seeing vengeance metered out as probably most people do, but I could be wrong on that last bit as I am kind of a vengeful ass hole. This is why I wouldn't make a good judge.
Tainted jury pool. If people have outside knowledge (what these e-mails present) it can taint the jury pool and cause mistrials. As such the only evidence allowed in a trial is what is presented by the lawyers. Personally I may have had an issue with this in a civil suit. I had detailed knowledge of the area as it was behind the gas station I had worked at for 4.5 years in high school and part of college. I was upfront when questioned during jury selection as they wanted to know if anyone had detailed knowledge of this area. When I responded the lawyer for the plaintiff went to the judge to get me off the case because I had outside knowledge of the area. He was overruled as it really wasn't germane to the case.
This is where the true issue is. Also for those of you who really like a good conspiracy the whistle blower was found dead and police ruled that it wasn't suspicious.
Ok so since I have a blog would you mind if I wandered over to your house opened your garage (if your car is there) and did a complete inspection on it and then held it up as an example of the poor care you take of your car. All without your knowledge. Now I wouldn't be depriving you of anything only uncovering information. Also you wouldn't mind if I popped the locks on your car so it can't be my fault for unlocking your vehicle since obviously you are using the weak locks provided by the manufacture.
That is the problem. As much as I enjoy this happening to them the harder fall will (may) be the convictions that could have come from this. I think it is the instant gratification vs. the delayed gratification issue. If I was going to give you $10 now or $100 in a couple of years what would you take?
Personally I would have loved for this to have just been a criminal investigation which is should be, but I do get a fair amount of satisfaction from seeing this happen to them.
I wonder if this is because of the alcohol consumed they feel inspired, or at lest more open to new ideas. I know a professional artist ( yes he actually makes a living off of painting ) who claims that his best inspirations come while intoxicated.
I am not saying that this was a good thing, just that "it couldn't have happened to a nicer company". Personally I hope it affect the prosecution of these cases as it would be nice to see a perp walk for some executives for once who are actively trying to screw people.
Pay back is a bitch. As others have mentioned this may not be the best thing for the criminal investigations, but it will be interesting to see how News Corps responds to this since it was apparently ok for them (a private entity) to tap other private entities' phones and e-mails.
I think the correct phrase is:
Pay back is a bitch.
Simple answer is it allows a better allocation of resources. In this case it would be energy and capital. A true capitalist should be all for this as it makes a more efficient market, but most who claim to be true capitalists aren't.
There a people who actually do this. My father needed to replace the toilet in his old house and with the poor plumbing from the 1920's the modern low flow toilets just didn't work. As we aren't that far from Canada my father took a day trip up there to buy an old style 5 gpf toilet.
There are a couple of good ways to prevent ice dams. The first it to properly insulate your attic, and the other is to go and buy a roof rake and get rid of the snow on your roof. Granted if you live in a snowy climate you should probably do both as better insulation will help keep your house warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, and if you have a winter like the one we had last year here in Minnesota it is a good idea to clear the snow off your roof so it doesn't cave in.
Black shingles may actually make ice dams worse as they will melt snow farther up the roof only to have it refreeze once it gets down to the eaves and overhangs, thus actually causing ice dams. This is the basic process which forms ice dams warmer air melts the snow (usually from poor insulation) and it trickles down the roof until it gets above the eaves where it is cooler (no heat from the house here) and refreezes. There were several houses in my neighbor hood that had issues last winter, either from ice dams, or cave ins.
Well even though I don't live in the arctic I still have a white roof all winter. Granted Minnesota may as well be the arctic during the winter.
That is what they are good for. It is nice to know that there are some who don't push BS like I mentioned. My wife got taken once when she went to one and bought some allergy "cure" for like $15. It was homeopathic and claimed to be really strong, the "active ingredients" were listed at 200x, the inert portion was salt water at a 5% concentration. The cure was to flush this mixture (really just salt water) through the sinuses and symptoms would go away. She did see an improvement when doing this and wanted to get more but I explained that she could get similar results by just using water from the tap with a bit of salt in it. My little "cure" worked and you can buy a lot tap water and table salt for $15. She now only goes to get her back corrected every couple of months.
Along the same lines I heard a story form a coworker who use to be in the Marines. When he was in they had 2 radios for the motor pool the PRC-77 and PRC-169 (I think those are the correct number) and PRC would be pronounced prick. Well as with all things new recruits working in the motor pool would be sent to go see the quartermaster (at the base he was at it was a Master Sergeant) to get a new PRC-E8. This usually ended with the ones who sent the new recruit off to get the PRC-E8 in trouble.
But that would ensure that he couldn't get a nice high paying job after he finishes with the current administration by working with a major lobbying firm or government contractor. It is no different from those who go into the military stay for 20 years (at around age 40) and then go off and "work" for a defense contractor. Not only do they get the nice pension, but they make a metric ton of money at these companies.
In particular, Kundra is worried about the "mosaic effect," the unintended consequence of government data sharing, where data sets are combined and layered in ways that can strip away privacy and pose security threats.
Now granted he probably isn't concerned with the privacy of the individual citizen but that of government officials, but at least it sounds like there are some privacy concerns.