unless you'd like to give up things like a police force to enforce property laws.
I would. I enforce my property lines just fine, and I will continue to do so. In fact, government abuses property lines more than criminals do.
That doesn't mean they aren't human.
Being born human offers you no right to steal from me, ever. Taxation is theft. Humans are born with equal opportunity to work hard -- only government has the right to take that away, and they do. If you don't want to work, you die. No one should offer a middle ground of "You can live because you are human and we are willing to take from those who have to give to those who decide against work." Charity is better than taxation and welfare.
As an atheist, I have a big problem with this, because most churches equate 'success' with 'becoming a member of their religion'. I'm not saying that yours does, but in most cases, a church will not help non-members, at least not in my experience, and forcing someone to lie about their religion just to get some food is, well, wrong.
Considering I would never ask anyone to convert, and I hold non-believers to a much lower standard, you've met some viscious and evil religious fanatics. My love for God is between me and Him, and I would never tell you to believe without setting an example and you opening the door to me. The people I help through my church I have never forced into believing, although I have asked if they believe. If they ask more, I'll tell them more -- I won't force the issue, and if they follow through with the minimums I ask them (for my charity) I will continue to help.
Second, my bullshit-o-meter is starting to go off -- mind telling me how you educated yourself well enough to start a business without public libraries or schools.
I was a D (or worse) student all through my life. My handwriting was so bad in 5th grade (1985 or so) they wanted to expel me. I explained to everyone that we wouldn't write in the future, we'd type nearly everything.
I would never attend a public library, I find the idea repulsive unless it is 100% privately endowed. I have attented private libraries with permanent endowments, though. I started my first business without realizing it was a business -- I offered a service I was good at, and eventually made some money. This led me to my second business which started as a hobby but built into a business, again without me realizing that was what I was doing.
To this day, I don't look at business as different from multiple situations of bartering. I hate State regulation of my bartering, and some day I hope I can back out entirely of the program. When one of my stores was robbed, 6 of 7 police on duty in my store's town of 3000 people were radaring speeders (who hurt no one but are still found guilty of breaking laws). 1 of the 7 was missing. Many police officers are thugs who deserve no money of mine, they enforce laws that are anti-freedom and do nothing but pad their bosses with more cash to expend. My own town's police department is worthless and I've told them repeatedly that I don't need them and I don't want them. The one or two cops that I admire in my county are true protectors of property rights and refuse to run traffic beats. I'd still rather see insurance company managed security squads than public police officers with batons and guns.
When my wife nearly died from a Christmas explosion a few years back, I called 911 and then immediately a private ambulance company. Guess who got there earlier and saved her life?
When my brother-in-law died last year in a fire, the fire department was clueless as to why he died, and when they were called they took too long to get there. The insurance company figured out the cause of his death a few hours after arriving at the scene. Worthless public waste and drivel.
When one of my businesses was closed down due to a government paperwork error, I lost almost a quarter of a million dollars in literally a month
Here's the way we should handle these and every case thereafter in every court:
1. Explain to the jury the details of the trial: what the prosecution is alleging, and what the law states.
2. Explain to the jury the details of the crime: what the burden of proof is, and what the penalty is if the defendant is found guilty of violating the law.
3. Explain to the jury their 9th and 10th Amendment rights to nullify abusive and unfounded laws, especially laws that restrict a person's basic rights as protected by the Constitution and inherent in every person. Let the jury know it is not only their right but their responsibility to judge the law as well as the defendant. Let them know that abusive laws should be found illegal, and to punish prosecutors who abuse these abusive laws.
This is why I don't care about these cases -- we've already lost. When the individual's right to judge the law is returned, I'll pay attention. Until then, just shove these criminals into jail with the non-violent drug users, prostitutes and other people who should be free, not imprisoned or fined by an unjust State.
If we don't pass these video game laws, these teenagers will learn the "violent" act of self preservation. Most guns used defensively are used when a person is worried that their lives or their rights are in danger.
This makes it clear to me as to why these politicians want to pass these laws. Once they finish taking away all our rights, they're afraid that the next generation will shoot them, defensively of course.
Maybe the kids are learning something from video games...
I'd use my insurance for some of that, yes. I already had an MRI that I paid for out of pocket (cash, up front, received a 50% discount). I had an X-ray of a wrist I thought I broke a year or two ago and went to an independent clinic where I received an even bigger cash up-front discount.
Cash is king. It can save you 30-60% over your bill, as the medical office doesn't need to deal with the hassle of getting paid by the insurer.
The funny thing is, show me more than a handful of inventors who truly made it big from their inventions.
Most inventions are performed by hired staff in the research and development wing. There is nothing preventing companies from creating a "protect our inventions" wing, or figuring out how much the initial product must sell for to recoup the costs before competitors knock it off.
Define "whole brand new, reworked, better system" as I can't think of any, other than canning it entirely and replacing it with nothing.
I am very happy that there is a watchdog making sure that the meat I get at the supermarket isn't diseased, rotting, filled with heavy metals, and so on; sure, they do screw up from time to time, but overall, you've got a pretty good guarantee that the steak you buy at $GROCER is both edible and nourishing.
Proper tort laws are what would regulate grocery stores in a free-er market. If a grocery store sells bad meat, you can expect them to go out of business. I don't fear the days of The Jungle because much of that book was myth and fiction that we take as fact. It was inaccurate and biased and very little of it can be held up as fact, if any. Don't believe what your teachers taught you, I guess.
Repeat business for drug companies was encouraged, of course, but why go through the trouble of making drugs that work, when you can just add some cocaine or heroin to those Wonder Pills?
Because cocaine and heroine have very useful medicinal purposes when prescribed by a doctor. I can't look back at the 20's as this was the beginning of the medical revolution -- what we have today is far different from what we had back then. When cars were first created, they were unsafe but they were made safer to get return customers. The same is true of any new invention -- if you want to sell more, it has to work and it has to be safe.
Which is why I believe in things like state-run homeless shelters, soup kitchens, libraries, public education, minimum wage, and a mixed public/private healthcare system -- cheap on the taxes, great for the masses, and even with room for the capitalists to play.
I'll accept that, but I would love a way to "opt out." Hell, I'd hang a huge sign on my car, drive on private roads only, never walk into a public school or public library, and get permanently tattooed so I never collect a dime from social security, medicare or any of those organizations. I'd love to get out of the 50% tax rate that I (and all of you) pay for a nanny state.
I trust my suppliers and those I buy from because they want me to come back again and again. I've been poor, beneath poor even, and the only reason I am a success is because I busted my ass. The poor who continue to stay poor are in that position because they're granted so many welfare doles, they have no incentive to bust their asses to get out of the lives they live.
My church helps poor people become successful every day. We do a much better job than government will EVER do, and those poor people who don't want to succeed we stop helping.
You pay 15.x% up to a certain amount, which employees actually already pay. Your employer pays you less so he can pay the matching 7.7% or whatever it is. As a contractor, you already figure this tax into your billable rate. 20 hours a week at $150 per hour, minus the self-employment tax is still hefty dollars.
Here is the end game of all patent protection laws -- making the attorneys wealthy. Patents are a government granted monopoly. All government granted monopolies take advantage of their power over time -- and the big winners are the lawyers, of course.
Do you expect another result? Do you expect patents to make people innovate? We've been human for thousands of years, we've innovated for thousands of years. New products hit the market every day that were designed by some mom or some kid in a garage -- they didn't think of patents when they started designing.
The force of the law can not truly protect inventions, which is based on thought. Intellectual property is another word for "we want to control how you think and how you process a thought into an action." It seems criminal to me that I can't take a person's creation, make it better and sell the better version myself. This is how our lives get better -- innovating, modifying, perfecting, debugging. No idea is truly revolutionary, we just take little bits and pieces from what isn't working perfectly, and we find ways to make things better.
We elect lawyers to make laws, and in the end, the laws only protect the lawyers. We have accountants write tax code and in the end, the tax code only protects the accountants. This is what comes from excessive government force.
There are many people here who want patent laws to work -- I commend you for continuing to try to find a way to force other people to be good to one another. I have yet to hear HOW we can make patent protections work. We're humans, we're out for our own interests, and that will never change. Why would I want to give certain elected greedy humans this power?
10 weeks a year? Try more like 20. Contracts who know how valuable they are can easily charge well over $150-$200 per hour and accomplish in a day what some IT employees take a week to do.
Health insurance isn't too expensive if you realize you need it for EMERGENCIES, not for yearly check ups and all that. Drop the co-pay, pay for your doctor's visits, and use insurance only for the big things. When I put my deductible to US$5000 annually, my insurance rate dropped big time. I put a little over US$5000 in gold to pay my deductible in an emergency, and I believe I pay just over US$100 for my health insurance (31/M/ex-smoker/kidney stones). I have great coverage, but I pay my doctor cash -- and get a discount for it from his office.
I disagree with both those statements. The FDA causes many drugs to go unsold in the US that could save hundreds of thousands of lives annually. Some of these drugs are in heavy use in other countries in the world. We have the Underwriters Laboratories (which is international) and performs millions of tests on consumer goods -- why do we need an FDA?
Minimum wage laws provably hurt the poor by giving them no entry level positions they are worthy of. You get paid less while learning, and as you prove your loyalty and your value, your wages go up. The minimum wage laws destroy the poor neighborhoods. If minimum wage was so great, why not make it $50 per hour?
Pre-FDA and pre-labor law US was a mercantilist society based on elite controlled by the party that didn't support these laws. The laws just switched the elite from one authoritarian channel to another.
All regulation is bad, especially central federal regulation.
I assume you're familiar with my previous "ridiculous drivel" so you must know that I've advocate the ending of ICANN and government control of DNS. I've said I'd rather see 10 competitive TLD companies working against one another to provide the best service rather than 1 massive government crony.
This article, I believe, supports my last year of ranting against ICANN. It doesn't support my view, necessarily, but it does go to show that any government control could lead to censorship -- and does. Maybe the writers of the article want Europeans or Asians or Samoans in control, I don't. I don't want anyone "in control" except who the consumer decides should be -- through billions of purchasing decisions every day.
If you really feel like I don't know what I am talking about, just Foe -5 my posts and you don't have to read it. The fact that I still earn a living based on my insight into future market changes leads me to believe that there are those who consider my opinions off target, but interesting enough to pay for the knowledge. Thinking outside the box is what makes life more colorful, try it sometime.
We have some interesting directions we're heading in with torrents and IM and RSS and other processes which are currently reliant on DNS but could be a whole new form of information flow without a central authority. The question is how to address where given information is at any time. A link (to a domain name) makes sense, but you could also make a link to an IP address.
I'm thinking links could be objects instead of just plain text. Instead of hxxp://slashdot.org it could be ![SLASHDOT]/{News for News}/hxxp/66.35.250.150/66.35.215.1! Where the first part is the title for the link, the second part is the highlight portion, the third part is the protocol/port used, the forth part is the IP address of the server and the fifth part is the ISP of the website that can give you another IP address if you need a round-robin structure.
I'm not saying this is the solution, but its an idea. If this was a true object, you could theoretically drag and drop it around, so you don't even need to see the underlying code.
How do you produce business cards? Instead of saying hxxp://slashdot.org you could say slashdot@google or slashdot@aol where the latter word is your "keyword" engine.
Again, I don't have the answer, but I know the question is important. What is more important, IMHO, is not debating if we need it, but how we can create it.
I've said this before and I'll say it again: the FAA will be useless based on their desire to want to regulate space tourism.
The country that offers the LEAST regulation in regards to launching orbitals will be the country that takes in the most tourists in this incredibly expensive (but always getting cheaper) business. The initial costs to build the base of launch pads and terminals is very high -- once built, I can't imagine them being moved around.
If the FAA over-regulates this business, businessmen will go elsewhere. The next few years will set a financial precedent to where the space companies will go. My guess? Australia, South America or even islands off of Africa. Remember, if a trip costs $100,000 and 2 weeks of planning, the extra few hours of flying to some remote location is no big deal.
I've said from the beginning that DNS is a government mechanism for censorship -- it was, it is and it will continue to be. The typical authoritarian response (from slashdotters no less) is that other countries can run their own DNS TLD's, but this will just lead to multiple censors, not real freedom.
Regulation does not help the needy or the poor. It does not help those who can not do something for themselves. Regulation does not make a safer or better product, and it does not create a cheaper marketplace.
Regulation gives those in power the ability to put friends, family and cronies into high paying monopolistic jobs, determine which companies can enter a market and prevent everyone else from competing or making a better product.
Those who know me (even if you don't like me) know I am anti-DNS. I don't have a free market solution YET, but I think about it every day. DNS will be the fall of the Internet, until there is a decentralized version, and I believe that Google or another major search company will find a way to replace the central authority version.
I know we need DNS today -- links, bookmarks, advertising, all that. I also know we needed coal burning stoves just 40 years ago in some parts of the U.S. Without government, society tries to find ways to become more free by competing with others. Everyone wants a profit, but we believe we'll earn more by underpricing our competition and offering a better product. With government, society tries to find ways around the bureaucracy, red tape and restrictions. We have markets that have an excessively high cost of entry, but it is not always because of the equipment needed -- many markets are expensive because of government regulations and restrictions.
In the end, our freedoms are destroyed, our hard work is overtaxed and our children are left with the burden of paying off our mistakes.
I just pulled this thread up on a customer's PC. He's the CEO of one of Chicago's biggest high-rise contractors. We both want to fly you out and take you to lunch.
At 11/12 I started a BBS. Itn quickly grew to a popular multinode system.
By 14 I grew a little facial hair and started lying about my age. I picked up some business from my BBS, hooking up Novell networks for local companies.
One of my employees is barely 25, works 20 hours a week and takes home 6 figures at year's end. Another one of my employees is in his 50s, works 20 hours a week and takes home very high 5 figures.
The thing that most people don't see is that they learn how to run their own business -- which can earn even a lazy bastard like me six figures for very little work, if you know how to make a profit for your customer, too.
I also teach my employees the futility of keeping up with the Joneses. I teach them which direction to go in when customers are slow to pay, and I teach them how to build wealth through savings, not debt.
You need no money to start a business (except to pay for government licensing and fees). You need no money to grow a business (except what you earn and save). If you know your market and your customer, you can make money. You just need to take the RISK.
I don't believe in 401K -- I think the 401K fraud is what has caused the stock market to go way up because of all the supply of money chasing a low supply of stocks. My pre-employees know I will never advocate a stock market investment to anyone.
I don't believe in loans -- if you can't afford it, don't buy it. I screwed myself on loans when I was younger and refuse to ever do it again. I bought my first condo for US$17,000, it was a craphole. It only took me 1 year of renting to save that money. I have two employees who bought a place together (they're barely 21) and when they have enough to get their own units, they will. Savings makes wealth, not debt burdens.
The holes in this model are filled when you realize that my goal is to make money, and while making money I want my employees to learn how to run their own businesses so that they can make MORE money. Why be a slave for 40 years when you can be a millionaire by 40?
So, the person who does almost zero actual work gets a huge salary, and the peon doing all the hard work gets shit. This, as you describe it, is bordering very closely on accounting and tax fraud. The employee's benefits and other employment factors are set by the base pay/hourly (minimum) wage.
Not really, we've spoken with numerous IRS agents about it and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of companies running this way in the U.S.
We don't call the bonuses a bonus, it is merely profit sharing.
Every contract that we get is competitive between our employees, too. They can group together and sell me on why they'll do it better, faster and keep the customer happier than another group. In the end, employees who are worthless get zero contracts and continue to earn minimum wage. I've never HAD someone work that way (other than friends and family, heh), but if I was dumb enough to hire a deadbeat, they'd quit before we'd have to fire them. Minimum wage laws would allow these deadbeats to work longer, as if I could pay someone $2 per hour, I would -- the hard workers would make $70 or $90 an hour in the end.
There's a reason technology workers don't work on commision... the work is almost always non-deterministic. They aren't installing an electrical outlet or paving a driveway -- things that can be accurately estimated quickly and easily with one walk-through (how big is the drive? how far am I from the breaker box? etc.) Most IT jobs aren't as immediately simple... how long does it take to install/setup Exchange for a company? The answer involves hundreds of questions that won't necessarily lead you to an accurate timetable.
If we sell an Exchange server (we sold a few recently), we sell them a box solution and do the turnkey part on time and material or on a seperate contract basis. Every Exchange installation we have performed has been very close to every other one. If we have to integrate with another contractor's work, we adjust for that. As far as I can see, I don't think we've ever lost money on a contract or a project -- except when customers went bankrupt and that was maybe twice in 15 years.
Most IT consulting companies sell themselves the wrong way -- we won't sell a customer software just because they want it, we'll show them how the software will return a profit for them and then work to make that the truth. It is also the best way to turn contract work into T&M work.
When you pin your company's profits on over estimating contracts and "finishing early", all you're doing is lying to your clients and screwing them out of their money.
Prove this. We've been fired twice in 5 years, and both times it was because of BIG mistakes that a subcontractor of ours made on the job. I don't use subs that I don't know, anymore.
If I tell my clients they'll save $100,000 in 2 years if they spend $50,000 today, I back it up. We get hired again. Why would I lie to my clients?
Recently we did a job that was a VERY VERY simple 2 week job, but we billed almost $20,000 for it (two people working only). The customer had received bids for half that, but we guaranteed a faster return on the work. They've already profited on it just 6 months later, and they continue to profit. I follow up with customers and ask them if they've seen a rise in efficiency, a drop in employee problems or a gain in time to do other things. Do you?
That's a pretty good incentive model, although I don't think that you should use terms such as 'overpaying', 'underpaying' or 'minimum wage' when describing it, because terms like that get perceived incorrectly in this instance.
Yeah, I have that flamebait style, I guess:)
You're right, but my employees KNOW they're getting overpaid when they receive minimum wage. They know I could bonus them much more if they were paid less per hour!
What you are basically doing is paying a series of small recoupable advances against the end revenues. That sounds much more palatable than saying that you are paying your employees minimum wage
This is close to the truth, but not exactly there. I've spent a lot of money on (rapist thieving) tax accountants so it would be unreasonable to give away any exacting figures.
This model will also obviously only work on smaller projects. You can't really expect workers to be able to live on the smaller advances for a long period of time, unless they have some pretty good savings built up.
Not true. My company worked on some huge projects (we were part of some billion dollar hospital contracts recently, of course our portion was much smaller). You look over a contract and subdivide it into smaller milestones. No project pays at the end, they all pay over time, some paying weekly or monthly. This is part of the system and why it works -- I won't accept "pay at the end" contracts, even if some can seem really lucrative. In my 16+ years, I've learned which contracts are for suckers and which are for people wanting to make real money.
We also gain MANY time and material jobs -- in fact our T&M work outnumbers our contract work by almost 8 to 1. How? Quality employees who guarantee our customers a profit on every dollar we bill.
I'm curious how this system works out for the developers on their paycheck and during tax season though. If you have W4 employees and you're paying them large bonuses, the taxes must eat up the bonuses.
It is really difficult, and one of the reasons I am anti-government. Taxes take a HUGE chunk out of bonuses, but it shows the employees the reality of our government taxing schemes. I don't believe in 401Ks or employer compensation of health care or any of that nonsense -- they were originally just ways to get around taxing mechanisms and are now considered mandatory (and part of the reason why prices in those areas have gone up, not down).
I can't divulge all of my secrets, though, as that is part of how I sell my business to future employees.
How do the workers survive on minimum wage between bonuses? Are the project small enough that monthly expenses can still be made?
This is a VERY good question and one that is in direct conflict with the current American way.
Remember, my employees are more than employees, they are people who want to be their own boss, eventually. Part of the experience they'll get working "for me" (actually for themselves as any employee is) is that they'll learn that to be a success, one must give up many things and save. Monthly expenses while you are building your life, initially, should be at a VERY SMALL minimum. If you want to be a success, your first 10 years out of school should not be car loans, home loans and credit card debt. Many of you who are hitting the age of 30 right now are probably realizing the mistakes you made in your 20s.
I won't hire someone who I think will be a financial risk to myself and my other employees. Big spenders who are attracted to debt aren't my idea of a positive addition to the business. A few of my long term employees who didn't want to own their own business are now partners in the business, but that didn't come out of just seeing how well they worked but how well they managed their lives.
In the US, it is almost illegal to discriminate based on qualities outside of the work requirements. I find it callous that government should tell me to hire someone with $300,000 in debt, or a history or cocaine abuse or someone who doesn't agree with my morals and my business sense. This is why I don't interview, I invite. I don't want to be accused of discrimination.
He's underpaying workers until the project ends. Then he gives them a bonus based on profitability. This enables him to bid fixed-price contracts because buyers love them.
Yes! Except I'm overpaying them minimum wage.
I hope he's listening because he can confirm or deny that his pay scale works as I say.
Always listening.
Then he gives the worker a bonus, splitting the remaining revenue 50/50,
Closer to 66% bonus, even to my outsource employees.
If the worker can get the work done more rapidly, his bonus is enormous and he's motivated to do even better.
And they always do!
If he does dismally (say he takes four weeks to do this two week job), his pay is down enormously and he might even want to leave the company.
Yes. I call these workers "friends and family" usually.
Personally, I would have loved to have worked as a contractor under that system. It's fair and transparent.
Slashdot Mirror
unless you'd like to give up things like a police force to enforce property laws.
I would. I enforce my property lines just fine, and I will continue to do so. In fact, government abuses property lines more than criminals do.
That doesn't mean they aren't human.
Being born human offers you no right to steal from me, ever. Taxation is theft. Humans are born with equal opportunity to work hard -- only government has the right to take that away, and they do. If you don't want to work, you die. No one should offer a middle ground of "You can live because you are human and we are willing to take from those who have to give to those who decide against work." Charity is better than taxation and welfare.
As an atheist, I have a big problem with this, because most churches equate 'success' with 'becoming a member of their religion'. I'm not saying that yours does, but in most cases, a church will not help non-members, at least not in my experience, and forcing someone to lie about their religion just to get some food is, well, wrong.
Considering I would never ask anyone to convert, and I hold non-believers to a much lower standard, you've met some viscious and evil religious fanatics. My love for God is between me and Him, and I would never tell you to believe without setting an example and you opening the door to me. The people I help through my church I have never forced into believing, although I have asked if they believe. If they ask more, I'll tell them more -- I won't force the issue, and if they follow through with the minimums I ask them (for my charity) I will continue to help.
Second, my bullshit-o-meter is starting to go off -- mind telling me how you educated yourself well enough to start a business without public libraries or schools.
I was a D (or worse) student all through my life. My handwriting was so bad in 5th grade (1985 or so) they wanted to expel me. I explained to everyone that we wouldn't write in the future, we'd type nearly everything.
I would never attend a public library, I find the idea repulsive unless it is 100% privately endowed. I have attented private libraries with permanent endowments, though. I started my first business without realizing it was a business -- I offered a service I was good at, and eventually made some money. This led me to my second business which started as a hobby but built into a business, again without me realizing that was what I was doing.
To this day, I don't look at business as different from multiple situations of bartering. I hate State regulation of my bartering, and some day I hope I can back out entirely of the program. When one of my stores was robbed, 6 of 7 police on duty in my store's town of 3000 people were radaring speeders (who hurt no one but are still found guilty of breaking laws). 1 of the 7 was missing. Many police officers are thugs who deserve no money of mine, they enforce laws that are anti-freedom and do nothing but pad their bosses with more cash to expend. My own town's police department is worthless and I've told them repeatedly that I don't need them and I don't want them. The one or two cops that I admire in my county are true protectors of property rights and refuse to run traffic beats. I'd still rather see insurance company managed security squads than public police officers with batons and guns.
When my wife nearly died from a Christmas explosion a few years back, I called 911 and then immediately a private ambulance company. Guess who got there earlier and saved her life?
When my brother-in-law died last year in a fire, the fire department was clueless as to why he died, and when they were called they took too long to get there. The insurance company figured out the cause of his death a few hours after arriving at the scene. Worthless public waste and drivel.
When one of my businesses was closed down due to a government paperwork error, I lost almost a quarter of a million dollars in literally a month
Here's the way we should handle these and every case thereafter in every court:
1. Explain to the jury the details of the trial: what the prosecution is alleging, and what the law states.
2. Explain to the jury the details of the crime: what the burden of proof is, and what the penalty is if the defendant is found guilty of violating the law.
3. Explain to the jury their 9th and 10th Amendment rights to nullify abusive and unfounded laws, especially laws that restrict a person's basic rights as protected by the Constitution and inherent in every person. Let the jury know it is not only their right but their responsibility to judge the law as well as the defendant. Let them know that abusive laws should be found illegal, and to punish prosecutors who abuse these abusive laws.
This is why I don't care about these cases -- we've already lost. When the individual's right to judge the law is returned, I'll pay attention. Until then, just shove these criminals into jail with the non-violent drug users, prostitutes and other people who should be free, not imprisoned or fined by an unjust State.
If we don't pass these video game laws, these teenagers will learn the "violent" act of self preservation. Most guns used defensively are used when a person is worried that their lives or their rights are in danger.
This makes it clear to me as to why these politicians want to pass these laws. Once they finish taking away all our rights, they're afraid that the next generation will shoot them, defensively of course.
Maybe the kids are learning something from video games...
Whoa, you want to try to fix government corruption by giving government MORE power?
All your ideas would lead to more corporate corruption, not less.
I'd use my insurance for some of that, yes. I already had an MRI that I paid for out of pocket (cash, up front, received a 50% discount). I had an X-ray of a wrist I thought I broke a year or two ago and went to an independent clinic where I received an even bigger cash up-front discount.
Cash is king. It can save you 30-60% over your bill, as the medical office doesn't need to deal with the hassle of getting paid by the insurer.
The funny thing is, show me more than a handful of inventors who truly made it big from their inventions.
Most inventions are performed by hired staff in the research and development wing. There is nothing preventing companies from creating a "protect our inventions" wing, or figuring out how much the initial product must sell for to recoup the costs before competitors knock it off.
Define "whole brand new, reworked, better system" as I can't think of any, other than canning it entirely and replacing it with nothing.
I am very happy that there is a watchdog making sure that the meat I get at the supermarket isn't diseased, rotting, filled with heavy metals, and so on; sure, they do screw up from time to time, but overall, you've got a pretty good guarantee that the steak you buy at $GROCER is both edible and nourishing.
Proper tort laws are what would regulate grocery stores in a free-er market. If a grocery store sells bad meat, you can expect them to go out of business. I don't fear the days of The Jungle because much of that book was myth and fiction that we take as fact. It was inaccurate and biased and very little of it can be held up as fact, if any. Don't believe what your teachers taught you, I guess.
Repeat business for drug companies was encouraged, of course, but why go through the trouble of making drugs that work, when you can just add some cocaine or heroin to those Wonder Pills?
Because cocaine and heroine have very useful medicinal purposes when prescribed by a doctor. I can't look back at the 20's as this was the beginning of the medical revolution -- what we have today is far different from what we had back then. When cars were first created, they were unsafe but they were made safer to get return customers. The same is true of any new invention -- if you want to sell more, it has to work and it has to be safe.
Which is why I believe in things like state-run homeless shelters, soup kitchens, libraries, public education, minimum wage, and a mixed public/private healthcare system -- cheap on the taxes, great for the masses, and even with room for the capitalists to play.
I'll accept that, but I would love a way to "opt out." Hell, I'd hang a huge sign on my car, drive on private roads only, never walk into a public school or public library, and get permanently tattooed so I never collect a dime from social security, medicare or any of those organizations. I'd love to get out of the 50% tax rate that I (and all of you) pay for a nanny state.
I trust my suppliers and those I buy from because they want me to come back again and again. I've been poor, beneath poor even, and the only reason I am a success is because I busted my ass. The poor who continue to stay poor are in that position because they're granted so many welfare doles, they have no incentive to bust their asses to get out of the lives they live.
My church helps poor people become successful every day. We do a much better job than government will EVER do, and those poor people who don't want to succeed we stop helping.
You pay 15.x% up to a certain amount, which employees actually already pay. Your employer pays you less so he can pay the matching 7.7% or whatever it is. As a contractor, you already figure this tax into your billable rate. 20 hours a week at $150 per hour, minus the self-employment tax is still hefty dollars.
Here is the end game of all patent protection laws -- making the attorneys wealthy. Patents are a government granted monopoly. All government granted monopolies take advantage of their power over time -- and the big winners are the lawyers, of course.
Do you expect another result? Do you expect patents to make people innovate? We've been human for thousands of years, we've innovated for thousands of years. New products hit the market every day that were designed by some mom or some kid in a garage -- they didn't think of patents when they started designing.
The force of the law can not truly protect inventions, which is based on thought. Intellectual property is another word for "we want to control how you think and how you process a thought into an action." It seems criminal to me that I can't take a person's creation, make it better and sell the better version myself. This is how our lives get better -- innovating, modifying, perfecting, debugging. No idea is truly revolutionary, we just take little bits and pieces from what isn't working perfectly, and we find ways to make things better.
We elect lawyers to make laws, and in the end, the laws only protect the lawyers. We have accountants write tax code and in the end, the tax code only protects the accountants. This is what comes from excessive government force.
There are many people here who want patent laws to work -- I commend you for continuing to try to find a way to force other people to be good to one another. I have yet to hear HOW we can make patent protections work. We're humans, we're out for our own interests, and that will never change. Why would I want to give certain elected greedy humans this power?
10 weeks a year? Try more like 20. Contracts who know how valuable they are can easily charge well over $150-$200 per hour and accomplish in a day what some IT employees take a week to do.
Health insurance isn't too expensive if you realize you need it for EMERGENCIES, not for yearly check ups and all that. Drop the co-pay, pay for your doctor's visits, and use insurance only for the big things. When I put my deductible to US$5000 annually, my insurance rate dropped big time. I put a little over US$5000 in gold to pay my deductible in an emergency, and I believe I pay just over US$100 for my health insurance (31/M/ex-smoker/kidney stones). I have great coverage, but I pay my doctor cash -- and get a discount for it from his office.
I disagree with both those statements. The FDA causes many drugs to go unsold in the US that could save hundreds of thousands of lives annually. Some of these drugs are in heavy use in other countries in the world. We have the Underwriters Laboratories (which is international) and performs millions of tests on consumer goods -- why do we need an FDA?
Minimum wage laws provably hurt the poor by giving them no entry level positions they are worthy of. You get paid less while learning, and as you prove your loyalty and your value, your wages go up. The minimum wage laws destroy the poor neighborhoods. If minimum wage was so great, why not make it $50 per hour?
Pre-FDA and pre-labor law US was a mercantilist society based on elite controlled by the party that didn't support these laws. The laws just switched the elite from one authoritarian channel to another.
All regulation is bad, especially central federal regulation.
I assume you're familiar with my previous "ridiculous drivel" so you must know that I've advocate the ending of ICANN and government control of DNS. I've said I'd rather see 10 competitive TLD companies working against one another to provide the best service rather than 1 massive government crony.
This article, I believe, supports my last year of ranting against ICANN. It doesn't support my view, necessarily, but it does go to show that any government control could lead to censorship -- and does. Maybe the writers of the article want Europeans or Asians or Samoans in control, I don't. I don't want anyone "in control" except who the consumer decides should be -- through billions of purchasing decisions every day.
If you really feel like I don't know what I am talking about, just Foe -5 my posts and you don't have to read it. The fact that I still earn a living based on my insight into future market changes leads me to believe that there are those who consider my opinions off target, but interesting enough to pay for the knowledge. Thinking outside the box is what makes life more colorful, try it sometime.
Right, but why even bother?
We have some interesting directions we're heading in with torrents and IM and RSS and other processes which are currently reliant on DNS but could be a whole new form of information flow without a central authority. The question is how to address where given information is at any time. A link (to a domain name) makes sense, but you could also make a link to an IP address.
I'm thinking links could be objects instead of just plain text. Instead of hxxp://slashdot.org it could be ![SLASHDOT]/{News for News}/hxxp/66.35.250.150/66.35.215.1! Where the first part is the title for the link, the second part is the highlight portion, the third part is the protocol/port used, the forth part is the IP address of the server and the fifth part is the ISP of the website that can give you another IP address if you need a round-robin structure.
I'm not saying this is the solution, but its an idea. If this was a true object, you could theoretically drag and drop it around, so you don't even need to see the underlying code.
How do you produce business cards? Instead of saying hxxp://slashdot.org you could say slashdot@google or slashdot@aol where the latter word is your "keyword" engine.
Again, I don't have the answer, but I know the question is important. What is more important, IMHO, is not debating if we need it, but how we can create it.
I've said this before and I'll say it again: the FAA will be useless based on their desire to want to regulate space tourism.
The country that offers the LEAST regulation in regards to launching orbitals will be the country that takes in the most tourists in this incredibly expensive (but always getting cheaper) business. The initial costs to build the base of launch pads and terminals is very high -- once built, I can't imagine them being moved around.
If the FAA over-regulates this business, businessmen will go elsewhere. The next few years will set a financial precedent to where the space companies will go. My guess? Australia, South America or even islands off of Africa. Remember, if a trip costs $100,000 and 2 weeks of planning, the extra few hours of flying to some remote location is no big deal.
I've said from the beginning that DNS is a government mechanism for censorship -- it was, it is and it will continue to be. The typical authoritarian response (from slashdotters no less) is that other countries can run their own DNS TLD's, but this will just lead to multiple censors, not real freedom.
Regulation does not help the needy or the poor. It does not help those who can not do something for themselves. Regulation does not make a safer or better product, and it does not create a cheaper marketplace.
Regulation gives those in power the ability to put friends, family and cronies into high paying monopolistic jobs, determine which companies can enter a market and prevent everyone else from competing or making a better product.
Those who know me (even if you don't like me) know I am anti-DNS. I don't have a free market solution YET, but I think about it every day. DNS will be the fall of the Internet, until there is a decentralized version, and I believe that Google or another major search company will find a way to replace the central authority version.
I know we need DNS today -- links, bookmarks, advertising, all that. I also know we needed coal burning stoves just 40 years ago in some parts of the U.S. Without government, society tries to find ways to become more free by competing with others. Everyone wants a profit, but we believe we'll earn more by underpricing our competition and offering a better product. With government, society tries to find ways around the bureaucracy, red tape and restrictions. We have markets that have an excessively high cost of entry, but it is not always because of the equipment needed -- many markets are expensive because of government regulations and restrictions.
In the end, our freedoms are destroyed, our hard work is overtaxed and our children are left with the burden of paying off our mistakes.
Heh.
I just pulled this thread up on a customer's PC. He's the CEO of one of Chicago's biggest high-rise contractors. We both want to fly you out and take you to lunch.
Drop an e-mail if interested.
Simple: I lied.
At 11/12 I started a BBS. Itn quickly grew to a popular multinode system.
By 14 I grew a little facial hair and started lying about my age. I picked up some business from my BBS, hooking up Novell networks for local companies.
I still work with 3 of my 4 first customers.
One of my employees is barely 25, works 20 hours a week and takes home 6 figures at year's end. Another one of my employees is in his 50s, works 20 hours a week and takes home very high 5 figures.
The thing that most people don't see is that they learn how to run their own business -- which can earn even a lazy bastard like me six figures for very little work, if you know how to make a profit for your customer, too.
I also teach my employees the futility of keeping up with the Joneses. I teach them which direction to go in when customers are slow to pay, and I teach them how to build wealth through savings, not debt.
You need no money to start a business (except to pay for government licensing and fees). You need no money to grow a business (except what you earn and save). If you know your market and your customer, you can make money. You just need to take the RISK.
I don't believe in 401K -- I think the 401K fraud is what has caused the stock market to go way up because of all the supply of money chasing a low supply of stocks. My pre-employees know I will never advocate a stock market investment to anyone.
I don't believe in loans -- if you can't afford it, don't buy it. I screwed myself on loans when I was younger and refuse to ever do it again. I bought my first condo for US$17,000, it was a craphole. It only took me 1 year of renting to save that money. I have two employees who bought a place together (they're barely 21) and when they have enough to get their own units, they will. Savings makes wealth, not debt burdens.
The holes in this model are filled when you realize that my goal is to make money, and while making money I want my employees to learn how to run their own businesses so that they can make MORE money. Why be a slave for 40 years when you can be a millionaire by 40?
So, the person who does almost zero actual work gets a huge salary, and the peon doing all the hard work gets shit. This, as you describe it, is bordering very closely on accounting and tax fraud. The employee's benefits and other employment factors are set by the base pay/hourly (minimum) wage.
Not really, we've spoken with numerous IRS agents about it and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of companies running this way in the U.S.
We don't call the bonuses a bonus, it is merely profit sharing.
Every contract that we get is competitive between our employees, too. They can group together and sell me on why they'll do it better, faster and keep the customer happier than another group. In the end, employees who are worthless get zero contracts and continue to earn minimum wage. I've never HAD someone work that way (other than friends and family, heh), but if I was dumb enough to hire a deadbeat, they'd quit before we'd have to fire them. Minimum wage laws would allow these deadbeats to work longer, as if I could pay someone $2 per hour, I would -- the hard workers would make $70 or $90 an hour in the end.
There's a reason technology workers don't work on commision... the work is almost always non-deterministic. They aren't installing an electrical outlet or paving a driveway -- things that can be accurately estimated quickly and easily with one walk-through (how big is the drive? how far am I from the breaker box? etc.) Most IT jobs aren't as immediately simple... how long does it take to install/setup Exchange for a company? The answer involves hundreds of questions that won't necessarily lead you to an accurate timetable.
If we sell an Exchange server (we sold a few recently), we sell them a box solution and do the turnkey part on time and material or on a seperate contract basis. Every Exchange installation we have performed has been very close to every other one. If we have to integrate with another contractor's work, we adjust for that. As far as I can see, I don't think we've ever lost money on a contract or a project -- except when customers went bankrupt and that was maybe twice in 15 years.
Most IT consulting companies sell themselves the wrong way -- we won't sell a customer software just because they want it, we'll show them how the software will return a profit for them and then work to make that the truth. It is also the best way to turn contract work into T&M work.
When you pin your company's profits on over estimating contracts and "finishing early", all you're doing is lying to your clients and screwing them out of their money.
Prove this. We've been fired twice in 5 years, and both times it was because of BIG mistakes that a subcontractor of ours made on the job. I don't use subs that I don't know, anymore.
If I tell my clients they'll save $100,000 in 2 years if they spend $50,000 today, I back it up. We get hired again. Why would I lie to my clients?
Recently we did a job that was a VERY VERY simple 2 week job, but we billed almost $20,000 for it (two people working only). The customer had received bids for half that, but we guaranteed a faster return on the work. They've already profited on it just 6 months later, and they continue to profit. I follow up with customers and ask them if they've seen a rise in efficiency, a drop in employee problems or a gain in time to do other things. Do you?
That's a pretty good incentive model, although I don't think that you should use terms such as 'overpaying', 'underpaying' or 'minimum wage' when describing it, because terms like that get perceived incorrectly in this instance.
:)
Yeah, I have that flamebait style, I guess
You're right, but my employees KNOW they're getting overpaid when they receive minimum wage. They know I could bonus them much more if they were paid less per hour!
What you are basically doing is paying a series of small recoupable advances against the end revenues. That sounds much more palatable than saying that you are paying your employees minimum wage
This is close to the truth, but not exactly there. I've spent a lot of money on (rapist thieving) tax accountants so it would be unreasonable to give away any exacting figures.
This model will also obviously only work on smaller projects. You can't really expect workers to be able to live on the smaller advances for a long period of time, unless they have some pretty good savings built up.
Not true. My company worked on some huge projects (we were part of some billion dollar hospital contracts recently, of course our portion was much smaller). You look over a contract and subdivide it into smaller milestones. No project pays at the end, they all pay over time, some paying weekly or monthly. This is part of the system and why it works -- I won't accept "pay at the end" contracts, even if some can seem really lucrative. In my 16+ years, I've learned which contracts are for suckers and which are for people wanting to make real money.
We also gain MANY time and material jobs -- in fact our T&M work outnumbers our contract work by almost 8 to 1. How? Quality employees who guarantee our customers a profit on every dollar we bill.
I'm curious how this system works out for the developers on their paycheck and during tax season though. If you have W4 employees and you're paying them large bonuses, the taxes must eat up the bonuses.
It is really difficult, and one of the reasons I am anti-government. Taxes take a HUGE chunk out of bonuses, but it shows the employees the reality of our government taxing schemes. I don't believe in 401Ks or employer compensation of health care or any of that nonsense -- they were originally just ways to get around taxing mechanisms and are now considered mandatory (and part of the reason why prices in those areas have gone up, not down).
I can't divulge all of my secrets, though, as that is part of how I sell my business to future employees.
How do the workers survive on minimum wage between bonuses? Are the project small enough that monthly expenses can still be made?
This is a VERY good question and one that is in direct conflict with the current American way.
Remember, my employees are more than employees, they are people who want to be their own boss, eventually. Part of the experience they'll get working "for me" (actually for themselves as any employee is) is that they'll learn that to be a success, one must give up many things and save. Monthly expenses while you are building your life, initially, should be at a VERY SMALL minimum. If you want to be a success, your first 10 years out of school should not be car loans, home loans and credit card debt. Many of you who are hitting the age of 30 right now are probably realizing the mistakes you made in your 20s.
I won't hire someone who I think will be a financial risk to myself and my other employees. Big spenders who are attracted to debt aren't my idea of a positive addition to the business. A few of my long term employees who didn't want to own their own business are now partners in the business, but that didn't come out of just seeing how well they worked but how well they managed their lives.
In the US, it is almost illegal to discriminate based on qualities outside of the work requirements. I find it callous that government should tell me to hire someone with $300,000 in debt, or a history or cocaine abuse or someone who doesn't agree with my morals and my business sense. This is why I don't interview, I invite. I don't want to be accused of discrimination.
He's underpaying workers until the project ends. Then he gives them a bonus based on profitability. This enables him to bid fixed-price contracts because buyers love them.
Yes! Except I'm overpaying them minimum wage.
I hope he's listening because he can confirm or deny that his pay scale works as I say.
Always listening.
Then he gives the worker a bonus, splitting the remaining revenue 50/50,
Closer to 66% bonus, even to my outsource employees.
If the worker can get the work done more rapidly, his bonus is enormous and he's motivated to do even better.
And they always do!
If he does dismally (say he takes four weeks to do this two week job), his pay is down enormously and he might even want to leave the company.
Yes. I call these workers "friends and family" usually.
Personally, I would have loved to have worked as a contractor under that system. It's fair and transparent.
Looking for work?
We should talk, drop me an e-mail.
Madison has a horrific economy. I see huge profits though, with the right drive.
I'd be happy to get you going, seriously.