At least in the US, there needs to be some act in furtherance. Talking about it is fine, but the moment one of the guys goes out and buys a gun or the zip ties they talked about using as handcuffs, that's where the just talking becomes a crime.
The upside is keeping people in the google fold. That said, I don't understand how companies like Dropbox make money, so maybe I don't understand the business like I think I do.
That would be preferable to the current system where the laws don't apply if there aren't any cops around, and where if you DO get pulled over, your chances of getting a big ticket or a warning depend on how much the cop likes you (or your kind) that day. Added bonus: when the privileged classes start getting their automatic tickets the same way us proles do, maybe some of the more ridiculous laws might get changed?
Don't forget the price of taking public transit. That still leaves you paying more to drive, but the other costs like increased commute times and having to carry your stuff everywhere and lacking the flexibility to stop somewhere on the way home starts to make it closer to break-even.
I have to say, for as much I have paid in parking violations, upping enforcement and charging higher rates has made parking better in my city. It used to be a nightmare- you couldn't find street parking anywhere, because people would monopolize spots all day. I'd have to park in a garage, with their ridiculous rate structures ($10 for the first 10 minutes, $26 for 10-60 minutes and $32 for all day) just to run a quick errand. Now I can plunk my $3.50 into a meter and go on with my life.
I remember when I was a kid, there was a parking garage in the city that did sort of what you talk about. You'd pull up, hand the keys to the valet and he'd drive it onto an elevator and store it somewhere. (They also had a terrifying man-lift, where there was a vertical ski-lift kind of thing, with foot and hand pegs on a cable that circulated constantly, and the valets would just jump on to go to the floors they wanted.)
And I think a Dutch company had a computerized version of that system, where you'd pull into a garage, park on a pallet thing, and the computers would store the car-pallet above and below grade. I think you could put in an expected ETA so the computer could store the car efficiently. It's a good solution for areas with high real estate costs, because you aren't wasting half your space on access ramps.
You almost HAVE to scan the receipts, because the original thermal paper will have turned pink by the time you need it. Posters below are right, almost everyone accepts electronic documents. Audits come down to plausibility anyway. It's the numbers that count. If you claim $40k in income and $20k in deductions, you are screwed no matter what. Also, the important receipts will be duplicated somewhere- credit card statement or canceled check or with the vendor.
I have an Officejet 6500. Its scanner works fine. You just have to clean the separation pad and rollers pretty often. I scanned a bunch of my old stuff just with the built in Windows scanning software, and converted to PDF later. Seemed easier. More importantly, I have NEVER had to use a single file that I created. So I don't worry too much about it. I'll just delete the folders in a few years.
For ongoing stuff, almost all my bills have websites where I can download PDFs of my bills, and I just save those. For other stuff, I just print to PDF. I keep each year's stuff in a separate folder, and name the files like 2012 01 January Mortgage.pdf By printing to PDF and saving PDFs, there is almost nothing I actually have to manually scan anymore.
For my taxes, the IRS forms are almost all available from their website as fill-in forms, and I just fill them in and save them with the info. (Being paranoid, I also print them out and keep them in a file.)
That's fine, AFTER the bills are paid. Do you know what the biggest government handout is? Bush's tax cut. It is the largest cause of the growth in the debt right now.
Re:This is why a flat tax will not work.
on
The Zuckerberg Tax
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· Score: 1
That's because it IS income. You loaned the bank some money, they paid you for the privilege. Stocks, on the other hand, aren't money. When you buy a stock, you hand over money to some other person, and it is gone. All you have is a piece of paper. It can only become wealth when you sell it.
Of course she didn't, because she was his wife and as such, the co-owner of his property.
Re:Such systems have been proposed before
on
The Zuckerberg Tax
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
So when my house appreciated up to nearly double during the boom, you'd have me paying taxes on that? Where am I going to get the money? Would you pay me back after it dropped in value?
I'm not even that large of a person, no sausage fingers for me, and I find that I am unable to use onscreen keyboards with any kind of accuracy either. Four years ago when I was buying my first smartphone, I honestly wanted an iPhone. But when I tried to type on it, nothing but gibberish. Picked up the Blackberry and it fit like a glove. And it still works. Maybe onscreen keyboard prediction technology has gotten better, but I doubt it based on what I see in various forums.
Part of the problem, I think, is that the keyboards include predictive word choosing, and people don't really normally look at the spelling of a word when they are reading. They just see a word that starts and ends with the right letters and is roughly the same size.
They actually make devices for this. I can't remember the name, but it's basically a UPS with a tuning fork looking thing that you slide behind the computer's plug while you unplug it from the wall and then plug into the UPS.
Slashdot Mirror
I just bought a lot of that stuff. NEWMAN!
At least in the US, there needs to be some act in furtherance. Talking about it is fine, but the moment one of the guys goes out and buys a gun or the zip ties they talked about using as handcuffs, that's where the just talking becomes a crime.
Protip: sometimes words are bleeped out because it is funnier to have the bleep than it is to leave the word in.
The upside is keeping people in the google fold. That said, I don't understand how companies like Dropbox make money, so maybe I don't understand the business like I think I do.
Watch out for the helicopters.
That would be preferable to the current system where the laws don't apply if there aren't any cops around, and where if you DO get pulled over, your chances of getting a big ticket or a warning depend on how much the cop likes you (or your kind) that day. Added bonus: when the privileged classes start getting their automatic tickets the same way us proles do, maybe some of the more ridiculous laws might get changed?
How is enforcing the law socialist?
Don't forget the price of taking public transit. That still leaves you paying more to drive, but the other costs like increased commute times and having to carry your stuff everywhere and lacking the flexibility to stop somewhere on the way home starts to make it closer to break-even.
I have to say, for as much I have paid in parking violations, upping enforcement and charging higher rates has made parking better in my city. It used to be a nightmare- you couldn't find street parking anywhere, because people would monopolize spots all day. I'd have to park in a garage, with their ridiculous rate structures ($10 for the first 10 minutes, $26 for 10-60 minutes and $32 for all day) just to run a quick errand. Now I can plunk my $3.50 into a meter and go on with my life.
I remember when I was a kid, there was a parking garage in the city that did sort of what you talk about. You'd pull up, hand the keys to the valet and he'd drive it onto an elevator and store it somewhere. (They also had a terrifying man-lift, where there was a vertical ski-lift kind of thing, with foot and hand pegs on a cable that circulated constantly, and the valets would just jump on to go to the floors they wanted.)
And I think a Dutch company had a computerized version of that system, where you'd pull into a garage, park on a pallet thing, and the computers would store the car-pallet above and below grade. I think you could put in an expected ETA so the computer could store the car efficiently. It's a good solution for areas with high real estate costs, because you aren't wasting half your space on access ramps.
You almost HAVE to scan the receipts, because the original thermal paper will have turned pink by the time you need it. Posters below are right, almost everyone accepts electronic documents. Audits come down to plausibility anyway. It's the numbers that count. If you claim $40k in income and $20k in deductions, you are screwed no matter what. Also, the important receipts will be duplicated somewhere- credit card statement or canceled check or with the vendor.
This is where Banker's Boxes are great. Just move last year's files into a box and put a destruction date on it. Done.
I have an Officejet 6500. Its scanner works fine. You just have to clean the separation pad and rollers pretty often. I scanned a bunch of my old stuff just with the built in Windows scanning software, and converted to PDF later. Seemed easier. More importantly, I have NEVER had to use a single file that I created. So I don't worry too much about it. I'll just delete the folders in a few years.
For ongoing stuff, almost all my bills have websites where I can download PDFs of my bills, and I just save those. For other stuff, I just print to PDF. I keep each year's stuff in a separate folder, and name the files like 2012 01 January Mortgage.pdf By printing to PDF and saving PDFs, there is almost nothing I actually have to manually scan anymore.
For my taxes, the IRS forms are almost all available from their website as fill-in forms, and I just fill them in and save them with the info. (Being paranoid, I also print them out and keep them in a file.)
I've only been there once, but the experience was absolutely astounding. With one minor annoyance: the projector was really loud.
Incorrect. When you buy a stock, you are buying ownership in a company. You are not giving the company any money at all.
That's fine, AFTER the bills are paid. Do you know what the biggest government handout is? Bush's tax cut. It is the largest cause of the growth in the debt right now.
The rate is only 15% for long term capital gains. It's the standard income rate for short term (less than one year).
Yes. Income taxes are on the value of the goods, not the nominal amount.
That's because a loan needs to be repaid.
That's because it IS income. You loaned the bank some money, they paid you for the privilege. Stocks, on the other hand, aren't money. When you buy a stock, you hand over money to some other person, and it is gone. All you have is a piece of paper. It can only become wealth when you sell it.
Of course she didn't, because she was his wife and as such, the co-owner of his property.
So when my house appreciated up to nearly double during the boom, you'd have me paying taxes on that? Where am I going to get the money? Would you pay me back after it dropped in value?
I did. Four years ago.
I'm not even that large of a person, no sausage fingers for me, and I find that I am unable to use onscreen keyboards with any kind of accuracy either. Four years ago when I was buying my first smartphone, I honestly wanted an iPhone. But when I tried to type on it, nothing but gibberish. Picked up the Blackberry and it fit like a glove. And it still works. Maybe onscreen keyboard prediction technology has gotten better, but I doubt it based on what I see in various forums.
Part of the problem, I think, is that the keyboards include predictive word choosing, and people don't really normally look at the spelling of a word when they are reading. They just see a word that starts and ends with the right letters and is roughly the same size.
Genius.
They actually make devices for this. I can't remember the name, but it's basically a UPS with a tuning fork looking thing that you slide behind the computer's plug while you unplug it from the wall and then plug into the UPS.