I occasionally pop the soundtrack for X3:Terran Conflict that came with the gold edition when I am on a long drive. Its good, non distracting ambiance.
Unless you are referring to a different outpost, that plot didn't happen. The only plot in that game is the destruction of earth by Vulcan's hammer and the split with the rebel colony for unspecified reasons.
Thats nice. In the real world knowing someone who works in the same field as you do can mean the difference between walking into your new office/cubicle 3 weeks after graduation or spending 18 months flipping burgers while you send out your resume to couple thousands of shops all over the US.
I was speaking exclusively from an economic perspective.
Without subsidized infrastructure like phone, electricity, roads, airport and internet many modern businesses are impossible. Walmart could never exist, google could never exist, etc.
I am sorry, I try to use the actual definitions of words instead of propaganda speak.
Over here "socialists" are considered to be pinko islamic communist jewish nazi's who want to take your job, molest baby Jesus and are for big government and banning social security.
The problem with sales tax as an incentive to save is that it just does not work. For the already wealthy? It won't matter because they already have enough that a couple extra percent spent wont make an appreciable difference on what they can save. However for people who spend most of their income on necessities, it actively prevents them from saving at all. For people who already spend ALL of their income just to survive, you place them into a debt crisis.
I am not suggesting that sales taxes should be made into complex progressive taxes. If sales taxes really are for the stated purpose, they are fundamentally flawed. I know some places have exceptions for necessities, but everywhere that I have lived has had sales tax exemptions only for financial instruments and not necessities.
I accept your rejection of the implicit assumptions. Many people make those implicit assumptions. But I have reason behind my perspective.
The accumulation of wealth is supported and enabled by a well run society respecting personal property. The wealthy are those who reap the greatest benefits of society as a whole. Progressive taxes are (or at least can be) fair for this reason.
Regressive taxes place an onerous burden upon those least capable of bearing it. Taken far enough and it recreates the state of slavery where a person no longer works for their own gain, but for the gain of a master.
When you add categories for exception to a flat tax based on necessity, you are creating a system that is in effect progressive in relation to income. It is merely a matter of implementation.
Personally I would prefer a limited exemption flat income tax (including all income, capital gains, etc). Exemptions would be limited to a fixed multiple of household size.
Very true. Income tax needs to have its high level exceptions completely excised and the whole thing made much simpler. It would not only lead to higher revenue by reducing the ability of the ultra rich to game the system, but it would save money because the IRS could be much smaller as well.
Yes actually. the poor spend near 100% of their income on basic goods and necessities and outnumber the wealthy 10 to 1.
A wealthy person only buys so much crap. A hypothetical 10% sales tax takes ~10% of a poor persons income while the same 10% sales tax may take 0.01% of a wealthy persons income.
The only way for sales tax to be close to "flat" is if you charged it on the purchase of financial instruments like stock.
How are you going to detect passing an invalid parameter to a function at compile time?
You would have to know every place a method is called and every value being passed in.
1: public members can be called from code you never compile.
2: You need to be able to know the value of all the objects used as parameters at the time they are called. These values can not be determined explicitly in many cases.
3: java has strong reflection abilities and run time injection that are used in many libraries that throw an even bigger wrench into the process.
The problem with that assumption is that cancer is a condition that almost always affects organisms after their primary reproductive cycles have been completed. There are a few cancers that affect children and young adults but they are extremely rare.
Wrong. Socialists believe that government has a responsibility to take care of societies basic needs because it isn't profitable enough for private industry to do so. Central control of the economy is nowhere on the agenda of the vast majority of socialists, it is however on the agenda of authoritarians, fascists and communists.
Even banning legal tender will not get rid of "money", people would still find a default medium for representing value, even if it is a more traditional good such as coffee beans or salt.
That is usually only the case if you are shooting something with a thick skin. An unkevlared person will probably take a lot more damage from a hollow point gold bullet than a solid copper slug. Plus gold won't contaminate the meat like lead or copper can.
You can provide every human need and desire for free using magic, if you have magic.
You can collapse the world economy to the point where no one trusts representative value, then you will be bartering a cow and a dozen chickens for your next iPhone.
Mr Rogers is a decorated sniper who put bullets in the head of dozens of people. That extreme calm behavior is a result of his PTSD, its the only way he can keep from snapping.
Slashdot Mirror
Ah the book with the recipe for napalm that will according to legend blow you the fuck up.
Great stuff.
Its all fun and games until someone explodes into a ball of fire.
I beg to differ. That is precisely when the fun and games begin.
And I am neither an annoying Indian pop singer, nor a Japanese goddess.
...but not as surprised as my wife who loves to tell me what a big kid I really am...
The worst part is that when she does that, you can't just take your toys and go home.
I occasionally pop the soundtrack for X3:Terran Conflict that came with the gold edition when I am on a long drive. Its good, non distracting ambiance.
Plot? Original Outpost game?
This? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outpost_%28video_game%29
Unless you are referring to a different outpost, that plot didn't happen. The only plot in that game is the destruction of earth by Vulcan's hammer and the split with the rebel colony for unspecified reasons.
The tea party put it in their attack ads during the last US election. So yes, "some people" actually think that.
That confirms it. After leaving W3C when they abandoned xhtml2, I must now return to them and the infidel WHATWG to propose <humor>tags</humor>
Hey, we were not getting much out of that research money anyway, after all the US is one of the worst countries in science education.
Thats nice. In the real world knowing someone who works in the same field as you do can mean the difference between walking into your new office/cubicle 3 weeks after graduation or spending 18 months flipping burgers while you send out your resume to couple thousands of shops all over the US.
I was speaking exclusively from an economic perspective.
Without subsidized infrastructure like phone, electricity, roads, airport and internet many modern businesses are impossible. Walmart could never exist, google could never exist, etc.
Its ok, I make sure that my PS3 and all my games are bought second hand.
Its the least I can do...
It is also unfortunately the most I can do since most of my friends I play online with are on PSO.
I am sorry, I try to use the actual definitions of words instead of propaganda speak.
Over here "socialists" are considered to be pinko islamic communist jewish nazi's who want to take your job, molest baby Jesus and are for big government and banning social security.
The problem with sales tax as an incentive to save is that it just does not work. For the already wealthy? It won't matter because they already have enough that a couple extra percent spent wont make an appreciable difference on what they can save. However for people who spend most of their income on necessities, it actively prevents them from saving at all. For people who already spend ALL of their income just to survive, you place them into a debt crisis.
I am not suggesting that sales taxes should be made into complex progressive taxes. If sales taxes really are for the stated purpose, they are fundamentally flawed. I know some places have exceptions for necessities, but everywhere that I have lived has had sales tax exemptions only for financial instruments and not necessities.
I accept your rejection of the implicit assumptions. Many people make those implicit assumptions. But I have reason behind my perspective.
The accumulation of wealth is supported and enabled by a well run society respecting personal property. The wealthy are those who reap the greatest benefits of society as a whole. Progressive taxes are (or at least can be) fair for this reason.
Regressive taxes place an onerous burden upon those least capable of bearing it. Taken far enough and it recreates the state of slavery where a person no longer works for their own gain, but for the gain of a master.
When you add categories for exception to a flat tax based on necessity, you are creating a system that is in effect progressive in relation to income. It is merely a matter of implementation.
Personally I would prefer a limited exemption flat income tax (including all income, capital gains, etc). Exemptions would be limited to a fixed multiple of household size.
Very true. Income tax needs to have its high level exceptions completely excised and the whole thing made much simpler. It would not only lead to higher revenue by reducing the ability of the ultra rich to game the system, but it would save money because the IRS could be much smaller as well.
Yes actually. the poor spend near 100% of their income on basic goods and necessities and outnumber the wealthy 10 to 1.
A wealthy person only buys so much crap. A hypothetical 10% sales tax takes ~10% of a poor persons income while the same 10% sales tax may take 0.01% of a wealthy persons income.
The only way for sales tax to be close to "flat" is if you charged it on the purchase of financial instruments like stock.
How are you going to detect passing an invalid parameter to a function at compile time?
You would have to know every place a method is called and every value being passed in.
1: public members can be called from code you never compile.
2: You need to be able to know the value of all the objects used as parameters at the time they are called. These values can not be determined explicitly in many cases.
3: java has strong reflection abilities and run time injection that are used in many libraries that throw an even bigger wrench into the process.
The problem with that assumption is that cancer is a condition that almost always affects organisms after their primary reproductive cycles have been completed. There are a few cancers that affect children and young adults but they are extremely rare.
Wrong. Socialists believe that government has a responsibility to take care of societies basic needs because it isn't profitable enough for private industry to do so. Central control of the economy is nowhere on the agenda of the vast majority of socialists, it is however on the agenda of authoritarians, fascists and communists.
Even banning legal tender will not get rid of "money", people would still find a default medium for representing value, even if it is a more traditional good such as coffee beans or salt.
Am I going to have to submit <humor>tags</humor> to the W3C and WHATWG?
That is usually only the case if you are shooting something with a thick skin. An unkevlared person will probably take a lot more damage from a hollow point gold bullet than a solid copper slug. Plus gold won't contaminate the meat like lead or copper can.
Not entirely true.
Gold is high density, malleable and corrosion resistant so it makes great bullets.
There are only 2 ways to eliminate money.
You can provide every human need and desire for free using magic, if you have magic.
You can collapse the world economy to the point where no one trusts representative value, then you will be bartering a cow and a dozen chickens for your next iPhone.
I watch fox news. Just to remind myself that people really are that stupid.
Mr Rogers is a decorated sniper who put bullets in the head of dozens of people. That extreme calm behavior is a result of his PTSD, its the only way he can keep from snapping.