Technically you do not have to pay to file your taxes. You can pick up the forms at the local library or post office for free, or download them from the IRS web site. You can then fill them out, sign them, and mail them in. All for free (OK, so you pay for a stamp or two). The issue is the complexity of the tax laws that drive all the extra forms and questions that are not as simple to answer as they should be.
There is a difference. Welfare has qualifications that vary from state to state as to what other income you are allowed to have and still get it. In some cases there is a requirement for some reason you are not able to work. With UBI there are no such restrictions. I can have an investment account that is returning an average of $25K a year (or pick your number) and still collect on UBI, bringing my total up to a livable amount. I can't do that with welfare.
You are both mostly right. Social Security and Medicare taxes are "Payroll Taxes," which is different from "Federal Income Tax." It is actually true that a significant portion of the population (>40%) ends up paying zero Federal Income Tax. They do however pay other taxes, like social security, medicare, property, sales, vehicle registration, etc...
This isn't about what the employer pays to the person. For people in the US with only income from a single employer to report, filing is very easy. It is a single page, and the employer likewise withholds a portion of your pay and sends it straight to the government. However the tax code is so complicated that for many people the employer cannot possibly know all the things that could impact your final income tax liability for the year. Income from other sources, like bank interest, stock dividends, capital gains, etc... while many of these are also reported, the separate entities do not understand your total tax picture. Then there are expenses that can be deducted from your gross income for the purposes of reducing that liability, such as medical expenses over a certain threshold, certain child care expenses, charitable donations, etc... Then there is gambling income and losses that can factor in for some... Then you may have to file a return with the state you live in, and in a few extreme cases you have income tax paid to the local authorities as well, which are different forms with much of the same information. Though it seems you can no longer deduct the tax paid to the lower tier from the income reported at the higher tier.
The article is a little short on details for how successful the service has been over the last 5 years. An admittedly cursory search shows nothing substantial (i.e. nothing not provided by the service itself) in the way of evidence on how this service has provided good value for the money. So, did they get the right people? Are they making a difference? I don't see the documentation.
Do we actually know for certain that this second crash has the same cause as the first? I have not see anything official. However... they weren't grounded the first time because the first crash was the result of a hardware failure and the pilots not properly responding to the failure. So, two failures. Note that I don't say it was the fault of the pilot. The issue was the documentation and training provided by Boeing was insufficient to enable the pilots to identify and respond to the original failure in a timely way. Also, the system required the pilots to respond to a fault condition in a different way than the previous version of the aircraft and the change was not well communicated. After the first crash a bulletin was distributed to the operators of the aircraft that described how to deal with the condition, and it was apparently thought that this was enough until the software could be updated. Even with the change to use multiple sources of data so this theoretically doesn't happen again, I'm not sure it is really good enough. It sounds like the mechanism the pilots have to use to get the computer to back off is more complex than in the past.
Don't use an off the shelf smart phone. People are concerned about this stuff, but the root cause is them putting too much trust in the device and therefore the people behind it. I really don't know what the UAE internal laws say about this sort of thing, and if it is illegal, of course they should stop it, but would you really trust them to do so, even if directed by a judge? If you are the kind of person the government is going to be interested in, you really need to take care with your communications.
Politicians worried about this will just shut down all feedback on social media if they can't silence trolls. They should probably be doing this anyway.
I did not see an indication of altitude and speed of the drone. Shotguns are pretty limited, many drones can fly significantly above the range of a shotgun.
Even if I haven't gotten a raise in a few years, if I can't better my situation by leaving, why would I? There is no loyalty to a company and the company has no loyalty to me, regardless of raises. I have some measure of loyalty to people but they generally understand. When I look at changing jobs I look at what I can get at the other place. More cash? Better health insurance (i.e. I spend less on health care)? More paid time off? Better job satisfaction? Less frustration? Less time commuting? Chance to learn something new and interesting? Paid move to a different region?
The only people I know who have moved any significant distance in the last 5 years did it to take a new job and their new employer paid for the cost of the move.
As someone who spent a bit of time in the SF area years ago, I can tell you the weather is not what I would call great year-round. Sure, it doesn't get snow, but for some reason it actually felt colder in November in SF than in January somewhere with snow. I don't know, maybe if you can hide from the wind and rain it isn't so bad.
It pays about $30 / day where I live. But then my employer continues to pay my full time salary while I'm on Jury Duty, so it just means free lunch. So I'd take as much Jury Duty as I could get. Unfortunately I've been called a few times but dismissed during voir dire every time except once, when the defendant did not show up.
This jet is doing quite well. Over 320 units total among three different variants as of September, and they passed 100,000 combined flight hours a year ago so I don't know what they are up to now but I'm sure it is quite a lot. The fact that it has been this long before a crash is unprecedented in the development of fighter aircraft. Not to mention no, zip, zero deaths (knock on wood) by this point is unheard of. By the time F-16 had this many aircraft there had been a number of deaths, I think at least half a dozen, but I'd have to go back and check the timing vs. production numbers to be sure. F-18 Hornet had 3 deaths in 83-84 just after introduction which climbed to 6 by the end of 1986 (the year if first saw action). F-22 which has had a few deaths is only half the total number of aircraft.
If it was as simple as just make them better, it would have been done. It has been shown over and over that just adding more money doesn't solve the problem until you get to such a ridiculous level that you can't afford to do it at more than a few places. And gradually the bureaucracy takes over to consume the available funds. Thus the "throwing money at them" comment. I don't think anyone has ruled out taking the things learned in this experiment back to public schools to make them better. Well, except maybe the career education bureaucrats. Nobody is talking about letting the guy take over public schools. But I do think it is worth letting others try things differently, especially if they are bringing their own money.
... Why would he be allowed to have his own preschool curriculum when this is already laid out by people who know much much more about childhood education? If he wants to open preschools, that's great, but stick to the current curriculum. Anything else is just scary.
Because public schools today are just so overly awesome there couldn't possibly be room for improvement, right? We just need to throw more money at them. Or maybe, with those billions of dollars he might just do what a lot of rich, successful people do and hire some folks who know what they are doing to manage the details. Now, he may very well have some ideas of his own about what sort of things youngsters might need to know in order to grow up to be successful, you know, being rich and successful himself. But then that would imply that a person would have some potential ability to have an impact on their own success in life, but we probably don't want to go there.
In his example, Mexico is retaliating against the US metal tariffs by putting tariffs on agricultural goods. That is a real world example by the way. The metal tariffs aren't really retaliatory, they are protectionist. Obama placed tariffs on specific types of steel before Trump, Bush did it for a short time in the early 2000's, and Carter put a price floor on imported steel way back in the day. There were other actions of similar types from both Reagan and Johnson. So this is nothing new. In terms of protecting US industry, they don't really work in the long run. I think he was just pointing out the flaw in your question of who has barriers against US steel and aluminum.
Slashdot Mirror
Or should the news outlets be paying Google etc... for driving clicks from links?
Brexit anyone?
Technically you do not have to pay to file your taxes. You can pick up the forms at the local library or post office for free, or download them from the IRS web site. You can then fill them out, sign them, and mail them in. All for free (OK, so you pay for a stamp or two). The issue is the complexity of the tax laws that drive all the extra forms and questions that are not as simple to answer as they should be.
There is a difference. Welfare has qualifications that vary from state to state as to what other income you are allowed to have and still get it. In some cases there is a requirement for some reason you are not able to work. With UBI there are no such restrictions. I can have an investment account that is returning an average of $25K a year (or pick your number) and still collect on UBI, bringing my total up to a livable amount. I can't do that with welfare.
You are both mostly right. Social Security and Medicare taxes are "Payroll Taxes," which is different from "Federal Income Tax." It is actually true that a significant portion of the population (>40%) ends up paying zero Federal Income Tax. They do however pay other taxes, like social security, medicare, property, sales, vehicle registration, etc...
This isn't about what the employer pays to the person. For people in the US with only income from a single employer to report, filing is very easy. It is a single page, and the employer likewise withholds a portion of your pay and sends it straight to the government. However the tax code is so complicated that for many people the employer cannot possibly know all the things that could impact your final income tax liability for the year. Income from other sources, like bank interest, stock dividends, capital gains, etc... while many of these are also reported, the separate entities do not understand your total tax picture. Then there are expenses that can be deducted from your gross income for the purposes of reducing that liability, such as medical expenses over a certain threshold, certain child care expenses, charitable donations, etc... Then there is gambling income and losses that can factor in for some... Then you may have to file a return with the state you live in, and in a few extreme cases you have income tax paid to the local authorities as well, which are different forms with much of the same information. Though it seems you can no longer deduct the tax paid to the lower tier from the income reported at the higher tier.
Yes! Let's implement that immediately so I can retire immediately.
The article is a little short on details for how successful the service has been over the last 5 years. An admittedly cursory search shows nothing substantial (i.e. nothing not provided by the service itself) in the way of evidence on how this service has provided good value for the money. So, did they get the right people? Are they making a difference? I don't see the documentation.
Do we actually know for certain that this second crash has the same cause as the first? I have not see anything official. However... they weren't grounded the first time because the first crash was the result of a hardware failure and the pilots not properly responding to the failure. So, two failures. Note that I don't say it was the fault of the pilot. The issue was the documentation and training provided by Boeing was insufficient to enable the pilots to identify and respond to the original failure in a timely way. Also, the system required the pilots to respond to a fault condition in a different way than the previous version of the aircraft and the change was not well communicated. After the first crash a bulletin was distributed to the operators of the aircraft that described how to deal with the condition, and it was apparently thought that this was enough until the software could be updated. Even with the change to use multiple sources of data so this theoretically doesn't happen again, I'm not sure it is really good enough. It sounds like the mechanism the pilots have to use to get the computer to back off is more complex than in the past.
What did people think would happen?
Don't use an off the shelf smart phone. People are concerned about this stuff, but the root cause is them putting too much trust in the device and therefore the people behind it. I really don't know what the UAE internal laws say about this sort of thing, and if it is illegal, of course they should stop it, but would you really trust them to do so, even if directed by a judge? If you are the kind of person the government is going to be interested in, you really need to take care with your communications.
Politicians worried about this will just shut down all feedback on social media if they can't silence trolls. They should probably be doing this anyway.
I did not see an indication of altitude and speed of the drone. Shotguns are pretty limited, many drones can fly significantly above the range of a shotgun.
Even if I haven't gotten a raise in a few years, if I can't better my situation by leaving, why would I? There is no loyalty to a company and the company has no loyalty to me, regardless of raises. I have some measure of loyalty to people but they generally understand. When I look at changing jobs I look at what I can get at the other place. More cash? Better health insurance (i.e. I spend less on health care)? More paid time off? Better job satisfaction? Less frustration? Less time commuting? Chance to learn something new and interesting? Paid move to a different region?
The only people I know who have moved any significant distance in the last 5 years did it to take a new job and their new employer paid for the cost of the move.
As someone who spent a bit of time in the SF area years ago, I can tell you the weather is not what I would call great year-round. Sure, it doesn't get snow, but for some reason it actually felt colder in November in SF than in January somewhere with snow. I don't know, maybe if you can hide from the wind and rain it isn't so bad.
It pays about $30 / day where I live. But then my employer continues to pay my full time salary while I'm on Jury Duty, so it just means free lunch. So I'd take as much Jury Duty as I could get. Unfortunately I've been called a few times but dismissed during voir dire every time except once, when the defendant did not show up.
That is an interesting thought, but given that many of the mishaps were not attributed to pilot actions, I don't think that would be the whole answer.
This jet is doing quite well. Over 320 units total among three different variants as of September, and they passed 100,000 combined flight hours a year ago so I don't know what they are up to now but I'm sure it is quite a lot. The fact that it has been this long before a crash is unprecedented in the development of fighter aircraft. Not to mention no, zip, zero deaths (knock on wood) by this point is unheard of. By the time F-16 had this many aircraft there had been a number of deaths, I think at least half a dozen, but I'd have to go back and check the timing vs. production numbers to be sure. F-18 Hornet had 3 deaths in 83-84 just after introduction which climbed to 6 by the end of 1986 (the year if first saw action). F-22 which has had a few deaths is only half the total number of aircraft.
And I have no idea where you are going with your comments that don't seem related to mine.
Everyone gets paid the same regardless of productivity? This should be good news for those advocating the $15/hr minimum wage.
Bad example. That is more like putting the passenger in the role of employer, as opposed to Uber the company.
If it was as simple as just make them better, it would have been done. It has been shown over and over that just adding more money doesn't solve the problem until you get to such a ridiculous level that you can't afford to do it at more than a few places. And gradually the bureaucracy takes over to consume the available funds. Thus the "throwing money at them" comment. I don't think anyone has ruled out taking the things learned in this experiment back to public schools to make them better. Well, except maybe the career education bureaucrats. Nobody is talking about letting the guy take over public schools. But I do think it is worth letting others try things differently, especially if they are bringing their own money.
... Why would he be allowed to have his own preschool curriculum when this is already laid out by people who know much much more about childhood education? If he wants to open preschools, that's great, but stick to the current curriculum. Anything else is just scary.
Because public schools today are just so overly awesome there couldn't possibly be room for improvement, right? We just need to throw more money at them. Or maybe, with those billions of dollars he might just do what a lot of rich, successful people do and hire some folks who know what they are doing to manage the details. Now, he may very well have some ideas of his own about what sort of things youngsters might need to know in order to grow up to be successful, you know, being rich and successful himself. But then that would imply that a person would have some potential ability to have an impact on their own success in life, but we probably don't want to go there.
In his example, Mexico is retaliating against the US metal tariffs by putting tariffs on agricultural goods. That is a real world example by the way. The metal tariffs aren't really retaliatory, they are protectionist. Obama placed tariffs on specific types of steel before Trump, Bush did it for a short time in the early 2000's, and Carter put a price floor on imported steel way back in the day. There were other actions of similar types from both Reagan and Johnson. So this is nothing new. In terms of protecting US industry, they don't really work in the long run. I think he was just pointing out the flaw in your question of who has barriers against US steel and aluminum.