If they do give into demands under pressure of believing you might walk, you should actually look for a new job, because you've just stunted your career opportunities in your current company - they won't want to spend resources developing your skills or training you for a new position because they'll be worried that you'll dissappear soon anyway.
Agreed. When you work schedules like that, maybe half the team is going to be doing significantly LESS work than on a normal workday after only a week or two of the project. And of the people actually trying, quality is going to drop. A LOT. You'd have to schedule 2-3 times as long as usual for the QA cycle, or you'll be screwed anyway.
I would also be very surprised if it is legal for them to require 12 hour days and no days off over that long a period. Health and safety regulations and labor laws would prohibit that in most civilized countries. But then it IS the US we're talking about, so I guess it's possible that it's legal (considering you guys have less labor protection than many third world countries).
But given the fact that management is incompetent to ask for something like this I wouldn't worry too much about your long term future in this company - instead your should RUN, not walk, to a recruitment agency and start looking for a new job. A company so fundamental clueless about project management and human resource issues that they're willing to push something like this through can only get worse, and if they're not clueless that means they're desperate and the company is on the verge of collapsing.
I don't think you understand the dynamics of the Middle East very well. The arab world is split in two: Fundamentalist nations either ruled by clerics or with the government on a tight leash by the clerics, and nations that are more liberal, most of which are hereditary dictatorships of various kinds or military dictatorships.
The latter, with a few exceptions, are terrified of the fundamentalists, and in some cases (Algerie, Egypt) aggressively use military force to suppress the most extreme fundamentalist movements.
If you look at what actually happened during the Iraq war, you'll see that many of the governments, while against the invasion, were also against much of the anti-US hysteria (many of them used military and special forces to keep calm and avoid mass demonstrations), because it feeds the fundamentalist movements who would like to see their regimes replaced by cleric controlled theocracies instead.
So yes, they are scared shitless of radical muslim groups, but at the same time they have to live with the fact that their populations either support these groups, or at least would support them if they came under attack from government, and the positions of these leaders is strong only as long as they are successful at balancing between modernisation and concessions to the fundamentalists to avoid open rebellion.
If more of the Arab governments had wanted to fuel anti-US hysteria, things would have been much worse.
While they may not like Israel, that doesn't change the fact that Jewish religion is seen as divine, as is christianity.
The Quran even specifically treat Christians and Jews better than the rest, and may avoid hell:
002.062 - Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish scriptures, and the Christians and the Sabians,- any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.
Contrast that with non-believers and believers in "false" gods, who according to the Quran will go straight to hell.
I would assume they mean that "everyone", however they define that, believe in one of the three divince religions. Considering Egypts muslim background, I'd assume they are referring to muslims, christians and jews. Remember that muslims believe that all these three religions is related to the same god, just with different views on whether or not Jesus and Mohammed were prophets, which is why christians and jews are let off with only purgatory and not eternal damnation if the muslims are right:-)
Us atheists, though, we would be in for a though ride...
Not to mention the 8 hour working day, which cost the blood of hundreds if not thousands of workers, a large part of them Americans. The tradition of May day demonstrations was a direct result of the US labor movement and it's fight for the 8 hour working day.
Heh. I just looked up a few US tax rates, and with the salary I had at the time, I would end up paying somewhere around 28%-33% combined in federal income tax and state income tax depending on which US state we're looking at. Additionally, I would have needed health insurance and extra pension payments to get an equivalent level of health care coverage and pension that the 35% I paid in Norway would give me.
I would also in some areas in the US need to pay property related taxes, or other local taxes, which was part of the 35% I paid in Norway.
So how is it "extortion-grade rates"?
Yes, in some US states, I might end up paying less due to very low state income taxes, and few or no local taxes, but face it, most US citizens on the income level I was at then end up paying close to what I paid, and many pay significantly more when you add up the extra health care insurance and pension payments they would need to make for comparable service.
(and I was actually surprised myself, at seeing the above - compared with my current UK tax payments on a considerably larger salary than what I had in Norway, I believe I'm actually paying less in the UK than what I would have been in the US in federal income tax alone)
You completely overlook my point: US companies have no automatic right to sell to the EU without incurring costs. US companies already do incur a cost in ensuring proper customs declarations on goods they ship to the EU. They are free to pass any such costs on to their EU customers.
However, whining about sovereign nations excercising their rights to set the rules of taxation on goods and services to it's citizens is ridiculous. If US companies don't like collecting EU taxes, then they can just stop selling goods to EU citizens - it would do a world of good to the economies of EU companies.
"Tend to"? In the EU, VAT applies to almost all items, and have always done so in the member states.
As for gaining in jobs and revenue, perhaps, but at the cost of demolishing public services - in some European states VAT contributes many times what the income tax does to government revenue.
How does EU citizens pay for online goods from US companies? By credit card. Who issues them the credit cards? Their local, EU based bank licensed by the local government. Who will likely get pressured into ensuring card associations (Visa, Mastercard) require their US merchants to comply with EU VAT regulation to do business? The EU banks...
Get the point? If EU doesn't get compliance otherwise, they have plenty of weapons to force the card associations to do the enforcement for them. Don't file EU VAT returns? Then no sales to European issued credit cards for you.
I'm not saying they will do this instantly, but it's a "simple" way of enforcing the VAT, and one I'm sure a lot of people is willing to make a lot of effort to ensure the EU doesn't feel compelled to take (I doubt the banks or card associations would be too happy about taking on that responsibility)
Yeah, or you buy a shell company and let the shell company lease capacity on your US server park and do all your EU sales for you, manage only one rate, and ensure you only charge the lowest possible VAT rat, and possibly even be able to move some expenses in the EU that you can reclaim the VAT on.
Not recommended for a tiny company, but I suspect most larger US companies with significant business in the EU will either have an office in the EU, or will establish a shell company to funnel transaction through to simplify things.
That's what I've found as well. When showing of their "low" taxes, people in the US seems to often only take fedral income tax into account, and ignore that their total is much lower. It also seems to be a common theme that people look at the highest tax bands they are in. With the way the UK tax system work, for instance, your income tax converges towards 40% + 1% national insurance. However for people with incomes less than 3-4 times the national average it will be way less than that, since the 41% band only kicks in well above the national average.
It would be interesting to see proper comparisons of tax burdens that take into account the full set of income and capital gains taxes and sales tax/VAT and that excludes the riches 10% or so, to get realistic picture of the differences in tax burden for "normal people".
I suspect many people would be surprised. Many Scandinavians for instance tend to whine about how they can end up paying around 50% income tax. However when I lived in Norway I had a salary more than twice the national average, and paid "only" about 35% - most people won't get anywhere near 50%, but they look at what they would have paid if their entire income had been taxed at the highest tax bracket. Either that, or they dream of making millions. Though if you make millions you can afford to pay a tax planner to ensure you pay less that most minimum wage workers if paying tax is really such a big deal for you.
Newsflash: EU customers have always been legally obliged to pay VAT on items shipped to them from abroad. The VAT for physical items is applied by customs. People have still bought from the US.
The only change is that the burden of collecting VAT for sales of non-physical items that obviously don't pass through customs will be shifted from the end users (who would never bother) to the store.
And yes, the goal is to make US companies compete on equal footing with EU companies who already do have to add VAT for all VAT liable transactions to EU customers.
US companies can pretty easily reduce their VAT burden, though, by a) routing EU sales through a shell company in one of the lower VAT rate EU countries - the range is from 16% to 25% I believe, and b) shifting some of their purchases to the EU where possible and cost efficient, to allow them to reclaim some of the VAT (of course this would be pointless for purchases of items that will be shipped out of the EU as they wouldn't incur any VAT to reclaim in the first place), which would also make them less susceptible to currency risks.
They aren't forcing any non-EU citizens to conform to EU law. They are saying "if you want the _privilege_ of selling products to the EU, you will have to follow the rules". This is exactly as if the US would charge import duties when you receive expensive goods from overseas by mail... Oh, yeah, they already do. Just like everyone else.
Technically, if you buy a product online in the EU you are required to pay VAT on it, regardless where you bought it from. In the case of products sold by EU companies, the EU company collect the VAT on behalf of the government. In the case of products bought from non-EU companies that are physical items, customs collect the VAT and import duties. In the case of products bought from non-EU companies that are shipped electronically, technically the recipients have been responsible, but since nobody would actually bother to do it, now non-EU online services will be required to collect the VAT for the government if they want to sell to EU consumers.
VAT is not a tax on the stores, it is a tax on the consumer.
Look at the damn pictures. The contacts are very close together, and will be against your hands. Most of the current will only pass through a very little part of your hand - you certainly won't have huge amounts of current going through your heart from this. And as lots of people have already pointed out, 20.000 volt doesn't tell you much unless you also know how the amperage, which is likely very low.
You're wrong. Caldera merged with SCO, and later split what was the application division into a new company, that it sold off, and changed it's name to SCO. So the current SCO is the Unix division of SCO + Caldera. Yes, there are lots of new people, but also most of the OS people from old SCO - SCO never got out of the Unix business.
Maybe you should go back and watch it again (it's out on DVD) and look for:
The youth movement used to snitch on their parents.
The arm bands
The Jewish family that had been through Nazi persecution making a big point about how it is "happening again"
How they make a big point about how they are looking after the public good, and stamp all opposition as a threat to the state
How the make excessive use of staged media events for propaganda
The "prisoners" that are really being taken away to be killed (yes, by being used as food, instead of just as mostly waste) instead of serving sentences as people were being told
How they see humans as inferior (as opposed to the Nazi's seeing non-germanic people as inferior)
Breeding programs (lizard - human pregnancies, much as the Nazis had extensive programs to breed the perfect master race through careful selection)
(as you mentioned) The victimisation of scientists and other intellectuals (the lizards shared with the Nazis an excessive program of arresting and discrediting scientists and political opponents, including pegging crimes on their opponents to turn public opinion against them - Reichtags fire, anyone?)
The parallels are so blatant and in your face that it at some points it really disturbs the story, but I guess that's the point.
Yes, you are right, the lizards wanted humans for food, while the Nazis wanted racial purity and power, but it both amounts to a fundamental disrespect for other sentient beings - all of humanity in the case of the lizards, and "just" all non-germanic people and all in political opposition or anyone who for any other reason didn't fit into the Nazi ideal in the case of the Nazis.
Without some twists, there would have been no point making it as a sci fi series instead of making yet another series about the war.
Well, that is exactly the same argument anyone fighting the US would use: When you're fighting an enemy that want you dead, anything goes. As long as they believe they are facing an army they can't win over in a regular war, and which they believe is there with the intent of destroying their lives, of course they won't pick up army uniforms and march out to get slaughtered.
Face it, most international law dealing with what is a "legitimate" way of fighting is the result of governments trying to come to an understanding that is mutually beneficial for them even when they are face to face in a war. It breaks down and becomes utterly unreasonable the moment one party isn't a government or one party is significantly weaker than the other, and where the alternative is to dress up in the right colours and get killed, or being an "unlawful" combattant and stand a chance.
Read Microsofts financial statements. Microsofts margins are the envy of the entire industry, and most of the business world. Their R&D budget hardly dent their revenues.
Uhm. Yeah. I guess that's why UK TV daily have ads where companies are slamming eachothers products by names.
As long as you have specific claims that are provably true, then you can say almost anything you want in UK ads. At the moment, for instance, the bank Alliance and Leicester is running a series of ads for personal loans where they list most of their main competitors with names and ridicule their rates, giving the advertized rates of the competitors in question.
Most of Europe have pretty strict rules on advertizing that make certain types of claims illegal. For instance, few countries would allow you to say that your product is "best" without proof that it is best according to some objective standard. Similarly, few countries allow comparisons with competitors unless the comparisons are specific and provably correct. However, vague claims are generally ok, such as saying something makes you "feel better" etc.
Similarly, implying things with images, instead of saying it outright, is usually ok, and that's how most ads work anyway. Not many ads say "you will attract lots of women that will want to have sex with you", they show a guy using the product attracting lots of women instead, and we infer "promises" that were never actually made.
Copyright is granted as a TEMPORARY monopoly on the exploitation of a work to encourage creation. It is meant to be a restriction on the free exchange of ideas justified by the idea that allowing the time limited monopoly will see more works available to the public. If copyright holders use DRM schemes that prevent the works from being copied even beyond the expiry of their copyright, then they have essentially grabbed rights they were never meant to have under copyright law.
It WILL annoy a lot of people, but that doesn't change the fact that aggressive, invasive selling works better. I've seen the numbers, and seen up close how adjusting sales procedures like this improve sales rates. Yes, you get people who see straight through it, and know what they want, and make up their own mind, but most people don't really know what they want and are trivially easily led to buy more than they planned by a well trained aggressive salesperson.
Unless you are severely mentally challenged, and incapable of stuffing your face while carrying out some other task, that would rule out nearly every sport in existence. Of course some sports might make it a bit messy.
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If they do give into demands under pressure of believing you might walk, you should actually look for a new job, because you've just stunted your career opportunities in your current company - they won't want to spend resources developing your skills or training you for a new position because they'll be worried that you'll dissappear soon anyway.
I would also be very surprised if it is legal for them to require 12 hour days and no days off over that long a period. Health and safety regulations and labor laws would prohibit that in most civilized countries. But then it IS the US we're talking about, so I guess it's possible that it's legal (considering you guys have less labor protection than many third world countries).
But given the fact that management is incompetent to ask for something like this I wouldn't worry too much about your long term future in this company - instead your should RUN, not walk, to a recruitment agency and start looking for a new job. A company so fundamental clueless about project management and human resource issues that they're willing to push something like this through can only get worse, and if they're not clueless that means they're desperate and the company is on the verge of collapsing.
And you assume that SCO will not sue because their case against him would have no merit exactly why?
The latter, with a few exceptions, are terrified of the fundamentalists, and in some cases (Algerie, Egypt) aggressively use military force to suppress the most extreme fundamentalist movements.
If you look at what actually happened during the Iraq war, you'll see that many of the governments, while against the invasion, were also against much of the anti-US hysteria (many of them used military and special forces to keep calm and avoid mass demonstrations), because it feeds the fundamentalist movements who would like to see their regimes replaced by cleric controlled theocracies instead.
So yes, they are scared shitless of radical muslim groups, but at the same time they have to live with the fact that their populations either support these groups, or at least would support them if they came under attack from government, and the positions of these leaders is strong only as long as they are successful at balancing between modernisation and concessions to the fundamentalists to avoid open rebellion.
If more of the Arab governments had wanted to fuel anti-US hysteria, things would have been much worse.
The Quran even specifically treat Christians and Jews better than the rest, and may avoid hell:
002.062 - Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish scriptures, and the Christians and the Sabians,- any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.
Contrast that with non-believers and believers in "false" gods, who according to the Quran will go straight to hell.
Us atheists, though, we would be in for a though ride...
Not to mention the 8 hour working day, which cost the blood of hundreds if not thousands of workers, a large part of them Americans. The tradition of May day demonstrations was a direct result of the US labor movement and it's fight for the 8 hour working day.
I would also in some areas in the US need to pay property related taxes, or other local taxes, which was part of the 35% I paid in Norway.
So how is it "extortion-grade rates"?
Yes, in some US states, I might end up paying less due to very low state income taxes, and few or no local taxes, but face it, most US citizens on the income level I was at then end up paying close to what I paid, and many pay significantly more when you add up the extra health care insurance and pension payments they would need to make for comparable service.
(and I was actually surprised myself, at seeing the above - compared with my current UK tax payments on a considerably larger salary than what I had in Norway, I believe I'm actually paying less in the UK than what I would have been in the US in federal income tax alone)
However, whining about sovereign nations excercising their rights to set the rules of taxation on goods and services to it's citizens is ridiculous. If US companies don't like collecting EU taxes, then they can just stop selling goods to EU citizens - it would do a world of good to the economies of EU companies.
As for gaining in jobs and revenue, perhaps, but at the cost of demolishing public services - in some European states VAT contributes many times what the income tax does to government revenue.
Get the point? If EU doesn't get compliance otherwise, they have plenty of weapons to force the card associations to do the enforcement for them. Don't file EU VAT returns? Then no sales to European issued credit cards for you.
I'm not saying they will do this instantly, but it's a "simple" way of enforcing the VAT, and one I'm sure a lot of people is willing to make a lot of effort to ensure the EU doesn't feel compelled to take (I doubt the banks or card associations would be too happy about taking on that responsibility)
Not recommended for a tiny company, but I suspect most larger US companies with significant business in the EU will either have an office in the EU, or will establish a shell company to funnel transaction through to simplify things.
It would be interesting to see proper comparisons of tax burdens that take into account the full set of income and capital gains taxes and sales tax/VAT and that excludes the riches 10% or so, to get realistic picture of the differences in tax burden for "normal people".
I suspect many people would be surprised. Many Scandinavians for instance tend to whine about how they can end up paying around 50% income tax. However when I lived in Norway I had a salary more than twice the national average, and paid "only" about 35% - most people won't get anywhere near 50%, but they look at what they would have paid if their entire income had been taxed at the highest tax bracket. Either that, or they dream of making millions. Though if you make millions you can afford to pay a tax planner to ensure you pay less that most minimum wage workers if paying tax is really such a big deal for you.
The only change is that the burden of collecting VAT for sales of non-physical items that obviously don't pass through customs will be shifted from the end users (who would never bother) to the store.
And yes, the goal is to make US companies compete on equal footing with EU companies who already do have to add VAT for all VAT liable transactions to EU customers.
US companies can pretty easily reduce their VAT burden, though, by a) routing EU sales through a shell company in one of the lower VAT rate EU countries - the range is from 16% to 25% I believe, and b) shifting some of their purchases to the EU where possible and cost efficient, to allow them to reclaim some of the VAT (of course this would be pointless for purchases of items that will be shipped out of the EU as they wouldn't incur any VAT to reclaim in the first place), which would also make them less susceptible to currency risks.
Technically, if you buy a product online in the EU you are required to pay VAT on it, regardless where you bought it from. In the case of products sold by EU companies, the EU company collect the VAT on behalf of the government. In the case of products bought from non-EU companies that are physical items, customs collect the VAT and import duties. In the case of products bought from non-EU companies that are shipped electronically, technically the recipients have been responsible, but since nobody would actually bother to do it, now non-EU online services will be required to collect the VAT for the government if they want to sell to EU consumers.
VAT is not a tax on the stores, it is a tax on the consumer.
Look at the damn pictures. The contacts are very close together, and will be against your hands. Most of the current will only pass through a very little part of your hand - you certainly won't have huge amounts of current going through your heart from this. And as lots of people have already pointed out, 20.000 volt doesn't tell you much unless you also know how the amperage, which is likely very low.
You're wrong. Caldera merged with SCO, and later split what was the application division into a new company, that it sold off, and changed it's name to SCO. So the current SCO is the Unix division of SCO + Caldera. Yes, there are lots of new people, but also most of the OS people from old SCO - SCO never got out of the Unix business.
The parallels are so blatant and in your face that it at some points it really disturbs the story, but I guess that's the point.
Yes, you are right, the lizards wanted humans for food, while the Nazis wanted racial purity and power, but it both amounts to a fundamental disrespect for other sentient beings - all of humanity in the case of the lizards, and "just" all non-germanic people and all in political opposition or anyone who for any other reason didn't fit into the Nazi ideal in the case of the Nazis.
Without some twists, there would have been no point making it as a sci fi series instead of making yet another series about the war.
Face it, most international law dealing with what is a "legitimate" way of fighting is the result of governments trying to come to an understanding that is mutually beneficial for them even when they are face to face in a war. It breaks down and becomes utterly unreasonable the moment one party isn't a government or one party is significantly weaker than the other, and where the alternative is to dress up in the right colours and get killed, or being an "unlawful" combattant and stand a chance.
Read Microsofts financial statements. Microsofts margins are the envy of the entire industry, and most of the business world. Their R&D budget hardly dent their revenues.
I guess it's because they don't give a rip that they sued Lindows for trademark infringement a while ago, then?
As long as you have specific claims that are provably true, then you can say almost anything you want in UK ads. At the moment, for instance, the bank Alliance and Leicester is running a series of ads for personal loans where they list most of their main competitors with names and ridicule their rates, giving the advertized rates of the competitors in question.
Most of Europe have pretty strict rules on advertizing that make certain types of claims illegal. For instance, few countries would allow you to say that your product is "best" without proof that it is best according to some objective standard. Similarly, few countries allow comparisons with competitors unless the comparisons are specific and provably correct. However, vague claims are generally ok, such as saying something makes you "feel better" etc.
Similarly, implying things with images, instead of saying it outright, is usually ok, and that's how most ads work anyway. Not many ads say "you will attract lots of women that will want to have sex with you", they show a guy using the product attracting lots of women instead, and we infer "promises" that were never actually made.
Copyright is granted as a TEMPORARY monopoly on the exploitation of a work to encourage creation. It is meant to be a restriction on the free exchange of ideas justified by the idea that allowing the time limited monopoly will see more works available to the public. If copyright holders use DRM schemes that prevent the works from being copied even beyond the expiry of their copyright, then they have essentially grabbed rights they were never meant to have under copyright law.
It WILL annoy a lot of people, but that doesn't change the fact that aggressive, invasive selling works better. I've seen the numbers, and seen up close how adjusting sales procedures like this improve sales rates. Yes, you get people who see straight through it, and know what they want, and make up their own mind, but most people don't really know what they want and are trivially easily led to buy more than they planned by a well trained aggressive salesperson.
Unless you are severely mentally challenged, and incapable of stuffing your face while carrying out some other task, that would rule out nearly every sport in existence. Of course some sports might make it a bit messy.