"One major hurdle to clear: the cost of the analyzers, which go for $10,000 to $40,000 each. "
I guess they haven't seen the RF cochlea.
That could be developed into something that could be included in every mobile RF device.
It'll never happen because it's not really fair, just like the flat-tax.
Using the purchase of "goods" to base tax burden is just not a good idea. It blatantly favors the rich.
A sales tax burdens the poor much more than the rich because a much, much larger percentage of income for the poor is spent on goods that are taxed (food, clothes, energy). They have no savings, no investments.
For the 'rich', most of their income is NOT spent on goods that are taxed. Even if you make millions a year, you still only "need" $100,000 a year to live "well". So, they roll-over their investments, never paying taxes, getting richer, all the while we would call if fair because everyone is only paying taxes on what they "purchase". Well, for poor and lower middle class, most of what they "purchase" is necessary to have a minimum standard of living in this country. The national sales tax then ends up taxing MOST of their income!
If you want to make it fair, determine a baseline amount of consumables (maybe durables, too) that is necessary to have a moderate standard of living. If lobbyists for the rich don't get in the way and define moderate standard of living as having a box on street corner then we could credit everyone the amount of tax equivalent to these purchases. Pay tax on all the rest.
You still must define what gets taxed or not, and that's what has led in large part to the current tax code.
A national sales tax may eliminate the two things you mentioned while putting all that power into an already wealthy upper class (1% of the population has over 90% of the wealth in the USA). Most of the money they save out of this plan will go straight back into government to pay for legislation that only benefits themselves. This already happens, it would just be easier. All under the guise of "fairness". Sure.
I was just recently at Internet World 1999 and my impression is that Microsoft is indeed threatened by Java/Corba. Most successful e-business/e-commerce solutions run on *nix using Java servlets, Corba and XML. Any vendor that is out to make money for himself (and most are) choose non-MS solutions. They are more reliable, extendible, and don't lock you into waiting for MS to provide you "additional" features or standards.
The interesting thing about MS is that they adopt standards or features quickly in order to capture market share, not to provide the developer with the best tools quickly. They want to get their solution to you before you have a chance to realize their are better ones out there. How is that brilliant? It's just business.
And MS is about to take a pounding. They're missing the next wave just like they missed the entire concept of the Internet.
Anyone can choose to not use Microsoft for any reason they see fit. Not using "Microsoft logic" to base IT decisions is NOT a criteria for being a Linux zealot. It's just business.
On a side note, it was really cool to see how popular Linux and other *nix solutions are remaining.
I'm here to tell you guys, *nix isn't dead and won't be for a long time. And a lot of *nix will still run the Internet for a long time.
From talking to many vendors, it obvious that any large scale web sites such as Excite have moved away from NT boxes to Unix (Solaris in this case for ChiliASP). The NT solution are just not as scalable as *nix solutions at the same cost.
How's this for a business justification: Excite moved from 100+ NT boxes to 4 4-CPU Solaris boxes running ChiliASP. No more reboots, no more lock ups.
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"One major hurdle to clear: the cost of the analyzers, which go for $10,000 to $40,000 each. " I guess they haven't seen the RF cochlea. That could be developed into something that could be included in every mobile RF device.
That seems backwards to me.
It'll never happen because it's not really fair, just like the flat-tax.
Using the purchase of "goods" to base tax burden is just not a good idea. It blatantly favors the rich.
A sales tax burdens the poor much more than the rich because a much, much larger percentage of income for the poor is spent on goods that are taxed (food, clothes, energy). They have no savings, no investments.
For the 'rich', most of their income is NOT spent on goods that are taxed. Even if you make millions a year, you still only "need" $100,000 a year to live "well". So, they roll-over their investments, never paying taxes, getting richer, all the while we would call if fair because everyone is only paying taxes on what they "purchase". Well, for poor and lower middle class, most of what they "purchase" is necessary to have a minimum standard of living in this country. The national sales tax then ends up taxing MOST of their income!
If you want to make it fair, determine a baseline amount of consumables (maybe durables, too) that is necessary to have a moderate standard of living. If lobbyists for the rich don't get in the way and define moderate standard of living as having a box on street corner then we could credit everyone the amount of tax equivalent to these purchases. Pay tax on all the rest.
You still must define what gets taxed or not, and that's what has led in large part to the current tax code.
A national sales tax may eliminate the two things you mentioned while putting all that power into an already wealthy upper class (1% of the population has over 90% of the wealth in the USA). Most of the money they save out of this plan will go straight back into government to pay for legislation that only benefits themselves. This already happens, it would just be easier. All under the guise of "fairness". Sure.
I was just recently at Internet World 1999 and my impression is that Microsoft is indeed threatened by Java/Corba. Most successful e-business/e-commerce solutions run on *nix using Java servlets, Corba and XML. Any vendor that is out to make money for himself (and most are) choose non-MS solutions. They are more reliable, extendible, and don't lock you into waiting for MS to provide you "additional" features or standards.
The interesting thing about MS is that they adopt standards or features quickly in order to capture market share, not to provide the developer with the best tools quickly. They want to get their solution to you before you have a chance to realize their are better ones out there. How is that brilliant? It's just business.
And MS is about to take a pounding. They're missing the next wave just like they missed the entire concept of the Internet.
Anyone can choose to not use Microsoft for any reason they see fit. Not using "Microsoft logic" to base IT decisions is NOT a criteria for being a Linux zealot. It's just business.
On a side note, it was really cool to see how popular Linux and other *nix solutions are remaining.
I'm here to tell you guys, *nix isn't dead and won't be for a long time. And a lot of *nix will still run the Internet for a long time.
From talking to many vendors, it obvious that any large scale web sites such as Excite have moved away from NT boxes to Unix (Solaris in this case for ChiliASP). The NT solution are just not as scalable as *nix solutions at the same cost.
How's this for a business justification: Excite moved from 100+ NT boxes to 4 4-CPU Solaris boxes running ChiliASP. No more reboots, no more lock ups.