>Which the insurance company will try very hard to avoid paying out on, just like they do now
We do not have a free market for insurance today. Insurance companies are surrounded by regulations that make it difficult for new vendors to enter their markets, so they don't have to compete on reputation. If they did have to compete, then shirking on claims would make it very difficult for them to obtain customers.
> if your answer requires me to pay a fee whenever I'm traveling at that road, making me a de facto prisoner in my own home, it's not acceptable.
The status quo requires you to pay for the road whether you're using it or not, and you'll be made a prisoner if you refuse to pay. Why do you find that more acceptable than paying for what you use?
Your snotty dismissal ignores the fact that government is not the only means for building roads or plumbing. It does not follow that because some product or service is provided through the threat of violence today, that it can't be done otherwise.
Why are sales taxes or property taxes better than income taxes?
Morally they're identical, of course, but as a practical matter, income taxes necessarily require invasions of privacy, and provide a pretext for government harassment of dissidents. Nixon and Clinton, for example, both used the IRS against their opponents.
ou mistakenly assume that the playing field is level
I make no such assumption. As I've stated elsewhere, I'm quite aware of how government colludes with unscrupulous businessmen to distort the market. This can not be solved by increasing government power, or confiscating anyone's earnings.
I can't believe that there are fools actually arguing against an income tax on income above $200,000.
I can't believe that there are asshats like you that advocate income taxes on anyone, regardless of what they're earning. Penalizing people for their success in the market is how you retard growth, savings, and investment. If you want to have the right incentives in place, then tax what people spend, not what they earn.
think we live in a meritocracy where everyone has only what they deserve.
When have I ever made such a claim? I know full well that far too many people reap ill-gotten gains by using government to screw over their competition, or even to stuff their pockets with inflated currency that comes out of thin air.
I bet many of their better software engineers are making close to that much,
I seem to recall reading a few years back that over a thousand people had become millionaires from their MSFT shares. This was including both employees and outside investors who got in before the mid '90s.
No, behaving in a civilized manner towards your fellow man is the cost for civilized society. Taxes are the cost of government, which as you should know, has a nasty habit of occasionally murdering people on an industrial scale.
He does nothing of the kind. Smith was an early proponent of free markets, whose ideas have been expanded upon and improved by later free-market economists like Mises, Rothbard, Hayek, and Friedman.
You know, there was a time when Microsoft was able to kill a company with a vaporware announcement like that. Anyone remember how they announced "Pen Windows" to strangle Go PenPoint in the cradle?
PenPoint was a nice bit of work. Those guys knew what they were doing.
Slashdot Mirror
>I just find it so disgusting that there are so many developers all of a sudden interested in making money from their code.
I find it disgusting how many people expect other people to work for nothing.
-jcr
>Which the insurance company will try very hard to avoid paying out on, just like they do now
We do not have a free market for insurance today. Insurance companies are surrounded by regulations that make it difficult for new vendors to enter their markets, so they don't have to compete on reputation. If they did have to compete, then shirking on claims would make it very difficult for them to obtain customers.
-jcr
> if your answer requires me to pay a fee whenever I'm traveling at that road, making me a de facto prisoner in my own home, it's not acceptable.
The status quo requires you to pay for the road whether you're using it or not, and you'll be made a prisoner if you refuse to pay. Why do you find that more acceptable than paying for what you use?
-jcr
Why don't you just set up a script to read the transactions nightly?
-jcr
Your snotty dismissal ignores the fact that government is not the only means for building roads or plumbing. It does not follow that because some product or service is provided through the threat of violence today, that it can't be done otherwise.
-jcr
pay $2.00 each time I use an ATM that belongs to my bank
That really sucks, big time. I'd dump that bank if I were you.
My brokerage account provides me with an ATM card, and they actually refund any ATM fees.
-jcr
Why are sales taxes or property taxes better than income taxes?
Morally they're identical, of course, but as a practical matter, income taxes necessarily require invasions of privacy, and provide a pretext for government harassment of dissidents. Nixon and Clinton, for example, both used the IRS against their opponents.
-jcr
ou mistakenly assume that the playing field is level
I make no such assumption. As I've stated elsewhere, I'm quite aware of how government colludes with unscrupulous businessmen to distort the market. This can not be solved by increasing government power, or confiscating anyone's earnings.
-jcr
I can't believe that there are fools actually arguing against an income tax on income above $200,000.
I can't believe that there are asshats like you that advocate income taxes on anyone, regardless of what they're earning. Penalizing people for their success in the market is how you retard growth, savings, and investment. If you want to have the right incentives in place, then tax what people spend, not what they earn.
-jcr
The real problem is that cunts like you
Fuck you, too.
think we live in a meritocracy where everyone has only what they deserve.
When have I ever made such a claim? I know full well that far too many people reap ill-gotten gains by using government to screw over their competition, or even to stuff their pockets with inflated currency that comes out of thin air.
-jcr
To whom, exactly, are you referring?
-jcr
I bet many of their better software engineers are making close to that much,
I seem to recall reading a few years back that over a thousand people had become millionaires from their MSFT shares. This was including both employees and outside investors who got in before the mid '90s.
-jcr
Taxes are the cost for civilized society.
No, behaving in a civilized manner towards your fellow man is the cost for civilized society. Taxes are the cost of government, which as you should know, has a nasty habit of occasionally murdering people on an industrial scale.
-jcr
>where did that money come from?
From people who parted with it willingly.
>When you reap rewards from a community you are obliged to help support that community.
They offered products and services, they got paid for it. It was not a gift, and it is not yours to plunder.
-jcr
You don't have to sympathize with someone to understand that their money is their own, not yours, and not the state's.
-jcr
None so blind, as those who will not see.
Why was the United States involved in the first world war (which made the second one inevitable)?
-jcr
why do you insist on it?
Maybe I do it because it's so much fun to watch newbs like you get bent out of shape about it.
-jcr
lots of problems which, over the last century or so, we have solved with big government.
How do you propose to solve the problem of governments murdering people by the tens of millions?
-jcr
PenPoint also had an Objective-C implementation. I remember Andy Novobilsky showing me that back around the time of PenPoint's launch.
-jcr
they would have to implement it in silicon -- make a computer chip,
Or buy themselves an FPGA evaluation board from Xilinx, Altera, or any other FPGA vendor...
-jcr
He does nothing of the kind. Smith was an early proponent of free markets, whose ideas have been expanded upon and improved by later free-market economists like Mises, Rothbard, Hayek, and Friedman.
-jcr
You know, there was a time when Microsoft was able to kill a company with a vaporware announcement like that. Anyone remember how they announced "Pen Windows" to strangle Go PenPoint in the cradle?
PenPoint was a nice bit of work. Those guys knew what they were doing.
-jcr
Now, can I get it with a decent OS on it, or will it only work with Windows?
-jcr
I can't think of any other contexts where you might constantly hear that kind of claim uttered.
Take a look at /r/politics on reddit.com.
-jcr
That problem predates fascism by a couple of centuries. Adam Smith knew it as "mercantilisim".
-jcr