Are you sure about that? We can identify radiation sources in the sky with pinpoint accuracy. It seems unlikely that we don't have radio telescopes pointed in the other direction, considering the geopolitical importance of nuclear materials.
You've been in the biz thirty years and you're not retired retired? C'mon. I've been at it for one year, at two-thirds the average starting pay, and I'm looking at becoming an artist/gardener/eccentric recluse in three or four years. (Granted, I live in a $34,000 home in one of the lowest cost-of-living cities in the US... but that's all part of the plan.)
"When income is taxed, it becomes a discouragement to continue to not only work hard, but excel and succeed if more and more is taken from you." -- False. For most people, money is an incentive only up to the point where their basic needs are met. After that, it actually becomes a disincentive.
"Taxation should be based on consumption. Everyone, at the exact same rate." -- A terrible idea when stated this way. And though you go on to acknowledge that necessities should not be taxed at the same rate as luxuries, the "Fair Tax" proposal does not actually address this. It is "progressive" only at one break point, as if there were only two social strata, which is of course not the case.
Yep -- $60K a year should be reserved for astronauts, brain surgeons, and the President. What people who balk at this fail to understand is that $60K a year is extravagant if you're not living in close proximity to a large concentration of wealth; and large concentrations of wealth would be quickly eliminated if incomes were capped as I suggested.
Corporations never actually pay taxes; they just pass them on to the consumer or subtract them from wages. So let's stop pretending.
If that were the maximum wage, then the cost of living would correct itself accordingly. To the extent that income "trickles down", so do prices. The only reason $60K is extravagant in one place and hardscrabble in another is because of their relative proximity to vast concentrations of wealth -- concentrations that would be quickly eliminated if incomes were capped.
A pay ratio should be the metric for achieving a more egalitarian society, not the means. If we tried to make it the means, corporations would just find loopholes. First they'd hire outside contractors to mop the floors. Then they'd form companies to provide the service of executive management. "The lowest-paid employee at our company makes $1 million, so I can make $20 million!"
What we need is a progressive individual income tax structure in which the top marginal tax rate approaches 100% as income approaches minimum hourly wage * 24 * 365. Close all the investment and offshore accounting loopholes. With this in place, we can completely eliminate all corporate taxes.
From your description, you're doing exactly what a programmer is supposed to do. If your colleagues think it's a good idea to interrupt your work so they can be kept abreast, you should introduce them to source control, issue trackers, and the daily scrum. Either that, or start looking for a better employer.
Of all the things that probably shouldn't be tested in production...! I want to write my own trading bot, but I'm not going to give it control of my entire portfolio before I thoroughly test it.
It's becoming increasingly annoying to use NoScript. Some sites have so many transitive JavaScript dependencies that you have to click "temporarily allow all this page" a dozen times before the site works.
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No, it becomes half as dangerous in about six years. That's still pretty dangerous.
That wasn't the stance they took, and you'd have to be incredibly stupid to interpret it that way.
That's the beauty of the situation. We don't know who did it, and we don't need to; the problem will take care of itself.
And I don't buy the argument that anyone ever has to steal. My income in 2010 was a nice round $0, and I didn't steal anything.
Are you sure about that? We can identify radiation sources in the sky with pinpoint accuracy. It seems unlikely that we don't have radio telescopes pointed in the other direction, considering the geopolitical importance of nuclear materials.
I'll accept that argument when we start executing cops for using excessive force.
I guess I'll wait for the Firefox version.
You've been in the biz thirty years and you're not retired retired? C'mon. I've been at it for one year, at two-thirds the average starting pay, and I'm looking at becoming an artist/gardener/eccentric recluse in three or four years. (Granted, I live in a $34,000 home in one of the lowest cost-of-living cities in the US... but that's all part of the plan.)
"When income is taxed, it becomes a discouragement to continue to not only work hard, but excel and succeed if more and more is taken from you." -- False. For most people, money is an incentive only up to the point where their basic needs are met. After that, it actually becomes a disincentive.
"Taxation should be based on consumption. Everyone, at the exact same rate." -- A terrible idea when stated this way. And though you go on to acknowledge that necessities should not be taxed at the same rate as luxuries, the "Fair Tax" proposal does not actually address this. It is "progressive" only at one break point, as if there were only two social strata, which is of course not the case.
Yep -- $60K a year should be reserved for astronauts, brain surgeons, and the President. What people who balk at this fail to understand is that $60K a year is extravagant if you're not living in close proximity to a large concentration of wealth; and large concentrations of wealth would be quickly eliminated if incomes were capped as I suggested. Corporations never actually pay taxes; they just pass them on to the consumer or subtract them from wages. So let's stop pretending.
If that were the maximum wage, then the cost of living would correct itself accordingly. To the extent that income "trickles down", so do prices. The only reason $60K is extravagant in one place and hardscrabble in another is because of their relative proximity to vast concentrations of wealth -- concentrations that would be quickly eliminated if incomes were capped.
That solution would not address the problem of hyperinflation concealed in the mountains of cash being hoarded by individuals and corporations.
...ubiquitous, in-demand, and guaranteed to cause brain damage to any aspiring programmer who learns it first.
$5 billion a year in direct subsidies, plus $5 trillion in the last decade for oil wars...
Wrong question. I'm not proposing a solution to the debt crisis; I'm proposing shifting oil subsidies to electric subsidies.
A pay ratio should be the metric for achieving a more egalitarian society, not the means. If we tried to make it the means, corporations would just find loopholes. First they'd hire outside contractors to mop the floors. Then they'd form companies to provide the service of executive management. "The lowest-paid employee at our company makes $1 million, so I can make $20 million!"
What we need is a progressive individual income tax structure in which the top marginal tax rate approaches 100% as income approaches minimum hourly wage * 24 * 365. Close all the investment and offshore accounting loopholes. With this in place, we can completely eliminate all corporate taxes.
Sure. They can take the money from oil subsidies.
...when I can buy a used one for $5,000 and expect it to last me five to ten years without major maintenance.
Pretty soon, dinosaurs will be pouring out of the hollow earth.
From your description, you're doing exactly what a programmer is supposed to do. If your colleagues think it's a good idea to interrupt your work so they can be kept abreast, you should introduce them to source control, issue trackers, and the daily scrum. Either that, or start looking for a better employer.
...is hardly comparable to spying on foreign heads of state in their own countries, or even spying on your own citizens.
I'm curious.
There is a global bankers' conspiracy, they do manipulate governments, and there is nothing intrinsically anti-Semitic about saying so.
Of all the things that probably shouldn't be tested in production...! I want to write my own trading bot, but I'm not going to give it control of my entire portfolio before I thoroughly test it.
It's becoming increasingly annoying to use NoScript. Some sites have so many transitive JavaScript dependencies that you have to click "temporarily allow all this page" a dozen times before the site works.
I've had about enough of Mozilla's arrogance and stupidity.