And, as my name gives some indication, that's my home state too.
So, nope, I just record my calls.
As discussed here at length, there are places, like California, who think they can tell me what to do in Arizona if someone from California calls me, but I'm willing to take my chances. [Wikipedia says: The California Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that if a caller in a one-party state records a conversation with someone in California, that one-party state caller is subject to the stricter of the laws and must have consent from all callers (cf. Kearney v. Salomon Smith Barney Inc., 39 Cal. 4th 95[35]).]
They're pretty awesome at drawing parallels between last sci-fi technology and state-of-a-couple-of-years-old technology.
If I was going to be on a panel where I talked about universal translators, I'd at least mention near-realtime language translation in your own simulated voice over Skype/Kinect or at least translating ASL in near-realtime as well. Exoskeletons? Forget that we're actually having them let the paralyzed walk, we'll just talk about Boston Dymanics BigDog instead of ReWalk or other technologies. Heck, we covered package-loading exoskeletons here in the last few months.
What are there, like 5 topics, most of which spent meandering on about Bluetooth earsets?
The argument that poor people can't afford to cook rice and beans and eat cheaply is, in a word, bullshit.
Do you know how little is involved in cooking rice? Did pasta or fresh root vegetables somehow get hard to prepare? Do chicken thighs and pork shoulders not just go in an oven with little to no prep? One week of skipping fast food for real CHEAP groceries pays for a rice cooker. One MEAL of skipping fast food pays for a used crock pot.
Anyone eating fast food "because it's cheaper" is intellectually dishonest.
It's not a "theory" that groceries are cheaper than fast food.
A sandwich in a lunch bag to eat between jobs has been cheaper and better for you than going to McDonalds for, well, forever.
Laser sharp focus you have there. Organic grapes are the problem.
The idea is that you don't tax bare necessity items. Rich or poor alike, you don't pay tax buying work or school uniforms, public transit, or staples at the grocery store. In theory the food items covered would be the same food items that WEC/WIC/SNAP/EBT pay for. If your local food assistance program is being abuse, then yes, there's a loophole here. And yes, when rich people buy bananas and chicken thighs, they won't pay tax on those items either - just the same way they won't pay tax on their rich private school uniform. Functionally speaking, nobody is taxed on the first $10,000 or so of their existence.
That's very different from Gandalf casting a spell.
I'm not sure how.
In your long definition, you basically said it was about dealing with the consequences of living in a changed world - one only made possible by the science in science fiction (not merely the backdrop of stars and planets). I don't see a *real* difference between Wizards and Telepaths, and there's been plenty of space-fantasy that blurred the lines. I'm pretty sure we're all familiar with Jedis.
"Flat" is just a label,and setting a floor on taxation or providing exemptions for necessity items fixes the largest knock on "Flat Tax" which is that hits those near the poverty line with a pretty blunt hammer.
The problem with the current graduated system isn't that people in the middle or people in, say, the 60-80 percentile don't pay enough -- I'm fairly sure they do -- it's that it ceases to scale at the top. As long as Buffet pays a smaller percentage than his secretary, something seems broken with the graduated system -- since it's obviously not graduated, as the wealthiest pay 15% tax, and (I suspect) guys like you and me pay in the 30+ range.
We fact-checked Warren Buffett's statements about taxes in the New York Times. Buffett said that his taxes amounted to "only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent." Individual tax filings are private, so there was no way we could compare Buffett's actual tax return with that of his secretary and other co-workers. (We contacted his office when we did the fact-check and didn't hear back.) So instead, we checked Buffett's statement that the "mega-rich" pay about 15 percent in taxes, while the middle class "fall into the 15 percent and 25 percent income tax brackets, and then are hit with heavy payroll taxes to boot." We rated the statement True.
It's easy to argue that, hey, after I pay a million, perhaps I've paid enough, 'eh? And it's hard to argue against a cap on both ends. There's no perfect system.
Good Onion articles are funny, generally speaking, when the satire is a little too close for comfort.
If Ebola had been ravaging New Zealand or Finland, we'd have been all over it - but it's in Africa, so nobody cares. If Quebecois had spent the 90's slaughtering English-speaking Canadians, instead of Hutu's killing Tutsi's in Rwanda, we'd have been all over that too. Instead, "Laughing at the mere mention of Hutus and Tutsis" is just a Cards against Humanity card that confuses people.
The simple answer is to exclude necessity items from the flat tax.
Any WEC-eligible food item, for example, could easily be tax exempt with minimal reworking of the system, as could, say, any traditionally medicare covered medical or dental service, uniform sales, etc.
I recognize this opens the door to loophole items into tax exemption, but while we're spitballing utopian tax systems, might as well start somewhere.
Not for nothing, but many small merchants dodge sales tax regularly.
There are also numerous merchant cooperatives that swap goods and services already.
By the time you hit multi-store or regional, this largely ceases to be possible (or worth the time compared to managing a multi-site business), but it certainly happens with businesses still on the Quickbooks level.
Slashdot Mirror
It's safe inside the walled garden? :)
And, as my name gives some indication, that's my home state too.
So, nope, I just record my calls.
As discussed here at length, there are places, like California, who think they can tell me what to do in Arizona if someone from California calls me, but I'm willing to take my chances. [Wikipedia says: The California Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that if a caller in a one-party state records a conversation with someone in California, that one-party state caller is subject to the stricter of the laws and must have consent from all callers (cf. Kearney v. Salomon Smith Barney Inc., 39 Cal. 4th 95[35]).]
...is there a link to this useful software?
I'd love to be able to do all those things on my phone.
I already record all of my calls.
They're pretty awesome at drawing parallels between last sci-fi technology and state-of-a-couple-of-years-old technology.
If I was going to be on a panel where I talked about universal translators, I'd at least mention near-realtime language translation in your own simulated voice over Skype/Kinect or at least translating ASL in near-realtime as well. Exoskeletons? Forget that we're actually having them let the paralyzed walk, we'll just talk about Boston Dymanics BigDog instead of ReWalk or other technologies. Heck, we covered package-loading exoskeletons here in the last few months.
What are there, like 5 topics, most of which spent meandering on about Bluetooth earsets?
This time, with the transcript included. Thank you.
You mean, OTHER medical essentials as in, besides Coke?
Diet Coke.
...and, while we're at it, the caloric intake of the sugar is probably a plus as well.
If my customers don't have a credit card, they can shuffle right off...
Perhaps you didn't notice those names were in ALL CAPS, which makes his allegations very, very serious.
The argument that poor people can't afford to cook rice and beans and eat cheaply is, in a word, bullshit.
Do you know how little is involved in cooking rice? Did pasta or fresh root vegetables somehow get hard to prepare? Do chicken thighs and pork shoulders not just go in an oven with little to no prep? One week of skipping fast food for real CHEAP groceries pays for a rice cooker. One MEAL of skipping fast food pays for a used crock pot.
Anyone eating fast food "because it's cheaper" is intellectually dishonest.
It's not a "theory" that groceries are cheaper than fast food.
A sandwich in a lunch bag to eat between jobs has been cheaper and better for you than going to McDonalds for, well, forever.
New Jersy fucked it up, so it's a bad idea? Is that the take-away?
Poor people can absolutely afford rice and beans, which is absolutely covered by every WIC/WEC/SNAP type program out there.
It's just not convenient.
Laser sharp focus you have there. Organic grapes are the problem.
The idea is that you don't tax bare necessity items. Rich or poor alike, you don't pay tax buying work or school uniforms, public transit, or staples at the grocery store. In theory the food items covered would be the same food items that WEC/WIC/SNAP/EBT pay for. If your local food assistance program is being abuse, then yes, there's a loophole here. And yes, when rich people buy bananas and chicken thighs, they won't pay tax on those items either - just the same way they won't pay tax on their rich private school uniform. Functionally speaking, nobody is taxed on the first $10,000 or so of their existence.
...said the AC.
Look at the drop in the value of bitcoin (in dollar terms) over the last year.
Uh, wut?
It was almost $100 on this day, a year ago, and now it's about $440.
As long as those "few rich hands" are BitPay, Coinbase and GoCoin - because PayPal still isn't actually accepting "bitcoin."
PayPal takes "BitPay," "Coinbase" and "GoCoin."
BitPay, Coinbase and GoCoin take BTC.
That's very different from Gandalf casting a spell.
I'm not sure how.
In your long definition, you basically said it was about dealing with the consequences of living in a changed world - one only made possible by the science in science fiction (not merely the backdrop of stars and planets). I don't see a *real* difference between Wizards and Telepaths, and there's been plenty of space-fantasy that blurred the lines. I'm pretty sure we're all familiar with Jedis.
I swear that appeared after the story was posted.
"Flat" is just a label,and setting a floor on taxation or providing exemptions for necessity items fixes the largest knock on "Flat Tax" which is that hits those near the poverty line with a pretty blunt hammer.
The problem with the current graduated system isn't that people in the middle or people in, say, the 60-80 percentile don't pay enough -- I'm fairly sure they do -- it's that it ceases to scale at the top. As long as Buffet pays a smaller percentage than his secretary, something seems broken with the graduated system -- since it's obviously not graduated, as the wealthiest pay 15% tax, and (I suspect) guys like you and me pay in the 30+ range.
http://www.politifact.com/trut...
It's easy to argue that, hey, after I pay a million, perhaps I've paid enough, 'eh? And it's hard to argue against a cap on both ends. There's no perfect system.
Thank you for your courteous request, mythosaz. Serving good people is always a pleasure.
Fuckin'a!
TRANSCRIPTS! Do you have them, motherfucker!
bonus apostrophes! meh.
Good Onion articles are funny, generally speaking, when the satire is a little too close for comfort.
If Ebola had been ravaging New Zealand or Finland, we'd have been all over it - but it's in Africa, so nobody cares. If Quebecois had spent the 90's slaughtering English-speaking Canadians, instead of Hutu's killing Tutsi's in Rwanda, we'd have been all over that too. Instead, "Laughing at the mere mention of Hutus and Tutsis" is just a Cards against Humanity card that confuses people.
We're all just a bunch of NIMBY assholes.
The simple answer is to exclude necessity items from the flat tax.
Any WEC-eligible food item, for example, could easily be tax exempt with minimal reworking of the system, as could, say, any traditionally medicare covered medical or dental service, uniform sales, etc.
I recognize this opens the door to loophole items into tax exemption, but while we're spitballing utopian tax systems, might as well start somewhere.
Not for nothing, but many small merchants dodge sales tax regularly.
There are also numerous merchant cooperatives that swap goods and services already.
By the time you hit multi-store or regional, this largely ceases to be possible (or worth the time compared to managing a multi-site business), but it certainly happens with businesses still on the Quickbooks level.