Also, we're already paying loads of taxes to fund various welfare programs. You could have a reasonably sized UBI by getting rid of the various different programs and putting everything towards a UBI instead. That also has the added benefit of greatly simplifying the system and making another huge chunk of government bureaucracy redundant.
Hmm...Federal Budget...all the "Social" programs combined (welfare, medicare, medicaid, SS, various pension plans and such) would allow for a UBI of ~$7500 per person. Which isn't a lot, but might (and I stress MIGHT) be enough for a family. Maybe.
Double Federal Income taxes, and you boost that amount to ~$12.5k per person. And which should be more than adequate for a family of four....
Note that a UBI should also reduce the Federal Bureaucracy a bit - won't need people to determine whether you meed the requirements for Welfare, Medicaid, etc. Which may or may not be good, depending on your perspective.
So, might be doable, might not. But certainly worth looking into.
PS. Do note that increased taxes would be part of the deal. On the other hand, no taxes on your UBI, so you get that much as an absolute minimum....
I'd like to see it where candidates running for President, for example, all get voted on. The top vote getter is President, the second most vote-getter is the Vice President, etc.
Note that we gave this a try when we first wrote the Constitution.
And note that we then went and wrote the 12th Amendment to stop that....
he biggest issue with the "Navy shower" is that it is, pretty much by definition, a COLD shower. Having had a few years experience with them on a boomer many years ago, I can assure you that you won't get hot water into that shower before you have to turn it off.
A Hollywood Shower, on the other hand (the one 99.9% of us think of when we think "shower" - turn the water on, wash, shampoo, rinse, spend time under a spray of hot water) is really seductive - hard to go back to Navy Showers after just one Hollywood Shower....
Mafiosos, gangs, paedophile rings, etc should not be afforded the same protections that an individual currently gets in the US justice system.
So, how do you know they're "Mafiosos, gangs, paedophile rings, etc"? Just pick someone, make the claim that they're a member of a gang, and remove what legal protections they have?
Yeah, I can guarantee that that will NEVER (pinky swear!) be abused....
even though reducing the number of weapons in the hands of the good guys does reduce the number of weapons in the hands of bad guys by reducing the number of weapons out there in the world that can easily be stolen, de-serialed, and sold on the black market.
Off topic, but you do realize that repeating firearms could be manufactured with the technology available 150 years ago, right? Yes, they were making repeating firearms 150+ years ago. Yes, even cartridge weapons (as opposed to revolvers loaded with loose powder and ball, which they also made then).
So, no, taking guns out of the hands of the good guys doesn't really reduce the ability of the bad guys to get guns, if they really want them....
What I have a hard time seeing is that noone wants to make Net Neutrality a law. Which is all it would take.
No, telling the Pres he can't make an Executive Order isn't the answer, nor is a non-binding vote (which is what they'd get with this - no law, no power)....
Depends on when in 2015. If he were put away in March of 2015, for example, he'd have finished his sentence in December of 2017, even if he didn't get early release....
Which is an advantage for the incumbent. When he needs some publicity, all he needs to do is introduce some new legislation. His opponent doesn't have that option, not being in office and all that.
Do remember that the worst fate that a new politician can suffer is obscurity....
But if you copy a white noise track created by someone else then that copy is no longer Gaussian relative to the original track - it's instead identical.
Five separate claims against him suggest either that four of the claimants also stole their white noise from the original author (whichever one of the five it was), or they're all full of crap....
Yes, and the areas farther out (and larger) have had their O2 reduced by about 2%.
Much the same effect can be had on land (O2 content reduced by 2%) by going from sea level to ~175 meters above sea level. If you live in a major metropolitan area, you can probably get that by getting in the elevator of a moderately tall skyscraper and going to the top....
Alternately, if you want to find out what it's like to lose 16% (8x as much loss as TFA is talking about) of the O2 you're used to, you can fly to Denver....
Well, about three times as high as France. If you replace your "5-10" with "3-7" you're mostly correct.,
As to why comparisons to Africa, Anne asserted we had 10x the murder rate of Africa, presumably as a way of saying "the Second Amendment is EEEEEVIL!!!", so I pointed out that she was not entirely correct (for which read: completely wrong) about the murder rate in Africa being a small fraction of that in the USA....
Honestly, given how prevalent earbuds are, I don't see why someone can't just modify an earbud to replicate hearing aids at a fraction of the price.
Because FDA approval for a medical device is prohibitively expensive for something that can be done with a software upgrade to a non-medical device? Or are you unaware that you can be shutdown by the government for trying to sell non-FDA approved medical hardware?
Admittedly, this was necessary at one time, to prevent fraudsters from promising the world in exchange for the contents of your bank account. And to some extent is still necessary.
But something doable in software, given away for free, really shouldn't be any of the FDA's business. Of course, the people making hearing aids have a lot more access to FDA bureaucrats than a software engineer doing a little tinkering on the side.....
"For the first time we have a fossil-fuel market share below 50 percent."
Note that statement, which refers to new cars SALES. It does NOT refer to the total number of vehicles on the road.
Hell, the USA could brag that EV sales are up 86% over last year's numbers (ok, the year before last, since we don't have numbers for '18 yet). That's even better than Norway's growth rate (40% last year, 52% this year is only a 30% growth rate). Neither number (Norway's or our's) means a hill of beans without some indication of total fraction on the road....
I don't know about Norway, but over here, most cars last ten+ years. So 52% of new cars would represent maybe 5% of all cars on the road. But saying that 5% of your cars are electric (or hybrid - wonder what fraction of the 52% is hybrid) doesn't sound nearly so impressive....
It would have been nice if China had phased out their recycling more slowly, to give the rest of the world time to adapt.
Why? This way they can expect some concessions in exchange for phasing it out. If they'd just announced that they were going to phase things out over two years, the UK would have had time to adapt, and no real need to make nice with China in trade talks or whatever....
Don't worry, this congress and president will ensure nothing new falls to the public domain this or any other year.
It should, perhaps, be noted that Copyright extensions seems to be a bipartisan thing in the US Congress. The last one was done by a Republican-controlled Congress (with a Dem President), the one before that was done by a Democratic-controlled Congress (with a Rep President)....
You might need to hire hundreds of thousands of people to do it, but they are making billions so they could do it.
Hmm, billions divided by hundreds of thousands...that works out to about $10K annually per new employee. Assuming they aim at not making any money, of course.
So you're advocating that they hire a lot of Minimum Wage workers to sort through their content to save you from the horror of seeing something you don't want to see?
Yeah, I can see where minimum wage workers will be really great at sorting out that sort of thing....
Slashdot Mirror
So, millions of Iranians are evading internet blocks and such. In a place where you can go to jail (or be executed) for doing so....
And we're telling the Iranian government how it's being done???
Hmm...Federal Budget...all the "Social" programs combined (welfare, medicare, medicaid, SS, various pension plans and such) would allow for a UBI of ~$7500 per person. Which isn't a lot, but might (and I stress MIGHT) be enough for a family. Maybe.
Double Federal Income taxes, and you boost that amount to ~$12.5k per person. And which should be more than adequate for a family of four....
Note that a UBI should also reduce the Federal Bureaucracy a bit - won't need people to determine whether you meed the requirements for Welfare, Medicaid, etc. Which may or may not be good, depending on your perspective.
So, might be doable, might not. But certainly worth looking into.
PS. Do note that increased taxes would be part of the deal. On the other hand, no taxes on your UBI, so you get that much as an absolute minimum....
Note that we gave this a try when we first wrote the Constitution.
And note that we then went and wrote the 12th Amendment to stop that....
Whyever do you think taxation will be limited to the USA, and not include every country in the world (all of which want your money paid in taxes)?
he biggest issue with the "Navy shower" is that it is, pretty much by definition, a COLD shower. Having had a few years experience with them on a boomer many years ago, I can assure you that you won't get hot water into that shower before you have to turn it off.
A Hollywood Shower, on the other hand (the one 99.9% of us think of when we think "shower" - turn the water on, wash, shampoo, rinse, spend time under a spray of hot water) is really seductive - hard to go back to Navy Showers after just one Hollywood Shower....
Translation: Did not get the joke....
So, how do you know they're "Mafiosos, gangs, paedophile rings, etc"? Just pick someone, make the claim that they're a member of a gang, and remove what legal protections they have?
Yeah, I can guarantee that that will NEVER (pinky swear!) be abused....
Off topic, but you do realize that repeating firearms could be manufactured with the technology available 150 years ago, right? Yes, they were making repeating firearms 150+ years ago. Yes, even cartridge weapons (as opposed to revolvers loaded with loose powder and ball, which they also made then).
So, no, taking guns out of the hands of the good guys doesn't really reduce the ability of the bad guys to get guns, if they really want them....
What I have a hard time seeing is that noone wants to make Net Neutrality a law. Which is all it would take.
No, telling the Pres he can't make an Executive Order isn't the answer, nor is a non-binding vote (which is what they'd get with this - no law, no power)....
Because too many people have a rabid fear of sugar after listening to the anti-sugar nazis for decades?
You sound like an Ad for the Paperwhite....
Myself, I've always used Nooks, and have never had to pay extra to dispense with ads, since there are no ads in the first place....
Depends on when in 2015. If he were put away in March of 2015, for example, he'd have finished his sentence in December of 2017, even if he didn't get early release....
Puh-leeze!
Ford Motor Company, remember? UAW ring any bells? No jobs are endangered here...
Which is an advantage for the incumbent. When he needs some publicity, all he needs to do is introduce some new legislation. His opponent doesn't have that option, not being in office and all that.
Do remember that the worst fate that a new politician can suffer is obscurity....
Five separate claims against him suggest either that four of the claimants also stole their white noise from the original author (whichever one of the five it was), or they're all full of crap....
Yes, and the areas farther out (and larger) have had their O2 reduced by about 2%.
Much the same effect can be had on land (O2 content reduced by 2%) by going from sea level to ~175 meters above sea level. If you live in a major metropolitan area, you can probably get that by getting in the elevator of a moderately tall skyscraper and going to the top....
Alternately, if you want to find out what it's like to lose 16% (8x as much loss as TFA is talking about) of the O2 you're used to, you can fly to Denver....
Well, about three times as high as France. If you replace your "5-10" with "3-7" you're mostly correct.,
As to why comparisons to Africa, Anne asserted we had 10x the murder rate of Africa, presumably as a way of saying "the Second Amendment is EEEEEVIL!!!", so I pointed out that she was not entirely correct (for which read: completely wrong) about the murder rate in Africa being a small fraction of that in the USA....
Shades of "The Thirteenth Warrior". "Honey! It's made from honey!"....
Because FDA approval for a medical device is prohibitively expensive for something that can be done with a software upgrade to a non-medical device? Or are you unaware that you can be shutdown by the government for trying to sell non-FDA approved medical hardware?
Admittedly, this was necessary at one time, to prevent fraudsters from promising the world in exchange for the contents of your bank account. And to some extent is still necessary.
But something doable in software, given away for free, really shouldn't be any of the FDA's business. Of course, the people making hearing aids have a lot more access to FDA bureaucrats than a software engineer doing a little tinkering on the side.....
Note that statement, which refers to new cars SALES. It does NOT refer to the total number of vehicles on the road.
Hell, the USA could brag that EV sales are up 86% over last year's numbers (ok, the year before last, since we don't have numbers for '18 yet). That's even better than Norway's growth rate (40% last year, 52% this year is only a 30% growth rate). Neither number (Norway's or our's) means a hill of beans without some indication of total fraction on the road....
I don't know about Norway, but over here, most cars last ten+ years. So 52% of new cars would represent maybe 5% of all cars on the road. But saying that 5% of your cars are electric (or hybrid - wonder what fraction of the 52% is hybrid) doesn't sound nearly so impressive....
So, what happens if a box or three of paper ballots are lost?
Pretend they never existed?
Hold the election again?
Either way, it allows someone to game the system....
Bus fare? Train fare?
What we're having for lunch?
Or did you mean "fair"? Never mind....
Why? This way they can expect some concessions in exchange for phasing it out. If they'd just announced that they were going to phase things out over two years, the UK would have had time to adapt, and no real need to make nice with China in trade talks or whatever....
It should, perhaps, be noted that Copyright extensions seems to be a bipartisan thing in the US Congress. The last one was done by a Republican-controlled Congress (with a Dem President), the one before that was done by a Democratic-controlled Congress (with a Rep President)....
Hmm, billions divided by hundreds of thousands...that works out to about $10K annually per new employee. Assuming they aim at not making any money, of course.
So you're advocating that they hire a lot of Minimum Wage workers to sort through their content to save you from the horror of seeing something you don't want to see?
Yeah, I can see where minimum wage workers will be really great at sorting out that sort of thing....