The concept of a sales tax is a piss poor idea from a number of different angles.
I disagree. I think the concept of any tax other than a sales tax is a piss poor idea. Why should I have to pay tax just because I earned some money? Earned money means nothing to me until I spend it. If I never spend it and just save it and make more interest off of it, it still hasn't done anything for me until I spend. Then when I spend it, what ho, there is tax on it, including the tax on the interest, all without anybody ever having had to send in a 1099 of how much interest I earned, or what my investment income was.
Yes, perhaps it seems like the poor use more of their income to buy things, but in the long run everybody has to either spend it or save it, and if they save it, then eventually they have to spend it, or pass it on to someone else who will spend it or save. There is no point in saving money in perpetuity.
I suppose if they wanted to be nice, they could not charge tax on non-prepared foods or low cost clothing items. Our state already has that in their constitution that you can't charge sales tax on non-prepared foods or basic necessities. They still charge tax on these items, but it is in the constitution that they can't.
I know of no states that charge sales tax on rent, which helps low income families out a lot.
Why should a company have to pay taxes to a state simply because they're delivering something there?
They already do pay taxes to that state. They have to pay USPS or another delivery company, which pays fuel taxes, which is passed along to Amazon.
What the states are proposing is that out-of-state retailers collect sales tax which is ALREADY DUE the state and is the responsibility of the STATE to collect from each consumer and not the duty of the RETAILER to collect on behalf of the state.
I wasn't around, but I imagine that there was a similar flap when the states and the feds started asking businesses to collect income taxes from the employees, when it is quite clearly the state and federal governments responsibility to collect those taxes.
Actually, I'm completely unconvinced that following the "scheduled maintenance" on a car saves any money.
Well, I have anecdotal evidence that suggests that scheduled maintenance saves money. For instance, if my stepson had kept the tires filled up, I wouldn't have had to change them after only 3 years, and if he had checked the brake fluid, then the brakes would probably not have had uneven wear, and if he had checked the radiator fluid and the oil, then I probably wouldn't be having to replace the water pump and praying that the block isn't cracked.
Because it's insurance, then by definition you are one of the people footing the bill (because you are part o, which is pretty much the entire point of this discussion. When insurance only covers emergencies, people who can't afford preventive care end up costing the system (and thus everybody else) more.
If they can't afford preventative care, then they certainly won't be able to afford insurance. After all, the insurance company has to collect enough from them to pay for the preventative care PLUS their profit.
I've got a better idea for how to fix both Medicare and Social Security:
Abolish them both, with extreme prejudice. If I can't be bothered to save money for my retirement or buy insurance, then tough luck for me. I don't want any government bailouts. That's not their responsibility. It's mine.
And those people end up paying more in the long run? I don't have a problem with that. Unless of course you ask me to foot the bill for their lack of maintenance.
There is another part of the problem. If you had insurance, not only would you not have to pay $32k, but neither would the insurance company. The insurance company would probably end up paying $4-5k for the procedure and you would probably pay $500. Doctor's bill ridiculous amounts, and then the insurance companies adjudicate it down. If you have no insurance, you have to pay the ridiculous amount. That is why I choose to have catastrophic insurance. I went from paying $800 a month for a complicated comprehensive health plan with all kinds of copays and percentages that made me end up spending probably $12,000 a year for insurance plus service. Now I pay $3,000 a year for insurance plus service. I am responsible for the first $5,000 (and I would have got higher if available). I pay about $200 a month in premiums, and average about $50 a month for doctor's services. The doctor's bill me huge amounts of money, and the insurance adjudicates it down, and that is the amount I pay.
This is what insurance is all about. Unfortunately, it appears that Obamacare hopes to take away this kind of care because it makes more sense to the consumer and is not as profitable for the insurance companies, which is what Obamacare is really all about. Helping the poor struggling insurance companies that can hardly afford to keep their solid gold parking lots in good repair.
I hate phone companies. When I was out in the sticks, I got long distance service from AT&T and had a decent enough plan for something like 10 cents a minute and 15 cents a minute internationally. My first phone bill was about $500. I called and asked what was up, and explained to them that I was on such-and-such plan. They told me that plan was not available in my area, and so therefore they chose to put me on no plan at all, rather than call me back and try to talk me into some other plan. I told them that I had been sold that plan and that is the plan I wanted. They refused to honor the plan that their employee had sold me. The best they would agree to was to reduce the existing $475 worth of overcharges to only $225 worth of overcharges and then put me on a rate plan that was 50% higher than the rate they agreed to give me and had a monthly fee to boot. Unlike small companies like the one I own, apparently large companies do not have to honor the word of their employees and do not have to cover the cost of their employees making a mistake.
Talk to any Verizon reseller or rep, and they'll tell you "no such thing as unlimited, everything has a 5GB cap, and beyond that we charge you $.01KB."
How come my bill says "unlimited monthly kilobyte" on it?
Quite clearly the only sane option is to not sign such a contract. Very few people really NEED a cell phone anyway. We should send a message to the phone companies by not getting one.
Because all of those things that will be "bad for Verizon" will be bad for them two or more quarters down the road by which time the highly paid executive who made that decision will be long gone having been given a stupendous bonus for his extreme shortsightedness and then a huge package upon his leaving because of the companies gratitude to him.
How many people in the world that live several hours walk from a doctor or hospital have smartphones? How well does that smartphone work with no coverage? I don't think they tend to put in cell towers in areas where the nearest human population complex is 30 miles away.
I mean: It's a business, right? Presumably, in the course of running the business, they already have a need for Internet access -- that it exists, and is working, is a foregone conclusion.
There is not any real reason why a business like Starbucks would have to have internet. They might have it for their credit card machine, but frankly, the extra amount that FirstData and others charge for an internet versus dialup connection is prohibitive to any small business. However, the rest of your post is valid. I have a small business that offers free Wifi. It cost maybe $100 in cabling and a wireless router, and the DSL service is $40 a month. I don't need a corporate subsidy for $40 a month. Though if AT&T or somebody wanted to offer it to me, I would take it.
Like, if I get one made from virgin tree pulp, will that knock a bit off the price?
More than likely, yes. For some reason, it costs more to process a piece of paper into a piece of paper than it does to process a tree into a piece of paper. Or at least they charge more.
It's nice to know that I can (and for the last few years) go to just about any McDonalds or Denny's (or now, in upscale neighborhoods Starbucks) and access the Internet in a pinch, rather than paying a cellular carrier for the frustration of a 3G card.
The IHOP in my neighborhood also has free wifi, meaning that you can enjoy up to infinite times as much coffee as you would get at Starbucks for 1/7th of the price, and it tastes better. Also, the booths are comfy, and the space is well-lit, and there aren't a bunch of people trying desperately to be cool.
What I hate most is when a bill collector calls and asks for someone I've never heard of,
I get a bill collector calling me about once a month for a Maria Torres. No one in our household or who has ever owned this house has been hispanic.
The bill collector uses an autodialer, which is illegal, and leaves a message saying that by listening to the voicemail, I agree that i am Maria Torres and that I owe a valid debt to the collector. Debt collectors should not be allowed to lie, especially on other peoples voicemail.
Well most people, as you put it, these days even if it is not an emergency will just keep calling you. Especially teenagers. I had my stepson call me 6 times in 5 minutes, while I was in a meeting. I finally stepped out and answered it, but it wasn't anything important. I've observed his friends do the same thing to each other and to parents. It's not like they need something, they just feel the need to ping to see if anyone will respond.
I have been getting several calls a day autodialing (which is illegal) my cell phone (which is illegal). I have already had them remove my number about a dozen times. They have not called back from the same number, but there are millions of numbers out there and I don't have millions of minutes.
I get more worked up every time I get a call. I am very close to getting belligerent and demanding to know where they got my cell phone number and to whom to send the court summons.
I would support jail time for all involved from top to bottom. Maybe just a month or so for those at the bottom, but at least something, and of course years for those at the top.
Jail time is a little harsh. I have to pay for that. What did I do? Now if you make them pay their own way through jail, then I am all for it. Also, I would be willing to buy the bullets.
Please good sir, explain to me HOW ON EARTH we could get LESS Telemarketers if the government did NOTHING to stop them?
Stop them? No, the problem is too much regulation stopping us. If, for example, it was legal to shoot someone who stole 1 minute of cell phone time from you, then the problem would very quickly go away.
Safer to stay on a known platform
on
Time To Dump XP?
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· Score: 1
It is safer to stay on a know platform with know issues/workarounds, even one that no longer has support from the manufacturer. I still use XP because it works just fine. I did not upgrade to windows Vista because my hardware check told me that some of my stuff might not work in Vista, and I also determined that Vista was going to be a big hit to my computer's performance. Windows 7 is a far sight better than Vista, but still a performance hit compared to Xp, and an unknown commodity.
Similarly, at work we are on an unsupported version of a (not Microsoft) vendor's software and they refuse to do anything about any of the bugs that we find. However, we find it preferable to work around the bugs in this version because we have tried the supported version of their software and it is so buggy and the user interface so bad that the software is unusable. Better a non-supported version than an unusable supported version.
I didn't realize that the circle with the Windows logo in upper left was a menu for almost a month.
I had a similar problem. Of course, it got solved fairly quickly because I needed to save a document and couldn't figure out how to do it without exiting the program and letting it ask me if I wanted to save it. The new Office toolbar layout is quite simply head and shoulders below the old version.
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The concept of a sales tax is a piss poor idea from a number of different angles.
I disagree. I think the concept of any tax other than a sales tax is a piss poor idea. Why should I have to pay tax just because I earned some money? Earned money means nothing to me until I spend it. If I never spend it and just save it and make more interest off of it, it still hasn't done anything for me until I spend. Then when I spend it, what ho, there is tax on it, including the tax on the interest, all without anybody ever having had to send in a 1099 of how much interest I earned, or what my investment income was.
Yes, perhaps it seems like the poor use more of their income to buy things, but in the long run everybody has to either spend it or save it, and if they save it, then eventually they have to spend it, or pass it on to someone else who will spend it or save. There is no point in saving money in perpetuity.
I suppose if they wanted to be nice, they could not charge tax on non-prepared foods or low cost clothing items. Our state already has that in their constitution that you can't charge sales tax on non-prepared foods or basic necessities. They still charge tax on these items, but it is in the constitution that they can't.
I know of no states that charge sales tax on rent, which helps low income families out a lot.
Why should a company have to pay taxes to a state simply because they're delivering something there?
They already do pay taxes to that state. They have to pay USPS or another delivery company, which pays fuel taxes, which is passed along to Amazon. What the states are proposing is that out-of-state retailers collect sales tax which is ALREADY DUE the state and is the responsibility of the STATE to collect from each consumer and not the duty of the RETAILER to collect on behalf of the state.
I wasn't around, but I imagine that there was a similar flap when the states and the feds started asking businesses to collect income taxes from the employees, when it is quite clearly the state and federal governments responsibility to collect those taxes.
DVRs ARE old fashioned. If you're watching shows on a screen big enough to make out which character is which, then you're just not cool.
How many nuclear plants got shut down after Chernobyl and Three Mile Island?
Actually, I'm completely unconvinced that following the "scheduled maintenance" on a car saves any money.
Well, I have anecdotal evidence that suggests that scheduled maintenance saves money. For instance, if my stepson had kept the tires filled up, I wouldn't have had to change them after only 3 years, and if he had checked the brake fluid, then the brakes would probably not have had uneven wear, and if he had checked the radiator fluid and the oil, then I probably wouldn't be having to replace the water pump and praying that the block isn't cracked.
Because it's insurance, then by definition you are one of the people footing the bill (because you are part o, which is pretty much the entire point of this discussion. When insurance only covers emergencies, people who can't afford preventive care end up costing the system (and thus everybody else) more.
If they can't afford preventative care, then they certainly won't be able to afford insurance. After all, the insurance company has to collect enough from them to pay for the preventative care PLUS their profit.
I've got a better idea for how to fix both Medicare and Social Security:
Abolish them both, with extreme prejudice. If I can't be bothered to save money for my retirement or buy insurance, then tough luck for me. I don't want any government bailouts. That's not their responsibility. It's mine.
And those people end up paying more in the long run? I don't have a problem with that. Unless of course you ask me to foot the bill for their lack of maintenance.
There is another part of the problem. If you had insurance, not only would you not have to pay $32k, but neither would the insurance company. The insurance company would probably end up paying $4-5k for the procedure and you would probably pay $500. Doctor's bill ridiculous amounts, and then the insurance companies adjudicate it down. If you have no insurance, you have to pay the ridiculous amount. That is why I choose to have catastrophic insurance. I went from paying $800 a month for a complicated comprehensive health plan with all kinds of copays and percentages that made me end up spending probably $12,000 a year for insurance plus service. Now I pay $3,000 a year for insurance plus service. I am responsible for the first $5,000 (and I would have got higher if available). I pay about $200 a month in premiums, and average about $50 a month for doctor's services. The doctor's bill me huge amounts of money, and the insurance adjudicates it down, and that is the amount I pay.
This is what insurance is all about. Unfortunately, it appears that Obamacare hopes to take away this kind of care because it makes more sense to the consumer and is not as profitable for the insurance companies, which is what Obamacare is really all about. Helping the poor struggling insurance companies that can hardly afford to keep their solid gold parking lots in good repair.
I hate phone companies. When I was out in the sticks, I got long distance service from AT&T and had a decent enough plan for something like 10 cents a minute and 15 cents a minute internationally. My first phone bill was about $500. I called and asked what was up, and explained to them that I was on such-and-such plan. They told me that plan was not available in my area, and so therefore they chose to put me on no plan at all, rather than call me back and try to talk me into some other plan. I told them that I had been sold that plan and that is the plan I wanted. They refused to honor the plan that their employee had sold me. The best they would agree to was to reduce the existing $475 worth of overcharges to only $225 worth of overcharges and then put me on a rate plan that was 50% higher than the rate they agreed to give me and had a monthly fee to boot. Unlike small companies like the one I own, apparently large companies do not have to honor the word of their employees and do not have to cover the cost of their employees making a mistake.
Talk to any Verizon reseller or rep, and they'll tell you "no such thing as unlimited, everything has a 5GB cap, and beyond that we charge you $.01KB."
How come my bill says "unlimited monthly kilobyte" on it?
Quite clearly the only sane option is to not sign such a contract. Very few people really NEED a cell phone anyway. We should send a message to the phone companies by not getting one.
Because all of those things that will be "bad for Verizon" will be bad for them two or more quarters down the road by which time the highly paid executive who made that decision will be long gone having been given a stupendous bonus for his extreme shortsightedness and then a huge package upon his leaving because of the companies gratitude to him.
How many people in the world that live several hours walk from a doctor or hospital have smartphones? How well does that smartphone work with no coverage? I don't think they tend to put in cell towers in areas where the nearest human population complex is 30 miles away.
I mean: It's a business, right? Presumably, in the course of running the business, they already have a need for Internet access -- that it exists, and is working, is a foregone conclusion. There is not any real reason why a business like Starbucks would have to have internet. They might have it for their credit card machine, but frankly, the extra amount that FirstData and others charge for an internet versus dialup connection is prohibitive to any small business. However, the rest of your post is valid. I have a small business that offers free Wifi. It cost maybe $100 in cabling and a wireless router, and the DSL service is $40 a month. I don't need a corporate subsidy for $40 a month. Though if AT&T or somebody wanted to offer it to me, I would take it.
Like, if I get one made from virgin tree pulp, will that knock a bit off the price?
More than likely, yes. For some reason, it costs more to process a piece of paper into a piece of paper than it does to process a tree into a piece of paper. Or at least they charge more.
It's nice to know that I can (and for the last few years) go to just about any McDonalds or Denny's (or now, in upscale neighborhoods Starbucks) and access the Internet in a pinch, rather than paying a cellular carrier for the frustration of a 3G card.
The IHOP in my neighborhood also has free wifi, meaning that you can enjoy up to infinite times as much coffee as you would get at Starbucks for 1/7th of the price, and it tastes better. Also, the booths are comfy, and the space is well-lit, and there aren't a bunch of people trying desperately to be cool.
I would stand in line NOT to buy the iphone 4.
What I hate most is when a bill collector calls and asks for someone I've never heard of,
I get a bill collector calling me about once a month for a Maria Torres. No one in our household or who has ever owned this house has been hispanic. The bill collector uses an autodialer, which is illegal, and leaves a message saying that by listening to the voicemail, I agree that i am Maria Torres and that I owe a valid debt to the collector. Debt collectors should not be allowed to lie, especially on other peoples voicemail.
Well most people, as you put it, these days even if it is not an emergency will just keep calling you. Especially teenagers. I had my stepson call me 6 times in 5 minutes, while I was in a meeting. I finally stepped out and answered it, but it wasn't anything important. I've observed his friends do the same thing to each other and to parents. It's not like they need something, they just feel the need to ping to see if anyone will respond.
I have been getting several calls a day autodialing (which is illegal) my cell phone (which is illegal). I have already had them remove my number about a dozen times. They have not called back from the same number, but there are millions of numbers out there and I don't have millions of minutes. I get more worked up every time I get a call. I am very close to getting belligerent and demanding to know where they got my cell phone number and to whom to send the court summons.
I would support jail time for all involved from top to bottom. Maybe just a month or so for those at the bottom, but at least something, and of course years for those at the top.
Jail time is a little harsh. I have to pay for that. What did I do? Now if you make them pay their own way through jail, then I am all for it. Also, I would be willing to buy the bullets.
Please good sir, explain to me HOW ON EARTH we could get LESS Telemarketers if the government did NOTHING to stop them?
Stop them? No, the problem is too much regulation stopping us. If, for example, it was legal to shoot someone who stole 1 minute of cell phone time from you, then the problem would very quickly go away.
It is safer to stay on a know platform with know issues/workarounds, even one that no longer has support from the manufacturer. I still use XP because it works just fine. I did not upgrade to windows Vista because my hardware check told me that some of my stuff might not work in Vista, and I also determined that Vista was going to be a big hit to my computer's performance. Windows 7 is a far sight better than Vista, but still a performance hit compared to Xp, and an unknown commodity.
Similarly, at work we are on an unsupported version of a (not Microsoft) vendor's software and they refuse to do anything about any of the bugs that we find. However, we find it preferable to work around the bugs in this version because we have tried the supported version of their software and it is so buggy and the user interface so bad that the software is unusable. Better a non-supported version than an unusable supported version.
I didn't realize that the circle with the Windows logo in upper left was a menu for almost a month.
I had a similar problem. Of course, it got solved fairly quickly because I needed to save a document and couldn't figure out how to do it without exiting the program and letting it ask me if I wanted to save it. The new Office toolbar layout is quite simply head and shoulders below the old version.