Here in Ireland (and in the rest of the EU) your tax is automatically taken out of your paycheck and you don't need to worry about filling in tax returns every year unless you run a business It seems bizarre to me (and the 350 million other Europeans) that all you American folk still have to fill in your own tax returns; surely our way is better?
Huh? Last time I checked France was a huge part of the EU and while it may seem bizarre to you and your 4 million countryment, I filed just as cryptic tax returns for them over the last 3 years. Guess what, they withhold for Social Security but not Income tax, meaning I wrote a bloody huge check four times every year to pay the tax man.
As far as "your way being better", I'd much rather have everyone write a check to the government every year, maybe that would finally spur the revolution we need. When you don't see it, except as a digit on a check, the tax seems reasonable. Let people write a check for 20% of their earnings and see how fast fiscal conservatives get elected.
While I'm at it, every time I'm in the US something I get really pissed off at is that shops are allowed to advertise a basic tax-exclusive price on goods. Here in the EU it's law that shops have to advertise a VAT-inclusive tax so that when you get to the counter you pay the advertised price, not the price plus 10-20% sales tax. How do you guys put up with that?
How do you put up with paying a 20% tax, in addition to confiscatory rates for social security, income, and property tax? Again, if it were buried in the price, I'm sure we'd gladly pay but since it's obvious, it helps keep government spending down.
For those of us not up on things.. what do you mean standard deductions? Instead of itemizing?
Preface, IANAAAM (ian an accountant any more, and I never was a hardcore tax guy).
Exactly, you may either take the standard deduction, or itemize your deductions (this year somewhere around $3-4k for single people. For most people, a mortage (in the first 1/2 -> 2/3 of repayment period) is the only way to get enough deductions to overcome the standard deduction, though self employed consultants could probably pull it off...
It's entirely not my fault that the pyramid scheme of government has to give out free money in order to appear benevolent so as to hoodwink fools like yourself
<sarcasm>Yeah, that describes me to a tee... </sarcasm>
In nature there is never a "labor shortage". As long as you have people, you have people who are willing to work for their next meal.
Oh really, been to the projects lately? How about to certain western european countries? I believe your sentance should read "as long as there's an entitlement, people will lie on their asses and whine."
Now, once the fat rich queers...
Because blaming the rich brought such excellent results in the Bolshevik, Maoist, Khmer Rouge and Cuban revolutions...
User interface?...plus take a few Educational Psychology courses, and learn about accessibility standards (and federal mandates).
I have to say, that might be the best advice I've seen on the subject. Someone who understands what makes a UI functional, coupled with some graphic arts experience to know what makes one attractive would be a godsend.
Sadly, those skills are the ones I have a complete lack of - my UI's look, well, utilitarian is a generous description. Fortunately I'm quite happy working the model and controller layers, but it would be nice to have those skills.
Re:Americans have brought much of this on ourselve
on
Business Under Fire
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· Score: 1
You mean close down all roads that lead to rural areas?
I mean if you want a road, than you, or a group of your buddies, or a company of roadbuilders should own and develop the land and charge what the market will bear.
Perhaps you mean pay for them through taxation on petrol. If so, fine. I agree 100% with you there.
Assuming I accept a central authority, which I'm loathe to, you're absolutely right, a fuel tax is probably the most equitable. Roads wear through a combination of miles and weight - as each increase the wear on the surface increases. Since fuel usage generally tracks parallel to those statistics, it's the most reasonable way to assess use fees.
Taxes are not "stolen money."
IMHO, the only difference between a robber putting a gun in your face, and the state doing so is one of semantics - one is "theft" the other is "taxation". We may have to disagree here as I see all taxes as paid at gunpoint.
they are the only way of doing so in a fair, equitable and effective way
There is no "fair and equitable" way to take money from one man and give it to another - the latter profits at the former's expense.
There's no way the taxpayer should fund privately owned businesses be they quality-of-life-busting supermarket chains like Wal Mart or leeches like professional sports 'franchises.'
Excepting the words "quality of life busting", which I don't see as universal, amen...
In the end, I accept that anarcho-capitalism is as unrealistic as any of the collectivist dreams, I see it more like lifting weights in front of an old Arnold poster - any gain is a good thing, but keep pushing toward the ideal...
All non-land owners are theives. They expect to live off of the hard work of others, they expect their health care to be paid for, they expect money when they retire, they expect a whole lot of stuff which isn't due them. About the only thing they are good for is cleaning up crap and building buildings. We should just build jails and keep them all there when they aren't being used to build up our property.
Not exactly, hell, it's not even a good troll but I'll play anyways. Non property owners who occupy a piece of ground without the owners permission are thieves. Non property owners (like me) pay a market rent for the use of a piece of property.
Now mr troll, and anyone in the "information wants to be free", what gives you the right to the labor of another man?
Re:Americans have brought much of this on ourselve
on
Business Under Fire
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· Score: 1
You know what I'm amazed by? The people who whinge and moan about lack of quality in their roads, schools, infrastructure, and public services but then go out and vote for whoever will cut taxes the most.
No whining here, get the state out of property ownership and leave them to their only rightful task: the protection of private property. That means National Defense(defense from outside attackers) and Law Enforcement (defense from those who would steal private property).
Want roads? Pay the market rate. Same for schools, hospitals, malls, sports stadiums and all the other things that are built with stolen money for "the good of the public"
Should read "as long as those of us hold investments..." The majority of us are (or will be soon) invested in these companies. Corporations aren't mysterious evil entities, they're made up of people who respond to our calls for higher profit and faster returns. Want someone to blame for the meltdown in the late 90's? Try a baby boomer - those people who suddenly realized they needed to make 100% returns per year or eat catfood in retirement. Those unrealistic returns helped to overheat the economy and, well, we lived through the result.
it will keep moving this way, so just get used to it. Stop buying SUV, 4 dollar coffees and 5,000 dollar LCD TVs, reduce your lifestyle to something more modest and take a salary cut or live with the fact that the American dream along with it's capitalist economy is going down the drain.
Living within your means (ie, not carrying 1-2x your salary in credit card debt) is excellent advice, but not picking my pocket because you've emptied your own is even better...
Re:Americans have brought much of this on ourselve
on
Business Under Fire
·
· Score: 1
Amen, I'm amazed at the people who want to suck on the state teat, yet complain about their tax burden, or the restrictions, or just how bad life sucks and then expect the same state to fix the problem...
I used Wanadoo.fr through France Telecom and as I said, we were on line the next afternoon. Others I spoke with when I lived there had experiences closer to yours. One difference, I set mine up in Feb 2002, I know there were fewer people doing it then.
My neighbor got a cable modem from Noos and not only did it take months to set up, the service was out more often than it was on.
Finally getting ADSL enabled on your line takes forever, up to 6 weeks, because it still has to be done by the old ex-state owned France Telecom, who leases the lines to the ISPs, and they have a huge backlog of people trying to get broadband.
I was expecting this, but when I set up my ADSL line in Paris I walked into the France Telecom shop two doors down and walked out with a modem - the service was switched on the next afternoon...
Word.. Theidiot that you replying to is obviously a fucking managemtnt type, I.e a fucking parasite, who wouldn't know what good code was if it bit him.
You sure figured me out in a hurry <rolls eyes>. As you're thinking about retraining, might I suggest an English course...
Our manufacturing was onced prized. Then it became "dirty factory work that no one wanted to do" and it was sent offshore.
Speaking only for myself, I much prefer my $45 / hr coding job to the $20 / hr I could have made had Goodyear not moved those prized tire manufacturing jobs from my hometown (Akron, Ohio). Besides the money, there are those benefits like not dying of black lung at 60, being able to walk at the end of the day, keeping all 10 of my fingers attached...
Our manufacturing was onced prized. Then it became "dirty factory work that no one wanted to do" and it was sent offshore.
Call centers were hailed as a great service job in the new service economy. But then the jobs were described as dead-end, and were sent offshore.
Computer programmers (a.k.a. computer engineers) were seen as the wave of the future. But then the jobs became "coding", it was called "scut work", and it was sent offshore.
Our accountants, bookkeepers, analysts were all jobs that kids aspired to be. But now they are called "backoffice" -- kind of like "back of the bus", and they are being sent offshore.
Now even radiologists -- full blown doctors -- are having their work outsourced. And every time I see the job described, it is described as "reading film". Sounds like lousy work, we better get rid of it.
Can't you see the pattern? Denigrate the job and no one weeps when it gets sent overseas.
It's a cliche, I know, but the blacksmiths said the same thing... Guess what, we automated their jobs and later offshored them, do you honestly believe we would be better off with the old way? Comparative Advantage has shown itself to be true over and over for nearly 200 years, it doesn't suddenly become false when it's your job.
Keep living the lie that your "innovation job" is safe, if it lets you sleep at night.
I don't have an innovation job (typical J2EE developer) and I'm honest enough to admit to riding on others success - everything from the microprocessor to TCP/IP on up through the latest Java API. I'm also enough of a realist to know that I won't retire doing this and it's time (past time actually) to figure out my next move - so that 5 years down the line I'm sitting comfortably rather than whining about "those damn curry-heads took MY job". It's no different than the guys I grew up around, those perpetually unemployed people with "Work Union" and "Hungry, eat your import" bumper stickers on their rusted out pickups. Those were people who felt entitled to the job of their choosing, guys with no interest or will to pick a different field, and ultimately, guys who sat at home broke or grinding out a minimum wage living.
Because that takes an arrogant position that Americans are somehow genetically superior to our lower-paid bretheren in the third world. I've got news for you -- you're sadly mistaken.
Did you read what you just replied to? Allow me to repost my comment:
...This is due to conditions favorable to development - a mostly free market, a huge research base, and a largely educated people... Where exactly did I take the position that "Americans are genetically superior"? The free market system is superior to command economies when it comes to favoring innovation, and our higher education system is still the leader in producing innovators. Those are what make the US one of the leaders in innovation, and barring a change to "protect our jobs", it will continue.
It's terrifying, the thought that we'll be basing our livelyhood on things not yet invented. You don't have to look back 100 years (the automobile, the telephone), 25 years (Compact Disc, PC's) but just 10 years (Java, DVD's) to find things that are now mainstream which had yet to be invented.
When the increase in L-1 and H1-B visas,
and the RIFs in favor of offshore outsourcing are
taken into account, the future of innovation in
the USA looks bleak.
In addition to Shadowlore's above reply to your other nonsense - offshore outsourcing is not a bad thing, except for those few of us working in IT and unwilling to retrain. As it stands now, we're not offshoring innovation, we're sending the scut work abroad, just like we've done with manufacturing.
The US is still the lead in innovation, for example, Indians in the US have produced more patents than a much greater number of their contryment in India. This is due to conditions favorable to development - a mostly free market, a huge research base, and a largely educated people.
Germany? What a perfect example of who NOT to emulate. Check out the average German wage relative to costs, the unemployment rate, the tax burden, or the smoldering black hole their pension system is becoming. Look at the stranglehold the unions have on industry there.
As for H1-B's and L-1's, imho the visa programs should be abolished and anyone willing to come and work should be welcomed, let's throw out the welfare lifer's and other non-producers. People brave arrest and death to come here for jobs we turn our noses up at. Mexicans fight their way across the southern border, Chinese stow away in cargo ships, and cubans travel 90 miles on Bacardi cases to make $6 / hr jobs cleaning up after our asses and handling the most unmentionable tasks - these people ought to be citizens.
So fucking what? I wasn't comparing the two systems and implying that the European system is better, I was simply stating that it will be easier for Europeans to pull something like this off.
It sure sounded like fawning over all the "free" stuff the Euro's get. Just so you're aware that there is no free lunch...
In any event, I doubt that Europeans working abroad are going to be paying those "confiscatory tax rates" that you keep talking about, anyway, so it just works out that much better for them.
Again, France is the only other one I know first hand, but they are still subject to French taxation when working out of the country, just like we were subject to US taxes when living as ex-pats...
Most european countries have substantial socialist components to thier governments. This means that when these people quit working they'll have
-Free healthcare
Nothing in this world is free. To get "free" healthcare in France, the individual pays 25% of his salary to social security. Think that's not too bad? The employer portion is 50%, and if you're self employed you eat the entire thing. Right off the top, 75% of your salary is gone to pay for healthcare and retirement.
-It won't be nearly as expensive (in most cases) for their children to attend university in europe
Again, universities are subsidized by the state and are subject to their rules. In the US, anybody with an IQ over room temperature can spend the money and head off to college, maybe not Harvard, but there are any number of good, local schools that will take you if you can tie your shoes and answer a true/false question correctly within 3 tries. University in France is for the achievers and you only get one chance to get in. As one who started out in the trades, and found my way to college in my early twenties, I'm damn grateful for the American system, as I'd still be a mechanic, making a third of what I'm taking in with way worse work conditions. Even if you're one of those who went straight from high school to college to professional work at 22, it's nice to have the option at 30 or 40 to quit, go back to school, and do something else if you want.
-In some countries, they'll be given a pension to live off of when they retire
In the U.S., things are a bit different. You have a retirement fund that you need to plug money into
And where do you think the money you're "given" comes from? See my response to your first point about confiscatory tax rates. I'd much rather sock 15% a year into my 401k and know where it is than fork over 75% and hope the government will give part of it back.
Do you think the GOP drive to get out the vote among evangelical Christians is intended to neutrally educate people on the issues? This is how things go during campaign season.
The difference is free association and where the funding comes from.
The GOP is using campaign donations to reach out to people who voluntarily go to church and may get up and leave at any point. No law is compelling them to sit and listen to the speach, nor are tax dollars paying for it.
Activities during the school day are at least partially funded by public money and in most schools, students are compelled by truancy laws to attend. In the grandparent's case, he was able to to skip the rally, but I wonder how often that's true.
What about the ones with 10-12 years of experience that were laid off for 2+ years and still have to relocate to take on an entry level job? Sometimes the strongest get hit at random too.
Much of that is marketing, people selling themselves to companies. I just finished a 3 year sabbatical and mailed over a hundred resumes without so much as a bite. After a couple weeks of zero response, I weaseled my way into a recruiter's office who wasn't interested in me, but helped me rewrite my resume a little and sure enough, it's almost like 2000 again - picking and choosing. She was right, most of us are really poor salesmen when it comes to ourselves...
Many CS majors have it all wrong. College isn't about wasting 4-6 years studying, it's about doing something PRODUCTIVE during that time (co-op, internships, start your own business, develop a new 3-d game engine).
I wish I had mod points for this one.
Unfortunately, college has been dumbed down to where high school used to be. We're now faced with streams of college graduates who spent their time either sleeping or partying wondering why, oh why don't I have a job.
Spam is free speech, but it's way too open to scamming
Isn't this the argument Ashcroft, and Meese before him, use to limit porn? Porn is free speach, BUT... How about the flag burning hurrah a few years ago? Flag burning is free speach, BUT... Drop the but's, either you are in favor of free speach, with all it's benefits and hassles, or you're not.
I'm also thinking about the costs for administration: personnel, audit costs (which seem to get more outrageous every year), and the normal costs of doing business. Yes, you can plan for the average but I still think defined benefit plans fail on their own design. I think if people had to contribute enough to truly cover the costs, they would revolt. I've also never been accused of being an optimist;-).
It is very true that the major failures in pension plans have been due to incompetance (Orange County), mismanagement (US S.S.), or fraud (the Teamsters pension fund).
Slashdot Mirror
Huh? Last time I checked France was a huge part of the EU and while it may seem bizarre to you and your 4 million countryment, I filed just as cryptic tax returns for them over the last 3 years. Guess what, they withhold for Social Security but not Income tax, meaning I wrote a bloody huge check four times every year to pay the tax man.
As far as "your way being better", I'd much rather have everyone write a check to the government every year, maybe that would finally spur the revolution we need. When you don't see it, except as a digit on a check, the tax seems reasonable. Let people write a check for 20% of their earnings and see how fast fiscal conservatives get elected.
While I'm at it, every time I'm in the US something I get really pissed off at is that shops are allowed to advertise a basic tax-exclusive price on goods. Here in the EU it's law that shops have to advertise a VAT-inclusive tax so that when you get to the counter you pay the advertised price, not the price plus 10-20% sales tax. How do you guys put up with that?
How do you put up with paying a 20% tax, in addition to confiscatory rates for social security, income, and property tax? Again, if it were buried in the price, I'm sure we'd gladly pay but since it's obvious, it helps keep government spending down.
Preface, IANAAAM (ian an accountant any more, and I never was a hardcore tax guy).
Exactly, you may either take the standard deduction, or itemize your deductions (this year somewhere around $3-4k for single people. For most people, a mortage (in the first 1/2 -> 2/3 of repayment period) is the only way to get enough deductions to overcome the standard deduction, though self employed consultants could probably pull it off...
<sarcasm>Yeah, that describes me to a tee... </sarcasm>
Oh really, been to the projects lately? How about to certain western european countries? I believe your sentance should read "as long as there's an entitlement, people will lie on their asses and whine."
Now, once the fat rich queers...
Because blaming the rich brought such excellent results in the Bolshevik, Maoist, Khmer Rouge and Cuban revolutions...
If you're referring to fair use, copying something for your own use than you're absolutely right, the copy restriction laws need to be thrown out.
I have to say, that might be the best advice I've seen on the subject. Someone who understands what makes a UI functional, coupled with some graphic arts experience to know what makes one attractive would be a godsend.
Sadly, those skills are the ones I have a complete lack of - my UI's look, well, utilitarian is a generous description. Fortunately I'm quite happy working the model and controller layers, but it would be nice to have those skills.
I mean if you want a road, than you, or a group of your buddies, or a company of roadbuilders should own and develop the land and charge what the market will bear.
Perhaps you mean pay for them through taxation on petrol. If so, fine. I agree 100% with you there.
Assuming I accept a central authority, which I'm loathe to, you're absolutely right, a fuel tax is probably the most equitable. Roads wear through a combination of miles and weight - as each increase the wear on the surface increases. Since fuel usage generally tracks parallel to those statistics, it's the most reasonable way to assess use fees.
Taxes are not "stolen money."
IMHO, the only difference between a robber putting a gun in your face, and the state doing so is one of semantics - one is "theft" the other is "taxation". We may have to disagree here as I see all taxes as paid at gunpoint.
they are the only way of doing so in a fair, equitable and effective way
There is no "fair and equitable" way to take money from one man and give it to another - the latter profits at the former's expense.
There's no way the taxpayer should fund privately owned businesses be they quality-of-life-busting supermarket chains like Wal Mart or leeches like professional sports 'franchises.'
Excepting the words "quality of life busting", which I don't see as universal, amen...
In the end, I accept that anarcho-capitalism is as unrealistic as any of the collectivist dreams, I see it more like lifting weights in front of an old Arnold poster - any gain is a good thing, but keep pushing toward the ideal...
A moot point at best since, in every country I'm aware of, land is merely leased from the state...
Not exactly, hell, it's not even a good troll but I'll play anyways. Non property owners who occupy a piece of ground without the owners permission are thieves. Non property owners (like me) pay a market rent for the use of a piece of property.
Now mr troll, and anyone in the "information wants to be free", what gives you the right to the labor of another man?
No whining here, get the state out of property ownership and leave them to their only rightful task: the protection of private property. That means National Defense(defense from outside attackers) and Law Enforcement (defense from those who would steal private property).
Want roads? Pay the market rate. Same for schools, hospitals, malls, sports stadiums and all the other things that are built with stolen money for "the good of the public"
Should read "as long as those of us hold investments..." The majority of us are (or will be soon) invested in these companies. Corporations aren't mysterious evil entities, they're made up of people who respond to our calls for higher profit and faster returns. Want someone to blame for the meltdown in the late 90's? Try a baby boomer - those people who suddenly realized they needed to make 100% returns per year or eat catfood in retirement. Those unrealistic returns helped to overheat the economy and, well, we lived through the result.
it will keep moving this way, so just get used to it. Stop buying SUV, 4 dollar coffees and 5,000 dollar LCD TVs, reduce your lifestyle to something more modest and take a salary cut or live with the fact that the American dream along with it's capitalist economy is going down the drain.
Living within your means (ie, not carrying 1-2x your salary in credit card debt) is excellent advice, but not picking my pocket because you've emptied your own is even better...
Amen, I'm amazed at the people who want to suck on the state teat, yet complain about their tax burden, or the restrictions, or just how bad life sucks and then expect the same state to fix the problem...
My neighbor got a cable modem from Noos and not only did it take months to set up, the service was out more often than it was on.
Good luck!
The only search engine they're using these days is Dice...
I was expecting this, but when I set up my ADSL line in Paris I walked into the France Telecom shop two doors down and walked out with a modem - the service was switched on the next afternoon...
You sure figured me out in a hurry <rolls eyes>. As you're thinking about retraining, might I suggest an English course...
Pot, this is the kettle calling...
Our manufacturing was onced prized. Then it became "dirty factory work that no one wanted to do" and it was sent offshore.
Speaking only for myself, I much prefer my $45 / hr coding job to the $20 / hr I could have made had Goodyear not moved those prized tire manufacturing jobs from my hometown (Akron, Ohio). Besides the money, there are those benefits like not dying of black lung at 60, being able to walk at the end of the day, keeping all 10 of my fingers attached...
Our manufacturing was onced prized. Then it became "dirty factory work that no one wanted to do" and it was sent offshore.
Call centers were hailed as a great service job in the new service economy. But then the jobs were described as dead-end, and were sent offshore.
Computer programmers (a.k.a. computer engineers) were seen as the wave of the future. But then the jobs became "coding", it was called "scut work", and it was sent offshore.
Our accountants, bookkeepers, analysts were all jobs that kids aspired to be. But now they are called "backoffice" -- kind of like "back of the bus", and they are being sent offshore.
Now even radiologists -- full blown doctors -- are having their work outsourced. And every time I see the job described, it is described as "reading film". Sounds like lousy work, we better get rid of it.
Can't you see the pattern? Denigrate the job and no one weeps when it gets sent overseas.
It's a cliche, I know, but the blacksmiths said the same thing... Guess what, we automated their jobs and later offshored them, do you honestly believe we would be better off with the old way? Comparative Advantage has shown itself to be true over and over for nearly 200 years, it doesn't suddenly become false when it's your job.
Keep living the lie that your "innovation job" is safe, if it lets you sleep at night.
I don't have an innovation job (typical J2EE developer) and I'm honest enough to admit to riding on others success - everything from the microprocessor to TCP/IP on up through the latest Java API. I'm also enough of a realist to know that I won't retire doing this and it's time (past time actually) to figure out my next move - so that 5 years down the line I'm sitting comfortably rather than whining about "those damn curry-heads took MY job". It's no different than the guys I grew up around, those perpetually unemployed people with "Work Union" and "Hungry, eat your import" bumper stickers on their rusted out pickups. Those were people who felt entitled to the job of their choosing, guys with no interest or will to pick a different field, and ultimately, guys who sat at home broke or grinding out a minimum wage living.
Because that takes an arrogant position that Americans are somehow genetically superior to our lower-paid bretheren in the third world. I've got news for you -- you're sadly mistaken.
Did you read what you just replied to? Allow me to repost my comment:
...This is due to conditions favorable to development - a mostly free market, a huge research base, and a largely educated people...
Where exactly did I take the position that "Americans are genetically superior"? The free market system is superior to command economies when it comes to favoring innovation, and our higher education system is still the leader in producing innovators. Those are what make the US one of the leaders in innovation, and barring a change to "protect our jobs", it will continue.
It's terrifying, the thought that we'll be basing our livelyhood on things not yet invented. You don't have to look back 100 years (the automobile, the telephone), 25 years (Compact Disc, PC's) but just 10 years (Java, DVD's) to find things that are now mainstream which had yet to be invented.
In addition to Shadowlore's above reply to your other nonsense - offshore outsourcing is not a bad thing, except for those few of us working in IT and unwilling to retrain. As it stands now, we're not offshoring innovation, we're sending the scut work abroad, just like we've done with manufacturing.
The US is still the lead in innovation, for example, Indians in the US have produced more patents than a much greater number of their contryment in India. This is due to conditions favorable to development - a mostly free market, a huge research base, and a largely educated people.
Germany? What a perfect example of who NOT to emulate. Check out the average German wage relative to costs, the unemployment rate, the tax burden, or the smoldering black hole their pension system is becoming. Look at the stranglehold the unions have on industry there.
As for H1-B's and L-1's, imho the visa programs should be abolished and anyone willing to come and work should be welcomed, let's throw out the welfare lifer's and other non-producers. People brave arrest and death to come here for jobs we turn our noses up at. Mexicans fight their way across the southern border, Chinese stow away in cargo ships, and cubans travel 90 miles on Bacardi cases to make $6 / hr jobs cleaning up after our asses and handling the most unmentionable tasks - these people ought to be citizens.
It sure sounded like fawning over all the "free" stuff the Euro's get. Just so you're aware that there is no free lunch... In any event, I doubt that Europeans working abroad are going to be paying those "confiscatory tax rates" that you keep talking about, anyway, so it just works out that much better for them.
Again, France is the only other one I know first hand, but they are still subject to French taxation when working out of the country, just like we were subject to US taxes when living as ex-pats...
-Free healthcare
Nothing in this world is free. To get "free" healthcare in France, the individual pays 25% of his salary to social security. Think that's not too bad? The employer portion is 50%, and if you're self employed you eat the entire thing. Right off the top, 75% of your salary is gone to pay for healthcare and retirement.
-It won't be nearly as expensive (in most cases) for their children to attend university in europe
Again, universities are subsidized by the state and are subject to their rules. In the US, anybody with an IQ over room temperature can spend the money and head off to college, maybe not Harvard, but there are any number of good, local schools that will take you if you can tie your shoes and answer a true/false question correctly within 3 tries. University in France is for the achievers and you only get one chance to get in. As one who started out in the trades, and found my way to college in my early twenties, I'm damn grateful for the American system, as I'd still be a mechanic, making a third of what I'm taking in with way worse work conditions. Even if you're one of those who went straight from high school to college to professional work at 22, it's nice to have the option at 30 or 40 to quit, go back to school, and do something else if you want.
-In some countries, they'll be given a pension to live off of when they retire
In the U.S., things are a bit different. You have a retirement fund that you need to plug money into
And where do you think the money you're "given" comes from? See my response to your first point about confiscatory tax rates. I'd much rather sock 15% a year into my 401k and know where it is than fork over 75% and hope the government will give part of it back.
The difference is free association and where the funding comes from.
The GOP is using campaign donations to reach out to people who voluntarily go to church and may get up and leave at any point. No law is compelling them to sit and listen to the speach, nor are tax dollars paying for it.
Activities during the school day are at least partially funded by public money and in most schools, students are compelled by truancy laws to attend. In the grandparent's case, he was able to to skip the rally, but I wonder how often that's true.
Much of that is marketing, people selling themselves to companies. I just finished a 3 year sabbatical and mailed over a hundred resumes without so much as a bite. After a couple weeks of zero response, I weaseled my way into a recruiter's office who wasn't interested in me, but helped me rewrite my resume a little and sure enough, it's almost like 2000 again - picking and choosing. She was right, most of us are really poor salesmen when it comes to ourselves...
I wish I had mod points for this one.
Unfortunately, college has been dumbed down to where high school used to be. We're now faced with streams of college graduates who spent their time either sleeping or partying wondering why, oh why don't I have a job.
Isn't this the argument Ashcroft, and Meese before him, use to limit porn? Porn is free speach, BUT... How about the flag burning hurrah a few years ago? Flag burning is free speach, BUT... Drop the but's, either you are in favor of free speach, with all it's benefits and hassles, or you're not.
I'm also thinking about the costs for administration: personnel, audit costs (which seem to get more outrageous every year), and the normal costs of doing business. Yes, you can plan for the average but I still think defined benefit plans fail on their own design. I think if people had to contribute enough to truly cover the costs, they would revolt. I've also never been accused of being an optimist ;-).
It is very true that the major failures in pension plans have been due to incompetance (Orange County), mismanagement (US S.S.), or fraud (the Teamsters pension fund).