I was researching some tax info a while back and thought that was a pretty good point. For the government to collect income, it comes from either printing money, collecting fines, collecting fees, or collecting taxes. I'm not saying that all taxes are evil, that we shouldn't have them, or that dropping the speed limit from 55 to 2 within 8 feet and having a speed trap is ok.
If you do some self employment work after hours to try to get ahead, the first two checks you write are for state and federal taxes on that money that you make. If your honest (and I'm not saying you're not) and report all income, you'll start by paying 30% off of the top to the federal government and some amount to whatever state you reside in. When you write the check, it feels like they're penalizing you for having earned some income. We fund the government by discouraging industrious activities (those things that earn income) - which is ok, it's just the way it is.
And it doesn't just extend to local governments. Look at what the states did with Microsoft and "big tobacco" in their lawsuits. They basically grabbed some money that went into their general funds and has been used to pay for various things that someone felt was important.
Limiting this just to people who voluntarily don't vote, a large portion of this group is disenfranchised by the system which they don't feel is effective and/or doesn't offer any real choice. Fix the system (or at least gussy it up a bit), and they'll vote. I'd say their disenfranchisement isn't self-imposed, but imposed by a flawed system.
Are you saying that if we had 9 candidates with legitimate shots at winning, we'd have higher turnout? I'm not sure that more candidates == higher turnout. Look at the Democratic nomination process this year. They started with 9 candidates with varied positions on lots of things, but only a small number of registered Democrats selected Kerry as the nominee!
It's no worse of an idea than a lottery for voters. I was just pointing out that a $1 "entry fee" would collect at least 10x the proposed payout. Gotta like the margins on that one!
Same way that they do with absentee voting - sign the envelope and seal it. If someone's voted more than once, discard it. Once this has been controlled, dump the contents of the envelopes into a ballot box and then have other people count the votes. Use the envelopes to draw for the lottery.
In this kind of system, if someone wants to vote more than once then they'll be paying more than their $1 to have a single vote counted. Consider it a donation.
About 103 million voters voted in 2000. Charge $1 for each voter, give out $10 million as the jackpot, and the $90 million would go a long ways towards paying for the election itself (or at least some lawyers)
Keep the regular polling places open and free. Open additional polling places at the Kwik-E-Mart and charge $1 per vote. Allow a person to vote multiple times, but only count one ballot from them - if they want to pay more, who are we to stop them as long as they are only counted once.
Easy - just have the regular polling places funded as normal.
Add polling places at the local Kwik-E-Mart and charge $1 to vote and give the purchasers a receipt to let them check their numbers. Require people to sign something saying it's their only vote, but let them buy as many times as they want (and only count it once).
That's one of my gripes about the Big 12. Iowa State plays at Baylor this weekend and it will be in the 80s. I'd like to see some of those texas teams head up to play at the north towards the end of november:)
It's 45 and drizzling here in northern Iowa and we like it! Actually, we've not turned on the furnace at work yet because the heat from the days and the heat generated from PC's is enough to keep it decent yet. Probably will need the furnace in a week or two when the temperature drops below zero for the next 6 months (smile - that's a bit of a stretch).
Reminds me of a Dilbert where they gave the boss a new laptop (an etch-a-sketch) and told him to reboot it by turning it upside down and shaking it.
That's what we call win-win. The boss (or official) thinks they've got technology, and the tech doesn't have to deal with the extra problems that the technophobic bring to the equation:)
But if there was a room in Doom 4 that was a cafeteria (or something) with a Pepsi machine bearing their logo along the wall (just there, but not in the way) I'd have no problem with it.
If they make you wait while a zombie slurps down a cold one before you can shoot it, then that would suck.
Not if it doesn't slow down gameplay - which is kind of where that game sucks. It's a good game, and they're trying to add some "realism" with it, but I'd just as soon be able to turn off the fluff and just play it.
If you have a game where there's product placement - gatorade signs, nike swooshes and the like - that doesn't get in the way I have no problem with it.
I do on-site PC repair for a living, and believe me - for every 1 person who obviously has spyware/virus problems from surfing porn sites and trying to download "warez" from the web, there are probably 10 who are just retired folks, doctors, lawyers, or college professors who tried really hard not to open email from anyone they didn't know, etc. etc. and STILL ran into big problems.
I'll second that. I do hand out, with the bill, a little instruction sheet with pictures on how to run AdAware and Spybot weekly - and usually don't have repeat customers for virus and spyware problems.
I was battling viruses at the time and my first thought was to remove TCP/IP. Didn't help and didn't work right - was just as easy to reinstall the machine.
My wife's machine did something similar. I could access the NTFS partition through Knoppix and burn the important files to CDROM before dealing with the hardware and OS isssues.
It was nice to be able to use the boot CD to recover.
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The Hollywood Upstairs Medical College :)
As you answered in the previous paragraph - it's the non-scientist administrators.
Kerry voted for the original Patriot Act and only started complaining about it to compete with Howard Dean.
Make the $1 and optional "lottery entry fee" - then it goes from being a poll tax to a "stupid" tax.
Besides, all of his record between 1970 and 2004 are irrelevant to this election - he served in Vietnam!
If you do some self employment work after hours to try to get ahead, the first two checks you write are for state and federal taxes on that money that you make. If your honest (and I'm not saying you're not) and report all income, you'll start by paying 30% off of the top to the federal government and some amount to whatever state you reside in. When you write the check, it feels like they're penalizing you for having earned some income. We fund the government by discouraging industrious activities (those things that earn income) - which is ok, it's just the way it is.
And it doesn't just extend to local governments. Look at what the states did with Microsoft and "big tobacco" in their lawsuits. They basically grabbed some money that went into their general funds and has been used to pay for various things that someone felt was important.
Are you saying that if we had 9 candidates with legitimate shots at winning, we'd have higher turnout? I'm not sure that more candidates == higher turnout. Look at the Democratic nomination process this year. They started with 9 candidates with varied positions on lots of things, but only a small number of registered Democrats selected Kerry as the nominee!
It's no worse of an idea than offering a prize for voting.
It's no worse of an idea than a lottery for voters. I was just pointing out that a $1 "entry fee" would collect at least 10x the proposed payout. Gotta like the margins on that one!
In this kind of system, if someone wants to vote more than once then they'll be paying more than their $1 to have a single vote counted. Consider it a donation.
About 103 million voters voted in 2000. Charge $1 for each voter, give out $10 million as the jackpot, and the $90 million would go a long ways towards paying for the election itself (or at least some lawyers)
Keep the regular polling places open and free. Open additional polling places at the Kwik-E-Mart and charge $1 per vote. Allow a person to vote multiple times, but only count one ballot from them - if they want to pay more, who are we to stop them as long as they are only counted once.
Add polling places at the local Kwik-E-Mart and charge $1 to vote and give the purchasers a receipt to let them check their numbers. Require people to sign something saying it's their only vote, but let them buy as many times as they want (and only count it once).
That's one of my gripes about the Big 12. Iowa State plays at Baylor this weekend and it will be in the 80s. I'd like to see some of those texas teams head up to play at the north towards the end of november :)
It's 45 and drizzling here in northern Iowa and we like it! Actually, we've not turned on the furnace at work yet because the heat from the days and the heat generated from PC's is enough to keep it decent yet. Probably will need the furnace in a week or two when the temperature drops below zero for the next 6 months (smile - that's a bit of a stretch).
No problem - just plug it into the red "UPS Protected" outlets. That way you're not competing against everyone else for juice on the same circuit :)
I like it when it's nice and cool in the room, but I have hot air from either a vent or an electric heater at my feet. Warm feet are happy feet!
Reminds me of a Dilbert where they gave the boss a new laptop (an etch-a-sketch) and told him to reboot it by turning it upside down and shaking it.
That's what we call win-win. The boss (or official) thinks they've got technology, and the tech doesn't have to deal with the extra problems that the technophobic bring to the equation :)
If they make you wait while a zombie slurps down a cold one before you can shoot it, then that would suck.
If you have a game where there's product placement - gatorade signs, nike swooshes and the like - that doesn't get in the way I have no problem with it.
Play EA Sports NCAA football 2005 - after each score, they do a "Pontiac Drive summary" like you'd see on TV - and they don't let you skip it.
I'll second that. I do hand out, with the bill, a little instruction sheet with pictures on how to run AdAware and Spybot weekly - and usually don't have repeat customers for virus and spyware problems.
Isnt a 67k version of emacs called "vi"
I was battling viruses at the time and my first thought was to remove TCP/IP. Didn't help and didn't work right - was just as easy to reinstall the machine.
The profit steps should be 2a and 4a :)
It was nice to be able to use the boot CD to recover.