Well, we should really look at the Medicaid figures and see how much the government actually spends in *medicine*, and how much is divided in other things like really expensive tests, insurance, etc.
But take a look at the figures you gave me: these are not that different from here, and yet our salaries are like 1/10th of yours. Inflation at its best. And if the government should think of encouraging raises in salaries, it explodes, catastrophically.
You mention vonage. It's funny. Businessmen here are not accustomed to the idea of "unlimited". That's a big no here. So, there are many VoIP providers here, yet people don't know any of them, because they sell they service for a fixed rate PLUS per-minute charge. What's the point? Also, internet connections don't work that good. A few months ago, my ADSL (DSL is dominant here. Cablemodem never really caught on) had 200ms latency to the first-hop (!) and during day time, I couldn't even get a 100kbps steady. Now, they fixed it: I get my full 2,5Mbps all day long, but still have 35ms first-hop latency. I don't know, but I don't think 35ms is good for VoIP. Also, the largest ISP in the country, Telecom, is now offering the most stupid thing I've ever heard: 20mbps down / 512k up for USD 170 a month. 512k up?...
Also, we don't have HDTV. Not even digital TV. The government has not decided to go either ATSC, DVB or ISDB. And Telecom tried to mention "triple play" and for some reason (that is, Cablevision paying them), the government has said that Telecom is a telco and CAN NOT and WILL NOT sell TV, EVER. So, you can see the kind of clowns we have. Way to promote competition, assholes.
I really hope Telecom starts selling TV (Cablevision said that they will start selling cable in my area too). So, that will finally demonopolize things, especially if Cablevision sells VoIP, like they said they would. You want to hear something worse? Cablevision doesn't even carry Stereo in my area.
Regarding to the quality of meat... remember that this is Argentina anyway. There is no less than Premium-grade meat here. The $4 is an average, "everyday meat" of, err, cow?. And the tomatoes, well, you seem to know that everything here is "organic". There is not too much mega-scale industrialization like over there. I have a friend living there, and he lives with this family where they eat those microwave meals every day. And he hates it, but they don't let him cook because the woman "doesn't like the smell". I never tried those, but they seem disgusting:) Or maybe it's just me. I like to eat from real dishes.
Yeah but don't believe that the public hospitals are that good anyway. While they're excellent in the case of an emergency (I live in a corner where there's a car crash every week at least. I always time the ambulance from the moment I hear the crash, and it never takes more than 10 minutes for them to arrive), for a long-term treatment, forget it. They keep you in this common room with 20 other strangers, which of course will steal everything you have (they, or their family). And if you have a pain or something, you need to go to the hospital probably at 3 or 4 AM and stand in line, because at 6 they start give you an appointment and at 6:10 it's all taken.
So, most people who can afford it, go to private clinics. It's more complicated, because you have to get an X-ray at one place, an EEG somewhere else, a TC at the other side of town... Because in small- to mid-size cities, private clinics can't afford to buy all these machines. So there are other companies that have the machines (and the personnel, of course) and that way they keep them busy all day.
I sometimes think that the war business in the US is just a justification of capitalism. In the US, the government usually doesn't do much more than paying for the police, the military, etc. Sometimes economy needs a burst of cash to keep it from stalling. The business that does the trick is usually construction. When the goverment, in my country, starts with large scale housing plans, that moves everything: fuel, machines, jobs, cement, bricks, iron, power, water, communications, and that, in turn, generates more jobs, and people have money to spend... it's a cycle.
In the US you don't have that (or don't have the need for that. But even if you did have that, I don't think Joe Sixpack with his american flag on the front yard would like that the government is giving away houses for the poor). So, the US starts a war, that does pretty much the same thing.
How much do things cost in the US anyway?
Here is about: Gasoline: USD 0,70/liter Internet: USD 40, ADSL 2.5Mbps down/256k up, uncapped, unfiltered. Phone: USD 0,03 to 0,15 a minute, cell. USD 0,03 for SMS. USD 0,50 an hour, local, land line. Electricity: USD 0,02/kw for less than 50kw a month, USD 0,05/kw from 50kw on Meat: about USD 4/kg Tomatoes: ha! They jumped from USD1 to USD 4 in less than 2 weeks (inflation!). Now they're back to $1 Milk: USD 0,60/liter
no, I was only talking about sales taxes. Insurance, retirement, pension is another story. The $269,44 I pay for monotributo includes the tax, retirement, and healthcare insurance. I can't opt not to pay healthcare even if I decide to go to a public hospital, or to pay the whole bill myself if I don't have insurance. But I can choose to play with my retirement funds: send it to an AFJP and they invest it and give me a percentage (I know you have that too but I don't remember how you call it). Or you can choose the state sponsored retirement, which gives you nothing more. I chose the state, read on to see why.
I'm not saying that this is a bad country. I'm sure I could go, work, and live well in any country, but I'd never leave mine, even though I see so many people leaving (and they end up washing dishes at some crappy restaurant in spain). But it's cyclical, devaluation and inflation are a common thing. We had one in 89, in 2001, and I'm sure that by 2011 we'll have another. In 2001, the government wouldn't let us take our money off the bank more than $1000 a day. In 2002 they devaluated and converted deposits to Pesos (the peso was pegged to the USD), and then they told us no actually it was a joke, you didn't really have 100.000 dollars, you had 100.000 pesos, that's 25.000 dollars. In about a month, your money, savings, your life was worth 1/4... because you put your money in the bank (those who actually had dollars saved in their houses were lucky). Also, the government once needed some money and just went and took it from the AFJPs (the retirement funds!). So why did I choose the government retirement? Because the government will always pay, they can't declare themselves in bankruptcy. An AFJP can, that's the risk. And I don't like to put my retirement funds in jeopardy. Anyway, I have a bank account in the US too. In case I need it, HSBC happily gave it to me for USD2 a month (it costs USD4 a month here).
Sorry, I forgot your other questions: Yes, there are exceptions to the IVA: basic products (milk, bread...) pay only 10,5% IVA. Most things, 21%. Others (telephone, electricity) pay 27% IVA. The phone bill of my business (I'm a monotributista), is 40% taxes of all sorts.
Other exceptions to IVA: computers and computer parts, but only those that require power (a computer, a microprocessor, boards, memory). If it doesn't require power (ink cartridges, cables, adapters), it pays 21% tax...
Well, from the point of view of a consumer, there's only the IVA.
From the point of view of the business, there's the IVA, the Gross Income (Ingresos Brutos), Impuesto al Cheque (Check tax !!!), and for imports anything between 0 and 50% depending on the product. All those in the case that I'm selling something.
Businesses (be it a person: "persona fisica o real", or a company: "persona juridica o ideal") can be taxed in two ways, the first is the "Regimen General", for which taxpayers are called "Responsables Inscriptos", and the other is "Regimen de Pequeños Contribuyentes" (Small Taxpayer regime), and the taxpayers are "Responsables Monotributistas".
The IVA is paid by RIs: That is, if I buy something for $100 and sell it for $120 (and I'm a "Responsable Inscripto", and bought that from another "RI", and he gave me a type A receipt or "factura"), I have to pay 21% of the $20 (120-100) for IVA (national tax). The rationale behind this is avoiding tax evasion. You're taxed in every step of the process (factory -> distributor -> store -> final consumer) because if the final "link" is likely to not to give you the receipt, and that transaction is "en negro", and doesn't pay taxes.
The Gross Income is disgusting. 3,5% in my case, and that's about the same in every case. and 3,5% of 120 (!) for "Rentas", the province tax. If I buy something for $100 and sell it for $90 for any reason, I still pay the tax for $90, even though I lost money for selling that.
The Check Tax (actually called "Impuesto a las transacciones financieras") is 1% of the amount of any check. If you deposit a $1000 check, government just comes and takes its $10. Ah, the electronic money, can't escape big brother. The check tax of course also covers withdrawals and wire transfers from checking accounts.
The Monotributistas (like me) pay a single, fixed tax: the Monotributo, which has different steps (you can sell up to $ 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000 if you are a service provider or up to $12000 if you're selling stuff. We're talking pesos so right now $12.000 is USD 3770. The highest tax (6000 or 12000) is $269,44. If you pay with automatic debit, you get 1 month free.
But monotributistas can only emit "C" type recepits, which RIs can't use as fiscal credit, so if you sell for $100 and he resells for $120, he has to pay IVA for $120. Monotributistas can't have "A" type receipts, only "B"-type (the same goes for an individual, called a "final consumer", and because it's unknown he's called a "Responsable No Inscripto"). There's a black market of buying-selling fiscal credit too.
Besides how much they can sell, monotributistas are also limited by the size of the shop (up to 85m) and electricity consumption (up to 10.000KWh).
In short, RI to RI: A-receipt, can take the receipt as fiscal credit. RI to MT and RI to Final: B-receipt, can't take is as fiscal credt. MT to RI and MT to Final: C-receipt, can't take it as fiscal credit.
And, if it wasn't enough, there's also the E-receipt (for Export). If I sell you something, and you live in another country, I have to be a registered exporter, and give you an E receipt. I haven't seen one, but it's IVA-free. But there's a trap: some products, such as meat, have "retentions", that is, the government goes one step further: it doesn't wait for you to pay, they just take your money when it's coming into the country (because all international money I/O is controled by the BCRA, Banco Central de la Republica Argentina).
Oh, I forgot, some large RIs (insurance companies are an example) can also give you a "retencion". That is: you charge them $100 for a service, they pay you $96,50 (3,5% tax) and give you a retention certificate, which you use to discount from the total. Hey, you would have had to pay that anyway right? They do that because taxes are paid as "declaracion jurada" ("I swear this month I sold $ xxx...").
Salaries are also taxed, I.E. "Impuesto a las Ganancias", Earns Income. I
No, it was $50 of 1995, that's USD 50. Mi vieja se acuerda porque el jefe es un pijotero y no sabes como puteaba... (My mom remebers because the boss was a cheap bastard and he was mad!)
Because that way people will get $5 AND a bag of food. How do they buy votes? Loyalty. They tell them, here's a bag of food... if you vote for me, I'll give it to you, and if I win, I'll give you free food too! These people actually get free food in government programs, and still send their children to beg on the streets.
I know you may not understand it. This is a rich country. Poor is not the one that doesn't have anything to eat. Poor is someone who doesn't like to work. You can live if you don't work, but you can live better if you work.
The local commies are always talking about equal opportunities and stuff like that. Well, schools and hospitals here are public, that is completely free. You sign up and go, and that's it (and mind you, for emergencies, the local public hospital is far better than the private ones. The most advanced machine a private hospital here has an x-ray machine and that's it. The public hospital has everything: TC, x-ray, ultrasound, anything). The public hospital also gives you AIDS drugs for free, also insulin, condoms, next-day pills). And the government gives the poor free food and houses (nice houses sometimes, with a big backyard and all... which they sell and go back to live on a tin shack, because they don't care. They live in tin shacks and have DVDs and satellite TV, I'm not kidding).
So basically, we (the middle class) give like 1/5th of our salary "to the poor" (that's the 21% IVA, equivalent to the UK's VAT). It gets to the point that police officers have to buy their own vests and bullets. Because the government spends money on keeping the poor and ignorant masses happy, securing their votes every time. And as there are more "poors" than middle class people... well you get the idea. (And don't let me get started on the "peronists" which are are by far the most corrupts, but the ones who are most likely to win... because of historic reasons: Evita pushed for the femenine vote --women weren't allowed to vote-- so, guess for whom did women vote at first? My history teacher always said the problem in this country is that people vote with their hearts, not with their heads).
Oh and I think that in election day, mass transit is free. Not sure but I think they did that at least once. Anyway you're not supposed to need even need a vehicle. My voting place is like 5 or 6 blocks away.
That's how they buy the poor people's votes. In election day, they take them to the voting place, DNI in hand. Then, upon checking the stamp on the DNI, they give you a bag of food or something.
When you lose your DNI, it's hell. It takes ages (1 year maybe) to get a duplicate. You can't do many things that require a DNI like opening a bank account, or leaving the country (if you don't have a federal police "Cedula", for neighboring countries, or a Passport). Sure, you can do all these things but it's much more complicated.
That's why, weeks before elections, all the DNIs arrive much quicker. You're required to have one. I think there's a civil registry at most public hospitals too, your DNI and CUIL/CUIT --taxpayer ID-- are generated the day you're born. Because people who don't have a DNI are usually the poor, politicians buy their votes by giving them stuff, and DNIs.
In 1995 my mom's boss didn't go, and he was fined like $50. Ha. But you're right, it's the only case I've heard of that. And I doubt that anyone has ever been in jail for this... but the law is there, and there's always the possibility.
Re:none of the above
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· Score: 2, Informative
http://ecomchaco.com.ar/Elecciones/2007Septiembre/Cuadros.asp?Cuadro=cVotosDist.asp here you can see the elections in my province last month, for governor. On the top right you can see "votantes/total" 500000 out of 700000. That means 200.000 people didn't show up to vote (it's mandatory here, except for people over 75). Then in the detail, in the blue boxes you can see the blank/null/recurred/void votes. That's the "none of the above". So basically 1/5th of the population voted for "none". Who wins? The one with the most votes, of course.
Re:Unlimited Supply
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· Score: 3, Informative
I live in Argentina. Well, the problem is that voting is not a right or a privilege, is an obligation. You're required to vote, else you could be fined or sent to jail.
So, for this, every person 18 years or older is a registered voter ("empadronado", because he's in the "padron electoral"). This is a database with your name and address, so you're assigned the nearest public school to vote. Votes are Sundays 8AM to 6PM ("8 a 18"). When you go to vote, they stamp your DNI (Documento Nacional de Identidad), with the date of your vote and the number of 'table' where you vote (you're assigned a school based on your address and a table, alphabetically).
You come to the table and give the "presidente de mesa" your DNI (it's a little book with your data). He, and the rest of the "fiscales de mesa" will mark your name on the padron. You will be given an envelope, stamped with the table stamp, and signed by all the fiscales. You walk into the "cuarto oscuro" (dark room), close the door, pick your boleta (ballot), neatly fold it and put it in your envelope. You close your envelope and walk out, and put it on the "urna" (the box where you put your vote). Then they will give your your DNI back and you're done.
You CANNOT make any kind of comments about your vote, you can't wear clothes relating to a specific party, and make signs or gestures or whatever. You will be dettained by the Gendarmes, fined and/or sent to jail (very rare). If you can't find your ballot, you can't ask for one, you need to go outside and tell to the president that "some ballots are missing".
At 6PM the door closes, everyone that is inside is allowed to vote. When everyone has finished, the urnas are opened and ballots counted, and summarized. Then every ballot is put back in the box, and the box is closed again. The official post picks up the boxes and the summary. It is then telegraphed (faxed, actually) to the "centro de computos", where it's loaded into a database. For some cases, as in my province, this database is publicly accessible and you can see the votes with granularity down to the table (i.e. you can see how many votes --valid, absent, and void-- were in each of the tables, for each of the candidates). For my province, you can see http://ecomchaco.com.ar/Elecciones/ We're the poorest province in the country, yet for some reason the data for this has been available online in real time since 1995.
Within a couple of hours the results are pretty much known. If the candidate/s require so, the ballots are recounted (for example in the case of a very small margin).
So yes, I can prove that you delivered (I ask you to show me your stamped DNI). But I can't, of course, prove that you voted for me (you could have voted for anyone, blank-voted, or void-voted.. that is rip your ballot or something).
I laughed too, but not because it was funny, but because it was sad actually. And if you follow the thread you'll see this little troll that just keeps on going on how much Brazil owes Cisco for "building their telecom infrastructure", and that they should now leave brazil and let them screw themselves for trying to enforce laws. I know he's trolling (you can't really be serious about that) but it's not what they say. It's what they don't say. And you see that there are so many assholes, because his comments actually get modded up:(
Heh, so cisco can screw a country if they want, but we can't screw you with our bonds? Boo-hoo... Ha, you really, REALLY though that it was safe to buy bonds with 100% interest in 1 year?
The sad part is that your last comment was waaaay troll ("they went the extra mile to keep their customers happy" that's the worst justification i've ever seen for tax evasion), and yet you got modded insightful. It just shows the ignorance of your people.
Dude, your philosophy is "we are the best in the world, the masters of the universe. bend over and take it. we shall import anything we want and pay no taxes for you, but also give you no jobs. for if you shall ever try to enforce your own legislation, we will pull the plug and your tiny country will be left in oblivion" fuck you, man, what do you think? that cisco and american brands are god's given gifts to the rest of the world? what the fuck are you smoking? are you john chambers kid or something?
and then you say, if brazil tries to enforce their own law, cisco should take their stuff and leave the country. that should teach them. what the fuck? you're sick man. you really have that american "god complex". you ever sat and think why the world hates you? yo go around, messing with developing nations (to make sure they don't develop), destroying them, taking their oil, and even then, you expect the whole world to love and praise you? dude I was trolling before, but now I'm serious, and I really hope you're joking, you can't be that stupid. really.
also, companies don't leave countries for $500M. let me give you an example: my country's debt is 130BN dollars. at some point in 2002 we said, well, we don't have anymore money to pay for this. we will take some time to clear up this mess and then we'll see. so, "political analysts" all over the world said no, this is terrible, argentina will disappear from the planet, sink in the ocean, no one will ever lend money to them anymore, they will be like an african country, or worse... blah blah blah. you know what happened? nothing. we sorted things out, paid all the IMF's debt and got them off our back. negotiated our debt and only paid 25% of it (and the rest was refinanced to 20-50 years at a much lower rate). and, we're better than ever. production is so up right now that we didn't have enough power this year and that's why many factories had to shut down this winter.
so what did the US do while all this was happening? nothing. they said well it's argentina's problem, they need to figure it out themselves. now we're on track again, and our president (not that I like it) is aligning with crazy Chavez and his commie friends. what's the US gov't doing now? they're "not happy" with us. shit dude, they had an opportunity to do something for us, and they told us to go fuck ourselves. now, they expect us to go back to them.. "or else".
the whole Americas economy would be far better if the US would cut it out already with their resource-sucking methods. they come here, take what they want, and leave. and we have to thank you for it. instead, they could make us their allies, have plenty of cheap workforce, in a nearly timezone, etc. but no, they don't work like that.
now take a look at the UK: they had colonies all over the world: because they learned to accept that country's ways. they came here, and built buenos aires, its trains, its subways, buildings, and most important, the buenos aires seaport, and we grew, a LOT, from all that. and the UK got a lot of money in the process. and they repeated the same in australia, in India, in Hong Kong...
now what did the US do in latin america? the condor operation, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Condor , to destroy communism in latin america. just go around and kill the commies. not come, bring some money, make some investments, bring in a factory or two to keep people happy. no, that costs too much money. just kill the commies and be done with them. and that's what you do. you're just the world's bully
Ah, but you bit. I had read the article a couple of days ago, and put it specifically for that part. But you didn't notice: The GGP was talking about letting foreign companies do their business, and that's exactly what those companies did. An american company made it (now a subsidiary of singapore whatever). That's something productive. Not like Cisco did.
Cisco, instead, is importing products and not even paying the taxes. What's the point then? Brazil doesn't win anything. In fact, you could say they lose, because Cisco won't be moving their factories (chinese) and design centers (american and, afaik, israeli) to Brazil. They're there only to sell. OK, fine. But you have to pay taxes, or face the consequences.
Oh, so you know Brazil Import/Export laws now, do you? No you don't. Corporate offices are not tax-free zones. And containers are not diplomatic bags. The moment that equipment crossed the customs line, it was fully under Brazil's regulations and laws, and if that means they had to pay taxes for them, period.
fuck you, motherfucking ignorant yankee. you don't know shit about anything. you think Brazil's telecom infrastructure is worth just 500M? You need to read a lot more I guess, starting here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itaipu and then you'll understand the magnitude of Brazil's economy.
I have 2GB and run a couple of VM's from time to time (usually only one). I also have a SATA2 NCQ drive (WD3200) with 16MB of cache and a SATA2 controller (onboard nVidia). Still it's pretty slow.
I also have another computer, a Solaris server with 4xSATA2, onboard nVidia, ZFS RAIDZ... and man that array is fast! Even being software RAID, it's quite fast (has no problem keeping up with gigabit ethernet, not that gigabit is that fast but still, if I wanted to add a second gigabit card and bond them together, it would still be pretty fast).
Seriously, wouldn't you benefit from adding a second drive and make it RAID?
Yes, but that's a hardware limitation (power supply and hard drive), not a BIOS limitation. The article was about speeding up BIOS load times, not hard drive spin up time.
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Ah, these kids. Never heard of the RIAA equalization curve, I assume? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA_equalization
Well, we should really look at the Medicaid figures and see how much the government actually spends in *medicine*, and how much is divided in other things like really expensive tests, insurance, etc.
...
:) Or maybe it's just me. I like to eat from real dishes.
But take a look at the figures you gave me: these are not that different from here, and yet our salaries are like 1/10th of yours. Inflation at its best. And if the government should think of encouraging raises in salaries, it explodes, catastrophically.
You mention vonage. It's funny. Businessmen here are not accustomed to the idea of "unlimited". That's a big no here. So, there are many VoIP providers here, yet people don't know any of them, because they sell they service for a fixed rate PLUS per-minute charge. What's the point? Also, internet connections don't work that good. A few months ago, my ADSL (DSL is dominant here. Cablemodem never really caught on) had 200ms latency to the first-hop (!) and during day time, I couldn't even get a 100kbps steady. Now, they fixed it: I get my full 2,5Mbps all day long, but still have 35ms first-hop latency. I don't know, but I don't think 35ms is good for VoIP. Also, the largest ISP in the country, Telecom, is now offering the most stupid thing I've ever heard: 20mbps down / 512k up for USD 170 a month. 512k up?
Also, we don't have HDTV. Not even digital TV. The government has not decided to go either ATSC, DVB or ISDB. And Telecom tried to mention "triple play" and for some reason (that is, Cablevision paying them), the government has said that Telecom is a telco and CAN NOT and WILL NOT sell TV, EVER. So, you can see the kind of clowns we have. Way to promote competition, assholes.
I really hope Telecom starts selling TV (Cablevision said that they will start selling cable in my area too). So, that will finally demonopolize things, especially if Cablevision sells VoIP, like they said they would. You want to hear something worse? Cablevision doesn't even carry Stereo in my area.
Regarding to the quality of meat... remember that this is Argentina anyway. There is no less than Premium-grade meat here. The $4 is an average, "everyday meat" of, err, cow?. And the tomatoes, well, you seem to know that everything here is "organic". There is not too much mega-scale industrialization like over there. I have a friend living there, and he lives with this family where they eat those microwave meals every day. And he hates it, but they don't let him cook because the woman "doesn't like the smell". I never tried those, but they seem disgusting
Yeah but don't believe that the public hospitals are that good anyway. While they're excellent in the case of an emergency (I live in a corner where there's a car crash every week at least. I always time the ambulance from the moment I hear the crash, and it never takes more than 10 minutes for them to arrive), for a long-term treatment, forget it. They keep you in this common room with 20 other strangers, which of course will steal everything you have (they, or their family). And if you have a pain or something, you need to go to the hospital probably at 3 or 4 AM and stand in line, because at 6 they start give you an appointment and at 6:10 it's all taken.
So, most people who can afford it, go to private clinics. It's more complicated, because you have to get an X-ray at one place, an EEG somewhere else, a TC at the other side of town... Because in small- to mid-size cities, private clinics can't afford to buy all these machines. So there are other companies that have the machines (and the personnel, of course) and that way they keep them busy all day.
I sometimes think that the war business in the US is just a justification of capitalism. In the US, the government usually doesn't do much more than paying for the police, the military, etc. Sometimes economy needs a burst of cash to keep it from stalling. The business that does the trick is usually construction. When the goverment, in my country, starts with large scale housing plans, that moves everything: fuel, machines, jobs, cement, bricks, iron, power, water, communications, and that, in turn, generates more jobs, and people have money to spend... it's a cycle.
In the US you don't have that (or don't have the need for that. But even if you did have that, I don't think Joe Sixpack with his american flag on the front yard would like that the government is giving away houses for the poor). So, the US starts a war, that does pretty much the same thing.
How much do things cost in the US anyway?
Here is about:
Gasoline: USD 0,70/liter
Internet: USD 40, ADSL 2.5Mbps down/256k up, uncapped, unfiltered.
Phone: USD 0,03 to 0,15 a minute, cell. USD 0,03 for SMS. USD 0,50 an hour, local, land line.
Electricity: USD 0,02/kw for less than 50kw a month, USD 0,05/kw from 50kw on
Meat: about USD 4/kg
Tomatoes: ha! They jumped from USD1 to USD 4 in less than 2 weeks (inflation!). Now they're back to $1
Milk: USD 0,60/liter
no, I was only talking about sales taxes. Insurance, retirement, pension is another story. The $269,44 I pay for monotributo includes the tax, retirement, and healthcare insurance. I can't opt not to pay healthcare even if I decide to go to a public hospital, or to pay the whole bill myself if I don't have insurance. But I can choose to play with my retirement funds: send it to an AFJP and they invest it and give me a percentage (I know you have that too but I don't remember how you call it). Or you can choose the state sponsored retirement, which gives you nothing more. I chose the state, read on to see why.
I'm not saying that this is a bad country. I'm sure I could go, work, and live well in any country, but I'd never leave mine, even though I see so many people leaving (and they end up washing dishes at some crappy restaurant in spain). But it's cyclical, devaluation and inflation are a common thing. We had one in 89, in 2001, and I'm sure that by 2011 we'll have another. In 2001, the government wouldn't let us take our money off the bank more than $1000 a day. In 2002 they devaluated and converted deposits to Pesos (the peso was pegged to the USD), and then they told us no actually it was a joke, you didn't really have 100.000 dollars, you had 100.000 pesos, that's 25.000 dollars. In about a month, your money, savings, your life was worth 1/4... because you put your money in the bank (those who actually had dollars saved in their houses were lucky). Also, the government once needed some money and just went and took it from the AFJPs (the retirement funds!). So why did I choose the government retirement? Because the government will always pay, they can't declare themselves in bankruptcy. An AFJP can, that's the risk. And I don't like to put my retirement funds in jeopardy. Anyway, I have a bank account in the US too. In case I need it, HSBC happily gave it to me for USD2 a month (it costs USD4 a month here).
Sorry, I forgot your other questions: Yes, there are exceptions to the IVA: basic products (milk, bread...) pay only 10,5% IVA. Most things, 21%. Others (telephone, electricity) pay 27% IVA. The phone bill of my business (I'm a monotributista), is 40% taxes of all sorts.
Other exceptions to IVA: computers and computer parts, but only those that require power (a computer, a microprocessor, boards, memory). If it doesn't require power (ink cartridges, cables, adapters), it pays 21% tax...
Well, from the point of view of a consumer, there's only the IVA.
...").
From the point of view of the business, there's the IVA, the Gross Income (Ingresos Brutos), Impuesto al Cheque (Check tax !!!), and for imports anything between 0 and 50% depending on the product. All those in the case that I'm selling something.
Businesses (be it a person: "persona fisica o real", or a company: "persona juridica o ideal") can be taxed in two ways, the first is the "Regimen General", for which taxpayers are called "Responsables Inscriptos", and the other is "Regimen de Pequeños Contribuyentes" (Small Taxpayer regime), and the taxpayers are "Responsables Monotributistas".
The IVA is paid by RIs: That is, if I buy something for $100 and sell it for $120 (and I'm a "Responsable Inscripto", and bought that from another "RI", and he gave me a type A receipt or "factura"), I have to pay 21% of the $20 (120-100) for IVA (national tax). The rationale behind this is avoiding tax evasion. You're taxed in every step of the process (factory -> distributor -> store -> final consumer) because if the final "link" is likely to not to give you the receipt, and that transaction is "en negro", and doesn't pay taxes.
The Gross Income is disgusting. 3,5% in my case, and that's about the same in every case. and 3,5% of 120 (!) for "Rentas", the province tax. If I buy something for $100 and sell it for $90 for any reason, I still pay the tax for $90, even though I lost money for selling that.
The Check Tax (actually called "Impuesto a las transacciones financieras") is 1% of the amount of any check. If you deposit a $1000 check, government just comes and takes its $10. Ah, the electronic money, can't escape big brother. The check tax of course also covers withdrawals and wire transfers from checking accounts.
The Monotributistas (like me) pay a single, fixed tax: the Monotributo, which has different steps (you can sell up to $ 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000 if you are a service provider or up to $12000 if you're selling stuff. We're talking pesos so right now $12.000 is USD 3770. The highest tax (6000 or 12000) is $269,44. If you pay with automatic debit, you get 1 month free.
But monotributistas can only emit "C" type recepits, which RIs can't use as fiscal credit, so if you sell for $100 and he resells for $120, he has to pay IVA for $120. Monotributistas can't have "A" type receipts, only "B"-type (the same goes for an individual, called a "final consumer", and because it's unknown he's called a "Responsable No Inscripto"). There's a black market of buying-selling fiscal credit too.
Besides how much they can sell, monotributistas are also limited by the size of the shop (up to 85m) and electricity consumption (up to 10.000KWh).
In short,
RI to RI: A-receipt, can take the receipt as fiscal credit.
RI to MT and RI to Final: B-receipt, can't take is as fiscal credt.
MT to RI and MT to Final: C-receipt, can't take it as fiscal credit.
And, if it wasn't enough, there's also the E-receipt (for Export). If I sell you something, and you live in another country, I have to be a registered exporter, and give you an E receipt. I haven't seen one, but it's IVA-free. But there's a trap: some products, such as meat, have "retentions", that is, the government goes one step further: it doesn't wait for you to pay, they just take your money when it's coming into the country (because all international money I/O is controled by the BCRA, Banco Central de la Republica Argentina).
Oh, I forgot, some large RIs (insurance companies are an example) can also give you a "retencion". That is: you charge them $100 for a service, they pay you $96,50 (3,5% tax) and give you a retention certificate, which you use to discount from the total. Hey, you would have had to pay that anyway right? They do that because taxes are paid as "declaracion jurada" ("I swear this month I sold $ xxx
Salaries are also taxed, I.E. "Impuesto a las Ganancias", Earns Income. I
Jajaja tenia ganas de decirlo... I think "pijotero" would be "cheap bastard", or "cheap motherfucker" or something.
No, it was $50 of 1995, that's USD 50. Mi vieja se acuerda porque el jefe es un pijotero y no sabes como puteaba... (My mom remebers because the boss was a cheap bastard and he was mad!)
Because that way people will get $5 AND a bag of food. How do they buy votes? Loyalty. They tell them, here's a bag of food... if you vote for me, I'll give it to you, and if I win, I'll give you free food too! These people actually get free food in government programs, and still send their children to beg on the streets.
I know you may not understand it. This is a rich country. Poor is not the one that doesn't have anything to eat. Poor is someone who doesn't like to work. You can live if you don't work, but you can live better if you work.
The local commies are always talking about equal opportunities and stuff like that. Well, schools and hospitals here are public, that is completely free. You sign up and go, and that's it (and mind you, for emergencies, the local public hospital is far better than the private ones. The most advanced machine a private hospital here has an x-ray machine and that's it. The public hospital has everything: TC, x-ray, ultrasound, anything). The public hospital also gives you AIDS drugs for free, also insulin, condoms, next-day pills). And the government gives the poor free food and houses (nice houses sometimes, with a big backyard and all... which they sell and go back to live on a tin shack, because they don't care. They live in tin shacks and have DVDs and satellite TV, I'm not kidding).
So basically, we (the middle class) give like 1/5th of our salary "to the poor" (that's the 21% IVA, equivalent to the UK's VAT). It gets to the point that police officers have to buy their own vests and bullets. Because the government spends money on keeping the poor and ignorant masses happy, securing their votes every time. And as there are more "poors" than middle class people... well you get the idea. (And don't let me get started on the "peronists" which are are by far the most corrupts, but the ones who are most likely to win... because of historic reasons: Evita pushed for the femenine vote --women weren't allowed to vote-- so, guess for whom did women vote at first? My history teacher always said the problem in this country is that people vote with their hearts, not with their heads).
Oh and I think that in election day, mass transit is free. Not sure but I think they did that at least once. Anyway you're not supposed to need even need a vehicle. My voting place is like 5 or 6 blocks away.
That's how they buy the poor people's votes. In election day, they take them to the voting place, DNI in hand. Then, upon checking the stamp on the DNI, they give you a bag of food or something.
When you lose your DNI, it's hell. It takes ages (1 year maybe) to get a duplicate. You can't do many things that require a DNI like opening a bank account, or leaving the country (if you don't have a federal police "Cedula", for neighboring countries, or a Passport). Sure, you can do all these things but it's much more complicated.
That's why, weeks before elections, all the DNIs arrive much quicker. You're required to have one. I think there's a civil registry at most public hospitals too, your DNI and CUIL/CUIT --taxpayer ID-- are generated the day you're born. Because people who don't have a DNI are usually the poor, politicians buy their votes by giving them stuff, and DNIs.
In 1995 my mom's boss didn't go, and he was fined like $50. Ha. But you're right, it's the only case I've heard of that. And I doubt that anyone has ever been in jail for this... but the law is there, and there's always the possibility.
http://ecomchaco.com.ar/Elecciones/2007Septiembre/Cuadros.asp?Cuadro=cVotosDist.asp here you can see the elections in my province last month, for governor. On the top right you can see "votantes/total" 500000 out of 700000. That means 200.000 people didn't show up to vote (it's mandatory here, except for people over 75). Then in the detail, in the blue boxes you can see the blank/null/recurred/void votes. That's the "none of the above". So basically 1/5th of the population voted for "none". Who wins? The one with the most votes, of course.
I live in Argentina. Well, the problem is that voting is not a right or a privilege, is an obligation. You're required to vote, else you could be fined or sent to jail.
So, for this, every person 18 years or older is a registered voter ("empadronado", because he's in the "padron electoral"). This is a database with your name and address, so you're assigned the nearest public school to vote. Votes are Sundays 8AM to 6PM ("8 a 18"). When you go to vote, they stamp your DNI (Documento Nacional de Identidad), with the date of your vote and the number of 'table' where you vote (you're assigned a school based on your address and a table, alphabetically).
You come to the table and give the "presidente de mesa" your DNI (it's a little book with your data). He, and the rest of the "fiscales de mesa" will mark your name on the padron. You will be given an envelope, stamped with the table stamp, and signed by all the fiscales. You walk into the "cuarto oscuro" (dark room), close the door, pick your boleta (ballot), neatly fold it and put it in your envelope. You close your envelope and walk out, and put it on the "urna" (the box where you put your vote). Then they will give your your DNI back and you're done.
You CANNOT make any kind of comments about your vote, you can't wear clothes relating to a specific party, and make signs or gestures or whatever. You will be dettained by the Gendarmes, fined and/or sent to jail (very rare). If you can't find your ballot, you can't ask for one, you need to go outside and tell to the president that "some ballots are missing".
At 6PM the door closes, everyone that is inside is allowed to vote. When everyone has finished, the urnas are opened and ballots counted, and summarized. Then every ballot is put back in the box, and the box is closed again. The official post picks up the boxes and the summary. It is then telegraphed (faxed, actually) to the "centro de computos", where it's loaded into a database. For some cases, as in my province, this database is publicly accessible and you can see the votes with granularity down to the table (i.e. you can see how many votes --valid, absent, and void-- were in each of the tables, for each of the candidates). For my province, you can see http://ecomchaco.com.ar/Elecciones/ We're the poorest province in the country, yet for some reason the data for this has been available online in real time since 1995.
Within a couple of hours the results are pretty much known. If the candidate/s require so, the ballots are recounted (for example in the case of a very small margin).
So yes, I can prove that you delivered (I ask you to show me your stamped DNI). But I can't, of course, prove that you voted for me (you could have voted for anyone, blank-voted, or void-voted.. that is rip your ballot or something).
I laughed too, but not because it was funny, but because it was sad actually. And if you follow the thread you'll see this little troll that just keeps on going on how much Brazil owes Cisco for "building their telecom infrastructure", and that they should now leave brazil and let them screw themselves for trying to enforce laws. I know he's trolling (you can't really be serious about that) but it's not what they say. It's what they don't say. And you see that there are so many assholes, because his comments actually get modded up :(
Heh, so cisco can screw a country if they want, but we can't screw you with our bonds? Boo-hoo... Ha, you really, REALLY though that it was safe to buy bonds with 100% interest in 1 year? The sad part is that your last comment was waaaay troll ("they went the extra mile to keep their customers happy" that's the worst justification i've ever seen for tax evasion), and yet you got modded insightful. It just shows the ignorance of your people.
Dude, your philosophy is "we are the best in the world, the masters of the universe. bend over and take it. we shall import anything we want and pay no taxes for you, but also give you no jobs. for if you shall ever try to enforce your own legislation, we will pull the plug and your tiny country will be left in oblivion"
fuck you, man, what do you think? that cisco and american brands are god's given gifts to the rest of the world? what the fuck are you smoking? are you john chambers kid or something?
and then you say, if brazil tries to enforce their own law, cisco should take their stuff and leave the country. that should teach them. what the fuck? you're sick man. you really have that american "god complex". you ever sat and think why the world hates you? yo go around, messing with developing nations (to make sure they don't develop), destroying them, taking their oil, and even then, you expect the whole world to love and praise you? dude I was trolling before, but now I'm serious, and I really hope you're joking, you can't be that stupid. really.
also, companies don't leave countries for $500M. let me give you an example: my country's debt is 130BN dollars. at some point in 2002 we said, well, we don't have anymore money to pay for this. we will take some time to clear up this mess and then we'll see. so, "political analysts" all over the world said no, this is terrible, argentina will disappear from the planet, sink in the ocean, no one will ever lend money to them anymore, they will be like an african country, or worse... blah blah blah. you know what happened? nothing. we sorted things out, paid all the IMF's debt and got them off our back. negotiated our debt and only paid 25% of it (and the rest was refinanced to 20-50 years at a much lower rate). and, we're better than ever. production is so up right now that we didn't have enough power this year and that's why many factories had to shut down this winter.
so what did the US do while all this was happening? nothing. they said well it's argentina's problem, they need to figure it out themselves. now we're on track again, and our president (not that I like it) is aligning with crazy Chavez and his commie friends. what's the US gov't doing now? they're "not happy" with us. shit dude, they had an opportunity to do something for us, and they told us to go fuck ourselves. now, they expect us to go back to them.. "or else".
the whole Americas economy would be far better if the US would cut it out already with their resource-sucking methods. they come here, take what they want, and leave. and we have to thank you for it. instead, they could make us their allies, have plenty of cheap workforce, in a nearly timezone, etc. but no, they don't work like that.
now take a look at the UK: they had colonies all over the world: because they learned to accept that country's ways. they came here, and built buenos aires, its trains, its subways, buildings, and most important, the buenos aires seaport, and we grew, a LOT, from all that. and the UK got a lot of money in the process. and they repeated the same in australia, in India, in Hong Kong...
now what did the US do in latin america? the condor operation, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Condor , to destroy communism in latin america. just go around and kill the commies. not come, bring some money, make some investments, bring in a factory or two to keep people happy. no, that costs too much money. just kill the commies and be done with them. and that's what you do. you're just the world's bully
Dude, just STFU, you're full of shit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniper_Networks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Telecommunications_equipment_vendors
They don't own ME a damn thing. But they do owe brazil over USD 800 million :)
I'm not brazilian :)
Ah, but you bit. I had read the article a couple of days ago, and put it specifically for that part. But you didn't notice: The GGP was talking about letting foreign companies do their business, and that's exactly what those companies did. An american company made it (now a subsidiary of singapore whatever). That's something productive. Not like Cisco did.
Cisco, instead, is importing products and not even paying the taxes. What's the point then? Brazil doesn't win anything. In fact, you could say they lose, because Cisco won't be moving their factories (chinese) and design centers (american and, afaik, israeli) to Brazil. They're there only to sell. OK, fine. But you have to pay taxes, or face the consequences.
Oh, so you know Brazil Import/Export laws now, do you? No you don't. Corporate offices are not tax-free zones. And containers are not diplomatic bags. The moment that equipment crossed the customs line, it was fully under Brazil's regulations and laws, and if that means they had to pay taxes for them, period.
I usually don't feed the trolls but,
fuck you, motherfucking ignorant yankee. you don't know shit about anything. you think Brazil's telecom infrastructure is worth just 500M? You need to read a lot more I guess, starting here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itaipu and then you'll understand the magnitude of Brazil's economy.
and again, fuck you.
I have 2GB and run a couple of VM's from time to time (usually only one). I also have a SATA2 NCQ drive (WD3200) with 16MB of cache and a SATA2 controller (onboard nVidia). Still it's pretty slow.
I also have another computer, a Solaris server with 4xSATA2, onboard nVidia, ZFS RAIDZ... and man that array is fast! Even being software RAID, it's quite fast (has no problem keeping up with gigabit ethernet, not that gigabit is that fast but still, if I wanted to add a second gigabit card and bond them together, it would still be pretty fast).
Seriously, wouldn't you benefit from adding a second drive and make it RAID?
Then there's no need for instant booting, if you're working 8 hours straight with a computer and/or leave it rendering overnight.
Yes, but that's a hardware limitation (power supply and hard drive), not a BIOS limitation. The article was about speeding up BIOS load times, not hard drive spin up time.