Effort perhaps, but stress - I really don't think so. People have given people in large organisations blood tests to see who has the highest stress levels and it is pretty much inversely proportional to level in the organisation. Of course, this measures total stress experienced by a person not just that caused by performing their job.
Having worked at all levels in organisations (up to exec) this actually correponds to my own experiences.
Nah - I think the tiny (2.5%) change to VAT expecting that to stimulate consumers was the single stupidest tax change ever. Clearly whoever thought that up should spend less time tweaking at numerical models of the economy and more time actually thinking.
Note that I am not defending VAT by any means. But presumably a business has to pay sales tax on things it buys (or are business purchases exempt?).
If that is the case then VAT *might* be better as businesses effectively don't have this cost - anything you buy that has VAT on it can be claimed back (or at least offset against the VAT you charge to your customers). To be honest, working with VAT isn't *that* bad - at least as you do your returns on time!
Out of interest, do you have different tax bands? We don't pay any income tax on the first £6K thousand, 22% (I think) on the next £35K (which is over the average) and 40% on what is left.
VAT that a business pays out to other businesses is claimed back - you only pay the difference between the VAT you collect and the the VAT you spend. Which is why businesses are very keen to make sure that VAT for all purchases is recorded correctly.
That's interesting - I always wondered how the GPA thing worked. On the course I did in the UK (a Scots University so a undergraduate honours degree is 4 years) the class of your final degree was only based on your performance in the last two years of the course - 25% from the third year and 75% from the final year (of which the final year project was a substantial component). This worked out pretty well for me as I barely managed to scrape through the first two years but then did extremely well in the final two years (the range from my lowest (first year) to highest (third year) maths exam results was over 90%!).
I've used SpinVox for years at it was pretty obvious to me that it was a person doing the work - it was far too good. Friends went through a stage of sending increasingly bizarre messages to see if I would get something sensible and I generally did.
We have friends who let their cat eat as much turkey as it wanted one Xmas - poor little bugger ended up going to the vet to have it's stomach pumped (or whatever the equivalent operation is for felines).
Charlie Stross has a novel (Accelerando I think) that features a mind evolved from an uploaded cat. Consider how awful that would be! I'd take Skynet any day - at least it would be quick.
"How about if I stated loudly that I was burning the Scottish flag as a proxy for Scottish independence"
Well, as Scot I can tell you that I would probably point that I am in total agreement and I sympathize for English tax payers having to subsidize all the daft stuff that your/our money gets spent on up here
Now can I point out that we (certainly in the UK) appear to have freedom *from* that kind of thing?
To be honest - the fact that American kids are made to do this sounds infinitely scarier to me than our silly "hate crime" laws. Does everyone have to do it? What happens to kids who won't do it?
"our protection of free speech really is a lot better than what most European countries have" - in a purely legal sense I'm sure you are right. However, in a practical sense I doubt if there is that much difference as although the theoretical right to free speech is there there seems, to an outsider who has spent a reasonable amount of time in the country, to be a rather narrow range of views actually expressed in public.
I'm also amazed at why people can't appreciate why Germans are just a wee bit sensitive on the subject of the Nazis - I appreciate that legislation may not be the best way to stop these things but I can at least appreciate why they are doing it.
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You mean like the "make us and our friends rich" basis for the other two parties in the UK?
I wonder what happens if we expand things to the whole of Europe (not just Western Europe) - which is a bit larger that the United States.
And in the case of the UK one EU country has itself got multiple legal systems (e.g. Scotland has an extra verdict in criminal cases - "not proven").
Effort perhaps, but stress - I really don't think so. People have given people in large organisations blood tests to see who has the highest stress levels and it is pretty much inversely proportional to level in the organisation. Of course, this measures total stress experienced by a person not just that caused by performing their job. Having worked at all levels in organisations (up to exec) this actually correponds to my own experiences.
Nah - I think the tiny (2.5%) change to VAT expecting that to stimulate consumers was the single stupidest tax change ever. Clearly whoever thought that up should spend less time tweaking at numerical models of the economy and more time actually thinking.
Note that I am not defending VAT by any means. But presumably a business has to pay sales tax on things it buys (or are business purchases exempt?). If that is the case then VAT *might* be better as businesses effectively don't have this cost - anything you buy that has VAT on it can be claimed back (or at least offset against the VAT you charge to your customers). To be honest, working with VAT isn't *that* bad - at least as you do your returns on time!
Surely our main export is bad politicians?
Out of interest, do you have different tax bands? We don't pay any income tax on the first £6K thousand, 22% (I think) on the next £35K (which is over the average) and 40% on what is left.
VAT that a business pays out to other businesses is claimed back - you only pay the difference between the VAT you collect and the the VAT you spend. Which is why businesses are very keen to make sure that VAT for all purchases is recorded correctly.
If you don't have a few "indiscretions" in your first year at University then you aren't trying hard enough!
That's interesting - I always wondered how the GPA thing worked. On the course I did in the UK (a Scots University so a undergraduate honours degree is 4 years) the class of your final degree was only based on your performance in the last two years of the course - 25% from the third year and 75% from the final year (of which the final year project was a substantial component). This worked out pretty well for me as I barely managed to scrape through the first two years but then did extremely well in the final two years (the range from my lowest (first year) to highest (third year) maths exam results was over 90%!).
I can still remember when I got to level 56 in our student union on Star Wars. I knew a guy who bought one a few years back - I was rather jealous!
Sorry, got a small correction for you on that last point...
I've used SpinVox for years at it was pretty obvious to me that it was a person doing the work - it was far too good. Friends went through a stage of sending increasingly bizarre messages to see if I would get something sensible and I generally did.
Have a look at the way the Swiss run their country.
Well, at least until boys get to be about ten and decide that they want to stop washing.
We have friends who let their cat eat as much turkey as it wanted one Xmas - poor little bugger ended up going to the vet to have it's stomach pumped (or whatever the equivalent operation is for felines).
Charlie Stross has a novel (Accelerando I think) that features a mind evolved from an uploaded cat. Consider how awful that would be! I'd take Skynet any day - at least it would be quick.
Ah - but wait till you smell *your* kids. Of course other people's children smell horrible, but your own smell lovely.
"How about if I stated loudly that I was burning the Scottish flag as a proxy for Scottish independence"
Well, as Scot I can tell you that I would probably point that I am in total agreement and I sympathize for English tax payers having to subsidize all the daft stuff that your/our money gets spent on up here
Now can I point out that we (certainly in the UK) appear to have freedom *from* that kind of thing?
To be honest - the fact that American kids are made to do this sounds infinitely scarier to me than our silly "hate crime" laws. Does everyone have to do it? What happens to kids who won't do it?
"our protection of free speech really is a lot better than what most European countries have" - in a purely legal sense I'm sure you are right. However, in a practical sense I doubt if there is that much difference as although the theoretical right to free speech is there there seems, to an outsider who has spent a reasonable amount of time in the country, to be a rather narrow range of views actually expressed in public.
I'm also amazed at why people can't appreciate why Germans are just a wee bit sensitive on the subject of the Nazis - I appreciate that legislation may not be the best way to stop these things but I can at least appreciate why they are doing it.
I doubt anyone would be particularly bothered one way or the other. Apart from the obvious risks of burning things in public.
You do realise that there isn't a single UK legal system?
"no boobies on US tv"
You must admit, he has a point