I think your anger may be misguided. I know of one CPA who gave up his practice due to the insane IRS regulations.
You know of _one_. A lot of the rest are only needed *because* of the insane regulations. If the tax codes were simplified, I'd suspect that 75% of CPAs would be begging on the street.
The "tea party" was about tax collected in the colonies going to an offshore king, tax is nothing new to either the US or the colonies that preceded it.
And how is the fact that our tax money is going down an offshore black hole called Iraq helping any Americans? Wasting it on adventures outside the US (with no benefit to Americans) is just as bad as giving it to the King of England's treasury! Actually, worse: England put some of those funds back into the American Colonies.
The accounts weren't created for the purpose of avoiding taxes, of course. Different businesses, different accounts. One for the sale of used computers, the other for used DVDs, the other for used restaurant equipment.
Oh, and BTW, fuck the IRS and US government. We'll be getting reamed in the ass for the next goddamn decade due to our idiot president's imperialist adventurism in Iraq.
And people who treat it as such are ignorant. The RAID drives are still on the same server, thus vulnerable to electrical surges, fire, malicious action, etc. Far better to back up to tapes or external drives that are isolated from the machine when not backing up and keep the media in a fireproof safe or deposit box somewhere off-site.
But what really is interesting in terms of cost is you offload a lot of your data reliablity costs (backup) to the third party.
This was awesome until Gmail lost some of my (business related) email. Google may take a responsibility for backup, but in a large organization, stuff may get lost due to buggy software or whatever, and they might not know that it ever existed. And who are you going to hold legally accountable for data losses?
Now I have my BSD machine slurping POP3 mail from my Gmail accounts every 5 minutes to maintain a backup. Also, I don't have Internet access on my laptop 24/7. I *want* the ability to store documents and run the editing applications locally. Anything else is annoying since it depends on 99% reliable 'net access.
There's a reason why people moved away from the software model which had apps running with mainframes accessed through dumb terminals. With personal computers being exponentially more powerful today, it makes almost zero sense to go back to that model.
Please tell me, then, in which neighborhood one can buy a house. Not a crappy condo, but a decent, freestanding house, with at least three bedrooms.
Parts of Queens, for one. If you live in Manhattan, you're unlikely to find _anything_ freestanding, no matter how much you pay - 99% of the houses are row houses. Then again, you're also unlikely to find a 5000 ac farm in a suburban area. With different locations come different amounts of space. I for one could care less about living in a freestanding house with 3+ bedrooms. Maybe as a vacation spot up in Vermont where you can get a house for like $50k, but as a full-time place, I don't truly care that much.
BTW, kids don't see "small" in the same way as adults, anyway. One of the houses where I grew up was ~1200 sq ft. 3 bedrooms, but TINY bedrooms. To a 10 yr old, it felt absolutely cavernous.
Most tech people want to work with other tech people, otherwise they tend to be treated as a step above a secretary.
My point was that there are different types of "tech." Not all of it involves doing online solutions, designing hardware, managing servers, or setting up networks. Building control systems? I call that tech. Biostatistics modelling? Yep, tech too. Data analysis for drug trials? Tech. Design of environmentally sound new construction? Tech. It you broaden your horizons beyond just running servers, there's a lot more technology work that you can do (especially with a math or engineering degree).
And, at least in the small firms that I've consulted for, tech people aren't treated poorly. They solve problems and provide a solution that others can't, so it's desirable to treat them well. Also, being personable to the people with whom you work goes a long way. Your comparison to secretaries? Most firms that want to last treat their secretaries quite well. Secretaries, after all, are sort of the user interface to the company for clients. An annoyed or apathetic secretary can do a lot of damage just through inaction.
Reverse commuting - if you make $50+k/yr and are single, it's not a huge problem. Taxes are higher than NJ, but rents in a lot of the city are comparable to the 'trendy' parts of NJ (where a single person may want to live anyway). Given the choice, though, I'd probably live in Hoboken. NJ income taxes and no city tax, but 5 min out of the city by subway.
But (my) problem is that 90% of them is in financial sector.
Only if you look at the big "known" firms. There are plenty of architecture/engineering companies, construction, design, and biomedical stuff in NYC and NJ. Also, don't discount NJ. You can even live in NYC and reverse commute if you really feel the need to.
I get four to six people contacting me every day for work in New York City. Unfortunately, all of the emails are broken English. Not exactly the best way to entice someone to work for your company.
NYC and NJ have a high proportion of immigrants. That's what makes the place fun; it can also make it infuriating at times. But they're mostly hardworking people busting their b@lls to get somewhere, often interesting and a joy to work with.
Except for his panning of NYC as a place that nerds dislike and lumping it into the same bowl as Vegas. NYC is one of the oldest, most beautiful cities in the US, with a pretty diverse array of industry and technologies. It's not only the financial and content industries - there's biomedical, engineering, architecture, manufacturing in NJ, etc. As far as hiking and hanging out outside, not all of NYC is midtown Manhattan or the "financial district." And the mountains are only an hour or two away.
Vegas was an artificial creation, grown by Benny Siegel and the Mafia (later big business) in the 40s and 50s to support one business: gambling/entertainment, and that's still the primary business. And the summer climate would make walking or being outside much in the city somewhat... interesting I'd imagine.
However I'd rather make a little less money than deal with people who seem incapable o making decisions, even when provided with ample information with which to do so.
There's also the 'perfectionist' type that will want to switch systems and technologies every 6 months just to try the 'latest and greatest.' They're not incapable of making decisions, they just enjoy trying new things all the time. Again, ultimately, more $$$ in the pockets of the engineers and techies.
google complains that they can't hire anyone, yet they put offices in two places where lots of people won't live. NYC and California.
Actually, smart people tend to want to be around other like-minded educated people, not necessarily around retired steel mill workers. NYC and CA still do attract a lot of bright, talented people. As does Boston (probably even more so due to the universities).
they should pick a depressed steel town in pennsylvania and revitalize it.
Actually, believe it or not, they are doing something similar. They're building data centres in rural places (Oregon comes to mind) near cheap sources of hydroelectric power which formerly supplied heavy industries. I don't think they're planning to move their development teams there en masse but they will create quite a bit of work outside of NYC and CA. So their employees may have that choice in the future.
IMHO the media here are slow to adapt, flying by the seat of their pants in terms of making the transition, marginally in denial about the whole thing and largely technologically illiterate.
To some extent, technological illiteracy is a *good* thing for the market for techies. After all, it makes consultants necessary to provide constructive advice and to educate businesspeople on matters of technology. If everyone was equally technologically literate, tech knowledge wouldn't be a valuable commodity that people actually *pay* for, and where would most of us be? Sleeping in the gutter?
Sure, there' a chance you can have it both ways as an agency, but you better be prepared to pay through the nose and sacrifice on one end or the other if you are seeking those with equal left/right brain distribution.
And pay well they do if they can find someone who can solve their tech problems. It's also not a matter of tech illiteracy entirely - there are lot of people who make good money in NYC who simply don't want to be bothered with tech problems and would rather pay an outside consultant or employee to solve them.
What I think is that the east coast businesses have been living in terror at the thought that the center of the economy might move out from under them and head west, so this is something of a "whistling in the dark"/"tell them what they want to hear" story.
Except that I know more people in tech who are having difficulty finding well paying jobs in the Bay Area than in the East. It seems that *everyone* wants to be out in the Bay Area, so the job market is much more cutthroat and competitive. Besides, if businesses do move out in droves, the price of space will go down. Causing new businesses or different companies to move in. It's a natural economic cycle.
As far as the "economy moving west" argument, it's been said for, oh, the past 50 years or so. Somehow, the East Coast cities aren't exactly abandoned. NYC is still a gateway for a lot of immigrants who start smaller business. Then their children or grandchildren may move out to NJ or even head further West. The business community is thriving, though much more ethnic. And the businesses are somewhat different. In tech, biomedical research, engineering/architecture, financial modeling, and production of content. Silicon Valley is more into software application and hardware development it would seem.
Basically, both places are awesome in different ways.
It may not matter where you work once you get the job, but if you want to find a tech job, there's just so much opportunity in the NYC area
There's also a lot of biotech and pharma out in NJ - North Jersey and the New Brunswick area especially. And Rutgers in NJ has a good (and inexpensive for residents) engineering and science program. If you want to live in the "city" in NJ, you can still live in Hoboken which is 5 min. by subway away from NYC (though the scene in parts of town at night is a bit too "frathousey" for my tastes).
Isn't it really unimportant these days where you work, geographically?
Um, no. A lot of business is still done face-to-face, and people tend not to trust people they don't have physical (no, not in a dirty-minded sense:) contact with. Who'd you trust - someone whom you've spoken to in person, or some face on a teleconference screen? Also, where you work is where you live - within a 50 mi or so radius anyway. NYC offers art, theatre, lots of young people of the correct gender, open stuff late at night, hyperactive, energetic people - some people love being around all of the above and would feel bored and boxed-in in a place like, say, Podunk, SD. And it's not even as expensive as everyone claim if you avoid the "trendy"/tourist-trap places and neighborhoods.
Just how water could play a part in ventilators escapes me, but such things as washing machines, dish washers and other appliances could benefit from not needing to use electricity.
Furnaces! Seriously, all gas home furnaces should have a mode where they will run and keep the temperature above, say, 55F if the electricity goes down. Coming home to a 4-day blackout and frozen, leaky, pipes can really ruin one's day. As far as electrical components, very little are needed. Both steam and hot water systems will generally work fine, albeit less efficiently, without circulation pumps. Same to a lesser extent with hot air systems without the blower.
Where do they deport the inhabitants of Siberia when they are found guilty in a court of law?
Well, under the Soviets, there were basically three classes of people in Siberia.
(1) Convicts in prison camps. Basically like the chain gangs in the Southern US in the 1930s, except a hell of a lot worse. The convicts in turn were divided into politicals and ordinary criminals, the latter often being given positions as trusties in the camps, and lording it over the politicals.
(2) People released from prison or deported. Usually tied to a Siberian town or village and not able to live in any Russian city or in European Russia for a certain number of years.
(3) Free people. People whose families either lived there for generations, or people lured by the promise of higher wages, patriotic Komsomol fervor, etc to work in Siberia. Also some native tribes, similar to Inuit in Alaska and northern Canada.
seriously.. we have to go to a former communist nation to get rulings the US should have?
I can't speak for Russia, but a lot of the new guard in government in places like Czech., Poland, etc is very wary of the idea of people losing civil rights. They suffered through too much under Soviet control to let a similar abomination happen again. I'd suspect that the same goes for Russia.
The financial damage was too insignificant? That's a rather strange reason to dismiss a case, as it violates the letter of the law.
Keep in mind, this is Russia, not America. Judges have a lot of discretion there. On the other hand, the dismissal (or even a verdict of "innocent") may well be appealable to a higher court by the prosecution. Also, in the US, juries have very similar discretion. They can decide "not guilty" for any reason, the verdict is _binding_ (not subject to an appeal) and they can't be officially asked as to why they returned the verdict. Jury nullification... one of the powers designed to keep the system from being too harsh.
I guess its because its not a criminal offence punishable by prison to carry a gun under age.
It shouldn't be. In fact, guns should be more or less completely legal like in certain US states (VT and AK come to mind, requiring no permit to carry pistols in public). However, if you murder someone with that gun, the traditional British penalty should apply: "Hanged by the neck until dead..."
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Cheers! Mod parent up "damn straight!" If you can't vote them out of office, you can at least starve them out :)
-b.
You know of _one_. A lot of the rest are only needed *because* of the insane regulations. If the tax codes were simplified, I'd suspect that 75% of CPAs would be begging on the street.
-b.
And how is the fact that our tax money is going down an offshore black hole called Iraq helping any Americans? Wasting it on adventures outside the US (with no benefit to Americans) is just as bad as giving it to the King of England's treasury! Actually, worse: England put some of those funds back into the American Colonies.
-b.
Or they use it as a way to jail for for _something_ even if they can't prove other crimes. That's what happened to Al Capone in the 30s, anyway.
-b.
The accounts weren't created for the purpose of avoiding taxes, of course. Different businesses, different accounts. One for the sale of used computers, the other for used DVDs, the other for used restaurant equipment.
Oh, and BTW, fuck the IRS and US government. We'll be getting reamed in the ass for the next goddamn decade due to our idiot president's imperialist adventurism in Iraq.
-b.
-b.
This was awesome until Gmail lost some of my (business related) email. Google may take a responsibility for backup, but in a large organization, stuff may get lost due to buggy software or whatever, and they might not know that it ever existed. And who are you going to hold legally accountable for data losses?
Now I have my BSD machine slurping POP3 mail from my Gmail accounts every 5 minutes to maintain a backup. Also, I don't have Internet access on my laptop 24/7. I *want* the ability to store documents and run the editing applications locally. Anything else is annoying since it depends on 99% reliable 'net access.
There's a reason why people moved away from the software model which had apps running with mainframes accessed through dumb terminals. With personal computers being exponentially more powerful today, it makes almost zero sense to go back to that model.
-b.
Parts of Queens, for one. If you live in Manhattan, you're unlikely to find _anything_ freestanding, no matter how much you pay - 99% of the houses are row houses. Then again, you're also unlikely to find a 5000 ac farm in a suburban area. With different locations come different amounts of space. I for one could care less about living in a freestanding house with 3+ bedrooms. Maybe as a vacation spot up in Vermont where you can get a house for like $50k, but as a full-time place, I don't truly care that much.
BTW, kids don't see "small" in the same way as adults, anyway. One of the houses where I grew up was ~1200 sq ft. 3 bedrooms, but TINY bedrooms. To a 10 yr old, it felt absolutely cavernous.
-b.
My point was that there are different types of "tech." Not all of it involves doing online solutions, designing hardware, managing servers, or setting up networks. Building control systems? I call that tech. Biostatistics modelling? Yep, tech too. Data analysis for drug trials? Tech. Design of environmentally sound new construction? Tech. It you broaden your horizons beyond just running servers, there's a lot more technology work that you can do (especially with a math or engineering degree).
And, at least in the small firms that I've consulted for, tech people aren't treated poorly. They solve problems and provide a solution that others can't, so it's desirable to treat them well. Also, being personable to the people with whom you work goes a long way. Your comparison to secretaries? Most firms that want to last treat their secretaries quite well. Secretaries, after all, are sort of the user interface to the company for clients. An annoyed or apathetic secretary can do a lot of damage just through inaction.
Reverse commuting - if you make $50+k/yr and are single, it's not a huge problem. Taxes are higher than NJ, but rents in a lot of the city are comparable to the 'trendy' parts of NJ (where a single person may want to live anyway). Given the choice, though, I'd probably live in Hoboken. NJ income taxes and no city tax, but 5 min out of the city by subway.
-b.
Only if you look at the big "known" firms. There are plenty of architecture/engineering companies, construction, design, and biomedical stuff in NYC and NJ. Also, don't discount NJ. You can even live in NYC and reverse commute if you really feel the need to.
-b.
NYC and NJ have a high proportion of immigrants. That's what makes the place fun; it can also make it infuriating at times. But they're mostly hardworking people busting their b@lls to get somewhere, often interesting and a joy to work with.
-b.
Vegas was an artificial creation, grown by Benny Siegel and the Mafia (later big business) in the 40s and 50s to support one business: gambling/entertainment, and that's still the primary business. And the summer climate would make walking or being outside much in the city somewhat ... interesting I'd imagine.
-b.
There's also the 'perfectionist' type that will want to switch systems and technologies every 6 months just to try the 'latest and greatest.' They're not incapable of making decisions, they just enjoy trying new things all the time. Again, ultimately, more $$$ in the pockets of the engineers and techies.
-b.
Work isn't your whole life, only around 1/3 of it. You want to be able to meet inspired, interesting people outside of work, too.
-b.
Actually, smart people tend to want to be around other like-minded educated people, not necessarily around retired steel mill workers. NYC and CA still do attract a lot of bright, talented people. As does Boston (probably even more so due to the universities).
they should pick a depressed steel town in pennsylvania and revitalize it.
Actually, believe it or not, they are doing something similar. They're building data centres in rural places (Oregon comes to mind) near cheap sources of hydroelectric power which formerly supplied heavy industries. I don't think they're planning to move their development teams there en masse but they will create quite a bit of work outside of NYC and CA. So their employees may have that choice in the future.
-b.
To some extent, technological illiteracy is a *good* thing for the market for techies. After all, it makes consultants necessary to provide constructive advice and to educate businesspeople on matters of technology. If everyone was equally technologically literate, tech knowledge wouldn't be a valuable commodity that people actually *pay* for, and where would most of us be? Sleeping in the gutter?
Sure, there' a chance you can have it both ways as an agency, but you better be prepared to pay through the nose and sacrifice on one end or the other if you are seeking those with equal left/right brain distribution.
And pay well they do if they can find someone who can solve their tech problems. It's also not a matter of tech illiteracy entirely - there are lot of people who make good money in NYC who simply don't want to be bothered with tech problems and would rather pay an outside consultant or employee to solve them.
-b.
Except that I know more people in tech who are having difficulty finding well paying jobs in the Bay Area than in the East. It seems that *everyone* wants to be out in the Bay Area, so the job market is much more cutthroat and competitive. Besides, if businesses do move out in droves, the price of space will go down. Causing new businesses or different companies to move in. It's a natural economic cycle.
As far as the "economy moving west" argument, it's been said for, oh, the past 50 years or so. Somehow, the East Coast cities aren't exactly abandoned. NYC is still a gateway for a lot of immigrants who start smaller business. Then their children or grandchildren may move out to NJ or even head further West. The business community is thriving, though much more ethnic. And the businesses are somewhat different. In tech, biomedical research, engineering/architecture, financial modeling, and production of content. Silicon Valley is more into software application and hardware development it would seem.
Basically, both places are awesome in different ways.
-b.
There's also a lot of biotech and pharma out in NJ - North Jersey and the New Brunswick area especially. And Rutgers in NJ has a good (and inexpensive for residents) engineering and science program. If you want to live in the "city" in NJ, you can still live in Hoboken which is 5 min. by subway away from NYC (though the scene in parts of town at night is a bit too "frathousey" for my tastes).
-b.
Um, no. A lot of business is still done face-to-face, and people tend not to trust people they don't have physical (no, not in a dirty-minded sense :) contact with. Who'd you trust - someone whom you've spoken to in person, or some face on a teleconference screen? Also, where you work is where you live - within a 50 mi or so radius anyway. NYC offers art, theatre, lots of young people of the correct gender, open stuff late at night, hyperactive, energetic people - some people love being around all of the above and would feel bored and boxed-in in a place like, say, Podunk, SD. And it's not even as expensive as everyone claim if you avoid the "trendy"/tourist-trap places and neighborhoods.
-b.
Furnaces! Seriously, all gas home furnaces should have a mode where they will run and keep the temperature above, say, 55F if the electricity goes down. Coming home to a 4-day blackout and frozen, leaky, pipes can really ruin one's day. As far as electrical components, very little are needed. Both steam and hot water systems will generally work fine, albeit less efficiently, without circulation pumps. Same to a lesser extent with hot air systems without the blower.
-b.
Well, under the Soviets, there were basically three classes of people in Siberia.
(1) Convicts in prison camps. Basically like the chain gangs in the Southern US in the 1930s, except a hell of a lot worse. The convicts in turn were divided into politicals and ordinary criminals, the latter often being given positions as trusties in the camps, and lording it over the politicals.
(2) People released from prison or deported. Usually tied to a Siberian town or village and not able to live in any Russian city or in European Russia for a certain number of years.
(3) Free people. People whose families either lived there for generations, or people lured by the promise of higher wages, patriotic Komsomol fervor, etc to work in Siberia. Also some native tribes, similar to Inuit in Alaska and northern Canada.
-b.
I can't speak for Russia, but a lot of the new guard in government in places like Czech., Poland, etc is very wary of the idea of people losing civil rights. They suffered through too much under Soviet control to let a similar abomination happen again. I'd suspect that the same goes for Russia.
-b.
Keep in mind, this is Russia, not America. Judges have a lot of discretion there. On the other hand, the dismissal (or even a verdict of "innocent") may well be appealable to a higher court by the prosecution. Also, in the US, juries have very similar discretion. They can decide "not guilty" for any reason, the verdict is _binding_ (not subject to an appeal) and they can't be officially asked as to why they returned the verdict. Jury nullification ... one of the powers designed to keep the system from being too harsh.
-b.
It shouldn't be. In fact, guns should be more or less completely legal like in certain US states (VT and AK come to mind, requiring no permit to carry pistols in public). However, if you murder someone with that gun, the traditional British penalty should apply: "Hanged by the neck until dead ..."
-b.
Hayabusa is Japanese for a very fast-flying bird, similar (identical?) to a Peregrine Falcon.
-b.