It really is blackmail. This is a threat with menances in order to get someone to comply with the sender, and it is not a reasonable way of enforcing the request. If they simply send out the letters, while questionable in other ways it is not blackmail. These threats however are genuine straight up blackmail. I'm not sure whether this is criminal or civil offence in the US, but in the UK you'd be in a lot of trouble for this.
So in both absolute terms and per-capita terms, the richest 10% pay the most tax.
Since you seem to have all the figures, what's their effective tax rate then?
The top earners are also the most mobile and "international" members of society, so the unfortunate conclusion is that countries have to retain those top earners, and one way they do that is to give them a fabvourable tax position. While they pay lip-service to stopping evasion, most countries would prefer to have the richest paying some tax rather than losing them and getting no tax at all.
Why bother. These people are giant hoovers-up of wealth. Their mentality, greed, and influence on politics destroys societies. Most societies would reap the benefits of these people leaving in droves.
Looking back over your career throught most of the 20th centruy and into the 21st, have you ever observed certain knowladge, techniques or disiplines fade away over time?
Are there ways of doing or thinking about physics and mathematics which were prevalent in the past, but which are no longer common knowladge? How do you compare the abilities and backgrounds of modern professors and graduates to those of the past?
Running a business is a skill entirely different from engineering.
Indeed. But do you extend that to the point where the majority of the board members of the world's largest computer software company cannot actually read, write or understand software?
If I was offered a board position in a company called MicroSoft, "Microprocesser Software", and I didn't know anything about software, I would decline the position on the principal that I was unqualified to represent the shareholder's interests. At least I would; I'm not naive enough to believe that such concerns apply in contemporary boardrooms.
Forget Sinofsky. He was one guy and W8 has been coming down the tracks for what, four years now?
The blame here lies with Microsoft board of Directors. Windows 8 wasn't some backroom project, hardware spinoff, or specialised division. It was the company's flagship product, its core product, whose success literally makes or brakes the company.
And the board has fubbed it; Bigtime. The whole project was a disaster since its inception, and despite the recession it's very clear that the entire iDink paradigm Windows 8 attempted to hoist on users is so bad, so awful, that ordinary users are literally giving on on buying PCs full stop. A competent board would have been on top of this, foreseen the problems, and had them resolved before launch. We are now 8 months into launch and Windows 8 is a beached whale leading the whole PC industry pod onshore in its wake.
The first thing that needed to turn this around -- before any resigns, Service Packs, interface revamps, or marketing campaigns -- the very first things is that a swathe of the board needs to go. There's a cohort of bankers and industrialist there who probably have no idea how to run their own industries, let alone a computer software company. If my experience with Ireland is any indication, I imagine these directors are serial board hoppers anyway, so they won't be missed.
Microsoft is a software company. It needs software people on the board. Engineers, programmers, computer scientists, etc; with management experience, but who actually know what software actually is, and how it is developed, sold, and used. If MS puts qualified people in charge they can begin to turn the boat around; but they stick with the current shower of corporate BSers at the helm, this whale will stay dying on the beach for a very long time.
It's clear that the increasingly low standards seen throughout the US justice system have their origins in the normalisation of previously extraordinary Drug War practices.
Stories like this make me so glad I never switched to Chrome.
Computer and Internet-wise, I'm personally still living in 2007. Firefox, Email, Gnome, Windows XP if I need win32, no social networking, and yes I'm still using a Desktop. A lot of places like Facebook and Twitter are actually locked off to me, can't get in without a password, and smartphones are a world I'm simply not in communication with.
Yet I don't feel all that left behind. I'm still able to use the internet, and despite all the gadgets and social sites, I see most people put down their apps and use the same sites I do, largely in the way I do. It's not apparent to me that there has been any kind of revolution in the way people use computers or the web. I don't see the current iFads sticking around in any permanent way over the next ten years.
... commercial publishers and traditional academic journals employ a lot of people who still need to feed their families.
They employ relatively few people, add very little value, but make billions of dollars in profit each year. These industries constitute a massive misallocation of wealth and the meagre employment they provide does not justify the potential jobs being lost to this profiteering.
It's actually more serious. The likelihood is that the prosecutors involved brought harsh charges to impress the publishing industry, who in return would fund campaigns, etc of whoever in government was pushing for Schwartz to be strung up.
It may well be that these charges constitute abuse of public office for someone's private gain. The layers are probably fairly indirect, but it's there.
I live in Venezuela, and while we might be portrayed in the media as "delusional communists", that land issue was largely solved by government take over of improductive lands.
The reality is, in both capitalist and communist countries, when important resources are being squandered and wasted by their owners, and where the existing system of commerce cannot resolve the situation, it falls to the government to nationalise and reallocate those resources. People--in particular resource owners--don't like to admit to it, but that's how the world has to work if we are to avoid the "desertification" of entire economies.
Just because someone's shady looking, does not mean they're a thief..... Truth be told, most-if-not-all of us have been robbed of far more by white guys in suits....
Yes, white guys in suits look like crooks. But why are you contradicting your own statements?!
Ah! Those old engineers who actually invented something. Something that in some small ways forms part of the bedrock of our modern society.
I wonder what kind of bedrock our generation is giving to the future. Something tells me that iDinks and Apps are not going to be driving industry in 50 years time.
You will find that there are quite a lot of overpaid juveniles running major public companies these days. This is what happens when you promote employees for qualities other than actually doing their jobs well.
The moment your money goes into your account at the bank, it ceases being yours and becomes the banks money. Technically the numbers in your account constitute a "promise" by the bank to pay you on demand, provided they have the funds to do so having not spent them recklessly on hookers and Greek debt backed CDOs.
Slashdot Mirror
It really is blackmail. This is a threat with menances in order to get someone to comply with the sender, and it is not a reasonable way of enforcing the request. If they simply send out the letters, while questionable in other ways it is not blackmail. These threats however are genuine straight up blackmail. I'm not sure whether this is criminal or civil offence in the US, but in the UK you'd be in a lot of trouble for this.
Since you seem to have all the figures, what's their effective tax rate then?
Why bother. These people are giant hoovers-up of wealth. Their mentality, greed, and influence on politics destroys societies. Most societies would reap the benefits of these people leaving in droves.
Slashdot: Where no energy source can be allowed to pass unmolested.
The BB gun kid was excercising his American right to hold arms; The science student was engaged in an act of Godless, materialist alchemy.
The UK has not made any friends by passing this law.
Well, the media companies are delighted with it.
We are Reagans children!! We are the Masters of the Universe!!
Uncle Reagan promised us money! Why is the Government getting in our way!??! This Dysfunctional world is our God given Birthright!!
Looking back over your career throught most of the 20th centruy and into the 21st, have you ever observed certain knowladge, techniques or disiplines fade away over time?
Are there ways of doing or thinking about physics and mathematics which were prevalent in the past, but which are no longer common knowladge? How do you compare the abilities and backgrounds of modern professors and graduates to those of the past?
Indeed. But do you extend that to the point where the majority of the board members of the world's largest computer software company cannot actually read, write or understand software?
If I was offered a board position in a company called MicroSoft, "Microprocesser Software", and I didn't know anything about software, I would decline the position on the principal that I was unqualified to represent the shareholder's interests. At least I would; I'm not naive enough to believe that such concerns apply in contemporary boardrooms.
Forget Sinofsky. He was one guy and W8 has been coming down the tracks for what, four years now?
The blame here lies with Microsoft board of Directors. Windows 8 wasn't some backroom project, hardware spinoff, or specialised division. It was the company's flagship product, its core product, whose success literally makes or brakes the company.
And the board has fubbed it; Bigtime. The whole project was a disaster since its inception, and despite the recession it's very clear that the entire iDink paradigm Windows 8 attempted to hoist on users is so bad, so awful, that ordinary users are literally giving on on buying PCs full stop. A competent board would have been on top of this, foreseen the problems, and had them resolved before launch. We are now 8 months into launch and Windows 8 is a beached whale leading the whole PC industry pod onshore in its wake.
The first thing that needed to turn this around -- before any resigns, Service Packs, interface revamps, or marketing campaigns -- the very first things is that a swathe of the board needs to go. There's a cohort of bankers and industrialist there who probably have no idea how to run their own industries, let alone a computer software company. If my experience with Ireland is any indication, I imagine these directors are serial board hoppers anyway, so they won't be missed.
Microsoft is a software company. It needs software people on the board. Engineers, programmers, computer scientists, etc; with management experience, but who actually know what software actually is, and how it is developed, sold, and used. If MS puts qualified people in charge they can begin to turn the boat around; but they stick with the current shower of corporate BSers at the helm, this whale will stay dying on the beach for a very long time.
Banks.
It's probably takes a year or two to really train a good clerk. But nobody keeps file clerks anymore, so whatever man.
It's clear that the increasingly low standards seen throughout the US justice system have their origins in the normalisation of previously extraordinary Drug War practices.
Stories like this make me so glad I never switched to Chrome.
Computer and Internet-wise, I'm personally still living in 2007. Firefox, Email, Gnome, Windows XP if I need win32, no social networking, and yes I'm still using a Desktop. A lot of places like Facebook and Twitter are actually locked off to me, can't get in without a password, and smartphones are a world I'm simply not in communication with.
Yet I don't feel all that left behind. I'm still able to use the internet, and despite all the gadgets and social sites, I see most people put down their apps and use the same sites I do, largely in the way I do. It's not apparent to me that there has been any kind of revolution in the way people use computers or the web. I don't see the current iFads sticking around in any permanent way over the next ten years.
They employ relatively few people, add very little value, but make billions of dollars in profit each year. These industries constitute a massive misallocation of wealth and the meagre employment they provide does not justify the potential jobs being lost to this profiteering.
Rent seekers are never worth it. Never.
And which event has had the greater impact on the US, and the world? The moon landings or 9/11?
Religion may not lead to progress, but it is still hugely influential.
It's actually more serious. The likelihood is that the prosecutors involved brought harsh charges to impress the publishing industry, who in return would fund campaigns, etc of whoever in government was pushing for Schwartz to be strung up.
It may well be that these charges constitute abuse of public office for someone's private gain. The layers are probably fairly indirect, but it's there.
The reality is, in both capitalist and communist countries, when important resources are being squandered and wasted by their owners, and where the existing system of commerce cannot resolve the situation, it falls to the government to nationalise and reallocate those resources. People--in particular resource owners--don't like to admit to it, but that's how the world has to work if we are to avoid the "desertification" of entire economies.
Yes, white guys in suits look like crooks. But why are you contradicting your own statements?!
Considering the steaming wreck that has been the western world over the last 10 years..... yeah, that sounds about right.
Ah! Those old engineers who actually invented something. Something that in some small ways forms part of the bedrock of our modern society.
I wonder what kind of bedrock our generation is giving to the future. Something tells me that iDinks and Apps are not going to be driving industry in 50 years time.
Toga Party.
Incoming Abortion Flame War in 5...4...3...
You will find that there are quite a lot of overpaid juveniles running major public companies these days. This is what happens when you promote employees for qualities other than actually doing their jobs well.
Actually, it turns out that it isn't.
The moment your money goes into your account at the bank, it ceases being yours and becomes the banks money. Technically the numbers in your account constitute a "promise" by the bank to pay you on demand, provided they have the funds to do so having not spent them recklessly on hookers and Greek debt backed CDOs.
And that's how bank runs are born.
I see no substantial differences between those groups.