I would blame the whole political system that is created 200 years ago with the best intention and nobody dares to repair because of nostalgia.
I understand the fun of having and maintaining an oldtimer. I really do. But using it as anything else as than a hobby is stupid.
The two party system and the way bot parties can be bought is something that is the base of all it. Together with the lack of any acountability is the issue. All the rest is just a result.
Last time there where tax issues, they killed a few people and gave the Americans the second amendment. Now that is used to be allowed to hunt ducks. The second amendment wha there to overtrow the governement violently if they behaved badly. They gave them the right to guns and that was not so they could hunt for ducks so theu could eat while writing an angry email.
In Belgium it is WAY more complicated. I put my ID in a card reader, log in on a website and confirm what is filled out (or edit it, if I so desire). So it take about 5 minutes. This will be the case for most people. Even if they have more than 1 employer.
Pensioners don't have to fill out anything anymore, unless they want to.
Self employed? Let the accountant have it do for you. That way you can spend the billable hours working instead of doing admin jobs and make mistakes. He will do it 5 times faster (at least), so even if he is twice as expensive as you are, you make money.
I am wel above the poverty line. I am just an employee, with one income. Let me tell you how I do my taxes:
1) I buy a id card reader one for 19EUR (Some places sell them for less, I have one that costed 10 EUR 2) I put my ID in and go to The website for taxes 3) I see that everything is already filled out. 4) I change and add according to the papers I have received from my employer and/or accountant. 5) I click OK around 7 times or so. Done.
To be honest, I skip step 3 and 4. Takes about 5 minutes. Checking on the side of the tax people also becomes a LOT easier with less delays and cheaper for all, so they can waste the money on other things.
If you have deductables, you can either go to any accountant, ask the tax people for advice or figure it out yourself. And then you fill out the form just as if it where a paper form. Almost everything is already filled out, so you only have to add information they are not yet aware of.
If you are an independant, your bookkeeper will do it all for you. If you do not have a bookkeeper as an independant, you better look for one, because the time you waste on it are billable hours you could do your job and earn money. They accountant will be cheaper.
This all has nothing to do with flat tax rates, income or anything else.
Do you know how people under the poverty line would do their taxes? The same as I do. Just because there is no need to pay taxes does not mean you do not have to fill something out. You do need to prove or confirm that you do not need to pay taxes. The same for rich people. You can still do it via paper if you so desire and then send it an and what not. You can still try to deduct those "business: dinners. (Won't work that well anymore)
Who would listen? They do not even think it is needed to do anything about rape. The US has, as a whole, decided that people in prison are not worth anything.
So, how are you guys able to get this done in Belgium.
The moment you get into Belgium, either by birth or by train, you will get a National ID number. (Not if you are a tourist)
The number is birthdate in reverse, a three digit number where the first number is 001, the second one registerd for that britday is 002 and so on. And then a control number that also tells the gender male of female.
So if you are not a tourist and you have no National number, you will be illegal.
When you are norn in Belgium, you will have a birth ceryifcate. Till the age of 12 you will be on the ID of your parents. After that you will get your own ID.
If you loose your ID, you can phone in a free number to say so. That way if somebody who steals it tries to use it, it will not be usable. Companies will use the ID and can check for free if the card is valid.
And sure, rasicm is something that exists. It is a normal human behaviours of the us against them, no matter who them or us is. And yes, it is tracked. The color of the skin is irrelevant to the fact that they are racists or not.
To use race as a partisan crutch to influence people is al lot harder if you have a multy party system.
And that tracking down of people who did not vote is basically sending them a fine they are able to pay via their bank account or protest. That is if it is send at all. There are cities who do not bother.
I do payments and pay no cost or interest. When I pay with a credit card, the credit card company sees the store, but not what I bought. In Belgium the credit card company is not allowed to do analysis for marketing puposes.
e.g. no "We see you bought a lot online, why not..."
Transferring money inside the EU zone (OK, SEPA zone) does not cost me anything and it will there be the next working day. If I want it instantly, some fees apply.
The only reason I use cash is when I go out with friend to eat and drink, because it is easier if everybody just pays in cash.
Checks are satill used. Mostly when buying a house. These are bank checks. This mosly because notaries are slow old white men.
And here I am, living in Communist Belgium, where I am forced to walk around with an ID (even though I was never asked to show it. Why am I paying the police if they can not even do that?) and when I need one or need a renewal, I just make an apointment online for thursday evening, walk in and walk out after 15 minutes. The repeat it after a month to pick it up. That goes even faster.
And voting is is an obligation, not a privelage, so every Belgian MUSTR vote when there are elections. They are held on Sunday. Not voting can cause a fine (or nothing, depending on the city and how the judge feels)
The Communist Governement even made it so that EVERYBODY can read the information on the card, as it is a card with a chip. They even open sourced it. Price is 18 EUR (0 EUR for your first one when you are 12) and are valid 5 years.
And Belgiumis not the only country where you must have an ID. It is not even the only country where voting is a must.
This ID will be used to verify that you voted once. You will be on the list and been told where you have to vote. You show up, they ID you, you vote. That's it.
They could increase the yearly city tax with 4.00 EUR per person and get to the same result.
It is crazy that many countries in the world have already solved the things the US seem to struggle with.
If you talk in nummbers per year, it might be true. Next you can look at the percentages. Also look at the amount of new subscribers, remaining subscribers and what not.
For all we know, the percentage of people leaving compared to people coming ion is rising.
I am subscribed to around 200 channels. Each 6 months or so, I drop a few and add a few. The amount stays the same.
The thing that is hard to do nowadays is to find what you are looking for. You can not count on the recomendation that are given by YouTube. You can not search for it, because it will promote even more bullshit than the recomendations.
What I do is look at what channels the people are subscribed to and hope I might somehow stuble on something I might be willing to watch.
I work to live, not work to survive. There is a HUGE difference between the two.
I can go out with friends and have a few beers and enjoy days of and go on a holiday. I also have no stress about work if I get sick, nor will my coworker fear for het job, just because she is pregnant.
I have been in a situation where I worked to survive. It resulted in taking jobs illegaly, because otherwise I would starve and unable to pay rent.
I could still be doing that. Doing less hours and have the risk of no income if I were sick. However I choose not to work to survive, but work to live.
Are there people who abuse the system? Obviously. Shutting down the system because some abuse it, is trowing away the baby with the bathwater.
A while back, there was a story about this where a erson become "property of the state" as he owed them so much. He was then "Rescued" to Australia, I believe,
Anybody have the URL to that story? It is a great read an higly on-topic. I could go into more details, but do not want to set of any spoilles.
Only when it comes to communications, really? What about health care? Taking care of your poor? Having a proper democracy?
It does not stop there: The implementation of the PIN code on Credit and Debit cards that was available in the rest of the world was done badly and late. The banking system is a laughing matter. Using checks is still a thing. Privacy laws only protect the companies. Affordable eductation.
When I visited the US the first time, 2 years ago, it reminded me of traveling back to the 80ies. It seriously felt as if nothing changed after that. I thought it was cute and quaint.
Everything pointed to the fact that it was done for the companies and the business and nothing for the people by the people.
Unless this is not only illegal, but aiding them is illegal as well (Telco's) this will not stop. Furthermre, if people are not held acountable at every level, this will not change.
This is like standard spam. If the income is higher than the cost, it will continue.
I work abt a company that uses robocalls. We are located in Belgium and are limited in what we can do. Mainly we use it to inform customers about forgetting to do payments. We are aware that people do not like them. They also do not like getting late payment fees, so...
And in the 20 or so years I have a cellphone, I have not had a person calling me with a commercial offer, let alone a robocall.
And I am not even on the http://www.robinsonlist.be/ where all (legal) companies who do outbound calls will have to look. It also helps that the caller always pays, so no cost for the person who owns the cellphone.
I do not think it is that complicated of an answer. The real answer is: Preinstallation.
People do not really give a hoot what OS they run. There are plenty of people who have a Windows PC, a Linux TV box, and an Android Phone and an iPad. And they are pretty well able to do whatever they want to do. They are able to go fromn one to the other.
Have Linux Installed machines and people will buy them. And I am not talking for going out of your way to be able to look for them and then pay twice as much. I am talking : walk into the stire and have them all mixed.
Yes, some people will buy what they know. Others will be willing to use it, as long as they do not have to do the installation themselves.
Give a standard person a Linux Machine and they will be able to use it, be it KDE or GNOME or XFCE or whatever.
And not everybody is a gamer. The sole reason I bought a new PC was because I wanted a smaller one, so it could fit on my desk with i Micro Mobo in a small form factor case. 12TB HD and a M2 card and an NVidea 1050 card and I can easily use my 3 4K screens.
I already could do that with a bigger case that was (I think) 6 or so years old. If I would not have money to spend, I would easily still be using that PC.
I use the Smart TV as I have a a monitor. No network connection and I set up the wireless to a non existing account, just in case it would otherwise try to find an open WIFI connection.The next one I buy, I will probably disble the Wifi with a schroud of alu foil and blacj tape for the cvamera. I will also look if I can see a microphone because I do not trust the sucker.
I also remember when I called people who did this crazy idiots.
Slashdot Mirror
I would blame the whole political system that is created 200 years ago with the best intention and nobody dares to repair because of nostalgia.
I understand the fun of having and maintaining an oldtimer. I really do. But using it as anything else as than a hobby is stupid.
The two party system and the way bot parties can be bought is something that is the base of all it. Together with the lack of any acountability is the issue. All the rest is just a result.
Last time there where tax issues, they killed a few people and gave the Americans the second amendment. Now that is used to be allowed to hunt ducks. The second amendment wha there to overtrow the governement violently if they behaved badly. They gave them the right to guns and that was not so they could hunt for ducks so theu could eat while writing an angry email.
In Belgium it is WAY more complicated. I put my ID in a card reader, log in on a website and confirm what is filled out (or edit it, if I so desire).
So it take about 5 minutes.
This will be the case for most people. Even if they have more than 1 employer.
Pensioners don't have to fill out anything anymore, unless they want to.
Self employed? Let the accountant have it do for you. That way you can spend the billable hours working instead of doing admin jobs and make mistakes. He will do it 5 times faster (at least), so even if he is twice as expensive as you are, you make money.
I am wel above the poverty line. I am just an employee, with one income. Let me tell you how I do my taxes:
1) I buy a id card reader one for 19EUR (Some places sell them for less, I have one that costed 10 EUR
2) I put my ID in and go to The website for taxes
3) I see that everything is already filled out.
4) I change and add according to the papers I have received from my employer and/or accountant.
5) I click OK around 7 times or so.
Done.
To be honest, I skip step 3 and 4. Takes about 5 minutes. Checking on the side of the tax people also becomes a LOT easier with less delays and cheaper for all, so they can waste the money on other things.
If you have deductables, you can either go to any accountant, ask the tax people for advice or figure it out yourself. And then you fill out the form just as if it where a paper form. Almost everything is already filled out, so you only have to add information they are not yet aware of.
If you are an independant, your bookkeeper will do it all for you. If you do not have a bookkeeper as an independant, you better look for one, because the time you waste on it are billable hours you could do your job and earn money. They accountant will be cheaper.
This all has nothing to do with flat tax rates, income or anything else.
Do you know how people under the poverty line would do their taxes? The same as I do. Just because there is no need to pay taxes does not mean you do not have to fill something out. You do need to prove or confirm that you do not need to pay taxes. The same for rich people. You can still do it via paper if you so desire and then send it an and what not. You can still try to deduct those "business: dinners. (Won't work that well anymore)
Online is so much easier for all involved.
The last time there was an issue over Taxes, there was no constitutional amendement.
This is Google. I already foresee the next /. headline "Google Disbands Drone Delivery"
Perhaps those people who stream more, also don't have TV to watch all the time. The time they spend in front of ads is now spend at the movies.
She lost because people voted against established politicians.
Who would listen? They do not even think it is needed to do anything about rape. The US has, as a whole, decided that people in prison are not worth anything.
Yeah, because Linux NEVER has any error messages to show people.
The moment you get into Belgium, either by birth or by train, you will get a National ID number. (Not if you are a tourist)
The number is birthdate in reverse, a three digit number where the first number is 001, the second one registerd for that britday is 002 and so on. And then a control number that also tells the gender male of female.
So if you are not a tourist and you have no National number, you will be illegal.
When you are norn in Belgium, you will have a birth ceryifcate. Till the age of 12 you will be on the ID of your parents. After that you will get your own ID.
If you loose your ID, you can phone in a free number to say so. That way if somebody who steals it tries to use it, it will not be usable. Companies will use the ID and can check for free if the card is valid.
And sure, rasicm is something that exists. It is a normal human behaviours of the us against them, no matter who them or us is. And yes, it is tracked. The color of the skin is irrelevant to the fact that they are racists or not.
To use race as a partisan crutch to influence people is al lot harder if you have a multy party system.
And that tracking down of people who did not vote is basically sending them a fine they are able to pay via their bank account or protest. That is if it is send at all. There are cities who do not bother.
I do payments and pay no cost or interest. When I pay with a credit card, the credit card company sees the store, but not what I bought. In Belgium the credit card company is not allowed to do analysis for marketing puposes.
e.g. no "We see you bought a lot online, why not ..."
Transferring money inside the EU zone (OK, SEPA zone) does not cost me anything and it will there be the next working day. If I want it instantly, some fees apply.
The only reason I use cash is when I go out with friend to eat and drink, because it is easier if everybody just pays in cash.
Checks are satill used. Mostly when buying a house. These are bank checks. This mosly because notaries are slow old white men.
And here I am, living in Communist Belgium, where I am forced to walk around with an ID (even though I was never asked to show it. Why am I paying the police if they can not even do that?) and when I need one or need a renewal, I just make an apointment online for thursday evening, walk in and walk out after 15 minutes. The repeat it after a month to pick it up. That goes even faster.
And voting is is an obligation, not a privelage, so every Belgian MUSTR vote when there are elections. They are held on Sunday. Not voting can cause a fine (or nothing, depending on the city and how the judge feels)
The Communist Governement even made it so that EVERYBODY can read the information on the card, as it is a card with a chip. They even open sourced it.
Price is 18 EUR (0 EUR for your first one when you are 12) and are valid 5 years.
And Belgiumis not the only country where you must have an ID. It is not even the only country where voting is a must.
This ID will be used to verify that you voted once. You will be on the list and been told where you have to vote. You show up, they ID you, you vote. That's it.
They could increase the yearly city tax with 4.00 EUR per person and get to the same result.
It is crazy that many countries in the world have already solved the things the US seem to struggle with.
If you talk in nummbers per year, it might be true.
Next you can look at the percentages. Also look at the amount of new subscribers, remaining subscribers and what not.
For all we know, the percentage of people leaving compared to people coming ion is rising.
I am subscribed to around 200 channels. Each 6 months or so, I drop a few and add a few. The amount stays the same.
The thing that is hard to do nowadays is to find what you are looking for. You can not count on the recomendation that are given by YouTube. You can not search for it, because it will promote even more bullshit than the recomendations.
What I do is look at what channels the people are subscribed to and hope I might somehow stuble on something I might be willing to watch.
I work to live, not work to survive. There is a HUGE difference between the two.
I can go out with friends and have a few beers and enjoy days of and go on a holiday. I also have no stress about work if I get sick, nor will my coworker fear for het job, just because she is pregnant.
I have been in a situation where I worked to survive. It resulted in taking jobs illegaly, because otherwise I would starve and unable to pay rent.
I could still be doing that. Doing less hours and have the risk of no income if I were sick. However I choose not to work to survive, but work to live.
Are there people who abuse the system? Obviously. Shutting down the system because some abuse it, is trowing away the baby with the bathwater.
A while back, there was a story about this where a erson become "property of the state" as he owed them so much. He was then "Rescued" to Australia, I believe,
Anybody have the URL to that story? It is a great read an higly on-topic. I could go into more details, but do not want to set of any spoilles.
It does not stop there: The implementation of the PIN code on Credit and Debit cards that was available in the rest of the world was done badly and late. The banking system is a laughing matter. Using checks is still a thing. Privacy laws only protect the companies. Affordable eductation.
When I visited the US the first time, 2 years ago, it reminded me of traveling back to the 80ies. It seriously felt as if nothing changed after that. I thought it was cute and quaint.
Everything pointed to the fact that it was done for the companies and the business and nothing for the people by the people.
Introduced it? This has been available in other countries all over the world for years.
And one of the reasons it did not happen earlier was because they did not want to spend the money.
... for a social problem.
Unless this is not only illegal, but aiding them is illegal as well (Telco's) this will not stop. Furthermre, if people are not held acountable at every level, this will not change.
This is like standard spam. If the income is higher than the cost, it will continue.
I work abt a company that uses robocalls. We are located in Belgium and are limited in what we can do. Mainly we use it to inform customers about forgetting to do payments. We are aware that people do not like them. They also do not like getting late payment fees, so ...
And in the 20 or so years I have a cellphone, I have not had a person calling me with a commercial offer, let alone a robocall.
And I am not even on the http://www.robinsonlist.be/ where all (legal) companies who do outbound calls will have to look. It also helps that the caller always pays, so no cost for the person who owns the cellphone.
I do not think it is that complicated of an answer. The real answer is: Preinstallation.
People do not really give a hoot what OS they run. There are plenty of people who have a Windows PC, a Linux TV box, and an Android Phone and an iPad. And they are pretty well able to do whatever they want to do. They are able to go fromn one to the other.
Have Linux Installed machines and people will buy them. And I am not talking for going out of your way to be able to look for them and then pay twice as much. I am talking : walk into the stire and have them all mixed.
Yes, some people will buy what they know. Others will be willing to use it, as long as they do not have to do the installation themselves.
Give a standard person a Linux Machine and they will be able to use it, be it KDE or GNOME or XFCE or whatever.
How do we get the water into the e.g. Sub-Sahara countries from the US states that California takes the water from? Just wondering.
Also: I always support Californian farmers financially by buying as much almond products I can get.
And not everybody is a gamer. The sole reason I bought a new PC was because I wanted a smaller one, so it could fit on my desk with i Micro Mobo in a small form factor case. 12TB HD and a M2 card and an NVidea 1050 card and I can easily use my 3 4K screens.
I already could do that with a bigger case that was (I think) 6 or so years old. If I would not have money to spend, I would easily still be using that PC.
Adter a year, they most likely will not need to pay so much marketing and might be walking away with more than you wanted them to.
Thi is not just like tying back your umbilical.
It is like reversed birth, because somebody is getting fucked.
I use the Smart TV as I have a a monitor. No network connection and I set up the wireless to a non existing account, just in case it would otherwise try to find an open WIFI connection.The next one I buy, I will probably disble the Wifi with a schroud of alu foil and blacj tape for the cvamera. I will also look if I can see a microphone because I do not trust the sucker.
I also remember when I called people who did this crazy idiots.