I do believe most countries have different rules. So if I may ask, which country do you hail from? My work ethic is about the same. I would love to work 8 hours and then go home without the worry of being fired. The only job that comes close to that, is a federal job and those are hard to come by seeing as the last time I applied for one I got turned down just because I never joined the military. Also, the euro is worth more then the dollar, so technically I'd be making more. So please, inform me of which countries have these rules and more specifically which country you are posting from.
Btw, does your country have a draft where you have to serve a year or two, after turning 18, in the military? I seem to remember a few European countries like that.
And I actually spent the day going much farther then that. What I've found isn't very surprising. Those that want the Fair Tax 2005 (or AKA HR 25) to pass are willing to lie and leave truth out and those that don't want it to pass also lie and leave some truth out. So now I'm going to mesh it all together and just tell you what I think will happen with the Fair Tax if it is passed:
First off, your qualm is two parted. First, the poor people aren't keeping enough of their money. Secondly, the rich people will be keeping too much of theirs. I hope I am not out of line when I say that your aim is to make it harder for successful people to get rich easily. Perhaps that is too harsh and probably not what you would say, but I do think you'd agree with me if I word it such as to say... you'd like to have the wealth spread out a bit more evenly; however, I'm sure the word bit is actually and understatement.
So lets look at a more detailed stab at the tax system. The current tax system taxes people that make over $6500 a year at about 13-15%. People that make around 35k are taxed about 20-22%. 75k is around 25%. And much higher then 150k and you are up around 35% (unless you use some of the easily reached tax loop holes that give you discounts). So in actuality, I'm betting those above 150k a year that are using the current tax loop holes are only getting taxed about 25% of their earnings. Only those that are unmotivated to actually exercise those loop holes are getting taxed at 30-35%. Now from what you are saying it sounds like you'd love to forget getting rid of those loop holes and just raise that 150k tax bracket to about 40% but leave those loop holes there so really the tax is only 30% for the rich.
Now lets look at the Fair Tax. You say it's really a 30% tax right? Okay, well I'm not going to argue. Lets stick with that figure.
Lets talk about the poor first. Now in the more negative argue about Fair Tax (What's foul...), they mention that a childless couple gets about $391 per month on this prebate. Now they never mention how much this couple makes. Now according to the Fair Tax the poor should pay zero tax on this. 12 * 391 = 4692 so I'm going to estimate that this couple makes about 15.5k a year. So the couple just got bumped up to about 20k for the year. If they are poor, then they are probably in rent free or reduced housing. But even if they weren't, with no kids, they could easily fit in $500 a month rent. And still have almost 15k for food, transportation, and even entertainment. Under the current taxes, they are losing about 15% of their 15.5k a year. So in the end they only have about 13.1k to play with. Under the Fair Tax, they would have almost 20k. So what about that 30% you were talking about? Well, I'm sure you want to apply that 30% directly. So if you've been reading those articles, you know you multiply the total by 23%. So if they were to spend their entire year's worth of money (20k) on taxables at 30%, then they would have paid 4600 in taxes. Now lets be reasonable, they will probably save a little if not for the bank, then perhaps for education (which is NOT taxed under the Fair Tax). Housing is also not taxed under the Fair Tax. So lets say they didn't save anything and they spent 6k on housing. 14k was spent on taxables. So in the end they paid 3220 on taxes and actually MADE over 1400 on the prebate. So how is the Fair Tax 2005 system not better for the poor even at the 30%?
Now if they were planning on having kids, a smart couple would think a
(26 February 2007, California) 29-year-old Oscar was driving on Highway 99 near Yuba City, when his Honda Accord crossed into oncoming traffic and collided with a Hummer. The occupants of the Hummer were not seriously injured. California Highway Patrol officers found Oscar's laptop still running, and plugged into the car's cigarette lighter. Investigators believe that he was using it when his car crossed the center line.
"Driving is not a time to be practicing your multitasking skills," remarked CHP spokesman Tom Marshall.
Oscar is not alone. Last year, 510 California drivers were charged with reckless driving because they were using a TV, video, or computer monitor. A 2001 CHP study cites cell phone use as the top cause of crashes involving distracted drivers, followed by fiddling with music. "Anything that distracts you can kill you, whether it's eating lunch or working on a computer," an AAA spokesman said.
Oscar was a computer tutor. Hopefully his fatal lesson will teach others to surf on the information superhighway, not the asphalt superhighway.
I hope stories like that get publized more often. Too often do I tell people to stick in a cd and leave it alone or to stop playing with their cell phone until they are stopped. Their response is always, but I do it all the time. I tell them, one of these days you are going to get yourself killed.:-\
Btw, for the rest of the stories, search for these names in google and look at the cached copy. Don't forget to add a +darwin so that the stories end up at the top:
You wanna know what kind of situation will make you really depressed? How about having a 4 year degree, a CCNA, and getting paid over 50% less then the average IT person makes with just a degree and no certs? In my state, which I won't divulge just in case I make identity obvious to a co-worker, we are said to be one of the lowest paid states in the US. But wait, that's not all. About 6 months ago, a guy from a crappy local call center with no college education, certifications, or DECENT previous experience got hired for 10% more salary then I get paid. How's that for a ball buster? (Keep in mind, this is a state job so salaries are public.)
We do have an incentive program for getting certifications. If I manage to pass (and pay for learning as well as the test) the MCSE and the CCNP, then I will edge out his pay by lousy grand. As for a promotion? It isn't just how long you work there or how good you are. You have to kiss butt, be personal friends with the right people and kiss their butt OUTSIDE of work, and maybe, if you're lucky... maybe you'll get a promotion if someone decides to leave their job which they know they will never get fired from.
What about the turn over rate where I work? I'm betting that since I'm the only one that knows how to operate our linux servers and the only other person who is as knowledgeable as me is already working 8am to 9pm without having the time to do what I do that the turnover may become 100% since if IT can't do its job, it'll probably lead to outsourcing. There has already been brief talk of it, so I don't really want to be the cause of that and have it on my conscious. But then again, I too also have that boss that says if you don't like it, then quit. Wouldn't it be irony if I quit, and then he gets fired while the whole IT Dept gets outsourced?/endrant
My bet is that there is a correlation tied to those who are wealthy have have the majority of their funds over seas and traveling and therefore the US would never see any of that money to tax it. I also bet that with the Fair Tax that such traveling would curve a bit since their funds would be less likely to be over seas.
We are probably both making a lot of assumptions that can't be backed by enough trustworthy articles to really know, but one thing is for sure, I agree with you about a simple progressive tax. Unfortunately, what are the chances of that ever passing? This is why I am behind the Fair Tax. While I agree that there will be negative side effects, it has a better chance of passing and still looks better than our current system from several perspectives.
- It would force an overhaul making the greedy politicians who have managed to pass a lot of loop holes in the existing tax system start all over again if nothing else. - Huckabee's plan includes a mid-ground before the full transfer. If he succeeds in getting that far, there is always a chance that it could lead to that progressive income tax with a wonderful reform to all the existing laws that make the federal income tax look less like a maze mixed with swiss cheese. - Most of America in the poor to 100k bracket, especially the 20s something, have a hard time with saving money for retirement and starting on it early. I believe this Fair Tax would help with that thought process as well as give them a better incentive. - The government may pull in more money then the existing system due to it also taxing the illegal immigrants and others that try to scam the tax system. I'm sure that I am dreaming, but it'd be great to think they'd use that new found money for increased education and science funding.
I was thinking about that 40k to 200k analysis earlier today, and it really depending on spending habits. From the looks of the graph, it appears as though the rich were simply buying more cd's and movies then the 40k to 200k bracket not mansions or yachts. Therefore, I don't completely agree with the articles predicted outcome.
Either way, your argument is that we are taxing the rich more then we would be with the Fair Tax. So let me give you this scenario:
You are someone with a yearly income of a million. You pay your 40% tax, but then put most of that in other currency's and as such most of your interest earned is then outside of the country and not taxed as heavily as it would be in America. Because most of their savings are now not in the dollar, the dollar is not as valuable as it could be. Thus, the rest of us are unable to buy as much with the dollar because you have several wealthy Americans with the majority of their money in other currencies.
Now under the Fair Tax, they'd have an incentive to keep their money in the form of the American Dollar keeping the value of the dollar higher (perhaps only modestly more then it is now, but every bit helps).
In either case, the Fair Tax hasn't really had it's ground laid out completely so I'm sure there is room to change, but the longer we keep the current tax system, the longer more laws are created that allow politicians and their rich friends loopholes for paying taxes anyway. At least with the fair tax, even illegal immigrants will be pay taxes and since they aren't registered, guess who won't be getting the prebate?
It feels as though the article is not calculating for the expensive toys the rich buy. Flights into on Spaceone at 100k a pop, those that spend $5 million on a new mansion, or those that just have to have a yacht. The 23% or 30% will actually hit the rich hard although in reality, those who let money burn their pockets and feel like they have to spend every penny will probably end up with less material goods in the end. As the article did note, those making between 40k and 200k would most likely hardest hit with the taxes. On that same note, however, the article also doesn't explain the statistics it used for this analysis and I wonder if it looked at the spending patterns after the fair tax was implemented. I'm sure there are somethings you wouldn't purchase if you knew there was a 23% or 30% tax on it.
Btw, this tax would benefit those that are trying to save or invest their money for retirement since capital gains or even the savings account interest is no longer taxed.
I originally was hoping for Ron Paul to pull it off, but with Huckabee pulling a surprise win at Iowa, I've changed my mind. Of course, his win caused me to check out these youtube videos of his visit to Jay Leno's show which further edged me in his direction. He is a very different kind of politician from those running. One, in my opinion, that is worth considering outside of Ron Paul for us slashdotters. The Youtube videos are here: Part 1 and Part 2.
I'm sure you aren't into long discussions, but I wanted to make up for my horrible explaination earlier so here you go:
Pros: -No federal income tax!! -You take home your whole paycheck. -The prices of everything you buy will not be much higher, even with the sales tax, b/c not having income tax will lower the cost of the items by about 22%, and then the 23% tax will raise it back up to normal - but you have your whole paycheck to buy it with! -Everybody gets a check every month from the government that will pay for the taxes on essential goods and services. -If you buy something used, you don't pay tax. -Prostitutes, drug dealers, and illegal immigrants will all have to pay their fair share now since they have to buy stuff, even if they aren't reporting income. -Visitors to the country will be contributing to our tax system as well. -It's fair b/c if you are very poor you don't pay taxes b/c you get that check every month, and if you are very rich you buy expensive things and so you pay much more taxes. -you can choose how much you spend on taxes by what you buy. -The economy will improve.
Cons: -people who paid taxes and then retire (no more income) will still have to pay taxes. -there might be a black market of sales that people will use to avoid paying taxes. -no more tax deductions like mortgage interest.
The Fair Tax is the best idea ever!! Vote Mike Huckabee for President, he'll make it happen!
Btw, the above was copied from someone who could better explain my position on the fair tax then I myself could. Here is the link to the original post here.
In relation to the post I just made, I some how missed this statement in correcting it: "My hope is that people will learn to consume expensive snacks"
I meant to say "My hope is that people will learn NOT to consume expensive snacks..."
I'm very frugal. Under the current way, by saving my money, I'm going to pay taxes just because I'm trying to hold on to my money and keep up with inflation or beat it. Under Huckabee's way, I will pay more taxes on food and when I build my next computer, but since I don't consume like ordinary people, I'll come out ahead. My hope is that people will learn to consume expensive snacks and learn to look for coupons and deals at the store like they should be doing in the first place. In other words, the fair tax will only hurt the lazy, over spending, or IQ challenged middle class and I have no issue with that.
As for your argument that it would allow the rich to get away from capital gains tax, it would also allow you to get away from that tax as well. I have my money in the stock market and I too get charged a capital gains tax even if for only 100 shares. But what is great about the fair tax is that when that rich guy buys that 5 million dollar mansion, 23% of that will tacked on. When he buys that 100,000 dollar yacht, it will be 23% higher then originally priced.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that rich people don't consume enough for this to hurt them instead of being a benefit.
I only see your argument making sense if you were targeting frugal millionaires who were making money and donating none of it. Simply accruing money for the heck of it. In that case, I would agree. Otherwise, fair tax wins all the way.
About 1/3rd of the show in, there is a Jib Jab cartoon and then Huckabee's part in the show finally starts. I have to admit that in the 10 minutes that followed, I found myself backtracking on my quick judgment on Huckabee. Also, his explanation on the fair tax system furthered my desire to lean in that direction.
So what projects do you deem worth while? I would rather be contributing with my BOINC program to something worth while such as cancer research. I'm only running two currently. The World Community Grid project for folding and the TANPAKU project which seems to be similar.
Thanks for any advice for grid computing projects.
Nah, it's okay. At least you tried to help me and I appreciated it greatly.
Not really sure why these sites are being taken down all the way. A lot of that music should be in public domain and only some of it might be territorial in their conflict of laws. You'd think that at least half of those scores wouldn't have that robots.txt limitation let alone that redirect to the recent letter he wrote on his site.
Oh well, if you happen to find another site though, I'd appreciate it. Maybe we can catch it before the next one gets a take down notice.
If you think $15 is just extra money you can spend on whatever, then you make too much or are obviously not planning on saving for retirement. If you don't want it, I'll take it. I even pick up pennies. My girlfriend has kept a change jar (5 gallon water bottle) and we turned it in and found it worth 4 grand in the end.
So as for movie piracy? All you guys who are saying that $15 dollars is cheap enough, I don't think so. I look in the dollar movie section and I rent through net flix for the newer ones so that all of my entertainment is as cheap as possible. Last time I spent 10 dollars on a movie, I felt like I was getting ripped off. And yes, I know even the janitor that cleaned up the set every night needs to get paid and the movie flops that they make need to have the costs averaged out with the good ones.
I must say that it'd be an even better world if people who were expecting millions and no piracy actually made movies you wanted to watch over and over again and they gave you something more then a plastic cover and disc, that perhaps I wouldn't feel ripped off./end_ramble
I have long had a theory that may explain the existence of ghosts. First, I'd like to point out that we are far from all knowing and have not learned all we can learn in science by a long shot. Now, since energy and matter can be converted into each other, I hypothesize that a spirit can simply be energy with the persona of it's previous matter state.
IANAP, so I don't have any details on how this could be, but while I do not necessarily believe in ghosts, I do think that there could be a way for "spirits" to exist via the above idea.
I've been looking for a free site with no flash ads to kill my eyes where I can find clarinet sheet music for free. Not just pirate free btw. I mean a decent selection of legally free music where I can work my way back up to where I used to be back in high school.
It is unfortunate that I had not heard about this site until it made slashdot news.:(
I'm a bit poor myself. How about just listing the names of those exercises you can do at your desk? I'd (and others I'm sure) would appreciate it. From just the names of those exercises (if there are names), I'll just use Google to look up the rest. I've been looking for some exercises besides the rubber band on the pinky and thumb trick.
There really is a simple solution to this: How about using people who are already considered government property? Those criminals on death row that are filling up our prisons as they await death would make great experimentation subjects.
I prefer Dark Age of Camelot myself. It has all of that including the you are a Midgard player and they are an Albion player. PvP, ToA, Classic, and Roleplaying servers. The downside is that it splits the player base so that while there used to be rvr in the 100's against each other, it's now a days back in the order of 50vs50 and more on a daily basis of 20vs20.
I do miss the old days of seeing hordes of players against each other and think DaoC's RvR beats Warcrafts design limit of 40vs40 any day!
It is just too bad Mythic/EA is waiting on Warhammer to save them when it seems like it is a heavily dumbed down mmorpg like WoW. If they only advertised DaoC a bit more...
For those ToA haters, Classic servers have saved the day.:)
I live cheaply and take vitamins that I also get cheap or free depending on sales. My diet consists of ground beef, ground turkey, or chicken. (no steak or anything else above $1.50 a pound for meat) I use a George Foreman grill I got for 10 bucks to make the fat/grease content not so horrible. I hardly eat fruits or veggies as they cost the most. A pound of fruit is usually more then the cheapest meat per pound. Lettuce and cabbage are the only two veggies that are of any quantity that are cheap, yet I'm not a big fan of them so I hardly buy them. The rest is pasta, rice, and things I find in the damaged isle for 50% or more. (dented cans and such)
Not the healthiest diet mind you, but it keeps me alive and semi healthy. Also, assuming I ever have kids, I hope to have enough to support them and to start eating better when I've made it with my bonds and stock market money.
Anyway, rambling aside, my point is that yes, veggies and fruits are freak'n expensive with the two exceptions listed above. When using coupons and other discounts, the processed foods and dented canned veggies are definitely cheaper.
Slashdot Mirror
I do believe most countries have different rules. So if I may ask, which country do you hail from? My work ethic is about the same. I would love to work 8 hours and then go home without the worry of being fired. The only job that comes close to that, is a federal job and those are hard to come by seeing as the last time I applied for one I got turned down just because I never joined the military. Also, the euro is worth more then the dollar, so technically I'd be making more. So please, inform me of which countries have these rules and more specifically which country you are posting from.
Btw, does your country have a draft where you have to serve a year or two, after turning 18, in the military? I seem to remember a few European countries like that.
Alright, here's my research:
... you'd like to have the wealth spread out a bit more evenly; however, I'm sure the word bit is actually and understatement.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/01/05/whats_foul_about_the_fairtax/
http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/002245.html
http://www.pafairtax.org/facts.html#C
And I actually spent the day going much farther then that. What I've found isn't very surprising. Those that want the Fair Tax 2005 (or AKA HR 25) to pass are willing to lie and leave truth out and those that don't want it to pass also lie and leave some truth out. So now I'm going to mesh it all together and just tell you what I think will happen with the Fair Tax if it is passed:
First off, your qualm is two parted. First, the poor people aren't keeping enough of their money. Secondly, the rich people will be keeping too much of theirs. I hope I am not out of line when I say that your aim is to make it harder for successful people to get rich easily. Perhaps that is too harsh and probably not what you would say, but I do think you'd agree with me if I word it such as to say
So lets look at a more detailed stab at the tax system. The current tax system taxes people that make over $6500 a year at about 13-15%. People that make around 35k are taxed about 20-22%. 75k is around 25%. And much higher then 150k and you are up around 35% (unless you use some of the easily reached tax loop holes that give you discounts). So in actuality, I'm betting those above 150k a year that are using the current tax loop holes are only getting taxed about 25% of their earnings. Only those that are unmotivated to actually exercise those loop holes are getting taxed at 30-35%. Now from what you are saying it sounds like you'd love to forget getting rid of those loop holes and just raise that 150k tax bracket to about 40% but leave those loop holes there so really the tax is only 30% for the rich.
Now lets look at the Fair Tax. You say it's really a 30% tax right? Okay, well I'm not going to argue. Lets stick with that figure.
Lets talk about the poor first. Now in the more negative argue about Fair Tax (What's foul...), they mention that a childless couple gets about $391 per month on this prebate. Now they never mention how much this couple makes. Now according to the Fair Tax the poor should pay zero tax on this. 12 * 391 = 4692 so I'm going to estimate that this couple makes about 15.5k a year. So the couple just got bumped up to about 20k for the year. If they are poor, then they are probably in rent free or reduced housing. But even if they weren't, with no kids, they could easily fit in $500 a month rent. And still have almost 15k for food, transportation, and even entertainment. Under the current taxes, they are losing about 15% of their 15.5k a year. So in the end they only have about 13.1k to play with. Under the Fair Tax, they would have almost 20k. So what about that 30% you were talking about? Well, I'm sure you want to apply that 30% directly. So if you've been reading those articles, you know you multiply the total by 23%. So if they were to spend their entire year's worth of money (20k) on taxables at 30%, then they would have paid 4600 in taxes. Now lets be reasonable, they will probably save a little if not for the bank, then perhaps for education (which is NOT taxed under the Fair Tax). Housing is also not taxed under the Fair Tax. So lets say they didn't save anything and they spent 6k on housing. 14k was spent on taxables. So in the end they paid 3220 on taxes and actually MADE over 1400 on the prebate. So how is the Fair Tax 2005 system not better for the poor even at the 30%?
Now if they were planning on having kids, a smart couple would think a
I hope stories like that get publized more often. Too often do I tell people to stick in a cd and leave it alone or to stop playing with their cell phone until they are stopped. Their response is always, but I do it all the time. I tell them, one of these days you are going to get yourself killed.
Btw, for the rest of the stories, search for these names in google and look at the cached copy. Don't forget to add a +darwin so that the stories end up at the top:
Coitus Interruptus 8.0 (8929 votes)
The Enema Within 8.0 (4212 votes)
Weight Lift 7.8 (2169 votes)
Support Group 7.8 (3712 votes)
Stop. Look. Listen. 7.7 (1745 votes)
Beer for Bears 7.6 (2210 votes)
Mole Hunt 7.5 (5355 votes)
A Prop-er Job 7.4 (4418 votes)
Oil Tank Trampoline 7.4 (5721 votes)
Superior Momentum 7.1 (2103 votes)
Elephants Press Back 7.1 (1236 votes)
Barn Demolition 7.1 (3324 votes)
Electronic Fireworks 7.0 (3607 votes)
Fatal a-Traction 6.0 (10 votes)
The Laptop Still Works! 5.7 (1160 votes)
Cow-ard 5.6 (8 votes)
Fatal Foaming Action 4.9 (1433 votes)
You wanna know what kind of situation will make you really depressed? How about having a 4 year degree, a CCNA, and getting paid over 50% less then the average IT person makes with just a degree and no certs? In my state, which I won't divulge just in case I make identity obvious to a co-worker, we are said to be one of the lowest paid states in the US. But wait, that's not all. About 6 months ago, a guy from a crappy local call center with no college education, certifications, or DECENT previous experience got hired for 10% more salary then I get paid. How's that for a ball buster? (Keep in mind, this is a state job so salaries are public.)
... maybe you'll get a promotion if someone decides to leave their job which they know they will never get fired from.
/endrant
We do have an incentive program for getting certifications. If I manage to pass (and pay for learning as well as the test) the MCSE and the CCNP, then I will edge out his pay by lousy grand. As for a promotion? It isn't just how long you work there or how good you are. You have to kiss butt, be personal friends with the right people and kiss their butt OUTSIDE of work, and maybe, if you're lucky
What about the turn over rate where I work? I'm betting that since I'm the only one that knows how to operate our linux servers and the only other person who is as knowledgeable as me is already working 8am to 9pm without having the time to do what I do that the turnover may become 100% since if IT can't do its job, it'll probably lead to outsourcing. There has already been brief talk of it, so I don't really want to be the cause of that and have it on my conscious. But then again, I too also have that boss that says if you don't like it, then quit. Wouldn't it be irony if I quit, and then he gets fired while the whole IT Dept gets outsourced?
My bet is that there is a correlation tied to those who are wealthy have have the majority of their funds over seas and traveling and therefore the US would never see any of that money to tax it. I also bet that with the Fair Tax that such traveling would curve a bit since their funds would be less likely to be over seas.
We are probably both making a lot of assumptions that can't be backed by enough trustworthy articles to really know, but one thing is for sure, I agree with you about a simple progressive tax. Unfortunately, what are the chances of that ever passing? This is why I am behind the Fair Tax. While I agree that there will be negative side effects, it has a better chance of passing and still looks better than our current system from several perspectives.
- It would force an overhaul making the greedy politicians who have managed to pass a lot of loop holes in the existing tax system start all over again if nothing else.
- Huckabee's plan includes a mid-ground before the full transfer. If he succeeds in getting that far, there is always a chance that it could lead to that progressive income tax with a wonderful reform to all the existing laws that make the federal income tax look less like a maze mixed with swiss cheese.
- Most of America in the poor to 100k bracket, especially the 20s something, have a hard time with saving money for retirement and starting on it early. I believe this Fair Tax would help with that thought process as well as give them a better incentive.
- The government may pull in more money then the existing system due to it also taxing the illegal immigrants and others that try to scam the tax system. I'm sure that I am dreaming, but it'd be great to think they'd use that new found money for increased education and science funding.
I was thinking about that 40k to 200k analysis earlier today, and it really depending on spending habits. From the looks of the graph, it appears as though the rich were simply buying more cd's and movies then the 40k to 200k bracket not mansions or yachts. Therefore, I don't completely agree with the articles predicted outcome.
Either way, your argument is that we are taxing the rich more then we would be with the Fair Tax. So let me give you this scenario:
You are someone with a yearly income of a million. You pay your 40% tax, but then put most of that in other currency's and as such most of your interest earned is then outside of the country and not taxed as heavily as it would be in America. Because most of their savings are now not in the dollar, the dollar is not as valuable as it could be. Thus, the rest of us are unable to buy as much with the dollar because you have several wealthy Americans with the majority of their money in other currencies.
Now under the Fair Tax, they'd have an incentive to keep their money in the form of the American Dollar keeping the value of the dollar higher (perhaps only modestly more then it is now, but every bit helps).
In either case, the Fair Tax hasn't really had it's ground laid out completely so I'm sure there is room to change, but the longer we keep the current tax system, the longer more laws are created that allow politicians and their rich friends loopholes for paying taxes anyway. At least with the fair tax, even illegal immigrants will be pay taxes and since they aren't registered, guess who won't be getting the prebate?
It feels as though the article is not calculating for the expensive toys the rich buy. Flights into on Spaceone at 100k a pop, those that spend $5 million on a new mansion, or those that just have to have a yacht. The 23% or 30% will actually hit the rich hard although in reality, those who let money burn their pockets and feel like they have to spend every penny will probably end up with less material goods in the end. As the article did note, those making between 40k and 200k would most likely hardest hit with the taxes. On that same note, however, the article also doesn't explain the statistics it used for this analysis and I wonder if it looked at the spending patterns after the fair tax was implemented. I'm sure there are somethings you wouldn't purchase if you knew there was a 23% or 30% tax on it.
Btw, this tax would benefit those that are trying to save or invest their money for retirement since capital gains or even the savings account interest is no longer taxed.
I originally was hoping for Ron Paul to pull it off, but with Huckabee pulling a surprise win at Iowa, I've changed my mind. Of course, his win caused me to check out these youtube videos of his visit to Jay Leno's show which further edged me in his direction. He is a very different kind of politician from those running. One, in my opinion, that is worth considering outside of Ron Paul for us slashdotters. The Youtube videos are here: Part 1 and Part 2.
One of his main points is to push the Fair Tax. If you need brushing up on it, here are some articles for you:
http://www.fairtax.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FairTax
I'm sure you aren't into long discussions, but I wanted to make up for my horrible explaination earlier so here you go:
Pros:
-No federal income tax!!
-You take home your whole paycheck.
-The prices of everything you buy will not be much higher, even with the sales tax, b/c not having income tax will lower the cost of the items by about 22%, and then the 23% tax will raise it back up to normal - but you have your whole paycheck to buy it with!
-Everybody gets a check every month from the government that will pay for the taxes on essential goods and services.
-If you buy something used, you don't pay tax.
-Prostitutes, drug dealers, and illegal immigrants will all have to pay their fair share now since they have to buy stuff, even if they aren't reporting income.
-Visitors to the country will be contributing to our tax system as well.
-It's fair b/c if you are very poor you don't pay taxes b/c you get that check every month, and if you are very rich you buy expensive things and so you pay much more taxes.
-you can choose how much you spend on taxes by what you buy.
-The economy will improve.
Cons:
-people who paid taxes and then retire (no more income) will still have to pay taxes.
-there might be a black market of sales that people will use to avoid paying taxes.
-no more tax deductions like mortgage interest.
The Fair Tax is the best idea ever!!
Vote Mike Huckabee for President, he'll make it happen!
Btw, the above was copied from someone who could better explain my position on the fair tax then I myself could. Here is the link to the original post here.
In relation to the post I just made, I some how missed this statement in correcting it: "My hope is that people will learn to consume expensive snacks"
I meant to say "My hope is that people will learn NOT to consume expensive snacks..."
I apologize for the confusion.
I'm very frugal. Under the current way, by saving my money, I'm going to pay taxes just because I'm trying to hold on to my money and keep up with inflation or beat it. Under Huckabee's way, I will pay more taxes on food and when I build my next computer, but since I don't consume like ordinary people, I'll come out ahead. My hope is that people will learn to consume expensive snacks and learn to look for coupons and deals at the store like they should be doing in the first place. In other words, the fair tax will only hurt the lazy, over spending, or IQ challenged middle class and I have no issue with that.
As for your argument that it would allow the rich to get away from capital gains tax, it would also allow you to get away from that tax as well. I have my money in the stock market and I too get charged a capital gains tax even if for only 100 shares. But what is great about the fair tax is that when that rich guy buys that 5 million dollar mansion, 23% of that will tacked on. When he buys that 100,000 dollar yacht, it will be 23% higher then originally priced.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that rich people don't consume enough for this to hurt them instead of being a benefit.
I only see your argument making sense if you were targeting frugal millionaires who were making money and donating none of it. Simply accruing money for the heck of it. In that case, I would agree. Otherwise, fair tax wins all the way.
For those who need an introduction to Huckabee outside of a debate, you may wish you check out Jay Leno's episode on January 2nd:
http://www.nbc.com/The_Tonight_Show_with_Jay_Leno/video/episodes.shtml
About 1/3rd of the show in, there is a Jib Jab cartoon and then Huckabee's part in the show finally starts. I have to admit that in the 10 minutes that followed, I found myself backtracking on my quick judgment on Huckabee. Also, his explanation on the fair tax system furthered my desire to lean in that direction.
So what projects do you deem worth while? I would rather be contributing with my BOINC program to something worth while such as cancer research. I'm only running two currently. The World Community Grid project for folding and the TANPAKU project which seems to be similar.
Thanks for any advice for grid computing projects.
Nah, it's okay. At least you tried to help me and I appreciated it greatly.
Not really sure why these sites are being taken down all the way. A lot of that music should be in public domain and only some of it might be territorial in their conflict of laws. You'd think that at least half of those scores wouldn't have that robots.txt limitation let alone that redirect to the recent letter he wrote on his site.
Oh well, if you happen to find another site though, I'd appreciate it. Maybe we can catch it before the next one gets a take down notice.
Awesome!!! Thank you very much! Visited and now a permanent bookmark. :-D
If you think $15 is just extra money you can spend on whatever, then you make too much or are obviously not planning on saving for retirement. If you don't want it, I'll take it. I even pick up pennies. My girlfriend has kept a change jar (5 gallon water bottle) and we turned it in and found it worth 4 grand in the end.
/end_ramble
So as for movie piracy? All you guys who are saying that $15 dollars is cheap enough, I don't think so. I look in the dollar movie section and I rent through net flix for the newer ones so that all of my entertainment is as cheap as possible. Last time I spent 10 dollars on a movie, I felt like I was getting ripped off. And yes, I know even the janitor that cleaned up the set every night needs to get paid and the movie flops that they make need to have the costs averaged out with the good ones.
I must say that it'd be an even better world if people who were expecting millions and no piracy actually made movies you wanted to watch over and over again and they gave you something more then a plastic cover and disc, that perhaps I wouldn't feel ripped off.
I have long had a theory that may explain the existence of ghosts. First, I'd like to point out that we are far from all knowing and have not learned all we can learn in science by a long shot. Now, since energy and matter can be converted into each other, I hypothesize that a spirit can simply be energy with the persona of it's previous matter state.
IANAP, so I don't have any details on how this could be, but while I do not necessarily believe in ghosts, I do think that there could be a way for "spirits" to exist via the above idea.
I've been looking for a free site with no flash ads to kill my eyes where I can find clarinet sheet music for free. Not just pirate free btw. I mean a decent selection of legally free music where I can work my way back up to where I used to be back in high school.
:(
It is unfortunate that I had not heard about this site until it made slashdot news.
I'm a bit poor myself. How about just listing the names of those exercises you can do at your desk? I'd (and others I'm sure) would appreciate it. From just the names of those exercises (if there are names), I'll just use Google to look up the rest. I've been looking for some exercises besides the rubber band on the pinky and thumb trick.
There really is a simple solution to this: How about using people who are already considered government property? Those criminals on death row that are filling up our prisons as they await death would make great experimentation subjects.
My thought while reading the comic strip, "A girl who isn't trying to be like every other airhead in the U.S.? I'd date her! "
If everyone was as smart as you and me and because of such it became the average intelligence, I don't think that would be so bad. Do you?
"Of course, with the money you save by living on campus, you could buy the media you want and use your computer for classwork instead."
I do believe you meant to say with the money you save by living OFF campus...
I prefer Dark Age of Camelot myself. It has all of that including the you are a Midgard player and they are an Albion player. PvP, ToA, Classic, and Roleplaying servers. The downside is that it splits the player base so that while there used to be rvr in the 100's against each other, it's now a days back in the order of 50vs50 and more on a daily basis of 20vs20.
...
:)
I do miss the old days of seeing hordes of players against each other and think DaoC's RvR beats Warcrafts design limit of 40vs40 any day!
It is just too bad Mythic/EA is waiting on Warhammer to save them when it seems like it is a heavily dumbed down mmorpg like WoW. If they only advertised DaoC a bit more
For those ToA haters, Classic servers have saved the day.
I live cheaply and take vitamins that I also get cheap or free depending on sales. My diet consists of ground beef, ground turkey, or chicken. (no steak or anything else above $1.50 a pound for meat) I use a George Foreman grill I got for 10 bucks to make the fat/grease content not so horrible. I hardly eat fruits or veggies as they cost the most. A pound of fruit is usually more then the cheapest meat per pound. Lettuce and cabbage are the only two veggies that are of any quantity that are cheap, yet I'm not a big fan of them so I hardly buy them. The rest is pasta, rice, and things I find in the damaged isle for 50% or more. (dented cans and such) Not the healthiest diet mind you, but it keeps me alive and semi healthy. Also, assuming I ever have kids, I hope to have enough to support them and to start eating better when I've made it with my bonds and stock market money. Anyway, rambling aside, my point is that yes, veggies and fruits are freak'n expensive with the two exceptions listed above. When using coupons and other discounts, the processed foods and dented canned veggies are definitely cheaper.