This would be the same as if you had a taxable gain in another (actual) currency. You would need to determine the value of that currency in dollars and pay in dollars.
The IRS does not currently accept, and never will accept Jordanian Dinars, Hungarian Forants, Thai Baht, etc.
If you're turning an actual profit and paying taxes on it, the IRS will be fine with it.
On the other hand, as you say, if you are not making any money, and don't really stand to ever make any, then the IRS will reclass you as a hobby in 3 seconds flat.
The problem is that under that principle, investors could evade taxes. Basically, investors have long salivated at the thought of deferring taxation of all intermediate gains (reinvested dividends) until spent on consumption.
Investors can already do this though, as you say, retirement accounts. But it can also be done through:
Other tax deferred accounts (529s, etc.)
Cash value life insurance (BUT DON'T DO IT! unless you know why not and know what you are doing)
Real Estate (1031 exchanges)
Offshore investing
Probably 100 other ways I can't think of in the next 15 seconds.
Pensions are nice... once you work for 30 years. A 401k you can take with you, it doesn't disappear if you fail to finish 30 years at the same job. Considering the vast majority of New Teachers quit after 5 years, that's a lot of work time eaten you could have been saving money.
First of all, you don't have to work the same job for 30 years to get your pension. You just have to work in public schools in the same state for 30 years. As a teacher, as an administrator, in another city, county, etc. In other words, I call BS on your, "Boo hoo, I have to work the same job for 30 years in order to qualify."
Secondly, you do realize that teachers have 403(b)s, which are basically a 401(k) for public servants and other nonprofit employees, right? So what, exactly, are you complaining about? If you envy my 401(k), quit'cher bitchin' and open a 403(b). Well, actually, I'd advise you to open a traditional IRA or Roth IRA since your money will perform better there (typical 403(b)s offer awful investment options). So I call BS on your, "Boo hoo, I can't have a 401(k)". You can have your cake and eat it too, smarty.
The replies to my comment and the bulk of comments in this thread illustrate why it doesn't pay to be a teacher. It's the only licensed and educated professional career I know of that every Joe-Sixpack and their brother thinks they can do better. Why bother requiring an education or licensure to teach, apparently they have it easy and their work isn't difficult. Honestly, I never hear people complain that "Programmers are so lazy, they hardly work... I could do their job." or "Pharmacist just give out drugs in bottles, I could do that... they don't know how easy they have it."
Well, I don't even know where to begin here. Ahh yes, I'll begin by saying you are putting words into my mouth. I never said I could be a better teacher than you, and neither did I say that it wasn't difficult. It sounds to me like you are just venting here.
Be that as it may, how does "every Joe-Sixpack and their brother thinks they can do better" relate to "why it doesn't pay to be a teacher"?
And here's another licensed professional career that people think they can do better: real estate agent. Guess you can't make that claim anymore.
Programmers are lazy. Look at all of the comments they make on slashdot instead of working.
"Pharmacist" is one of the cushiest, best-paid jobs in America. Sure, it requires a lot of education and attention to detail, but at the end of the day, they dispense medication and log it. For that, they make double what you make and work reasonable hours. And yes, they know how easy they have it.
What's with Slashdot's vitriolic and absurd hatred of teachers?
I'm not sure I can answer this one, and I assume that the comment was not directed at me. I do not hate teachers, but I am going to call BS when you claim to not be well-compensated. The fact is you are.
I put thousands of dollars away each year for my own retirement, whereas you will just keep getting paid every month until you die. Make sure you subtract out those thousands of dollars from my salary when comparing mine to yours. Make sure you also subtract out my health insurance costs, life insurance, disability, summer vacations, etc. Don't forget to add in your income from private tutoring, coaching, exam proctoring, etc. Be sure to factor in your job security.
I think you'll find that teachers are paid just fine. Not too much, and not too little. But rather, just right.
There's nothing worse than isolating children from reality, because it will start hitting them in the face one day or another. Let them watch the news, play video games, etc. It can't hurt.
You have obviously never been kept up all night by a 4 year old with nightmares.
I agree that children cannot be sheltered forever, but it is important to bring them into real life in an age-appropriate way. Exposing kids to graphic violence, etc., before they are ready to handle it can be more damaging than sheltering kids from the "real world" for too long, to the extent that the latest FPS can be considered the "real world".
You forgot pensions that teachers get. Most people in private industry don't even know what a pension is. Most teachers don't even realize that they are unique in having one.
(note to parents: this might also include getting the balls to disciplining your child)
Blah blah blah.
You know, it's funny. One of the things that you'll realize if you become a parent someday is just how little control over who your children become.
Case in point: Three of my cousins. One is an insanely successful investment banker. The other is a doctor. The third had, shall we say, "discipline problems" in school (understatement of the year), can't hold down a job for more than 10 seconds, and is just generally a complete screwup. Same parents, same house, same schools, same parenting style. Before you ask, no divorces, deaths, abuse (well, except for the abuse that "screwup" dished out to everybody), or any other "mitigating factors" to point to. The kid (adult now) is just that way.
Everyone is so quick to judge the parents. But they'll learn eventually.
Teachers are very well compensated for the work that they do. Once you retire, you still get paid every month until you die.
Those of us in private industry certainly don't get anything like that anymore. In private industry, it's considered a great benefit if your employer matches a little of your 401(k) contribution.
Teachers like to complain, "Boo hoo, I make nothing," but the fact of the matter is, you make more than the median household income, and you have ridiculous benefits.
As a parent, whose kids would directly benefit from this measure if I lived in Michigan, which I don't and never would, please let me assure you that I feel this is the stupidist idea I've seen all day.
Kids don't need iPods, cellphones, or any other little gadgets that they can lose or have stolen.
They need engaging and compelling teachers in front of reasonably-sized classrooms.
They need textbooks and notebooks.
They need vocational training options in addition to college prep options at school.
But they do not need iPods.
If I lived in Michigan, I would be extremely upset about this waste of money. I get what you're saying about how society pays for things that we don't directly use and in turn have things paid for us that we don't bear the entire cost of. But that doesn't mean the government should blindly waste millions of dollars.
Don't apartments in the US come with a safety deposit? No, the landlord can't just take money from it but it's there so damages can be recovered from it. Oh yeah and if he's an asshat the apartment is likely trashed on top of defaulting on his payments.
There is no standard regarding security deposits--it is whatever is negotiated between the landlord and the tenant.
Sometimes a tenant can't afford a security deposit in a lump sum and will build it up over time. Sometimes a tenant will, as you say, cause damage that eats into the security deposit.
At any rate, you are right, the security deposit can help cushion the blow. My guess in this case, however, is that there was no security deposit and that there was significant nonpayment of rent. The reason? Tenant was landlord's sister, and the property was her mother's house. The situation probably got way out of hand before landlord filed. Probably much ill will developed as well: How can you take your sister to court? How could you not pay your sister? How could you charge your sister to live in the house she grew up in? Stuff like that.
There are many, many rules of landlording. The first two are not as relevant here as rule #3 is. Rule #3: Never rent to friends, family, family of friends, or friends of family.
Landlording is deceptively difficult. 90% of the time landlording is exactly what you picture: Go to post office, pick up rent checks, go to bank, deposit rent checks. But it's that 10% of the time that can really kill you if you don't know what you're doing.
What do you do when you go to the post office and no check is there? What do you do when a tenant doesn't have all the rent money and asks, "Can you work with me?" What do you do when a tenant is damaging your property? What do you do if you have a vacancy that no matter what you try, you just can't seem to fill? What do you do when a tenant is a bad neighbor (loud, rude, parks in the wrong spot, litters, does amateur auto maintenance on the lawn, etc.)? What do you do when a tenant won't leave your property at the end of the lease? What do you do when one tenant complains about another? What do you do if there's water or fire damage? What do you do if a tenant has the heat kicked up to 90 degrees with all the windows open where the landlord pays utilities? What do you do if the tenant doesn't pay his utility bills and the utility comes after you? What do you do when you realized you've paid too much for a property and your expenses are greater than your rents?
These are just some of the thousand or so things that can happen in that 10% of the time. You would be shocked at the creativity some tenants show. Every time I think I've seen it all, someone reminds me that I haven't even scratched the surface.
Landlording is definitely not for the feint at heart. For those who can learn to do it effectively, however, it can be extremely lucrative.
The other thing is that in many organizations what the engineers say can or cannot be done doesn't really matter. They just have to try or lose their jobs.
Well, that's a fun hypothetical, but since I was close to the situation, please let me assure you that it did not apply here.
On the other hand, they did risk getting fired for consistently failing to estimate properly. I could ask around and see if they wound up getting canned or not.
Several years back, I was in the first scheduling meeting for project managers on a project I was working on. Most of the other PMs were Indian.
We went around the room talking about what our teams were doing and by when it could be done. The project lead asked Indian PM after Indian PM, "Can you do X by date Y?" and the answer was always, "Oh, of course! No problem! We'll have it done by then!"
Well, the project lead left the meeting, and Indian PM after Indian PM said, "There is no vay ve are going to get done by date Y" "Oh, no vay. Newer going to happen."
I asked them why they promised more than they felt that they could deliver, but none could give me much of an answer. I guess it must be just some cultural thing.
The karma wheel did not bite her in the butt. The ex-tenant kicked her while she was down.
Clearly, you do not understand what an eviction is, so let me help you. First of all, a landlord may not evict a tenant. In some jurisdictions, a landlord who evicts a tenant could go to jail. At any rate, he would certainly owe the tenant damages. Look up "constructive eviction" to see what I'm talking about.
Here's how a real eviction works:
Tenant violates his lease, generally by not paying his rent
Landlord posts notice on the property to "Pay or Quit" (experienced landlords do this the minute rent is late.. beginning landlords let the tenant be late for a few months before acting). This means the tenant is given X number of days (number varies by jurisdiction) to pay rent or leave.
Assuming tenant doesn't pay by day X, landlord sues tenant for possession of his property. A court date is set.
Landlord goes in front of a judge and says why he's suing (tenant hasn't paid rent in 3 months, or whatever), and the tenant can present a defense ("I did pay, here are the canceled checks", or "No, I did not pay, but there was a legal reason for me not to pay and that reason is Y") and the judge decides what to do.
Assuming the tenant had no legal defense, the judge will order the sheriff to evict the tenant.
You set up a date with the sheriff for him to do the actual eviction.
You show up with movers and a locksmith to meet the sheriff at the scheduled time.
Locksmith opens the door (in case the tenant changed the locks) and then locksmith changes the locks.
Sheriff removes the tenant from the building
Movers move all the tenants prized possessions to the curb
Scavengers take anything of value
Garbage man takes the rest
At this point, the landlord is out a minimum of one month of rent (it takes time for the wheels of justice to turn) and usually more, plus court costs, eviction costs, locksmith, movers, etc.
In other words, if someone's getting evicted, it's for a darn good reason. It must be approved by a judge, and it costs money to do.
As you can see, this lady got kicked while she was down.
You're arguing that the unlimited claim is a "white lie"
Wrong. I never said it was a lie, white or otherwise. Furthermore, I don't believe such a claim would be a "white lie". There is only one acceptable white lie in this world, and that's: "No, that dress does not make your arse look big."
The rest of your comment is based on your claim that I said "Unlimited Access" was a lie, so there's nothing more to say here.
The only real thing I was surprised by was the total and complete acceptance of the khatoey as just another part of the Thai culture.
This is the basic irony in the slashdot response to blocking youtube. Acceptance seems to be one of the things that Thais are best at, which explains the thriving sex industry. That "Well, it's not for me, but do whatever makes you happy" attitude is something that Thais are known for. There's only one exception, and it happens to be insulting the King. For everything else, anything goes.
That said, the majority of places we went to were just concerned with making money any way possible; if that meant sending out a mutilated ex-male in clothing your grandmother would blush seeing even in the bedroom, then they were all for it.
Well, I certainly don't begrudge them the right to make as many Baht in whatever way they know how, but I have to question their methods. Does posting men with breast implants outside of your establishment really get the typical heterosexual male in the mood to purchase prostitution services?
Actually, since it's mostly Germans we're talking about here, I'd have to say that maybe the Thais are on to something and know their customers well.
I own two businesses, so I am familiar with the costs.
I stand by my original statement. Pay me $120/hr per monkey, and I will make sure they have a climate-controlled, network-accessable cage and that their paychecks are direct-deposited on time.
Despite the fact they looked like ordinary, beautiful Thai girls wearing lingerie, their jawlines tended to still favor the male of the species, leading to a couple double takes:)
Yeah, the jaw, the adam's apple, the clown-like application of makeup, the massive breast implants, the height.. these are all good tipoffs. But the dead giveaway is the walk.
Men and women walk differently, and there is no getting around it. Have a seat at a park and watch people walk to see what I mean. A man can get all the silicone in the world implanted into him in all the right places, he can patronize a professional makeup artist, he can take voice lessons, etc., but he will never, ever get the walk quite right.
After your parkbench exercise, try going to the gay part of whatever town you live in and watch the drag queens overcompensate. They're trying to get "the walk", but they can't because their skeletal system is working against them. Makes for some cheap entertainment, if you like laughing at other people's struggles.
Start to finish - rent, electricity, hardware, 1800 time, payroll, etc - phone calls work out to about $3/minute.
That figure sounds a little high. Your average level 1 tech support monkey makes, what, $10/hr? Are you trying to tell me that everything supporting said monkey costs $170/hr?
Why not let 'em work from home, then? In fact, I'll let 'em work in my home for only $120/hr. I'll pay all the electricity, hardware, toll free usage (by the way, that costs next to nothing)... I'll even have my accountant do their payroll an pay them their measly $10/hr. Where do I sign up?
As the American Embassy says to all staff visiting Thailand for the first time: If you find yourself in a bar chatting up a girl who is WAY out of your league, chances are it's a man.
Heh, heh.
But seriously, I saw a few ladyboys on the street and didn't think that they were difficult to spot. It was sort of a, "At first glance, she looks kinda cute. Let's take a closer look and.. EEWWW! Why must you do that?"
I guess that's another argument for picking your prostitutes in a strip club. You get to preview the goods that way.
Well, which is more confusing to your average business user? "Unlimited" or "Limited to 5GB/month?".
The average customer a) is not going to use 5GB/month, and b) has no idea what his monthly usage is. But for all intents and purposes, 5GB is unlimited to them. Why make them attempt to compute it?
On the flip side, a technical user knows that "Unlimited Access" couldn't mean "Unlimited Data Transfer" because of the physical impossibilities involved with transferring infinite data over a finite link in a finite amount of time. If that user is concerned, he can read the fine print, which are under a page long, and in plain English (not legalese). The fine print describes in detail what is and is not meant by "unlimited access".
At any rate, while I don't like that Verizon is playing around with the word "unlimited", it sounds like what they are doing is a lot less sinister than what your former employer was doing.
So if the 25-year-old women look like they're twelve, how are you supposed to spot the real twelve-year-olds and avoid paying them for sex?
Frankly, I have no idea. I've never patronized a prostitute, in Thailand or elsewhere. But you do see lots of "improbable" couples on the streets of Bangkok (60 year old German men with 25 year old Thai girls).
I did, however, visit a strip club while I was there, and my understanding was that the employees were available for takeout. If you are interested in patronizing a Thai prostitute, perhaps that is the safest route to go from a child sex perspective.
I wouldn't want to think about what various sundry viruses and bacteria you'd be exposing yourself to, however. One can only imagine what critters that they don't even have names for yet you could find on these ladies, let alone your standard clap, syphilis, chlamydia, HIV, herpes, warts, etc. Yee-gads.
Slashdot Mirror
No.
This would be the same as if you had a taxable gain in another (actual) currency. You would need to determine the value of that currency in dollars and pay in dollars.
The IRS does not currently accept, and never will accept Jordanian Dinars, Hungarian Forants, Thai Baht, etc.
If you're turning an actual profit and paying taxes on it, the IRS will be fine with it.
On the other hand, as you say, if you are not making any money, and don't really stand to ever make any, then the IRS will reclass you as a hobby in 3 seconds flat.
- Other tax deferred accounts (529s, etc.)
- Cash value life insurance (BUT DON'T DO IT! unless you know why not and know what you are doing)
- Real Estate (1031 exchanges)
- Offshore investing
- Probably 100 other ways I can't think of in the next 15 seconds.
So what's the big deal?Secondly, you do realize that teachers have 403(b)s, which are basically a 401(k) for public servants and other nonprofit employees, right? So what, exactly, are you complaining about? If you envy my 401(k), quit'cher bitchin' and open a 403(b). Well, actually, I'd advise you to open a traditional IRA or Roth IRA since your money will perform better there (typical 403(b)s offer awful investment options). So I call BS on your, "Boo hoo, I can't have a 401(k)". You can have your cake and eat it too, smarty.Well, I don't even know where to begin here. Ahh yes, I'll begin by saying you are putting words into my mouth. I never said I could be a better teacher than you, and neither did I say that it wasn't difficult. It sounds to me like you are just venting here.
Be that as it may, how does "every Joe-Sixpack and their brother thinks they can do better" relate to "why it doesn't pay to be a teacher"?
And here's another licensed professional career that people think they can do better: real estate agent. Guess you can't make that claim anymore.
Programmers are lazy. Look at all of the comments they make on slashdot instead of working.
"Pharmacist" is one of the cushiest, best-paid jobs in America. Sure, it requires a lot of education and attention to detail, but at the end of the day, they dispense medication and log it. For that, they make double what you make and work reasonable hours. And yes, they know how easy they have it.I'm not sure I can answer this one, and I assume that the comment was not directed at me. I do not hate teachers, but I am going to call BS when you claim to not be well-compensated. The fact is you are.
I put thousands of dollars away each year for my own retirement, whereas you will just keep getting paid every month until you die. Make sure you subtract out those thousands of dollars from my salary when comparing mine to yours. Make sure you also subtract out my health insurance costs, life insurance, disability, summer vacations, etc. Don't forget to add in your income from private tutoring, coaching, exam proctoring, etc. Be sure to factor in your job security.
I think you'll find that teachers are paid just fine. Not too much, and not too little. But rather, just right.
I agree that children cannot be sheltered forever, but it is important to bring them into real life in an age-appropriate way. Exposing kids to graphic violence, etc., before they are ready to handle it can be more damaging than sheltering kids from the "real world" for too long, to the extent that the latest FPS can be considered the "real world".
You know, it's funny. One of the things that you'll realize if you become a parent someday is just how little control over who your children become.
Case in point: Three of my cousins. One is an insanely successful investment banker. The other is a doctor. The third had, shall we say, "discipline problems" in school (understatement of the year), can't hold down a job for more than 10 seconds, and is just generally a complete screwup. Same parents, same house, same schools, same parenting style. Before you ask, no divorces, deaths, abuse (well, except for the abuse that "screwup" dished out to everybody), or any other "mitigating factors" to point to. The kid (adult now) is just that way.
Everyone is so quick to judge the parents. But they'll learn eventually.
Teachers are very well compensated for the work that they do. Once you retire, you still get paid every month until you die.
Those of us in private industry certainly don't get anything like that anymore. In private industry, it's considered a great benefit if your employer matches a little of your 401(k) contribution.
Teachers like to complain, "Boo hoo, I make nothing," but the fact of the matter is, you make more than the median household income, and you have ridiculous benefits.
As a parent, whose kids would directly benefit from this measure if I lived in Michigan, which I don't and never would, please let me assure you that I feel this is the stupidist idea I've seen all day.
Kids don't need iPods, cellphones, or any other little gadgets that they can lose or have stolen.
They need engaging and compelling teachers in front of reasonably-sized classrooms.
They need textbooks and notebooks.
They need vocational training options in addition to college prep options at school.
But they do not need iPods.
If I lived in Michigan, I would be extremely upset about this waste of money. I get what you're saying about how society pays for things that we don't directly use and in turn have things paid for us that we don't bear the entire cost of. But that doesn't mean the government should blindly waste millions of dollars.
No problem. Most people have no clue how hard it is to be a landlord.
Most new landlords are quickly humbled by their first "exception".
Good for you for investing in real estate, though! You'll thank yourself when it's time to retire.
Sometimes a tenant can't afford a security deposit in a lump sum and will build it up over time. Sometimes a tenant will, as you say, cause damage that eats into the security deposit.
At any rate, you are right, the security deposit can help cushion the blow. My guess in this case, however, is that there was no security deposit and that there was significant nonpayment of rent. The reason? Tenant was landlord's sister, and the property was her mother's house. The situation probably got way out of hand before landlord filed. Probably much ill will developed as well: How can you take your sister to court? How could you not pay your sister? How could you charge your sister to live in the house she grew up in? Stuff like that.
There are many, many rules of landlording. The first two are not as relevant here as rule #3 is.
Rule #3: Never rent to friends, family, family of friends, or friends of family.
Landlording is deceptively difficult. 90% of the time landlording is exactly what you picture: Go to post office, pick up rent checks, go to bank, deposit rent checks. But it's that 10% of the time that can really kill you if you don't know what you're doing.
What do you do when you go to the post office and no check is there?
What do you do when a tenant doesn't have all the rent money and asks, "Can you work with me?"
What do you do when a tenant is damaging your property?
What do you do if you have a vacancy that no matter what you try, you just can't seem to fill?
What do you do when a tenant is a bad neighbor (loud, rude, parks in the wrong spot, litters, does amateur auto maintenance on the lawn, etc.)?
What do you do when a tenant won't leave your property at the end of the lease?
What do you do when one tenant complains about another?
What do you do if there's water or fire damage?
What do you do if a tenant has the heat kicked up to 90 degrees with all the windows open where the landlord pays utilities?
What do you do if the tenant doesn't pay his utility bills and the utility comes after you?
What do you do when you realized you've paid too much for a property and your expenses are greater than your rents?
These are just some of the thousand or so things that can happen in that 10% of the time. You would be shocked at the creativity some tenants show. Every time I think I've seen it all, someone reminds me that I haven't even scratched the surface.
Landlording is definitely not for the feint at heart. For those who can learn to do it effectively, however, it can be extremely lucrative.
On the other hand, they did risk getting fired for consistently failing to estimate properly. I could ask around and see if they wound up getting canned or not.
Several years back, I was in the first scheduling meeting for project managers on a project I was working on. Most of the other PMs were Indian.
We went around the room talking about what our teams were doing and by when it could be done. The project lead asked Indian PM after Indian PM, "Can you do X by date Y?" and the answer was always, "Oh, of course! No problem! We'll have it done by then!"
Well, the project lead left the meeting, and Indian PM after Indian PM said, "There is no vay ve are going to get done by date Y" "Oh, no vay. Newer going to happen."
I asked them why they promised more than they felt that they could deliver, but none could give me much of an answer. I guess it must be just some cultural thing.
Somehow, I'm scared to even visit that site with lynx.
Yeesh.
Clearly, you do not understand what an eviction is, so let me help you. First of all, a landlord may not evict a tenant. In some jurisdictions, a landlord who evicts a tenant could go to jail. At any rate, he would certainly owe the tenant damages. Look up "constructive eviction" to see what I'm talking about.
Here's how a real eviction works:
- Tenant violates his lease, generally by not paying his rent
- Landlord posts notice on the property to "Pay or Quit" (experienced landlords do this the minute rent is late.. beginning landlords let the tenant be late for a few months before acting). This means the tenant is given X number of days (number varies by jurisdiction) to pay rent or leave.
- Assuming tenant doesn't pay by day X, landlord sues tenant for possession of his property. A court date is set.
- Landlord goes in front of a judge and says why he's suing (tenant hasn't paid rent in 3 months, or whatever), and the tenant can present a defense ("I did pay, here are the canceled checks", or "No, I did not pay, but there was a legal reason for me not to pay and that reason is Y") and the judge decides what to do.
- Assuming the tenant had no legal defense, the judge will order the sheriff to evict the tenant.
- You set up a date with the sheriff for him to do the actual eviction.
- You show up with movers and a locksmith to meet the sheriff at the scheduled time.
- Locksmith opens the door (in case the tenant changed the locks) and then locksmith changes the locks.
- Sheriff removes the tenant from the building
- Movers move all the tenants prized possessions to the curb
- Scavengers take anything of value
- Garbage man takes the rest
At this point, the landlord is out a minimum of one month of rent (it takes time for the wheels of justice to turn) and usually more, plus court costs, eviction costs, locksmith, movers, etc.In other words, if someone's getting evicted, it's for a darn good reason. It must be approved by a judge, and it costs money to do.
As you can see, this lady got kicked while she was down.
The woman easily suffered over $10,000 in damages and you're saying, "It's not so bad"?
According to this article, it was her mother's house. Could have been the house that the lady grew up in.
Shame on you for trivializing it.
The rest of your comment is based on your claim that I said "Unlimited Access" was a lie, so there's nothing more to say here.
Actually, since it's mostly Germans we're talking about here, I'd have to say that maybe the Thais are on to something and know their customers well.
I own two businesses, so I am familiar with the costs.
I stand by my original statement. Pay me $120/hr per monkey, and I will make sure they have a climate-controlled, network-accessable cage and that their paychecks are direct-deposited on time.
Men and women walk differently, and there is no getting around it. Have a seat at a park and watch people walk to see what I mean. A man can get all the silicone in the world implanted into him in all the right places, he can patronize a professional makeup artist, he can take voice lessons, etc., but he will never, ever get the walk quite right.
After your parkbench exercise, try going to the gay part of whatever town you live in and watch the drag queens overcompensate. They're trying to get "the walk", but they can't because their skeletal system is working against them. Makes for some cheap entertainment, if you like laughing at other people's struggles.
Why not let 'em work from home, then? In fact, I'll let 'em work in my home for only $120/hr. I'll pay all the electricity, hardware, toll free usage (by the way, that costs next to nothing)... I'll even have my accountant do their payroll an pay them their measly $10/hr. Where do I sign up?
But seriously, I saw a few ladyboys on the street and didn't think that they were difficult to spot. It was sort of a, "At first glance, she looks kinda cute. Let's take a closer look and.. EEWWW! Why must you do that?"
I guess that's another argument for picking your prostitutes in a strip club. You get to preview the goods that way.
Well, which is more confusing to your average business user? "Unlimited" or "Limited to 5GB/month?".
The average customer a) is not going to use 5GB/month, and b) has no idea what his monthly usage is. But for all intents and purposes, 5GB is unlimited to them. Why make them attempt to compute it?
On the flip side, a technical user knows that "Unlimited Access" couldn't mean "Unlimited Data Transfer" because of the physical impossibilities involved with transferring infinite data over a finite link in a finite amount of time. If that user is concerned, he can read the fine print, which are under a page long, and in plain English (not legalese). The fine print describes in detail what is and is not meant by "unlimited access".
At any rate, while I don't like that Verizon is playing around with the word "unlimited", it sounds like what they are doing is a lot less sinister than what your former employer was doing.
I did, however, visit a strip club while I was there, and my understanding was that the employees were available for takeout. If you are interested in patronizing a Thai prostitute, perhaps that is the safest route to go from a child sex perspective.
I wouldn't want to think about what various sundry viruses and bacteria you'd be exposing yourself to, however. One can only imagine what critters that they don't even have names for yet you could find on these ladies, let alone your standard clap, syphilis, chlamydia, HIV, herpes, warts, etc. Yee-gads.