jazzyk

Most loopholes are aimed at big corporations and high-income people ($1M+). You and I cannot take advantage of them easily.

Loopholes:

- obfuscate the fact that "certain" people, who should be paying 35% are not, in fact, paying a penny.

- give incredible power to the people who decide what "certain" group to reward with them or threaten to withdraw them

You are absolutely correct - there has been a collusion of both political parties in the US to serve the globalist elite. With plenty of "useful idiots" among us to look at you (and me) as if we had two heads and argue that we have a "choice".

Unfortunately, it will take years (if ever) for most people to realize this.

What if you make the rules so simple that there are NO loopholes and there is no/little possibility for tax avoidance?

Agree - we would need to introduce term limits in D.C. and a bunch of other changes. Not going to happen until the SHTF.

Could be tax on profit or % of revenue, if there is no profit.

The solution is just not that complicated:

1. For individuals, simple tax code which does not distinguish where your income came from, but does keep income brackets (not flat tax).

2. For businesses, distinguish between:

- "US-based" company which would pay 10% corporate tax. A US-based company would need to have at least 66% of employees based in the US and/or at least 50% of the products/services produced in the US.

- "international" company would pay 35% corporate tax, if they want to do business in the US.

That's because these days it is very hard to get even a starter house (in a good neighborhood) even having a steady job.

And I have not seen too many steady jobs in high-tech.

The only option to get ahead is to either play the lottery or "do a startup" (pretty much like lottery)

I'd rather drive a Lexus (and I actually do own one).

I'd rather drive a car that I can use, not a car that needs to spend time in the mechanics garage being repaired.

BTW, BMW is not going out of business any time soon (unless we have a massive move towards all-electric cars in a short period of time), because there will always be people who will want to drive a "beemer".

They are far from "second to none".

They are good, but for the price they command they should be better (Audi markets their cars as "luxury", but their quality is just average, see the latest JD Power study [1], also Hyundai's dependability is above BMW's)

Eagerly awaiting "dependability is not everything" comments :-)

[1] http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/2017-vehicle-dependabi...

While taxes in Europe are a bit higher, here is what you get in return:

1. Paid-for healthcare. In the US, I pay close to $2K/month premium for a high-deductible health insurance plan.

2. Subsidized child-care (kindergarten, etc.)

3. Paid-for higher education. That in itself is worth at least $250K/child.

4. Great public transport, which eliminates the need to have more than 1 car (as opposed to 3-4 per household in the US)

5. Decent infrastructure in general (airports, train stations, etc). The US looks like a third-world country.

Also, please keep in mind that while income taxes in the US are a bit lower, they are still significant:

- State tax (usually 5-7%)

- Real-estate taxes. It is not uncommon to pay $1000/month for a very average house in a Boston suburb with good schools.

- "Invisible" taxes, such as excise taxes (cars, oats, etc), alcohol, tobacco, gasoline taxes.

Lack of gold standard is not sufficient for inflation - you also need reckless monetary/fiscal government policies (abundant in the US, taking full advantage of the dollar being the reserve currency)

I was not trying to prove causation. There appears to be correlation, but obviously other factors (like government spending) are at play

Correct, but the pundits are also correct, because there are really two different economies in the US:

- the "Walmart" economy - no inflation there, regular Joe Schmoes have not had a real raise in years

- the "Hamptons" economy - lots of money sloshing around (thanks to the Fed), bankers, etc spending big on luxury real-estate, etc.

The end of the US dollar international convertibility to gold did not happen until August 15, 1971.

It is also exactly the year inflation took off like a rocket - see the "Cumulative Inflation" graph. And the standard of living for the middle class (at least in the US) began to stagnate (up to this day).

https://inflationdata.com/Inflation/Inflation/Cumulative_Inf...

I am far from rich, and not a banker.

I assume by "woman" you meant someone who is at or below poverty line, if so, I (and most people) don't have a problem chipping in.

The point you are missing is that right now, 90% of the US population cannot afford to pay for child-birth (or any other medical procedure) themselves (out of pocket), as they typically cost $20K and up.

With a reasonable market- (or single-payer-) based health-care system, most people (except for the poor and almost-poor) would be able to pay for their own health care. The current "system" in the US is a scam of major proportions.

Sadly, it is the recession, not the awareness.

It is like with car sales: every time gas prices go up, people start buying Priuses, etc. But the minute gas prices come down, SUVs (the bigger, the better) are all the rage again.

In the US, Planet Fitness' membership is $100/year (there are others, such as WOW).

Hardly a major financial commitment.

I love Ceylon - it is what Java should have evolved into (had it been managed better).

Java replacement would have to introduce something an order of magnitude better than Java, just like Java did, with respect to C/C++ (for business-level applications).

None of the existing solutions (Kotlin, Scala, etc) are at that level.

ObjectSpace Voyager was a supremely well designed piece of software - it made complicated things simple.

It was also a bit ahead of the time, or perhaps not marketed well.

Like it or not, we have nation-states, not a global labor market.

The government of EVERY country in the world is elected to take care of their citizens. Why should the US government worry about wages of Chinese citizens - Chinese people have their own government, no?

BTW, the US is already very open (close to 15% of population is foreign born, the highest in a century). In an economic crisis, it is not unreasonable to slow down immigration a bit.

Also, it is ironic that you use the example of China, perhaps the most protectionist major country in the world.

There is no clear definition of what "hate speech" is. For example, would you categorize this WaPo article:

"Segregationists have again assumed their pedestals in the Justice Department, the White House and many other American temples. Paper alone won’t drive them out. Start throwing rocks." [1]

as hate speech?

If yes, should we ban WaPo?

If not, why not? Who decides? By what standards?

Private entities which are not de-facto monopolies (like Google) have the right to do as they please, but they should publish VERY clear rules, which will then apply to anyone, regardless of political affiliation.

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2017/...

Your statement would have been non-controversial if it had not been made in the context of the parent statements.

But it was contextual.

So importing cheap labor is ethical, opposing that practice - is not ethical?

1. The statement (politico) you refer to was made 5 days after the incident, in a private meeting, Obama said it was "hate crime", did not use the word "racist", did not mention they were BLM sympathizers.

2. Obama did speak up just one day after the events [1], but he did not specifically mention BLM in particular, claiming lack of confirmed info (justifiably so)

Trump immediately spoke up, but did not mention white supremacists, drawing huge criticism.

I am far from a Trump enthusiast, but can you not see double standard applied here?

[1] Full transcript here: http://fortune.com/2016/07/08/transcript-obama-dallas-police...

The rate you quote is not a good indicator of overall unemployment - it only measures the dynamics of layoffs in the last 6 months.

The more realistic measure of unemployment, the Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate is at about 63%, back to where we were in 1977. And a lot of women have joined the workforce since then.

https://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet

You are conflating action with speech. Showing pornography to minors is an act, not a statement of opinion.

Google has been doing an excellent job drawing (the wrong kind of) attention to themselves, thank you very much.

High-visibility lawsuits have been brewing already:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/08/google-wo...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/07/google-pa...

So, as a male, should I sue someone who (correctly) points out that I cannot breastfeed for being "sexist", and for "perpetuating gender stereotypes"

Your analogy to race is wrong.

There is no research (to the best of my knowledge) claiming that there are biological differences between the same sex of different races.

But there is enough research about biological differences between sexes (and some differences are obvious, such as different hormones, etc) to at least warrant a debate.

"Sexist" is one of a handful of words that have become absolutely sacred in the US, at the expense of scientific discovery (or common sense, or both).

Please see my reply in another sub-thread.

This is off-topic, so very briefly:

The NYT published at least two stories about an "unverified" dossier on Trump. Admitting it is unverified, yet they claim:

1. "consequences have been incalculable and will play out long past Inauguration Day" 2. "By all accounts, Mr. Steele has an excellent reputation"

Is it just me, or do they (subtly) suggest that, while "unverified", there may be something to the dossier?

If it is unverified (and quite damning), why publish it?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/us/politics/donald-trump-...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/us/politics/donald-trump-...