News:

And we're back!

Main Menu

The Off Topic Topic

Started by Korea, March 10, 2009, 06:24:26 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

garbon

Quote from: Tyr on February 10, 2021, 08:28:50 AM
Quote from: garbon on February 10, 2021, 07:56:14 AM

Series 2 seems questionable as that doesn't really seem like an answer to taxes taking your hard earned money. While it is true that we are in a negative place with wide wealth inequality and low social mobility, that isn't always the case. My parents started out their lives on food stamps.

Aren't your parents north of 60 though?

Yes?
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Habbaku

Is Tyr just communicating in the same style as the 2nd series?  :hmm:
The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.

-J. R. R. Tolkien

Sheilbh

Quote from: garbon on February 10, 2021, 08:15:34 AM
Andrew Lloyd Webber apparently has now created a musical ode to her.
Why is Britain so weird about everything like this? :lol:

See the BBC after reporting on the lawyer-cat video:
https://twitter.com/scottygb/status/1359514007678447616?s=20
Let's bomb Russia!

Maladict

Quote from: Syt on February 10, 2021, 07:11:53 AM
Moin is a pretty common greeting in North Germany (at all times of day). Some say "moin moin", but that's usually the mark of a non-local. :P

It's an informal greeting, though. So you wouldn't greet a lawyer or your banker that way (unless you know each other well). In shops, bars and restaurants it kind of depends on the type of establishment. Saying "moin" in a small pub or at a gas station or a little bakery would be fine. In a fancy restaurant not so much.

Take that with a grain of salt. I haven't been up North in 15 years. :P

We say moi up north. A lot of platt seems to be a bridge between Frisian and Danish. I can understand parts of it perfectly fine, other parts are complete gibberish.

The Larch

My teacher, who is from Berlin, uses "Moin moin" occasionally.

crazy canuck

Quote from: Admiral Yi on February 10, 2021, 07:59:59 AM
A prerequisite for drawing a cartoon about taxes should be to know what the hell you're talking about.

How would you change it and in what way is it not accurate?

crazy canuck

Quote from: garbon on February 10, 2021, 07:56:14 AM
Series 2 seems questionable as that doesn't really seem like an answer to taxes taking your hard earned money. While it is true that we are in a negative place with wide wealth inequality and low social mobility, that isn't always the case. My parents started out their lives on food stamps.

True there are a very few of us who are the exception to the limited social mobility of modern society.  But the exception proves the rule.

DGuller

I think the line about being "born rich" is really unfair and unnecessary.  Fact is that Elon Musk and Jess Bezos could become rich in US, but probably not in Somalia, is due to the fact that our governance system makes it easier for you to turn a good idea into obscene wealth.  Our governance system needs tax dollars to maintain, so it makes sense to skew that maintenance towards those who benefitted the most from it.

Sheilbh

Quote from: crazy canuck on February 10, 2021, 10:49:54 AM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on February 10, 2021, 07:59:59 AM
A prerequisite for drawing a cartoon about taxes should be to know what the hell you're talking about.

How would you change it and in what way is it not accurate?
I think it does slide around between income and wealth. Personally I'm fine with UK income tax rates but we do nowhere near enough on taxing wealth.

But then I'm a bit of an extremist on that stuff :blush:
Let's bomb Russia!

Admiral Yi

Quote from: DGuller on February 10, 2021, 10:54:10 AM
I think the line about being "born rich" is really unfair and unnecessary.  Fact is that Elon Musk and Jess Bezos could become rich in US, but probably not in Somalia, is due to the fact that our governance system makes it easier for you to turn a good idea into obscene wealth.  Our governance system needs tax dollars to maintain, so it makes sense to skew that maintenance towards those who benefitted the most from it.

Maintenance of our governance system is a pretty tiny part of public spending.

Malthus

The second set of panels would make more sense if it was split into two ideas.

One: you won't reach the highest tax bracket unless you make a lot of money (this varies a lot by country of course). So it will hardly make a beggar of you.

Two: progressive taxation has had little impact on social mobility. Despite progressive taxation, most people (not all, but most) who earn a high income, have parents who also had a high income. Again, this will vary by nation.
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

DGuller

Quote from: Admiral Yi on February 10, 2021, 11:11:37 AM
Quote from: DGuller on February 10, 2021, 10:54:10 AM
I think the line about being "born rich" is really unfair and unnecessary.  Fact is that Elon Musk and Jess Bezos could become rich in US, but probably not in Somalia, is due to the fact that our governance system makes it easier for you to turn a good idea into obscene wealth.  Our governance system needs tax dollars to maintain, so it makes sense to skew that maintenance towards those who benefitted the most from it.

Maintenance of our governance system is a pretty tiny part of public spending.
I consider both the military and the social welfare spending as part of our governance.  Both are necessary piece to secure our governance advantage.

crazy canuck

Quote from: Malthus on February 10, 2021, 11:12:43 AM
The second set of panels would make more sense if it was split into two ideas.

One: you won't reach the highest tax bracket unless you make a lot of money (this varies a lot by country of course). So it will hardly make a beggar of you.

Two: progressive taxation has had little impact on social mobility. Despite progressive taxation, most people (not all, but most) who earn a high income, have parents who also had a high income. Again, this will vary by nation.


I agree with point 1.  But the issue with point 2, in the US at least, is that there really isn't a progressive tax anymore (Warren Buffet famously complained his secretary pays more tax) and that is one of the causes of low social mobility in the US.

crazy canuck

Quote from: Sheilbh on February 10, 2021, 10:56:48 AM
Quote from: crazy canuck on February 10, 2021, 10:49:54 AM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on February 10, 2021, 07:59:59 AM
A prerequisite for drawing a cartoon about taxes should be to know what the hell you're talking about.

How would you change it and in what way is it not accurate?
I think it does slide around between income and wealth. Personally I'm fine with UK income tax rates but we do nowhere near enough on taxing wealth.

But then I'm a bit of an extremist on that stuff :blush:

That is a fair point

Admiral Yi

Quote from: DGuller on February 10, 2021, 11:23:56 AM
I consider both the military and the social welfare spending as part of our governance.  Both are necessary piece to secure our governance advantage.

Does that mean that European states that spend far more on social welfare secure even more governance advantage than residents of the US do?