February 08, 2009
The truth hasn't changed in 30 years.
The government is now being run by Phil Donahue clones. Gaack.
Both via Instapundit.
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Here's what I was going to respond to that comment, but I felt it deserved its own post.
If the "spendulous" bill passes, and the market and economy further tanks as a result, I expect a tax revolution like Prop 13, pegging government spending to a base year and limiting growth to a max percentage, and even then only if the GNP goes up sufficiently.
In the meantime, what we can do now to minimize tax exposure for owners and employees? How can we operate small & medium businesses at as close to zero profit as possible? This will starve the tax system, and force cuts in spending.
I know you think about this all the time anyway, but how would you change things if your goal was to pay zero taxes as either an owner or an employee? And at the same time not end up like Gene Haas.
Yes, owners would get no profits or dividends, but they are the ones getting boned on taxes anyway. Why not just hold where they are for 2-3 years and pay no taxes?
So besides cutting non-essential spending to save cash, what can we do to compensate employees and keep the business going but not pay any taxes?
- To avoid payroll taxes, buy essentials directly for employees and owners, sales tax paid, to both drive down profits, and reduce their taxable income - grocery coupons, prepaid debit cards, etc.
- Reduce margins to lower prices and gain market share, both to limit profit and to kill competition in expectation of an upturn in the future.
- Barter - MTS provides tools to the sheet metal shop to cover labor on the weldments bought by AutoCrib
Another question: For the life of me don't know why the Democrats can't see this golden opportunity to steal a Republican idea. With nobody making any capital gains this year, and probably none for years to come, there will be scant revenue from the capital gains taxes. So why don't they go ahead and make the cap gains rate zero?
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04:00 PM
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If so, what do we do about it? My ideas will follow, but basically it's John Galt Lite.
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03:33 PM
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Education is an industrial process. Bill Gates is slowly learning this lesson after watching millions of his charity dollars get spent on trendy theories and techno toys, with no measurable positive effect. So he studied on it some, and now he thinks he has to help teachers "inspire" students (like he was, sez he) so that they want to learn. His underlying message - students "uninspired" by their teachers will never want to learn.
Wrong again, Mr. Blue Screen of Death. This is the same daffy notion that teachers and administrators always use to demand ever-greater spending on everything other than actual instruction. What makes students successful is mastery of their subjects. Mastery requires work - reading, practice questions, repetitive drills, memorization, testing, etc. Teachers need to teach mastery of their subjects. The "inspiration" come from the knowledge that failure to master the subject means fewer choices as an adult.
Let's be real: some kids can't master some subjects no matter how hard they try or how "inspired" they are. We're wrong to try to force them, and even wronger to kid them into thinking they did when they did not. But somehow we've let the education establishment change reality so that No Child [is] Left Behind, even though many should be.
So say goodbye to another $50 mil, Bill. Sooner or later you'll realize that education is preparation for life, and to the extent that preparation mirrors life, it will be successful. You don't hire software developers who can't develop software, do you Bill? They why pay teachers to pretend that kids are learning the skills required when they are not?
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Yes, indeed it does. Let's take it one more step. Let's replace the High School GED exam with one titled something like "I'm Ready to Act Like An Adult American and Here's Proof" exam.
No driver's license, no booze, no contracts, no vote until you pass. Just like immigrants need to pass the citizenship exam.
What about smart kids? One super smart mom at work has just started her highschooler on a home based online curriculum, probably something like this.
Her comment was that she would have loved to be able to do this, and I agreed. Why should all the smart kids sit through the endless dull classes dumbed-down so that No Moron is Left Behind. Once you master the subject and pass the test, you're done, and can move on.
Union teachers hate this approach, naturally, and have some derogatory term for it that I can't remember right now (I remembered: "tracking"). I say, you put your kid in this program, you get the money normally paid to the school as soon as the kid passes the tests. Talk about incentive and inspiration!.
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02:33 PM
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And he isn't happy about it:
He decided to rent a 9 million dollar mansion in Kailua and chartered a Boeing 767 from United Airlines. For those of you who don’t fly a lot a 767 is used for trans oceanic flights primarily. In fact United does not even use them to fly cross country. It seemed like an awfully big airplane for a family of 4.
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01:41 PM
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"Victim" groups like the anti Prop 8 gays try to use the courts, the legislature and raw intimidation to force people to move from tolerance to indulgence and subsidy. They end up doing the opposite, generating fear and avoidance, eroding the understanding an tolerance earned over decades of benign interaction. Strategically stupid, but typical for the self-indulgent juvenile mindset that wallows in the politics of victimization.
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01:11 PM
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Uh, Skippy? The schedule IS people.
Waiting.
For Obama.
Because he's late.
Again.
Because he and his people are disorganized amateurs.
Like Clinton, this will not improve over time. It's inbred.
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01:05 PM
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Who said this? Newt Gingrich? WF Buckley? GW Bush? John McCain?
This is why liberals abhor classics studies in college - all their ideas were proved wrong thousands of years ago, and they don't want students to find that out.
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12:55 PM
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PJ pours you a drink and delivers the bad news.
More predictions of pension fund mayhem. If this doesn't get fixed now, we'll plunge again until it does.
If you sat next to me in a bar, and the conversation turned to the nexus of Hollywood and politics, this is what you'd hear from me.
From Instapundit: So all that talk about the vanishing rainforest was crap?
The rule rather than the exception in the $870 billion spendulus package - spend more money on schools even when the local district already has money it can't spend because it is closing schools.
Why aren't the green weenies crying out to ban newspapers? Imagine the tons of carbon to be saved, at no cost to the taxpayers, achievable literally overnight! I have this same thought every time I come home to a "throw-away" paper on my driveway. How is this not littering? Why do non-subscription newspapers get to drop trash all over town?
California Dreamers awake to suffer the bed they made.
The Truth about Wal-Mart - An intrepid reporter goes undercover to find out the real story about America's most hated retailer. His scandalous conclusion? He loves the place. His most surprising find? Entrepreneurial freedom even at entry level. Don't miss the fabulous example of "pull" inventory control - the story of the car tents.
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February 06, 2009
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January 21, 2009
Classy. Mature. Confidence-building. Statesmanlike.
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January 13, 2009
"OK, lady, we'll get you in for your MRI right after the baby hippo with the blown knee."
It'll take a pallet of bonbons for her to get over this one.
Well, at least I know now there is an MRI big enough for my fat ass. The one I crammed into 10 years was like getting stuck in the heater duct running directly under the dance floor of a hip-hop club.
Just a thought - I've got to believe that, even as orotund as this lady might be, she still couldn't be as big as some pro football linemen. I'll bet you the KC Chiefs have access to an MRI big enough for every behemoth on their roster.
Posted by: JBD at
09:45 PM
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K.C. Jones says:
That's what I mean when I say every 16-year-old - they should have to read this and sign an affidavit acknowledging that they understand it before they can get their first job.
If you ARE the boss (I'm looking at you, Chief), do yourself a favor and read this out loud to a group picture of your employees. If things get worse, and taxes go up, you may get to read it to them out loud.
Anyway, here's a nice little colloquial summarization of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. So, now you don't have to read the book. The sentiments are identical.
There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company, and more specifically, your job. As you
know, the economy has changed for the worse and presents many
challenges. However, the good news is this: The economy doesn't
pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is the changing political landscape in this country.
Posted by: JBD at
09:18 PM
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January 12, 2009
Verily.
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January 05, 2009
Laffer should never show his face again.
Via Derb., who has links to more of Schiff being right while all the big-name financial media types get it horribly wrong.
Learn the basics, my friends.
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January 04, 2009
Us California employers, employees and homeowners had best throw a net over our governor and legislature if we want to keep them from making things even worse.
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January 03, 2009
The global warming myth is dying fast. With no extra money available to squander on luxuries, all the CO2 restrictions and carbon trading schemes will evaporate.
The graph that I find most devastating is the one that goes back to 3000 BC, and shows a pattern of warming events every 1500 years (shown on the graph in vertical green stripes - see Part 1 at the 8:36 mark). These events are identical to the one we're in now, and they correlate exactly to a recently-proven solar cycle.
Al Gore looks particularly clown-like with his pants down. Nice call, Nobel committee.
Part 1
Part 2
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Visual transitions - morphing each president into his successor. Guess who was the first to smile for his official presidential portrait - wait for it - Nixon!
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Immigration to the US since 1820 - a graphical representation. It makes it look like immigrants are fleeing their countries. which, of course, most were.
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What the hell good is a modern log cabin without broadband bandwidth to burn, and a robot monitor that calls you when the temperature reaches an extreme? K.C. Jones explains it all.
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The Goddess of Love laments the death of the "F". How can you go to grade school without grades? No wonder nearly half of Cal State Long Beach freshman need remedial classes in basic math and English. At Cal-State Northridge, it's 60%!! At Dominguez Hills, its 83%!!! The only campus below 30% was Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, at 12%. The rest were between 30% and 80%
Here's a suggestion - they don't get admitted if they need remediation. Problem solved, budget cut by 50% overnight! Now look again at the chart I link, and note the average high school GPA of the kids that needed remediation - 3.3 GPA! Dean's list! Grade inflation, anyone? This proves my long-standing argument that the GPA numbers should be split between basics and electives, so that your A's in Football and Ceramics won't pull up your D's in English and Math.
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Mortgage bail-out shocka! Deadbeats are still deadbeats even after mortgages are bailed out. What in the hell did they expect?
I love this part:
The rate of re-default jumped to about 53 percent after six months and 58 percent after eight months, Dugan said, without providing an explanation for the trend. [emphasis mine]
"Without providing an explanation for the trend!" How about "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!"
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07:20 PM
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