SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (29873)2/25/2008 8:05:37 AM
From: KyrosL  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 218030
 
Norway has a 48% top income tax rate according to this 2008 study. In addition, it has a VAT and a wealth tax. They are saving an awful lot of money in their wealth fund, but they are still taxing heavily to maintain their comprehensive welfare state without touching their oil revenues:

heritage.org



To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (29873)2/25/2008 1:24:02 PM
From: Maurice Winn  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 218030
 
Low expectations are great. I like the Calvin philosophy [as in Calvin and Hobbes] = If you aim low, you avoid disappointment.

I told our offspring to aim for the gutter, then, any improvment would feel great and they would pretty soon figure that the gutter isn't a pleasant habitat.

"Emily didn't aim high, she aimed low" = Emily the Strange, holding a shanghai, aiming low, presumably at somebody who wasn't shown in the image. Our daughter Emily likes Emily the Strange very much and they bear an uncanny resemblance to each other.

imagecache2.allposters.com
chocolatespoon.com

<http://www.emilystrange.com/

Emily doesn't change...she's always strange.

Emily isn't evil...she's just up to no good.

Emily didn't aim high...she aimed low.

Emily didn't search to belong...she searched to be lost.

Emily is always one step ahead.

Emily isn't lazy...she's just happy doing nothing.
>

Expecting everything to go wrong is a good idea too. It makes one paranoid and wary. That avoids things going wrong. Being positive and optimistic are hazardous to health and prosperity.

Be negative, expect things to go wrong, be worried, anxious, fearful, distrust people, hide... hey presto, happiness, because sometimes things will go right, somebody will not rob you, or attack you.

Mqurice

PS: I couldn't easily find an image of Emily the Strange with her shanghai/slingshot aiming low.



To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (29873)2/25/2008 2:34:05 PM
From: Maurice Winn  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 218030
 
Elroy, in NZ we have death by 1000 slices. Taxes appear everywhere. "Speeding" is a good one. In the USA, I am quite comfortable at or below the speed limits. In NZ, they set the speed limits so low that it's absurd.

In NZ, my crash risk goes up a lot where there are speed limits because driving at or below the speed limit is soporific and attention wanders. A lot of attention is needed to the dashboard instead of the road to avoid taxes.

But we have places where there are no speed limits. So driving can still be something in which one has to be awake and paying attention. By "no limits" I mean they set the limit so high that they might as well set it at slightly faster than the speed of light because nobody can do the speed limit.

There are places where there are 100 kilometre per hour limits and the roads are twisty, with very limited visibility and they might be gravel too. Anyone doing the speed limit will crash off the road or into something coming the other way around a corner.

I think they could just do away with speed limits altogether and turn anyone who makes a mistake, such as failing to give way where they should do, thereby causing a crash, into body parts to be sold at auction. Pretty soon, people would drive very carefully and traffic flow would improve greatly. They could build traps in the road such as big concrete blocks just around corners so that people pay attention and die if they don't.

Maybe some fine-tuning to the consequences would be desirable,

There are taxes everywhere. Building permits for the most trivial work. Resource Management Act expenses. Permits for everything. Licences for everything else. Documents for everything. Frequent passport renewals. Driving licence renewals which used to be life-time. Driving testing. Laws galore so you have to hire lawyers, who are tax collectors [pay high fees and they immediately pay 39% of that to the government]. Laws for saying anything political in an election year. Goodbye free speech.

Hilariously, the government thinks "free speech" means speech you don't pay for. Seriously, Peter Davis, the Prime Minister's wife, thinks free speech is speech not paid for. The government obviously does too.

My guess is the government does about 70% of all spending. Compliance costs are huge. When I hire an accountant, that is considered to be "private spending" rather than taxation, but it is in fact taxation by another name. I get no benefit from it other than not being further attacked by the government. I don't want or need an accountant other than to attempt [but still fail] to comply with tax laws.

Mqurice



To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (29873)2/27/2008 12:30:20 AM
From: 49thMIMOMander  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 218030
 
"the cost of life" can often be measured in.

- prenatal healthcare, to get a good, healthy brain-fetal-start
- the actual birth
. post-natal care (brain, muscular, hormonal too, as it is said)
. child care (that is actually really cheap)
- learning basic skills as to read and write (learning to read is cheaper than learning to write)
- learning to multiply and divide (division is really expensive and difficult, interest rates, special sub-deals and coupons, etc, flat rates and IRS..)
- pay for the mortage, teaser rates and sub-prime rates, plus 28% on the gratis Visa card (division is difiicult, even by a metric 100, as any economist has found out)
- save for the education, OF CHOICE, for the poor kids
- buy four more cars, insurances, plus garages, really lots of gasoline and insurances, sub/insurances and special private investments and insuramentes.
- invest for ones retirement, to rent out the garages to as many as possible illegal ones.
(while paying the property taxes for the kids of those living down the streets, but not in the garages)

Usually that is enough for the local costs and investments, in general it is a costs of appr 10-15% of the parents if one includes the cost of police, the firebrigade, some courts and basic education, plus some roads so that the kids can go to school.

If more is to be invested, one can expect additional costs, highways, railroads, even air and sea, maybe some space ports and some universities.

At this point the hundreds of thousands of dollars and euros tend to stack up, especially for really skilled kids, often reaching some $200-400,000, even millions for those who need special education to graduate, brain surgeons, governors or presidents of USA, or who just got bad at a very early age, got their stuff from the local 7-11 and then got well orgnized..

Anyway, if one has more than 1.5 child and more than 2.75 grandparents, plus more than half a somewhat well behaved neighbour, the scandinavian system is much more efficient.

For example, the cost of building huge walls all around the property, installing iront bars in front of every window close to the ground, feeding lots of dogs running around between those windows and those walls, plus making sure the guard at the gate has his AK/47 properly loaded and knows how to use it, can be fairly high.

What is worse, the maids and gardeners cannot get to their job by just taking the bus, they must be inspected every time they arrive and leave, or live on the property, for example in the cellar.

That is also another cost of life, especially for the kids, also fo the maid and the gardner, although the wife might really think the gardner the younger one, is a good investment.

However, it might still be possible to let out the kid to play, and get them into a good univerity, with good donations and alumnian multi-generational points and scores at the entrance and the exit.

PS It seems the exit is funnier these days...

PPPPS Funny stuff, if one studies hard, becomes productive at age 30, one has another 20-30 years to be productive, and then another 30/40 years to be retired.

Those productive 20-30 years are really cheap, with less than 1.5 kid and less than 2.75 grandparents and almost no neighbors.

However, every tenth year there is a deep recession, even regression, one might go postal or shoot ..
(about 10 years ago, it became dangerous to go out, regular lunch, and eat with ones collegues and underperformers, in CA?? somebody might enter the lunch, although not with a postal AK-47 then)

youtube.com

PPPS A flat rate of 10% plus a dozen of free AK-47 (a $150 these days( is a good start.