Posts by Moz
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Hard News: Softly, softly, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Yup, I noticed when I was last in Germany the Sorbs battling the Wends all the time
Not to mention the death toll as the Samoans and Tongans battle it out on the streets of Christchurch
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Hard News: The problems inherent in the system, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
“junkie” ... or did you use the term loosely for all types of drugs?
I will, quite willingly. I live downstairs from a woman who cannot function without cigarettes, in the sense that she recently left hospital early after a smoking-related treatment because they restricted her smoking and she couldn't cope. My sister-in-law, who is officially a junkie, did much the same after giving birth recently. Should only one of them be labelled a "junky"? If so, why not the one hospitalised as a direct result of her addiction?
How do you otherwise describe someone who managed to make it most of the way through "dry July" but during that time could only talk about how much she missed drinking and how being dry was ruining her social life? Then once she'd officially failed, admitted that she'd only "officially failed" because drinking at home wasn't working for her? So "dry" was in scare quotes...
One thing that I find amusing is that the arguments against legalising cannibis are mostly predicated on the current restrictions on tobacco not being effective. Why can't we treat cannibis the same way as tobacco? Hey, why not make it part of the tobacco license?
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Speaker: Why we can’t just fix secondary…, in reply to Australopithecus,
That is what I thought too until I read this.
The marginal effects of not treating the UBI as income on non-UBI recipients could be interesting (immigrants, people who are not tax residents, for example). That paper also assumes that no employer will change wages after the UBI is introduced. Which is unrealistic - can you really imagine McDonalds not trying to reduce wages by the amount of the UBI? Sure, in the long run that won't work, but it'll take a long time to work that through peoples heads.
If I tweak that so spreadsheet that the UBI is more than the dole (I think the dole puts people below the poverty line), to, say $250/week, and leave everything else unchanged, it gets a bit less pleasant. $11.65/1000 asset tax instead of $1.37, for starters. That suggests that a top marginal rate will be needed.
Just giving that 14K to everyone (adults, children get less?) would be more progressive.
Only for people earning between $14k and $70k who have no assets (and I assume they mean net assets). The net assets issue is annoying because it links your tax to variations in the rateable value of your home (assuming you own or part-own it). And at a more realistic $11/1000 someone on $48k with a $500k home is $1200/year worse off with the UBI. Someone on $70k is $1900 worse off.
I haven't hacked the spreadsheet to see, but if we kept the 33% rate on income but added a 50% rate over $100k per Rich's plan we could avoid pushing the asset tax quite that high. Or make the asset tax progressive,m which is what some of the economist geeks are excited about this week.
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Access: Walking Is Overrated, in reply to Chelle Hope,
A quick reply to those recommending recumbent cycles: I am going through the process of finding funders for a Top End Custom Excelerator Handcycle. I'm guessing it's probably exactly what I'm being warned against.
Yup. But as with all this stuff, having something that works for you is really important. Especially since you've tried the recumbent options - that's really what I was warning you about. Don't just go with what the people nearby are familiar with, because too often they don't have a broad idea of what's out there. It's like anything else, get an expert opinion, then get a second opinion from someone who disagrees with the first expert. Otherwise you're getting one expert opinion, twice.
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Speaker: Why we can’t just fix secondary…, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
One way to alter the playing field for top earners would be to have a salary cap for the public sector
I don't see the point, like Keir says that doesn't affect the private sector at all. Much better to tax everyone and hunt down avoidance with a big sharp axe.
FWIW I see flat tax as an appeal to the libertarian right, and as such it's the sort of pointless concession that just creates problems. It appeals only to people who want a very low tax rate, and most appear to favour regressive taxation (viz, consumption taxes) over wealth taxes. Trying to sell a UBI as "helping the rich"... seems unlikely to work.
So UBI yes, flat tax no. Especially HELL NO to an actual flat tax on every dollar earned. I actually favour an exponential tax if people want mathematical purity... you pay X times log10(income), say. Or X times sqrt(income). So simple, so pure, so easy to understand. So steeply progressive :)
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Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Canard Lee Una Stan Word Jew Sane...
I am totally going to change my name to this.
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Hard News: Autism and celebrity, in reply to George Darroch,
Bah, rubbish in the media. Bah, I say, Bah!
For every medical condition, some people will get worse, other people will get better. ... In many cases, more severe the disease, the more likely it is that person will transition to a less severe form of that disease.
It even has a name: reversion to the mean. On average, variable things far from the mean tend to get closer to it. It's not rocket surgery.
My impression is that gastro-intestinal problems are becoming more common, but a lot of people are not aware of the problems they have. Especially because a lot of the symptoms are "I don't feel so good after I eat X", which naturally and unconsiously leads to not wanting to eat it. Even without a "NEW MIRACLE DIET CURE". But as soon as you pick a random person, medicalise them, and start looking for dietary problems, you find them.
I mean, I've been on the spectrum all my life, but only gluten intolerant for a few years. If I'd been like this as a child I would have noticed because the bulk of my carbs were gluten-heavy... I lived on pasta and bread. No so any more!
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Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
I think people are perfectly entitled to use whatever names they like in an informal context. ... But the Companies Office wants your full "government name", and for good reason.
Define "government name". One branch of the NZ government has dealth with me under four variations of my last name (to my knowledge, there may be more) despite it being as english as English can be (it's the name of a town in the English Midlands), as well as under "the name I am commonly known by". It's both amusing and frustrating to have to grind through a pile of variations before they can find me in their system.
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Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to Stephen R,
his birth certificate, his passport and his academic qualifications were in different names, so it took quite some effort for the relevant authorities to believe that he actually had an accounting degree.
That's one reason it's common for refugees particularly to sit a basic qualification in NZ. The other being that it's distressingly hard to verify qualifications from the source countries of many refugees. Often for political reasons, but also because after someone bombs the university into rubble and executes any survivors, it can be tricky to find someone to confirm degrees... Not that we would ever do such a thing, you understand, the coalition of the willing had a strict policy of, well, I'm sure it included not damaging non-military... well, anyway.
For more difficult names it's easier to just pick a local name and be done with it, rather than trying to train yourself to answer to Fong, Fung, Foo-ong, Foo-ung, Phuong, Phương and whatever other variations people come up with. Plus the bonus of name ordering variations, {christian name} {sire name} is not the only option, leading to official ID from different bits of the government having different names on it. When your driver's license says "Ngoc A Pham", passport "Tran An Pham", medicare card "An Tran Pham" and birth certificate "Tran An Ngoc Pham" life can be unreasonably difficult. Add a couple of credit cards and even picking up tickets at a venue can be a time-sucking experience "produce ID that mattches the credit card". Changing your name to "An from Viet Nam" starts to seem like a really good idea. Oh, sh!t, what country are you from again? For simplicity change that too, "An from Aotearoa".
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Access: Walking Is Overrated, in reply to Chelle Hope,
Particularly when it comes to recreation, we can feel really quite limited.
Yeah. I used to hang out occasionally with a woman who had MS as she ground down that ugly slope, and eventually even leaving the house was all a bit much. But for a while the local bi group was a big thing for her. We also had a bit of a working bee to round off the rough edges of the queer cafe that were unhelpful for some people ("bright" acoustics, a few small step up/down "bumps" between rooms, the iron-man strength door closing thing on the disabled toilet). You'd be amazed at how much you can fix in a rented commercial space if you ask (as a tenant, obviously). Also, queer groups and disabled people is a bigger crossover than I expected. Christchurch had a thriving deaf gay scene, for example. They really hated the bright shiny echoey "feature" the cafe had when we moved in.
I do wonder sometimes whether I am odd for noticing this stuff, or do other people see it and decide not to worry about it? Coz I'm going back through memories and there seem to be a lot of times I've met or hung out with disabled people and it hasn't really been a fuss. Or it has been, but it's been worked around (like getting ranted at by a friend about how disabled toilets often have round doorhandles and strong auto-closing mechanisms, making it very hard to get out of the room if you lack grip strength, arm strength, or the mobility to turn, pull and step while opening the door). So often it's the little questions that raise bigger ones (above: can you stand outside the toilet and open the door when I bang on it).