jcd11235

I guess it's quite fortunate that it isn't a difficult decision choosing between Obama and McCain. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

Obama offers a pretty good chance of bringing both intelligence and rationality back to the Oval Office, after their eight year absence. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

The problem with being the guy to beat is that people come from all over to try until, inevitibly, someone succeeds. Jaw-jaw is far superior to war-war when it comes to foreign policy. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

Exactly. Yet, how many people have we all heard claim that the only way the god is through Christ? If God "intended" such a message to be shared, it would be readily provable. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

Hopefully, we're learning a lesson on the demand side for the long term (though I fear we won't), and the supply side must now be stabilized, and that means diversifying energy production away from the middle east, and corrupt states of south America fossil fuel sources and investing heavily in alternative, renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal. IMO Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

Which will increase stock value. Those that aren't making a profit still won't see any taxes. Those that are simply avoiding taxes will have to start paying their way, giving the former group a competitive advantage, or, more accurately, removing an artificial competitive disadvantage. Taxing the stock sales removes incentives for corporations to keep profits as cash flow rather than paying dividends. It really doesn't matter if the corporations' profits are realized in the form of dividends or increased stock value, it is still profit, and should be taxed as such. There are limits to the annual contributions of IRA's. Most of those who invest are already taking full advantage of such tax shelters. Encouraging more to do the same would not be a bad thing. Too much is relative to age as much as income level. As far as real estate goes, two years has traditionally been a very short term investment in real estate. As bad as the collapse of the housing bubble crisis has been, most people are only indirectly affected. In the long term, it may even end up having very little effect on housing prices. Buying a house now would be a good investment for Americans that can afford mortgage payments. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

I realize new cars don't need plugs, points, and condenser every 15K miles. I also realize that Obama is not going to put Tom and Ray out of business anytime soon. However, he's right on the money with his claims that properly inflated tires and a well tuned engine (i.e. maintenance properly done in timely manner) will increase gas mileage right now. On the other hand, opening up ANWR, for example, will do very little, if anything to help our current energy problems. This is an issue that has to be tackled primarily from the demand side. Negligible increases in supply, such as from the strategic reserve or ANWR are drops in the bucket that offer little real benefit. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

You didn't show how the article implied that corporations were cheating on their taxes. No Vinny, they can accomplish lots of things. They just accomplish it as a team. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

You did. "I would like to see all corporate taxes paid directly by shareholders on dividends and stock profits" You left off the part about corporations not paying taxes before dividends are paid. That's not what you said above - which are you advocating? That's what I've been advocating all along. I'm not trying to raise the taxes, I want the taxes to be payed once, by the individual owners, instead of once by the corporation, on behalf of the owners, and then again by the owners on their own behalf. Simplifying the system would make it easier to close loopholes. One side benefit is that it would give corporations that are not currently trying to evade taxes (legally or otherwise) a competitive advantage. Another benefit is that it would remove some incentive for American companies to shift operations or profits overseas to avoid taxes. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

Not the way to encourage long term holdings of equities or mutal funds based on equities. I'm not sure what your logic is for that statement. I don't think it would have much effect in that respect. Should I pretend to be surprised? The reason for lowering the tax rate for dividends was specifically to encourage investors to bias towards stable, cash paying corporations over profitless growth stocks. Of course, you want to kill growth stocks too, by taxing investor gains in lieu of actual corporate profits. Already the tax code makes investing in mutual funds outside a tax sheltered account a retarded idea. You seek to make it worse. All with the claim it would balance out. Right.... What I propose would not make long term investments less attractive. I don't understand why you think taxes would increase. The change is not in how much tax is paid. The change is in when the tax is paid. The only way the taxes would increase is if corporations were receiving corporate welfare, and those are generally not corporations in which we should be encouraging investment. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

Who said anything about more taxes? Right now corporations pay taxes before the shareholders get their money. I'm proposing the shareholders should get the money before taxes, and then it should be taxed. It doesn't raise taxes, it helps stop corporate welfare by eliminating loopholes in the tax code. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

You might be surprised how many people ignore check engine lights. As Bill pointed out, new engines are not maintenance free. Failure to perform that maintenance can decrease mileage. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

Not the way to encourage long term holdings of equities or mutal funds based on equities. I'm not sure what your logic is for that statement. I don't think it would have much effect in that respect. Yeah, they might actually have to talk to their financial advisors. We can't have that. Their taxes would increase, but so would the taxable income, balancing things out. The only people who would suffer are those invested in corporations receiving corporate welfare in the form of subsidies and/or loopholes in the tax structure that allows them to avoid tax liabilities. For all other shareholders, the taxes would be the same, they'd simply be paid at a different time, by the owners instead of on behalf of the owners. It would also decrease incentive for companies to move overseas to avoid taxes. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

Are you assuming that the brains of males and females are identical, and work identically? BTW, I think transexuals believe they have the gender of one sex, but the genitalia of the other. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

The point of the article was not to show that corporations were cheating on their taxes. It was to show how few corporation paid taxes. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

I agree on the first part, but disagree on the last. Margin is used just as dishonestly, pushing emotionally based agendas. I would like to see all corporate taxes paid directly by shareholders on dividends and stock profits. I think the tax loopholes could be eliminated (or close to it) that way. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

I agree, but people do it here often, specifically how Microsoft has a higher profit margin. It's a meaningless comparison, however. It's probably more useful in the fireplace than in the computer. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

It's significantly more useful for making appropriate comparisons. It's just not convenient to your stance here. Sure. If you wanted to compare Exxon to BP it's very useful. If you want to compare Exxon to Microsoft, however, it's useless without other important information. Please, tell me, what is my stance (other than the fact that profit margin is nearly useless without other information)? Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

That's a misleading statistic if I ever saw one. It only counts those who return to prison, not those who are released and stay out. It doesn't tell us how bad recidivism is. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

Very interesting. Thanks for posting that. It's nice to see real world evidence that it can be done. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see that their alternate energy (and cogeneration) industry caused a net increase of jobs, offering additional benefits to their national economy. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

I don't think it's a good idea. Of course neither is opening up new areas for drilling. The energy problem needs to be addressed primarily on the demand side, not the supply side. It's a shame that he was ridiculed for his much better suggestion of keeping tires inflated and engines tuned up. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

By itself, profit margin is a meaningless number. but margin has more meaning than straight dollar amounts which are the only thing ever discussed I disagree. Margin is not any less meaningful than straight dollar amounts, but it's not any more meaningful, either. People often try to use profit margin like it's comparable to the interest rate of a bank account, but they are not similar to one another, except in cases where the length of the production cycle is one year. That's not the case for oil. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

No, It's your responsibility to pay. If it costs you a little bit more money to make payment, that's not my problem. I gave you the easy option of donating a buck to the ACLU. If you would rather send payment to me via PayPal, that's fine, but I'm not going to cover the fees; you'll have to. If you would rather mail the payment, that's fine too. I'll PM my address. It's quite laughable that you consider a citation from the Constitution to not qualify as a good faith response. This is why people should always post their money when making bets. There's all too often a poor loser who whines about pay up. It's implied with any wager that the loser is responsible for getting payment to the winner. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

Lucky did a pretty good job describing the process. Well, what he did was give his view of it. Are you truly unable to understand that what he did and what you have done does not count as "citation" any more than anyone's lay opinions? Considering that, not only did the article you cited not address law specific to the US, but that it was Wikipedia, your own citation carries no more credibility than Lucky's or my assertion. Try to find a single source showing that any criminal convictions cannot be appealed. Of course, that doesn't mean the appeal will be successful, but that's true even if the appeal is automatic. Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!