The Big Money

Let Them Eat Fries: The Solution is Always the Same

einnocent — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:58:49 GMT

Fast food should be taxed just enough to pay for the problems it causes, as should everything else. We shouldn't be encouraging or discouraging anyone from behaviors we believe to be morally repugnant. Instead, we should only be de-externalizing costs that parties to a transaction bear upon others.

We should structure our society for maximal freedom -- that is, such that one can do whatever one wants so long as it does not restrict the freedom of another. A de-externalizing cost-recovery tax does exactly that. Anyone who disagrees with me prefers to make others pay for their poor choices and thus hates freedom, not to mention personal accountability.

C'mon, people. Stop hating freedom. Like, seriously.

love

srinu6926 — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:53:47 GMT

Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection[1] and attachment. The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure ("I loved that meal") to intense interpersonal attraction ("I love my boyfriend"). This diversity of uses and meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, even compared to other emotional states. purchase steroids gxracers

The Property Tax Casino

mathpol — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:32:07 GMT

Americans love to gamble. In casinos or online. They throw money on the roulette table, where the odds would be fair except for that pesky 0 and 00. They love to buy lottery tickets; never mind that the expected return is about 50 cents on the dollar. But if property tax rates are raised, even by a miniscule amount, they are ready to man the barricades. Here in Michigan we now have a particularly perverse situation where, for many, property taxes (which can only go up by 5% per year) are continuing to go up even while property values are coming down. So I have a modest proposal. The state should establish a PROPERTY TAX CASINO.

Here’s how it would work. The state builds a casino, with all the games but poker and blackjack, and all the bells and whistles, scantily clad waitresses, croupiers. and so forth. They then set up the slot machines and other games so that their expected return is, say 50%. This means that a person willing to gamble $2000 can expect to lose 50%, or $1000, on average. The law of large numbers works for casinos, since everyone is betting against them, so the state will get its 50% return. (I assume that operating expenses will be offset by gamblers’ purchases.)

For simplicity, let’s assume that everyone’s property tax is $1,000. You go to the casino and pony up your $1,000 + 100% = $2,000, and you are given $2,000 in chips. You should gamble away all your chips. Your winnings are paid in script, which can be redeemed for cash when you leave. If you choose not to gamble away all your chips, you can only redeem half their value when you leave, since that is what you would expect to lose, on average, if you gambled them all away. For example, if you decide not to gamble at all, you get $1,000 back.

So everyone has an entertaining and enjoyable time, they lose on average $1000, and the state in the end gets all the property tax money it is owed.

Oh, and one more thing. Perhaps we should call it the PT Casino, since “tax” is indeed a four letter word.

With Krugman’s win, economics has become a joke.

Escalation — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:25:01 GMT

A scientist is someone who identifies the truth, without bias. Economics is the science of what is (or what works), not what one wants it to be. Krugman, on the other hand, is a flame throwing radical leftist with an extreme ideological bent, who is incapable of rational thought beyond his progressive psychosis. Marxist equality trumps economics and reason.

His Nobel Prize in Economics is similar to the Dixie Chicks, the Clintons and Obama garnering more Grammy Awards than Beatles. These recording “artists” won because of the ideological leanings of the award givers. With Krugman’s win, economics has become a joke. Most of us who once considered economics to be legitimate scientific endeavor are disgusted.

With friends like George Bush . . .

Faustling — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:30:11 GMT

capitalism hardly needs enemies.

The mp3 cuts off at 8:26

tsarstruck — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:23:46 GMT

Slate, can we get a fix?

Grammar Question

jjenkins — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 22:43:07 GMT

Sorry to be a jerk, but shouldn't this properly be "Every Day" not "everyday?" For example, "It was an everyday happening." vs. "It happened every day."