Posts by James Butler
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OnPoint: Why Rightwingers Should Support…, in reply to Greg Sands,
But I’m sure there’s an Occam’s Razor for Economics – that the simplest solution is the most efficient.
Well, both flat tax and poll tax are very efficient. The quibble is whether the most efficient solution is necessarily the best.
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OnPoint: Why Rightwingers Should Support…, in reply to James Butler,
Replying to self, OTOH no exemption might help drive investment in improving existing housing versus always trading up, which might be of benefit too...
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OnPoint: Why Rightwingers Should Support…, in reply to Keith Ng,
Optimistic but intriguing! It doesn’t change the efficiency argument: It’s still going to mean that people will invest in things that are not necessarily the best investment (e.g. Houses)
Depends on the meaning of "investment". They might not realize the highest monetary return, but will perhaps on average live in a nicer house, which might be a good thing overall.
but it does mean that they won’t consume the gains immediately. Unless they borrow against their houses for consumption…
Heav'n forfend anyone would do that.
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Am I wrong in thinking that the family home exemption acts kinda like a combined incentive towards better housing and retirement savings? For most people it will not be cashed in until they either trade down in housing (which often happens after retirement) or die (passing the benefit to descendants); otherwise it just acts as a general subsidy on the house you actually live in, which (hopefully) people will be more careful and long-sighted in maintenance than investment properties. In this way it seems to cover some of the same goals as Kiwisaver incentives.
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Speaker: The great New Zealand phone…, in reply to BenWilson,
Not really. All you have to do is nick the owner's bag and steal their keys. This is what people don't get about security. Most of it is down to simple shit.
Indeed. The HBGary Hack for example was a little more involved than most, but one of Anonymous's biggest exploits in that instance was pure social engineering:
From: Greg
To: Jussi
Subject: need to ssh into rootkit
im in europe and need to ssh into the server. can you drop open up
firewall and allow ssh through port 59022 or something vague?
and is our root password still 88j4bb3rw0cky88 or did we change to
88Scr3am3r88 ?
thanks
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From: Jussi
To: Greg
Subject: Re: need to ssh into rootkit
hi, do you have public ip? or should i just drop fw?
and it is w0cky - tho no remote root access allowedetc.. Password discovered, firewall unlocked.
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Legal Beagle: Asking the next question, in reply to David Hood,
My question would be something like- Is there any level of empirical evidence that would cause you to change your mind on this? If so, what?
Brash has repeatedly claimed that he changed his mind from an orthodox "social democrat" perspective to his later right-leaning views based on empirical evidence he was exposed to during his academic study. So I suspect there's something wrong with his concept of "evidence" in the first place.
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My children have been indoctrinated with the proper degree of excitement at school – they’re certainly getting none of it at home. Each of them has been assigned a participating country to learn about; my daughter’s country is Canada, and her first assignment about Canada was to write about the Seattle Space Needle. facepalm.jpg
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Speaker: John and Phil meet Bob, in reply to Craig Young,
Euthanasia reform and drug policy are in the righthand corner due to the lack of professional medical opinion that supports euthanasia rights or progressive drug policy reform.
Re. "progressive drug policy reform", the NZMA is on record as being cautiously supportive.
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Speaker: John and Phil meet Bob, in reply to Kracklite,
Well for that one question at least, Goff appears to have been considering the votes of his supporters and potential supporters, rather than the votes of those sitting in the room. I'd like to see the whole session, though, before getting my hopes up too much.
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Speaker: John and Phil meet Bob, in reply to Russell Brown,
Goff seemed better prepared. The one question he’s shown answering – on parental notification in abortion cases – he answers clearly, and without giving ground to the questioner.
That was surprising and hopeful. Less hopeful was Gower's summary at the end of said article:
While Mr Key and Goff don't really share the views of the religious right and made no actual commitments, both were only too happy to go along today and make the right noises. That's because there might be something in it for them – votes.