Posts by Paul Campbell
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Note the word pretend. Because I don't for a second believe the Glee group could have joined in and got the sign language right first time. Nor do I believe for a second the harmonies could have been organised and got right first time. It's pretend and my job is to suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy it.
While I probably agree with you both my kids were taught somre basic sign (ASL) in primary school in the US so it's not completely beyond the pale
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naturalist?
Many many years ago my Grandmother belonged to the Dunedin Naturalists Field Club ... a group of what was then primarily little old ladies who would go and look at plants .... they used to titter and explain that they were naturalists, and not those other people ....
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I'm just pissed we have to use an american sports metaphor what happened to "6 balls and you're over"?
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I think that the right wing govts like to give us the illusory tax decreases by readjusting the bars and the lefties tend to like the slight increase in money available to spend ... it's sort of a politically neutral rort
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Also on my wishlist - income scales that slide up with inflation annually, so we don't have people creeping up the scales as their income goes up as money gets worth less.
The problem is that fiscal drag (the opposite of what you want - which is when the govt quietly gets more money as inflation pulls people up the tax scales) is alluring to politicians - not only does it quietly help solve their budget woes by bringing in more taxes than inflation alone but it also gives them the chance to win the PR bonus of "lowering taxes" by periodically adjusting for it - if you make it automatic think of what they'll lose!
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but then so would things like the various tax free allowances in the US system - there you can write off the interest on your mortgage, your rates, cost of registering your car, .... it's also why, when I lived there, I filed a 20-30 page tax return ....
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I agree it's a pain - but IMHO not including education/policing because it comes from a different tax isn't really that different from not including social security taxes - I think the US SS tax is actually harder to include because it stops after you've paid it on the first $90k or so of your income - it only really applies to the poor and middle class.
I think it's pretty easy math to do:
Real Rate = (F + S)/(1+S)
(F=federal rate, S=state rate)
So if you're paying 15% federal tax and 5% fixed state rate - you're really paying 19%, on 45% you're really paying 47% (see how it affects the poor more)
In effect in your graphs it inflates each of the segments by 3-4% (depends on the state and the federal rate) and because it comes out prior to the income rates that are used to determine federal rates it doesn't change how many people are in each wedge
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And (back on my hobby horse) other countries also have state taxes - for example Oz funds state education/police/etc that we fund through our income taxes using state payroll taxes - in essence your employer pays a 5-6% flat tax on your income before you see it - this is equivalent to a 3-4% increase in personal tax rates (but it's also essentially an increase by 5-6% in actual income - employees are more expensive in Australia than NZ because of this)
(Similarly in California I paid a marginal 10% state income tax - equivalent to a 6-7% increase in my federal rate)
I think you have to include this stuff if you want to compare our tax rates with Australia's in an apples vs. apples sort of way
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recordari: Muldoon/National were still running on a "reds under the bed" platform through the 70s
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Keith: there's a broken 'hhttp:' link there
[Keith: Chur. Fixed.]