Wii!

[Evaders99]

The poor don't get shafted by this plan. In fact, essential goods and services are not taxed per a rebate that each resident receives.

http://www.fairtax.org/fairtax/faqanswers.htm#3

Also the rich spend much more money.. and not just on luxury goods.

Respected economists have shown that the wealthy spend much more on unprepared food, clothing, housing, and medical care than do the poor.

[DarthTex]

About that fairtax thing: Doesn't that automatically reduce the taxes collected from the rich? There's a federal tax on those things we buy, now, meaning that the cost of basic goods will increase slightly, no? The rich still have the same basic consumption needs as the people, and thus buy the same amount as the people in general. Those who are not as well off economically now have to pay more for those things they need, do they not?

You might be thinking of the luxury tax, but one correction: the rich far outspend the poor for basic consumption needs (just because they're rich mind you). Also for an example: the rich guy spending $90,000 on a Mercedes pays more in taxes than a poor guy spending $10,000 on a Kia. Also, taxes are built into the price of EVERYTHING so it does not appear as a separate line item on receipts. Everybody (including the rich) receive a "prebate" every month (basically a subsidy on the taxes that would be paid if you were at the poverty level). That way "the poor" aren't spending their own money on taxes for essentials. The more you spend, the more taxes get paid. Now, if I were to get to keep the +30% the gov't is taking out of my paycheck, I'd be buying things I otherwise couldn't. Meaning I'll be paying taxes on those purchases, AND stimulating the economy by purchasing more goods, at the same time. A better economy means people get lower prices, and there should be more jobs, which means more people have money to buy things which means more taxes are being paid. Get it? Got it? Good! And the best part ... NO IRS! No "Big Brother" watching over every penny you bring in

 

 

I still like the idea of a flat tax. Everyone pays the same percentage of their annual income. No deductions, no tax brackets...nothing confusing at all. And the best part is that it IS fair...everyone pays an equal percentage of what they make in a year. Thats the way to go in my opinion.

But the "flat tax" isn't fair. Let's say the flat tax is 10%; If a rich guy makes $1 million, he pays $100,000 in taxes and lives off $900,000. A poor guy making $20,000 pays $2,000 in taxes and lives off $18,000. That $2,000 for the poor guy can buy a lot of food, medicine and essentials, whereas the rich guy with $900,000 left would probably hardly even realize he paid any taxes at all.

 

The rich spend more than the poor. If you want to get at all of that extra money they have "squirrelled away", you have to get at it when they spend it. Consumption tax is the way to go.

 

A different hair-brained idea I have is to have a simple logarithmic based tax rate. Everybody subtracts off the poverty level from the base income, and sticks that amount into the formula. That way a person making $50,000 pays slightly more (in percentage) that a person making $49,000. The actual difference would be small, but as the base pay goes up, the rate really starts to increase (say about a 5% rate at $50,000 and 25% at $1 million). There would be no deductions for anything. The gov't tax form would be a post card. I made this much money and should pay this amount. I paid this amount over the last year based on my estimated base pay (nobody knows if they'll get OT or not, or how much). This is the amount I still owe, or this is the amount I overpaid. Period. Nice and simple.

 

[Mad78]

Well it's official! On April 15th I'll be the proud owner of a Wii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What games are you going to get with it?

[Darth_Rob]

I hinted that I wanted the package with Legand of Zelda in it. So I'll hopefully be starting off with the sports games and Zelda. I heard Zelda is pretty sweet.

[ElvisMiggell]

Consumption tax

 

For some reason that makes me giggle

[Eagle]

I hinted that I wanted the package with Legand of Zelda in it. So I'll hopefully be starting off with the sports games and Zelda. I heard Zelda is pretty sweet.

Saw a report about Wii yesterday on TV. There never have been released so much games in addition to a release of a new gaming-platform than with the Wii. They showed some games like Rayman, Tennis, Bowling, a racing-game and stuff. One of it was even Zelda, which looks pretty good in my eyes. If you got to move the sword there like you have to move in playing tennis than this game will really rock. If I would ever think about of buying a console of any kind the Wii may be my first choice.

[Mad78]

I tried the tennis game in a store. Its pretty cool. I found the baseball one quite hard.

[turtle]

Don't think I'll be getting one untill they almost obsolete or where I work accidentally prices one at $24.99!

[Mad78]

Don't think I'll be getting one untill they almost obsolete or where I work accidentally prices one at $24.99!

What a happy dream that would be.

[turtle]

I have seen it happen at the store I work at that something worth $100 has accidentally been priced at $10 for 2 days before someone noticed!

 

I don't work at a small local store either I work at.... Wal~mart

[Darth_Rob]

Zelda is awesome! One controller wields the sword, and the other controller wields the shield! I'm excited!!!

[Eagle]

Sounds great!

[Mad78]

I have seen it happen at the store I work at that something worth $100 has accidentally been priced at $10 for 2 days before someone noticed!

 

I don't work at a small local store either I work at.... Wal~mart

Did you jump on the occasion and buy it?

[turtle]

Being that I work at Wallyworld I didn't have the money!!!

[Mad78]

May I ask what the item was?

[Eagle]

Maybe it was a wii-pod.

[DarthTofu]

I have seen it happen at the store I work at that something worth $100 has accidentally been priced at $10 for 2 days before someone noticed!

 

I don't work at a small local store either I work at.... Wal~mart

 

According to my sister who worked retail for a short time, customers will occassionally take the price tag from a less-expensive item and tape it over a more expensive item's price tag in order to try to con the store out of money. It typically doesn't work when "Squirt guns" comes up for a PS2, but I assume it must work sometimes if the cashier is distracted enough, else people really wouldn't do it as much.

 

Another popular thieving idea has been to stick smaller items in bigger boxes, primarily ala prepaid gaming cards for WoW and the like. Apparently a friend of some kid in my drafting class walked out of the store with three years worth of play time for the price of three months or something. Left a trail of empty boxes in his wake...

[PsychoInfiltrator]

If the store realy decides to care, they can go through the security tapes and catch him. Depending on the surveillance laws in the States...?

[Darth_Rob]

I used to work in the cash office at my local Walmart, and I used to have to work with security in pulling up cashier register journals and looking for particular things. Sometimes the customer was actually a friend of the cashier, so the customer would bring like DVD players and stuff with price tags of much lesser items, and the cashier would ring it through and I guess get a piece of the action when he/she saw their friend next.

 

But Ive seen people try and return like DVD players with a rock inside the box, or computers that they dismantled and took all the inside parts out, and clothing that was dirty and torn. Some people have no shame.

[Mad78]

A trick for nicking mp3 players here is to take the box into the expensive hifi area of the store (the light in that area of the store are typically dimmed) and to remove the price tag and anti-thief sticker. A guy I know tried that and it worked.

[tacoJoemeru]

A trick for nicking mp3 players here is to take the box into the expensive hifi area of the store (the light in that area of the store are typically dimmed) and to remove the price tag and anti-thief sticker. A guy I know tried that and it worked.

Some people have no shame? I'm not saying that I might try that, but.... (just kidding there)

[Darth_Rob]

Just wanted to say that my friend managed to snag a Wii so I finally got to play it first-hand yesterday. It is quite a remarkable system, and I cannot wait to get my hands on one of my own! All I can say is that my arms still hurt today from playing 6 hours of boxing baseball tennis and golf!

 

Edit:

It is now 11:45pm, and my arms still hurt from this damn thing. Is that sad and pathetic?

[Darth_Rob]

As I stated before, my girlfriend gave me money for my b-day, and I found a nice Wii on ebay that I purchased. Well it appears that I have been bamboozled by some deuche in California. I won the auction on Sunday night, then realized the weirdo only took money orders. So I had the money order overnighted the next day, and on Tuesday he emailed me saying that he received it, but he was gonna wait for the funds to clear. So then we had an email debate, where I insisted that a money order is not a check and there is nothing to wait to clear, and he claimed he had to wait to ensure that I did not pay for the money order with counterfeit cash.

 

This is where I began to get suspicious, so I began to look through his other auctions and feedback. He had sold a few Wiis earlier, all with positive feedback, but then he bought like 20 1cent auctions in a row, which I can only assume was done to increase his feedback rating. So we continued to debate through emails, and eventually he agreed to wait until Monday and then ship it and give me a tracking number, because he felt the funds would be clear by then. Seeing how this was Friday, I saw no point arguing anymore, and said "ok sure". Well that was the last I heard of him.

 

Yesterday (Monday) after work I came home to find no email. So I emailed him and said "what is the tracking number". It is now Tuesday night, I havent heard from him. I went on ebay to do some more investigating, and found out that he cancelled his account. So this leads me to assume that I have been scammed out of $350 US dollars (actually $50, my gf gave me $300 as my b-day gift). So I have contacted ebay, and I am now very, VERY frustrated that I had to deal with some deuche like this. I am totally pissed off. Its not the fact that I dont have a Wii yet, its the fact that some blowhole on the west coast has my money. Dirty scumbag!!!

[budious]

Yeah... this is why I do not do ebay anymore. I used to sell stuff quite often but I hate having the liability of mishandling or damage to a package. I was selling large items, performance bicycles and carbon fiber wheelsets. I mailed one package from GA to CA with a $400 carbon wheel via USPS and they destroyed the thing. It was USPS fault so I refunded the buyer his money but I took the loss. Most of my other sales went smoothly. If it's something not worth at least $200 to sale it's not worth the time or effort honestly. Then you get into total asshats like the guy you bought from, ebay has no way to determine or control these sellers and buyers have to be on the defensive.

[Darth_Rob]

Ive been buying and selling on ebay for 6 years now. This is the first time Ive been burned like this. Simply ridiculousness.