Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Geese, Golden Eggs etc.
Exhibit I - iPod and soda taxes
Exhibit II - drinking laws
Remember what the luxury tax did to the boat industry?
3 Comments:
By 
, at
Wed Dec 17, 02:51:00 PM:
Well, looking out the barred window of my cell, it’s that time of the year again when suicide rates and alcohol recidivism are up and, based on the prospect of having to spend an evening with parents and/or siblings, positive outlooks on life are down. But never fear as it is that joyous time of the year, and the signs, mange-like, are all around us:
- - - - Mall management have installed seasonal gingerbread and spice air fresheners in all the restrooms so as to confuse any blind person that has to take a dump.
- - - - All Santas have sworn an oath to only play “find the special candy cane” with children seven years old and up.
- - - - The parking lot security personnel have enacted a special policy whereas they only break into cars with out of state license plates, thereby ensuring that they’ll be drunk, screwed, blued, tattooed, and long gone by the time any formidable legal action can be enacted.
- - - - All non-profit charity staff have been instructed to mutter “Whoa! Don’t bust the bank at Monte Carlo, you cheap fuck!” only at persons they have a reasonable certainty they could incapacitate and outrun with a well-aimed empty bottle of Thunderbird.
- - - - Sporting goods store have discounted all ammo and knives just in time for holiday get-togethers.
- - - - To supplement the usual price-gouging, all department stores have gone out of their way to hire slack-jawed, mouth-breathing, basic math flunkies for cashiers, floor people, and the returns department.
- - - - All music department employees have been given extra training in eye-rolling and imbecilic put-downs when ringing up purchases. Special salary upgrades and bonus incentives to those personnel with the worst, self-absorbed tattoos and piercings.
- - - - The U.S. Postal Service has hired out-of-work NFL place kickers to load all mail labeled “fragile”.
- - - - Because of strict environmental regulations forbidding the large scale dumping of slaughterhouse refuse in the ocean, for one time only: the McRib is back!
By , at
Wed Dec 17, 11:25:00 PM:
@ Mindles: What is your preferred taxation system in light of massive deficits? The progressive tax with certain values, the 1-tier flat tax that punishes the poor, the 2-tier that pretends there's no sliding scale, a consumption tax, or some other I am not thinking of?
By , at
Fri Dec 19, 12:20:00 PM:
Remember what the luxury tax did to the boat industry?
Paterson is proposing an additional 5% sales tax on "yachts costing at least $200,000". Anybody who knows anything about boats knows that
1) $200,000 is not an expensive boat. A performance boat easily costs more than that.
2) A boat costing, say, $250k can't reasonably be called a yacht, yet it will be taxed as if it were.
