rants

Entries Tagged as 'rants'

Check out those bagsAugust 5th, 2009, 2 Comments

The setting: A local supermarket.

“Do you want a separate bag for the washing powder?”

“No thanks.”

“What about a separate bag for your meat?”

“No that’s okay.”

She takes the wine bottle, scans it and puts it in a paper bag.

“Am I going to be charged for that?”

“What, the wine bag?”

“Yes.”

“It depends if it’s in a separate bag. Do you want it in a separate bag?”

“No thank you.”

She scan the milk. She looks at the bag of groceries. She looks at me.

“No. One bag. Please just one bag.”

“I don’t think it’s going to fit?”

“Oh it will fit. Make it fit. Pile it on top.”

Some local grocery stores have started charging for plastic bags. What a guy does to save a nickel!

If they were brown paper bags like in America I wouldn’t mind.

How my taxes are spent in the United States vs. New ZealandJune 8th, 2008, 9 Comments

Rowan published a New Zealand tax statement of how the government might spend the tax collected from the average household income ($67,973 NZD).

Fascinating!¹ After seeing this I wanted to know how New Zealand compared to the United States. For example, how would the same salary be taxed in Illinois and how would those taxes be spent?

Based on the United States federal budget of 2008² and the net pay calculator for the state of Illinois during the 2008 tax year, here’s the American tax statement:³

Taxable Income in Illinois	$67,973.00
USA Federal Tax Paid	$18,017	26.51%⁴
Social Security	3,774	21.0%
D.O. Defense	2,988	16.6%
Medicare	2,396	13.3%
Unemployment/Welfare/Other mandatory spending	2,011	11.2%
Interest on National Debt	1,620	9.0%
Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)	1,297	7.2%
War on Terror	901	5.0%
Health & Human Services	430	2.4%
D.O. Education	347	1.9%
Other On-budget Discretionary Spending	321	1.8%
D.O. Veterans Affairs	244	1.4%
Other Off-budget Discretionary Spending	242	1.3%
D.O. Housing & Urban Development	218	1.2%
State and Other International Programs	217	1.2%
D.O. Homeland Security	212	1.2%
D.O. Energy	150	0.8%
D.O. Justice	125	0.7%
D.O. Agriculture	125	0.7%
National Aeronautics & Space Administration	107	0.6%
D.O. Transportation	75	0.4%
D.O. Treasury	75	0.4%
D.O. the Interior	65	0.4%
D.O. Labor	65	0.4%

Let’s compare any amount over $500 between America and New Zealand:

Taxable Income	$67,973.00
USA Federal Tax Paid	$18,017	26.51%⁴
Social Security	3,774	21.0%
D.O. Defense	2,988	16.6%
Medicare	2,396	13.3%
Unemployment/Welfare/Other mandatory spending	2,011	11.2%
Interest on National Debt	1,620	9.0%
Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)	1,297	7.2%
War on Terror	901	5.0%
New Zealand Tax Paid	$17,779	26.16%
Ministry of Transport	4,393	24.7%
Ministry of Social Development	3,414	19.2%
Ministry of Health	2,317	13.0%
Ministry of Education	2,040	11.4%
Inland Revenue Department (IRD)	1,331	7.4%
The Treasury	1,238	6.9%
New Zealand Defence Force	499	2.8%

So what sticks out? America: social security, defense, unemployment, debt and war. New Zealand: transport, social development, health, education and defense.

That’s a cynical and dangerous look at the tax breakdowns, but even so, the War on Terror would proportionately receive almost twice as much tax as the Ministry of Defence.⁵

And what’s that? Interest on National Debt?

Is New Zealand even in debt?

Surprisingly, I would pay more tax in Illinois than in New Zealand (over $2,000 more). And Americans don’t even have the same benefits as Kiwis, like public health care or financial support for accidental injuries. Plus, I don’t need to file a tax return in New Zealand (which is a service I would pay for, and apparently do). Why does the IRD receive so much money?

Which makes me wonder, if you could allocate your tax dollars to specific departments, would you? For example if you don’t want to finance “proactive war,” would you give that money to your favorite department, like the National Aeronautics & Space Administration?⁶

Decades ago this wouldn’t have been possible (logistical nightmare) but this type of government seems feasible today.

Although, it scares me to think about the nutters who would give their tax to the Department of Defense.

But it could be a way to clearly see where the people want their money spent.

_{1. This year I started tracking my personal finances. I concluded after two months I am an alcoholic, and if I didn’t drink my wages I would be a millionaire.}
_{2. The budgets from 1996 to 2009 are available online. View the budgets here.}
_{3. The calculated proportions of the budget does not distinguish between income tax, payroll taxes, corporate tax, excise tax, customs, estate and gift taxes. It’s all lumped together, so the figures are at best estimates of how the government spends income tax.}
_{4. Illinois state tax is an additional 3 percent, totalling $2039.16. This brings the total taxed to 29.51%.}
_{5. Spelling defense with a “c,” blasphemy!}
_{6. I did go to space camp, after all.}

Dear Apple, I miss my thumbsFebruary 16th, 2008, 11 Comments

I love my iPhone even though it kicks the shit out of my index finger. Here’s a screenshot of the keyboard:

I hate this keyboard on the iPhone. It makes me feel like a texting newbie.

It sucks. I suck at text messaging.

Will someone at Apple please replace the QWERTY keyboard and with a normal cellphone keypad with predictive texting:

The QWERTY keyboard was such a bad move, and here’s why:

Meet the typewriter (if you haven’t seen one, this is the keyboard’s mother, who gave birth to QWERTY). The next sentence is important, because it’s bold: The typewriter was designed for ten fingers.

Look at the picture again. Do you see the woman holding the typewriter in one hand and typing with the other hand? Of course not!

Why would Apple try to change the way an entire generation text messages, anyways? For example in Japan half the top selling books are written on mobile phones. Let me ask you a question, which side of this keypad would you prefer to use if you want to text message?¹

$fractions.png$

The left side of course! There’s less room for error.²

I wonder how many people refused to buy the iPhone because the keys are too small for their fingers. Would they have more customers if they made the buttons bigger?

Boo on you, Apple. But I still love my iPhone anyways.

_{1. The right side is futile, especially when you want to use two thumbs. Just give up and use your index finger, sadist.}

_{2. A tactile response is so important when using a full keyboard. Users are twice as slow when using an iPhone largely because they can’t feel if they’re pushing the right letter.}

Scary libraryJanuary 22nd, 2008, 11 Comments

“Hey,” someone shouted at me.

“Hey! You!”

I turned around and saw a red faced man wearing a bright blue vest, which identified him as library staff. He looked like Michael Moore because of his glasses and the fat belly, but he sounded twangy.

“Who gave you permission to take photos?” He barked.

“Oh. Do I need permission?” I asked.

“Yes in fact you do, you need my permission before you take photos inside the library, and you haven’t asked me, so you shouldn’t be taking photos.”

I was shocked into silence. The conversation went on for a bit, and it ended badly.

“Well next time you want to take photos you need permission,” he said.

“Don’t worry, next time I’ll ask for sure!”

“There won’t be a next time.”

“Oh.”

As I walked out of the building he followed me to make sure of something. I don’t know what.

I still can’t believe a librarian yelled at me! Now I have to avoid the library until I recover my ‘I can do anything because I’m free’ ignorance.

I only wanted a picture of the library so I remember what it looks like.

No competitionJanuary 21st, 2008, 4 Comments

There are some drawbacks living in New Zealand. For example, now that I have a film camera I have to buy film. The film I prefer to buy costs $12.35 in Wellington. Ouch.

The same roll of film costs $2.69 in America.

Kiwis pay so much for products and I don’t know why.

So this week I’m indebted to Keith, who arrived from Texas with a full bag of film for me! Hopefully by the time I run out someone else can traffic film from the good ‘ol U.S.A. (I promise I won’t call you a mule, in fact, I’ll shower you with presents)

Here’s another photo for kicks. I haven’t been in this slingshot yet, anyone keen?

balls

jeffrey

i like butter, don’t you?