Buying a Touchpad

When I was younger I would have been following the news of HP’s announcement abandoning their Touchpad tablet closely in order to find a deal. I would never have missed the resulting fire sale and would have scoured the web and local stores in order to participate. Plagiarizing a too-often-utilized phrase, I’m too old for that stuff. Part of me kind of regrets sleeping through the opportunity, as all I want in a tablet is WiFi, an adequate browser, document viewing and editing, e-book viewing, music playing and XVID type AVI video playing, all of which can be achieved relatively cheaply with the Touchpad. Every once in a while I troll HP’s website to check if the supposed final batch has been released for sale to no avail so far.

Recently I read some of the comments on the site out of boredom and was struck by how whiny a lot of them were, some begging HP for a place in line to buy one, others jealous and acting out against those with them and decrying imagined “unfairness” of HP in not having enough stock to satisfy demand. In my mind I find a correlation between these whiners and those participating in the current Wall Street protests. Just like the Wall Street protestors very likely have no idea what it is exactly Wall Street really is and couldn’t explain anything that it does or why, sudden Touchpad fans don’t understand why it is that they went on sale at such a discounted rate. It wasn’t because HP reduced the price in order to capture more market share. It was because they wanted to get out of the market, and quick. No one should have been surprised by the sudden popularity. Tablets are a popular and costly item now and discounting by 80%, selling at a point no reasonable person could think HP did anything other than lose money at, will move a lot of stock. Missing the opportunity may sting, but that’s the way things go sometimes. Ask anyone on a Southwest flight stuck with a C boarding pass. Could of, would of, should of, didn’t

The cost of tax compliance

Several 2012 GOP Presidential nominees have released some form or another of income tax reform centered on one variation or another of a flat tax. One candidate is being advised by Steve Forbes, the 2000 primary candidate who first introduced much of the country to the concept. One of the major selling points of a flat tax is its simplicity leading to the benefit of skipping the purchase of tax software and taking much less time to file a return. These and other considerations are considered to be compliance costs and by some estimates are astounding, as in hundreds of billions of dollars a year, just another hidden cost of being a productive citizen in this country.

It has been mentioned that some of these flat tax proposals are deficient in the cost of compliance arena because they allow each person to be taxed at the flat rate or to follow the current code with all its complexity. This is true enough, as it is easy to imagine the enterprising tax payer still purchasing tax help in order to determine the path allowing them to keep more of what they earned. One retort there is that it can then be assumed that if in year one if the flat tax is better or equivalent to the current tax code then it would be the same in subsequent years, delivering the promised benefit of reduced compliance cost in year two and beyond.

Which brings up another point, that there is an entire industry dedicated to tax compliance with multiple commercially available software packages and multiple accounting firms dedicated to it, what will happen to this industry if a flat tax is adopted? The answer is that this industry will be destroyed and the loss of jobs associated with it won’t be pretty. Versatile companies will be able to adjust and focus on other industries while others will disappear. This might appear to be a substantive argument in favor of maintaining the insane tax code of today but it isn’t. From an emotional level it is because it will cause financial distress. But these opportunities only exist to the detriment of us all. Compliance with the taxation policy of the federal government should not require the purchase of anything. Technically tax reporting can be done by hand but many do not have the knowledge or time necessary. And that’s obscene. While the flat tax proposals currently presented are first steps, at least they are steps in a positive direction. There will be bumps in the road and an industry dedicated to complexity may slip into rent-seeking by bringing in lobbyists in order to cling to life but in the end a flat tax will benefit the country.

Perry’s supposed birtherism

It seems as though Texas Governor and 2012 Presidential candidate Rick Perry had a decent weekend with a new budgetary proposal receiving decent marks from many conservative commentators and derision from liberals. Certainly there are quibbles from people with their own ideas and whines from those dependent on government, those buying votes from those dependents and people without any ideas, in other words not the bad kinds of detractors to have. In light of this, an unfortunate line of questioning in a Sunday newspaper magazine has garnered more attention as an attempt to paint Perry as a “birther”, a person subscribed to the idea that President Obama was not born in the United States. The interviewer asked the question and Perry responded and the interviewer persisted as to whether or not Perry believed that the President was a citizen. Perry had fun with the interviewer bringing up Donald Trump who is still a “birther” and dismissing the controversy as the distraction it is. Criticisms have ranged from calling Perry stupid for wading into the so-called controversy to attaching him to the kooks. It’s a non-issue and Perry did nothing other than answer the questions of an obsessed interviewer looking to create trouble. He answered them well also and as to whether or not Rick Perry knows for certain that the President was born in this country there’s no reason to deride his answer that he has no reason to think otherwise, it’s not like he was there to cut the cord. What’s stupid are interviewers not able to accept an answer outside of their own expectations and a society that accepts constant nonsense as real news.

Executive Privilege

Listening to a talk radio news brief this morning discussing President Obama’s new initiative to invoke executive orders in lieu of congressional legislation I was struck by its presentation. The so-called one-sided “news” brief introduced the initiative as necessary because of the supposed inability of congress to do anything to help the economy. From my own bias I think that deadlock is the best possible thing that the congress can do for the economy right now. I do not think that the myriad interventions of the previous several years have done anything positive regardless of nonsense improvable claims that things would have been worst had they not done what was done. Regardless it does no one any good to present something that may as well be Presidential talking points as straight news. The President is claiming that he must act unilaterally based on Republican’s lack of willingness to compromise in congress. The other party has a majority in the Senate and it has not passed anything either. And the President, who is on the campaign trail, has not been around to compromise, nor have any compromise legislation been presented by him. The House has offered to vote on different pieces separately. And there is no proof that the President’s plan will work, when similar efforts have failed to deliver on stated promises in the past. Additionally it is not good precedent for the federal government to put public state employees back to work with federal funds. State employees are the responsibility of state governments and once federal funds become intertwined, States become dependent on what was supposed to be temporary stimulus and also become less independent because of conditions put forth by the federal government. And of course the “news” report failed to mention that the President’s initiative betrays the separation of powers that is a cornerstone of our government. Apparently the allure of action is more attractive to certain “news” agencies as the President seeks re-election.

Is Tim Tebow good?

Watching the Broncos play the Dolphins this past Sunday was interesting. During most of the first half it seemed as though both teams were trying to lose as much as anything. For new starting quarterback Tim Tebow it was certainly an inauspicious start. There was one good play, a twenty yard rush up the middle featuring an escape from the goal line saving the team what could have resulted in a safety. Tebow brought the Broncos close twice but one mid-length and one long field goal attempt were missed by kicker Matt Prater. Other than that, third down conversions were non-existent, drives stalled often and his passes seemed off-target the worst sailing several feet above the outstretched arms of a visibly perturbed Knowshon Moreno.

By the time the fourth quarter came around, the Broncos found themselves trailing 15 nothing and seemed intent on definitively sealing a reputation as one of the worst teams in football and inserting themselves ahead of Miami in the race to the bottom for a claim on the number one draft pick next spring for a chance on the latest sure-thing college quarterback. Then things started to happen. First downs and completed passes and then a touchdown. At least the final score wouldn’t be completely embarrassing. An on-side kick was recovered by an alert special teamer who also forced a fumble. That led to a last minute touchdown caught by the same tight end that caught the series saving drive on the previous touchdown followed by a two point conversion run by Tebow who had the defense a bit confused by a five receiver set. Miami went on offense first in overtime and gave it away to Denver almost in field goal range. A few plays later and Prater made good on his third attempt winning the game and leaving Denver 2 games behind in the AFC west.

The question left is whether or not Tim Tebow is any good. As many have already stated, the game provided ample data points for fans and detractors. The Broncos won the game and that’s what counts, but it was against perhaps the worst team in the league. In the weeks ahead as the season matures an answer will become clear. If the wins begin to accumulate it would seem that Tebow is good, regardless of traditional metrics. If not, then the team will have to start over. Those cheering on orange and blue laundry will hope for the best. And if Tebow leads the Broncos to wins he will be embraced by the fan base even more so than today.

The Yardsale

I like going to yard sales sometimes so long that they are on my way somewhere or close to my home and I have a few minutes free. I almost never purchase anything but I always think of the stories about people finding treasures or fantastic deals on things and dream. Of course that never happens to me, all the yard sales I’ve ever been too are typically made up of old and undesirable clothing, trinkets and old electronics priced higher than something newer and better that I can buy down the street at Best Buy. I took my son to one this afternoon down the street and it was typical. Not bad, and the people were nice. They wanted $100 for some amplified speakers that looked at least 30 years old. I paid $30 each for a couple Polk amplified speakers last year in my garage that sound ten times better. And I forgot to mention that yard sales almost always include kid’s meal toys. Never anything good. The proprietors were encouraging me to buy my son some junky McDonald’s happy mean toy. I always feel bad later since they always seem to look at me like I’m mean to my son since I won’t buy him yard sale toys. If only they knew that the floor of my home is at least sixty percent toy. Oh well, one day I’ll find a Kandinsky, or at least a decent old Bridgestone or Schwinn bicycle frame…