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AeroHorn

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Posts posted by AeroHorn

  1. 4 minutes ago, DonkeyCigars said:

    Just like how Muslims have creative ways to get around financing loans and interest with home loans, etc., I’m sure there are some “best practices” that help a bunch of Arabic-American wealth to turn that 2.5% to .025%

    You can't get around human nature. We like cheating even when every logical argument in your brain tells you that you are easily in the world top 1% materially and >99% of the credit for it doesn't go to you.

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  2. 1 minute ago, DonkeyCigars said:

    I do 10% of income. I have it broken out into a separate account that I manage like a non-profit meant only for charity and help to problems that I pass along my way as a sojourner through this wicked world.

    That's great. But the disposable wealth option addresses the billionaire problem of a small income and extremely large asset. Taking 2.5% every year from a 100B asset makes quite a difference.

  3. The argument for billionaires seems to that (i) they innovated and developed the company and you can't discourage that and (ii) their assets are not like a traditional income and it is difficult to tax something that is just sitting and growing.

    Regarding the first point, there are multiple factors that have led to extreme wealth such as practically abandoning monopoly policing, BOTs being just CEOs/founders' buddies, public resources (telecom bands, natural resources, etc.) being privatized in short-sighted sales, etc. Bezos won't be so rich if Amazon was broken up into at least 3 units (Amazon.com, AWS and services such as Kindle, Ring, Alexa, etc.) and there was actual penalization on fake reviews and products that don't live up to what is advertised, collective voice for their low-wage packers and drivers, etc. Same thing with Google, Apple, etc. They in their state are stifling innovation lot more than enabling. 

    Regarding BOTs, I remember in my last company where a ~1000 employee company board approved 1M shares for annual RSU distribution, and allotted 500k to the CEO, 250k to his direct reports, 150k to the various VPs and the remaining 100k for everyone else from director downwards. This is with the salary of CEO being >10x of a director and >50x of a lowest paid office employee. And that CEO was quite incompetent. 

    About taxing the extremely wealthy, do what I (Muslim) have to do. Every year, I have to give 2.5% of my disposable wealth to the poor and needy. Anything outside of the things I use daily such as my house, car, clothes etc. is disposable wealth. If I have 100k in stocks, I have to sell 2.5k worth and give it away. I think 2.5% of disposable wealth (anything in a bank, in investment, in inventory, etc.) will be many times more than what is needed to provide basic necessities for not just US but the whole world.

     

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  4. On 10/8/2021 at 12:11 PM, StruggleBus said:

    Elon is a bad ass. California sucks shit through a straw

    Why do you think so? Specifically regarding Elon, he made his money in California and all his endeavors started and thrived in California. Both the state of California in the form of tougher emissions standards and EV credits and Californians by buying majority of Teslas for the first however many years supported the sustainability/environmentalism/EV dream and made Elon what he is now. I understand Elon moving to save billions on his personal state taxes but not sure what he gains by moving headquarters. I think (don't have evidence) it is to help his personal move to Texas.

    But for Texans to say California sucks shit in relation to Elon/Tesla/EVs is rich irony indeed.

    Even in general, isn't California the leader in pushing progress and setting standards, while being home to a bunch of the top revenue/value companies? I don't get this regressive thinking that following good practices is bad and businesses should be given a free hand. The fact that California has and continues to develop and host lot of very successful companies through innovation and entrepreneurship indicates that California must not be sucking.

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  5. I agree that the decision doesn't make sense (he was leaning back and snap kicked with his front leg and not roundhouse kicked with full force, the opponent was unlucky to get knocked out and it's not kickers fault), but how does it indicate uncompetitive nature of Olympics? We can say that the referee/committee decision is wrong, but how does it apply to the whole Olympics?

     

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  6. This topic has been very well researched. Solar, wind and nuclear are about an order of magnitude lower in terms of Carbon footprint/Green house gas emissions compared to  coal and natural gas over their respective lifetimes (from mining and manufacturing to usage and disposal).

    NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) has conducted comprehensive studies (to name one of many orgs) where they have gone over thousands of scientific/industry publications and prepared the data. https://www.nrel.gov/analysis/life-cycle-assessment.html

    Summary table is below. 

    spacer.png

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  7. Selfishly from Texas perspective, this is a good move.

    But overall, I am afraid college football is losing the "college" aspect. By relegating dozens of P5 and more outside of P5 to secondary status outside of SEC and whatever BIG decides to do, the college following along with the fanfare associated with football at each college suffers a severe setback. If there is no kinship and association to college football, SEC-BIG slugfest is just a junior NFL that is relevant to only a couple of dozen colleges. 100+ other campuses may just tune out.

    Keeping the changing landscape in mind, I wish the bigwigs (Texas/OU (B12), ND, SEC, BIG, PAC, etc.) had got together and worked out what is best for college football rather than focusing on how to grab a bigger slice of the pie for themselves. I am afraid that the pie may lose its flavor in the long run.

     

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  8. I drove Honda Clarity Fuel Cell for 3 years and returned the it when the lease was up in April. I was sorely tempted to buy the new Mirai Fuel Cell, basically a shortened Lexus LS platform. About 22k including taxes after Toyota (20k) and federal (7.5k)/state (4.5k) rebates. In addition, a 15k card to buy Hydrogen, which pays for about 65k miles of driving. The only reason I didn't buy it was because of Hydrogen supply. Half the time, there is no Hydrogen and when it is available, you have to be vigilant because it runs out within a few hours. I developed a PTSD with always worried about not having the fuel. When the fuel is available, the cars are great.

    If they can fix the Hydrogen production, I would go back to Hydrogen cars.

  9. Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePo4) batteries avoid these metals (Nickel and Cobalt-free) but have a bit lower power densities due to lower operating voltage. They are safe and long lasting, and are being implemented in cars. I hope this chemistry gets a bit more efficient, which will solve the mining problem. Lithium itself is very widespread and is usually close to the surface.

     

  10. 8 hours ago, Ghost of LL said:

    I gotta tell you--I'm a space nerd.  But I'm completely underwhelmed by Virgin Galactic.  It looks like a fun amusement park ride, but that's about it.

    Yeah, most of it is just a plane ride. The rocket ride up and down to the plane elevation was about 5 minutes (?) with the zero gravity (just falling with style) was for about a minute; about the same duration as an amusement park ride. Probably parachuting is more thrilling than that brief tumble inside a tube.

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  11. 4 hours ago, Ojo Rojo said:

    I'm not going to take the time to game out an entire scenario, but I can tell you that massive inflation and the resulting recession or depression will be a big part of it.  Inflation scares me and it's already happening.  Real estate prices skyrocketing to ridiculous levels. Consumer prices for ever good under the sun going up, up , up. "Experts" are saying it's temporary; I say bullshit.  Like everyone is going to just miraculously lower their prices to pre- post-pandemic levels?  Riiiiiiiggghhhttt...

    I agree with financial cause being the main driver. A big chunk of the population is living on the edge; rising prices and disappearing jobs over the next 10 years would cause theft and general lawlessness to increase. Combine this with a compromised police force, and we can quickly devolve to a lawless society. The way we are armed and polarized, this could lead to some ugly scenarios.

     

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