101–110 of 142 posts
You know, I'm happy on some level for that individual. It seems like a great stroke of fortune. On another level, it bothers me that there are such large institutions that can arbitrarily "bless" random people like a deity or something. I also can't help but look at this cynically as a largely self-interested PR grab by Apple that is not a real sacrifice on their part.
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Despite the rampant reporting by the media about US companies not paying their "fair share" of taxes, as of 2017: "The biggest taxpayer was the most profitable: Apple, which reserved $15.8 billion for income taxes on $59 billion in operating income. Apple reports its effective tax rate as 25.8%" I think it's time to end this falsehood about Apple as I constantly see it posted on HN.
If your source is this Forbes article [1], it's referring to Apple's domestic tax rate (this is clear because they compare it to the 35% nominal domestic rate). Their worldwide tax rate is lower. Apple is projecting that its worldwide tax rate will drop to 15% now that the new US tax law has taken effect. [2] 1: https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2017/04/18/wh... 2: https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/02/…
Reported an iphone lock screen bug and received nothing. Thanks apple.
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The teen and mother in question were not too technically savvy. Would they have been able to meet the usual requirements of a bug bounty filing?
The mother was a lawyer who went as far as signing up for a developer account and filing a radar. They could (and did) jump through hoops to try to report it.
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If it's a serious bug, talk to a zero day broker.
I thought Zerodium (as an example) was only interested in RCE type vulnerabilities, although I could see others being of value as well.
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> On another level, it bothers me that there are such large institutions that can arbitrarily "bless" random people like a deity or something. It's not all that different than in the past some regular person assisting the royalty, and being rewarded for it with some money or small title or allowance, such as being able to utilize a natural resource that's controlled by the crown. It's just a consequence of a massive…
The difference being that apple earns its own money which we have volunteerly given to them for iphones. Royal titles etc. however are from taxpayers money a bit like US aid to other countries or subsidized housing etc.
A government's (a monarchy is a form of government) money comes from taxes from people who wish to be part of that system and benefit from the security and markets it provides (otherwise they can leave. Sort of. But in the past they likely could), and they are limited in what they can do because the government enforces the rules.
It's not totally dissimilar, in my eyes.
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If your source is this Forbes article [1], it's referring to Apple's domestic tax rate (this is clear because they compare it to the 35% nominal domestic rate). Their worldwide tax rate is lower. Apple is projecting that its worldwide tax rate will drop to 15% now that the new US tax law has taken effect. [2] 1: https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2017/04/18/wh... 2: https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/02/…
What bothers me there is, according to my understanding, that taxation laws were changed in the last cuts so that foreign subsidiaries of corporations basically owe no US income tax on their profits (maybe ok, not sure there), but left alone the case if a US citizen relocates elsewhere and makes an income, only the first $xx,000 dollars are not taxed by the US.
Of course, I understand that corporations have always been able to do lots of things that people couldn't do, such as enjoy limited liability. But these are very close analogs, and there aren't any compelling policy reasons as to why corporations should get unlimited SALT deductions if people aren't given this privilege.
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Good on Apple. But people are uneasy because it sounds like a old medieval story about a noble family rewarding a random peasant that did one of them a boon. The modern trappings are different, but the story is the same. It's great that the peasant got a fine pair of oxen, but why don't all the peasants in the kingdom have oxen to farm with in the first place. That's not Apple's fault, but it shows how we live in a m…
Is your thought that education in particular should be available to all (i.e. the oxen represent a fundamental good), or that we shouldn't live in a world where some entities have more resources than others?
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Most people on US Forbes top 500 came from poverty and / or other disadvantage.
Seemed like a dubious claim, so tried to find a source and found this old article: Did the Forbes 400 Billionaires Really 'Build That'? https://www.cnbc.com/id/49167533 Trimming a lot: "United for a Fair Economy breaks down the Forbes list using a baseball analogy. It says - 35 percent of the list was born in the “batter’s box,” with a lower-middle class or middle-class background... - 22 percent of the list were bor…