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Chicago successfully taxes streaming services

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Re: Chicago successfully taxes streaming services

#211
post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be disingenuous if he said “it wasn’t in the top 10” when it was #11. #18 is nowhere near the top 10. Even a garbage collector is three times more likely to die on the job than a police officer. https://qz.com/410585/garbage-collectors-are-more-likely-to-...

Being a police officer in a suburb where there is no crime does not belong in the same analysis as being a police officer in a crime filled area. Being a parking compliance officer and an undercover drug enforcement agent also have wildly different risk exposure. To compare these various jobs similarly from a risk assessment point of view by bucketing them under "police officers" is ridiculous.

Being a nurse or care technician in a hospital is more dangerous than being a cop in terms of being physically assaulted. They are often females on 1-to-1 assignment with mentally ill men that often attempt to attack & rape them.

Re: Chicago successfully taxes streaming services

#212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Garbagemen should have life and disability insurance. Police and fire employees tend to live shorter lives due to specific conditions related their occupation. It’s apples and oranges.

When killed in duty, it's most often due to a traffic accident. [0] Garbage men die when their own truck runs over them.[1] Additionally, trash collectors get a lot more repetitive stress injuries. The cause of death for garbage men is just as intrinsic, to their job. It's just that the sanitation workers' union isn't as politically popular. As for firefighters, it's literally no more deadly than being a painter (8.9…

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/cancer/cancer-biggest-killer-...

Re: Chicago successfully taxes streaming services

#213
post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being a police officer in a suburb where there is no crime does not belong in the same analysis as being a police officer in a crime filled area. Being a parking compliance officer and an undercover drug enforcement agent also have wildly different risk exposure. To compare these various jobs similarly from a risk assessment point of view by bucketing them under "police officers" is ridiculous.

Being a nurse or care technician in a hospital is more dangerous than being a cop in terms of being physically assaulted. They are often females on 1-to-1 assignment with mentally ill men that often attempt to attack & rape them.

I'm not sure if you just intended to reply to someone else, or just ignored the words I wrote completely. Comparing these professions on a global basis is dumb. Nurses who work in environments where they are exposed to convicts or the mentally ill are at a higher risk of assault than those who work in pediactrics. Comparing risk-laden professions by just putting everyone into a gigantic bucket by a job title in order to say "which job is more dangerous" defies a basic understanding of what people in these fields actually experience depending on where their job is, their position, and their role (disclosure: son of a firefighter, brother in law of a cop, husband to a physician)

Re: Chicago successfully taxes streaming services

#214
post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being a nurse or care technician in a hospital is more dangerous than being a cop in terms of being physically assaulted. They are often females on 1-to-1 assignment with mentally ill men that often attempt to attack & rape them.

I'm not sure if you just intended to reply to someone else, or just ignored the words I wrote completely. Comparing these professions on a global basis is dumb. Nurses who work in environments where they are exposed to convicts or the mentally ill are at a higher risk of assault than those who work in pediactrics. Comparing risk-laden professions by just putting everyone into a gigantic bucket by a job title in order…

The point is, you can render specifity to the point of uselessness. Of course there are specific situations & circumstances where a given occupation is more risk prone than another, but global averages are where public perception & policy are set & laws are made. Such is life.

Re: Chicago successfully taxes streaming services

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem when you say “just phase them out” is what to do with the trillions in outstanding obligations. For example, pension benefits are protected by the Illinois state constitution. You can imagine the process you’d need to construct and execute to fix pensions in Illinois, Cook County, and Chicago’s cases. The unwinding is the terribly difficult part because the can keeps getting kicked down the road due to a…

There's a finite time that benefits are paid out. At most, it's the maximum lifetime of the retired worker or their spouse. At some point, the workers and their spouses will be dead. They're beneficiaries do not, nor have they ever gotten a pension. You simply stop giving new workers pensions, and you offer buyouts to the existing workers. None of this is fast, nor did I say it was. Even if you did it today, we're ta…

[deleted]

Re: Chicago successfully taxes streaming services

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are rating the chances of default. The bond purchasers will be paid, one way or another. Privatize the parking meters (like Chicago already did), the roads, the water utilities, etc. It's the people who live there that will pay for the deficit via increased taxes and fewer services.

So why are property values not reflecting this? Irrational market?

They are. From all the data I can see, property values for almost all areas in the Northeast and Rust Belt in general are declining (in real terms), except for certain few rich areas in and around the big cities that the richer populace is “escaping to”. I’m writing from mobile, but compare the Fed’s analysis for home prices by state.

Even Buffett says he’s looking at state finances when deciding investment options, and if he’s saying it, surely other organizations are too. It will be a gradual accelerating decline though (barring effects of natural disasters), since people don’t just up and move.

Re: Chicago successfully taxes streaming services

#217
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think the fix is removing pensions from old people, but rather drastically reforming pensions for future retirees entering the workforce now. Cutting pensions now would be like cutting someone’s salary and would likely lead to skilled people quitting.

So cut compensation for current already underpaid employees to shore up retirement for the people who voted for the politicians who caused this? That doesn't taste right to me.

I don’t think reducing compensation for future employees through reduced pensions shores up retirement for current employees or pensioners. For that you have to raise taxes a lot, I think. My suggestion was to prevent even worse problems in the future.

I think the current folks are hosed because raising taxes on the middle and working class along with rich people is unpopular so I don’t think elected officials will want to do that. So they will probably chug along and then go bankrupt, hosing pensioners.

Re: Chicago successfully taxes streaming services

#218
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think the fix is removing pensions from old people, but rather drastically reforming pensions for future retirees entering the workforce now. Cutting pensions now would be like cutting someone’s salary and would likely lead to skilled people quitting.

You can’t cut the pension for the retired, or the soon to be retired. Instead you try buy outs and phase them out. New workers get 401ks. Old workers get pensions. Middle aged workers get a choice. 30 years later, the pension holders are dead, or your company is. Either way, it’s no longer a problem.

The feds went through this back in the 80s when they switched from CSRA to FERS+thrift (basically a 401k). I think that helped but didn’t completely solve the problem. But at least they are more solvent than Chicago.

Re: Chicago successfully taxes streaming services

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So why are property values not reflecting this? Irrational market?

They are. From all the data I can see, property values for almost all areas in the Northeast and Rust Belt in general are declining (in real terms), except for certain few rich areas in and around the big cities that the richer populace is “escaping to”. I’m writing from mobile, but compare the Fed’s analysis for home prices by state. Even Buffett says he’s looking at state finances when deciding investment options,…

Check out downtown Chicago and the western suburbs. Prices are not going down. If anything, they’re more inflated than ever.

Re: Chicago successfully taxes streaming services

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are. From all the data I can see, property values for almost all areas in the Northeast and Rust Belt in general are declining (in real terms), except for certain few rich areas in and around the big cities that the richer populace is “escaping to”. I’m writing from mobile, but compare the Fed’s analysis for home prices by state. Even Buffett says he’s looking at state finances when deciding investment options,…

Check out downtown Chicago and the western suburbs. Prices are not going down. If anything, they’re more inflated than ever.

I specifically conditioned out that situation:

>except for certain few rich areas in and around the big cities that the richer populace is “escaping to”

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