121–129 of 129 posts
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Then why is the federal IRS so much better than the state revenue services?
Better?? Taxes in the US are a byzantine monster. State taxes are far simpler.
I think they surely can get rid of a lot of city personal. I've moved to a different state and just being in contact with government officials to get things done is just... easier. Something not right? Let's fix it. Let's do this first and then that. General California feeling: you're missing form 5858b. Can't help you. Come back later. Next available appointment: 3 months. Half of their jobs could be filled by using…
You don’t understand. The incentives are all wrong. There is absolutely zero benefit for a bureaucracy to make itself more efficient and require less money each year. No one is incentivized to ensure money is being spent well. The biggest incentive for a lifelong bureaucrat is to increase budget and headcount - the more money and headcount you have, the more important you are. There is never a time when you aren’t re…
I think they surely can get rid of a lot of city personal. I've moved to a different state and just being in contact with government officials to get things done is just... easier. Something not right? Let's fix it. Let's do this first and then that. General California feeling: you're missing form 5858b. Can't help you. Come back later. Next available appointment: 3 months. Half of their jobs could be filled by using…
You don’t understand. The incentives are all wrong. There is absolutely zero benefit for a bureaucracy to make itself more efficient and require less money each year. No one is incentivized to ensure money is being spent well. The biggest incentive for a lifelong bureaucrat is to increase budget and headcount - the more money and headcount you have, the more important you are. There is never a time when you aren’t re…
I would argue this extends to big tech as well. You don’t get the promo without building some useless shit to show “impact”.
If employee wages are a large part of the rising costs, then perhaps the cost of living for living in SF is too high. The cost of living is too high because rent is too high. Since there is so much political contention to building more housing, there is no chance that housing prices will decrease (nobody wants to see their property lose value). Now they are complaining about the problem they caused?!? I don't know if…
Somebody at a planning meeting for an apartment building in Nopa was arguing that it would go against the working-class history of the neighborhood (homes sell for >$1M there now btw). People here are in deep denial about SF being a world city, and the fact that people with (realized or paper) gains in the high hundred thousands are not "working class".
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2% a year doesn’t match inflation. It’s literally codified to lower your tax burden on an inflation adjusted basis the longer you own the home. There is no logical defense for it other than “fuck you, I got mine”.
It's to prevent people from being forced to sell their homes because speculators drive up the "values" in the neighborhood. There's no "fuck you" here.
https://www.prop13.wtf/2023/05/08/california-tax-postponemen...
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A left wing pressure group identifies the article publisher as a right wing pressure group. Ok, cool, but whatever the quality of the arguments in the article that's probably not the devastating hammer blow to defeat them.
Many of their points are valid and should be addressed, but the criticism is rather narrow. Case in point: homelessness. Yes, it's a huge problem, but San Francisco is a dumping ground for the homeless, e.g., other states buy one-way bus tickets for their indigents/miscreants to shift the burden. It's a national issue that needs to be addressed on a national level. Then there was this pandemic thingy, and the WFH shi…
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A concrete example: In many countries, most taxpayers don't have to file taxes. Those countries have taken many steps over the decades to make the tax bureaucracy more efficient. The US could try to do the same, but the existing institutions make it difficult. Another example: Many countries have a system of administrative courts. If someone challenges a decision made by a public official, the case goes there. The pr…
You don’t have to do tax returns in China. But you have to fill out a form with some numbers from your pay check stubs as HR tells you. It’s absolutely bizarre, it doesn’t change what taxes you pay at all, but you are in trouble if you don’t file the form (which is in Chinese anyways and I’ve never read through).
...which is not a problem any more since the advent of OCR and translation services...
> and I’ve never read through
Maybe you should? Just point a camera at the thing and run it through a translator.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Better?? Taxes in the US are a byzantine monster. State taxes are far simpler.
Employees of the federal IRS are Waldorf Astoria concierges compared to state revenue agencies, regardless of what you think of the underlying statutes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Employees of the federal IRS are Waldorf Astoria concierges compared to state revenue agencies, regardless of what you think of the underlying statutes.
But we’re not talking about “employees”. We’re talking about the entirety of an organization.