Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Anti-IRS Rant of Software Engineer who Today Flew Plane into IRS Building

embeddedart.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–218 of 218 posts

Re: Anti-IRS Rant of Software Engineer who Today Flew Plane into IRS Building

#211

Post by tlb »

splat wrote: post #205
tlb wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can't live with the IRS or other parts of the US system, there are 194 other countries out there. Many of them are good places for English speakers to live and work. Vote with your feet, not with violence against helpless government workers.

Unfortunately that solution doesn't work so well in practice. The United States is one of the few countries in the world to tax income earned by US citizens in other countries. (The only other ones of which I am aware are North Korea and, while it was in existence, the Soviet Union.) Furthermore, any US citizen who decides to renounce his or her citizenship is assumed to have expatriated for tax reasons if the tax li…

An individual who has expatriated for tax reasons must pay US taxes on all US-derived income. True, and they're fairly effective at collecting it too by withholding at the source. So if you don't want the IRS in your life, you can't get paid by US companies. Billions of people manage to do so.

Re: Anti-IRS Rant of Software Engineer who Today Flew Plane into IRS Building

#212

Post by grandalf »

pyre wrote: post #193
grandalf wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not my point, my point is just that the logical structure attributed to the definition is not accurate. The definition does not state that all of the clauses must be satisfied for something to qualify as terrorism, and as I showed above, satisfying a single clause is trivial (and clearly not terrorism).

I think that you should ask a lawyer about that before jumping to those conclusions. This may be some sort of gap between legal-speak and plain English. There are a lot of terms that diverge in meaning between common usage (even 'traditional' definition) and legal definition. Logic would dictate that the meaning of that is "if A and (B[1] or B[2] or B[3]) and C", but it's not explicitly there.

It looks to me like the definition is intended to be intentionally vague while appearing narrow.

Re: Anti-IRS Rant of Software Engineer who Today Flew Plane into IRS Building

#213

Post by inc »

jcromartie wrote: post #158
inc wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The deck is stacked everywhere, but so what? Get over it. An engineer has the ability to improve the world by building better things without resorting to destruction.

Do you have any concrete suggestions other than "building better things" that might actually lead to change that would address the issues like systemic injustice and economic subjugation in the face of endless corporate welfare?

Empower the people with global democracy in the form of an open web-based voting system, show them what's possible and they may force laws to be enacted globally similar to the NI4D, become lawmakers, and end corruption. Many don't believe that the people are ready for that much responsibility, and it's better for them to be managed by the various elites, but the price for this will always be systemic injustice, economic subjugation, etc.

Re: Anti-IRS Rant of Software Engineer who Today Flew Plane into IRS Building

#214

Post by mattm »

splat wrote: post #205
tlb wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can't live with the IRS or other parts of the US system, there are 194 other countries out there. Many of them are good places for English speakers to live and work. Vote with your feet, not with violence against helpless government workers.

Unfortunately that solution doesn't work so well in practice. The United States is one of the few countries in the world to tax income earned by US citizens in other countries. (The only other ones of which I am aware are North Korea and, while it was in existence, the Soviet Union.) Furthermore, any US citizen who decides to renounce his or her citizenship is assumed to have expatriated for tax reasons if the tax li…

Not being American, this is incredible for me to hear, especially since the Boston Tea Party was staged over a tax of just 2%.

Re: Anti-IRS Rant of Software Engineer who Today Flew Plane into IRS Building

#215

Post by DenisM »

splat wrote: post #205
tlb wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can't live with the IRS or other parts of the US system, there are 194 other countries out there. Many of them are good places for English speakers to live and work. Vote with your feet, not with violence against helpless government workers.

Unfortunately that solution doesn't work so well in practice. The United States is one of the few countries in the world to tax income earned by US citizens in other countries. (The only other ones of which I am aware are North Korea and, while it was in existence, the Soviet Union.) Furthermore, any US citizen who decides to renounce his or her citizenship is assumed to have expatriated for tax reasons if the tax li…

10-year rule was replaced in 2008 with "exit tax" - you have to pay taxes on all gains (realized and unrealized) and then you can go about your own business. Realizing gains to pay tax is a pain, but it only gets unbearable if your assets are illiquid.

Re: Anti-IRS Rant of Software Engineer who Today Flew Plane into IRS Building

#216

Post by DenisM »

furyg3 wrote: post #206
danek wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

easy to say, not so easy to do. for an american to legally live and work in another country is not trivial unless you have citizenship in that country. trust me, i would have been out of here years ago if it were less complicated.

Errrrmmm. If you're an American with a degree, it's pretty trivial. It's certainly trivial when compared to what people have to go through to get into the US. I know a lot of people who have relocated to NL (me), UK, DE, or FR. 1. Americans can travel freely to most countries in Europe, for business or vacation, no visa required. Once there, you can go on job interviews, and firms with many internationals will have n…

I know so many US expats over here, and only a few have had visa-related issues (all resolved well).

survivorship bias

Re: Anti-IRS Rant of Software Engineer who Today Flew Plane into IRS Building

#217

Post by javert »

derefr wrote: post #200
javert wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? This isn't the hosting company's fault.

I think, for the most part, free speech is a right people expect to keep after they're dead. If you say something, the government isn't allowed to censor it, even when you're no longer around to stop them. I would want a host that would support that ideal.

Ah, I thought that someone was suggesting changing hosting companies because the host was also used by Stack, not because the host took his page down.

I would also want a host to keep sites online for as long as they'd been paid for.

Re: Anti-IRS Rant of Software Engineer who Today Flew Plane into IRS Building

#218

Post by furyg3 »

DenisM wrote: post #216
furyg3 wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Errrrmmm. If you're an American with a degree, it's pretty trivial. It's certainly trivial when compared to what people have to go through to get into the US. I know a lot of people who have relocated to NL (me), UK, DE, or FR. 1. Americans can travel freely to most countries in Europe, for business or vacation, no visa required. Once there, you can go on job interviews, and firms with many internationals will have n…

I know so many US expats over here, and only a few have had visa-related issues (all resolved well). survivorship bias

Funny, but no. :)

I met most of my expat friends at the beginning of their visa processes (vacationers or students who want to stay, or fell in love with someone here), so I don't think survivorship bias plays a role in my own observations.

Post reply on HN