This is the kind of stuff that goes on for decades without anyone batting an eye at it. I welcome the Department of Government Efficiency if it can read an article like this and take action on it to generate revenue that was accounted for in revenue projections and forgotten about when it came time to collect.
The reason your Columbia shirt has a tiny pocket near your waistline (2019)
41–50 of 61 posts
Re: The reason your Columbia shirt has a tiny pocket near your waistline (2019)
#42Of course the circumvention of the "chicken tax" is probably the most well-known example of tariff engineering: > Ford imported all of its first-generation Ford Transit Connect models as "passenger vehicles" by including rear windows, rear seats, and rear seat belts. The vehicles are exported from Turkey on ships owned by Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL), arrive in Baltimore, and are converted back into light tru…
I'm going to start compiling a list of stories to reply with when people say "environmental activists are too preachy/emotional about their work" and the Ford motor company manufacturing seats, seat belts, and windows, shipping them in vans to get out of a few thousand dollars in taxes per vehicle, and then shredding those things without them seeing a single ass in their entire existence after removing them from the…
If it makes you feel better, there is a miniscule that the people responsible for it, the people who permitted it, and the executives who oversaw it could possibly go to prison for not doing it. fiduciary duty baby!
Re: The reason your Columbia shirt has a tiny pocket near your waistline (2019)
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
I highly doubt actuaries are dumb enough to allow this arbitrage at the insurance company’s expense.
Remember that there are also insurance regulators that must be satisfied. It might not be worth fighting them on something like this.
That makes it even more suspect. Regulators are incentivized to ensure prices are proportional to the risk. They would have nothing to gain by asking insurers to have all other drivers subsidize sports car drivers just because it has more than 2 seats (if that is even a true scenario).
Re: The reason your Columbia shirt has a tiny pocket near your waistline (2019)
#44Of course the circumvention of the "chicken tax" is probably the most well-known example of tariff engineering: > Ford imported all of its first-generation Ford Transit Connect models as "passenger vehicles" by including rear windows, rear seats, and rear seat belts. The vehicles are exported from Turkey on ships owned by Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL), arrive in Baltimore, and are converted back into light tru…
I'm going to start compiling a list of stories to reply with when people say "environmental activists are too preachy/emotional about their work" and the Ford motor company manufacturing seats, seat belts, and windows, shipping them in vans to get out of a few thousand dollars in taxes per vehicle, and then shredding those things without them seeing a single ass in their entire existence after removing them from the…
> This legit made me ill and the people responsible for it, the people who permitted it, and the executives who oversaw it should all be in prison.
In prison for what crime? Perhaps feel sick about those writing the laws, instead of those who are following them?
Re: The reason your Columbia shirt has a tiny pocket near your waistline (2019)
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm going to start compiling a list of stories to reply with when people say "environmental activists are too preachy/emotional about their work" and the Ford motor company manufacturing seats, seat belts, and windows, shipping them in vans to get out of a few thousand dollars in taxes per vehicle, and then shredding those things without them seeing a single ass in their entire existence after removing them from the…
> This legit made me ill and the people responsible for it, the people who permitted it, and the executives who oversaw it should all be in prison. In prison for what crime? Perhaps feel sick about those writing the laws, instead of those who are following them?
Wasting non-renewable resources.
Re: The reason your Columbia shirt has a tiny pocket near your waistline (2019)
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or how about the seats in Ford's transit vans? https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/ford-p...
We had a scam in Poland decades ago, where companies could buy a station wagon with this metal grating between rear seats and the trunk [0], which was enough to classify the whole vehicle as a truck, which gave you tax breaks not available for passenger vehicles. [0] https://ocdn.eu/pulscms-transforms/1/QCvk9kpTURBXy83N2RiNjQ1...
Wait until you hear about the cars in Sweden that are “converted” to tractors so children can drive them without a license.
Re: The reason your Columbia shirt has a tiny pocket near your waistline (2019)
#47A bit related: In the early aughts we bought a Porsche 911, which had a ridiculously tiny back seat. According to the dealer, it existed because two-seaters were considered sports cars and were therefore costlier to ensure. Worked out perfectly for us because our children were young, we lived at the beach, and driving them to school on the freeway was an absolute blast.
That sounds like some sort of urban legend that originates from people repeating what other people think they know about how insurance works... like the long debunked "red cars cost more to insure". It really doesn't pass the sniff test, because insurers don't need to know how many seats a car has to determine whether or not a vehicle is a sports car. The make and model is sufficient to determine this. Insurers alrea…
Thanks for the treatise. Love the research and I agree with your very close reasoning.
In my defense, I attributed it to the dealer instead of stating it as undisputed fact because it has always sounded a little funky to me. On the other hand, the seat is so small there isn’t any obvious reason for its existence.
The subject was interesting to me but not interesting enough to pursue it much further because I was going to get the car anyway.
Re: The reason your Columbia shirt has a tiny pocket near your waistline (2019)
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This legit made me ill and the people responsible for it, the people who permitted it, and the executives who oversaw it should all be in prison. In prison for what crime? Perhaps feel sick about those writing the laws, instead of those who are following them?
Wasting non-renewable resources.
That's not a crime as evidenced by the dumb tarrif loophole. The tragedy is the lawmakers who don't care that their laws are responsible for this.
Re: The reason your Columbia shirt has a tiny pocket near your waistline (2019)
#49This is the kind of stuff that goes on for decades without anyone batting an eye at it. I welcome the Department of Government Efficiency if it can read an article like this and take action on it to generate revenue that was accounted for in revenue projections and forgotten about when it came time to collect.
Australia replaced thousands of tax code rules with a simple goods & services tax (GST), which is like a VAT. It noticeably improved the economy by reducing paperwork and overheads, especially for small to medium business.
We need more of this kind of thinking from governments instead of just layering more and more paperwork on top of existing paperwork!
Re: The reason your Columbia shirt has a tiny pocket near your waistline (2019)
#50Of course the circumvention of the "chicken tax" is probably the most well-known example of tariff engineering: > Ford imported all of its first-generation Ford Transit Connect models as "passenger vehicles" by including rear windows, rear seats, and rear seat belts. The vehicles are exported from Turkey on ships owned by Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL), arrive in Baltimore, and are converted back into light tru…
I'm going to start compiling a list of stories to reply with when people say "environmental activists are too preachy/emotional about their work" and the Ford motor company manufacturing seats, seat belts, and windows, shipping them in vans to get out of a few thousand dollars in taxes per vehicle, and then shredding those things without them seeing a single ass in their entire existence after removing them from the…
It's not just taxes. U.S. environmental and labor regulations are a big part of why Ford would prefer to manufacture vans in Turkey, burning bunker oil to ship the vans overseas and wasting energy to make and then destroy seats, seat belts, and windows.