bitwize

[bitwize @bitwize_]

You do realize this has happened exactly one other time in US history right? What was the occasion? The 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. This is happening again…on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Of course we’re going to have a commemorative coin minted for the 250th. Notice how this didn’t happen his first term.

[bitwize @bitwize_]

@cremieuxrecueil Considering we no longer seem capable of repealing anything, maybe it’ll stick this time.

[bitwize @bitwize_]

@grok the discussion here is around whether or not property tax is actually more like taxing unrealized gains or not. Consider this scenario: someone bought a house at $200k years ago and is now on a fixed income. The county decides that the house is worth $650k now and starts taxing them based on that theoretical value. The owner can’t afford that so they then have to sell the home to pay the tax. Is this not identical to how taxes on unrealized stock gains would work? Again, we’re not talking about how these things are technically classified now, but about what they’re more similar to. Given the above, is property tax more similar to a progressive income tax or an unrealized gain tax?

[bitwize @bitwize_]

The value of any home is theoretical until someone actually pays it. They can base that number on other information, but houses only sell for what people are willing to pay and that varies a lot and can change drastically depending on things completely separate from the house: Peak Covid, my house was worth $550k theoretically. Now it’s theoretically worth $400k. Exact same house: Same neighborhood. At both points in time I had access to the same public services but my property tax was different. The reality here is that my house could sell for anywhere from $350k-$450k depending on any number of factors. It might just not sell at all due to lack of demand (bringing its “value” down to $0).

We are arguing that property tax is like taxing an unrealized gain because you’re taxed based on how much your asset might be worth if you sell it rather than based on how much the public services you have access to cost. YOU were arguing that it’s NOT a tax on unrealized gains because it’s for public services you have access to. It’s quite clear that property taxes scale with the theoretical value of the home, not the cost of the public services you’re describing.

The fact that you aren’t seeing this means you’re either just stubborn or stupid: Maybe both.

[bitwize @bitwize_]

You do realize this is how this has ALWAYS worked, right? Literally since the Constitution was ratified. It’s happened over 300 times in that last 250 years. In fact, until 1913 Senators weren’t even voted on. They were appointed by state legislators. So, please spare us your uninformed hysteria.

[bitwize @bitwize_]

Probably exactly the same as when the Democrat Party arbitrarily picked Kamala (the lowest ranking candidate in the last primary they had) as the candidate for President when Biden dropped out without any voter input. But yeah, this has happened many times specifically for Senators from both parties. Turns out temporary appointments until the next election is how it works.

[bitwize @bitwize_]

Woooow! Who could have guessed? The problem is these people will never admit that they were wrong.

[New York Post @nypost]

NY sees dramatic exodus of US millionaires - causing nearly $11B loss in tax revenue: study https://t.co/k7eOH3QAiW

[bitwize @bitwize_]

People who make more money… have more money to be taxed. Home value is theoretical and unrealized. The argument here is that the “tax” is actually for services and not on the unrealized value. You can’t have it both ways. If it’s progressive based on home value, then it’s taxing unrealized gains that aren’t real yet. If it’s service based then it should be identical for everyone.

[bitwize @bitwize_]

If that were true then everyone in the city/county would be paying the same amount. If my house was worth $300k and a neighbor down the street had a house worth $800k, we would be paying the same amount for access to the same services. Except we don’t. We pay based on a percentage of the estimated, unrealized value of the house.

[bitwize @bitwize_]

As someone who had to take an assembly class in college when high level languages like Ruby and Python were available (or hell, even C++), your argument isn’t really valid. I remember spending an entire week on a project because our professor forced us to use masm to build and debug assembly. Doing memory dumps to see what’s going on in registers, etc. I like computers but fuck that. Every time there’s a major abstraction that happens you have people on the side you’re on. And we’ll always need people who love and understand low level stuff, but most people will move on to higher level constructs.

[bitwize @bitwize_]

@CynicalPublius @Schwalm5132 This was my thinking as well.

[bitwize @bitwize_]

You really are dumb aren’t you? If America actually cared about Soccer we would dominate the sport. The reason for this is pretty simple. Every state would have its own professional team that would be taken seriously, paid incredibly well, and attract top athletes from across the country (right now football, basketball and baseball are the only sports that really do that). College level Soccer would become a big thing just like football so each state would have at least a couple college teams as well. Not to mention high school level. We would then start having our own internal World Cup event like the Super Bowl every year. It would just be a matter of time before our all star team that would go to the actual World Cup would start dominating.

[bitwize @bitwize_]

There are three main reasons the 2nd amendment is important. First, the ability to defend your life, loved ones and property is a basic human right (self-defense). Second, in a worst case scenario you need to be able to provide food for yourself and family (hunting). Third, protection against tyrannical government. The 2nd amendment was primarily about the latter but encompasses the former two. In a world where guns exist you need one to be able to perform the first. Just as in the past where someone without a katana cannot ably defend themselves from someone who has one, you now need a gun to defend yourself from others who have them (or who are bigger than you). Over time, the tools change but the underlying purpose does not. Additionally, governments tend to attract people who thirst for power, money and control. Having an armed populace makes it very near impossible to tyrannize them (which history shows happens in almost all cases given enough time).

[bitwize @bitwize_]

@japan_nobunaga I don’t consider myself a gun enthusiast and I own six or seven guns. That being said, probably more common to have 1-3 guns.

[bitwize @bitwize_]

As someone who just bought a Model Y, I can safely say you’re talking out your ass here. FSD as it is now is worth well over the $100/mo they charge. Best $100 I’ll spend every month. I’ve driven about 1000 miles in the Y so far and 96% of those miles were FSD. Side roads, highways, parking lots, neighborhoods, etc. I’d say the subscription is far superior to “owning” it unless that transferred (which it doesn’t). So you’re locked into not upgrading your Tesla for over 8 years before you break even on FSD and start saving money.

[bitwize @bitwize_]

@andrewchen What do you mean? The verb is obvious. “I’ll ask Claude.”

[bitwize @bitwize_]

@ApexSeeker_ Yes

[bitwize @bitwize_]

@Adrian_Horner_1 @iqrafatma1278 I would agree, but I’m now being prompted for 20% tips at self checkouts, sooooo

[bitwize @bitwize_]

@elonmusk Sort of ironically, if they stayed off social media/internet, didn’t watch TV and were home schooled, the idea to block puberty would probably never occur to most of them and they’d happily grow out of (or never even encounter) whatever made them feel that way to begin with.