IRS Systems Hacked
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Thieves used an online service provided by the IRS to gain access to information from more than 100,000 taxpayers, the agency said Tuesday.
The information included tax returns and other tax information on file with the IRS
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/apnewsbreak-irs-thieves-stole-tax-info-100000-31317464
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Wowzers.
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Now who sues them because they had a breach? LOL
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This hack is brought to you by the only government agency to cave to a religion.
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@MattSpeller said:
This hack is brought to you by the only government agency to cave to a religion.
What agency has NOT caved to a religion?
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You realize this is the US IRS, right? The same government that granted unlimited power to each state to have religious requirements because they were afraid to stand up to the churches in Massachusetts? It's a country founded on caving to religious interests.
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@scottalanmiller I think that's a very recent development. Jefferson was notorious for playing hardball. Whole country was founded to ensure this crap never happened, which is amusing. Before confederation or whatever the heck you southerners did I recall that one had to subscribe to a particular religion to govern in certain states.
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Even more justification for a flat tax
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@IRJ Why would a flat tax be better than greater taxes for people who make more?
I could buy into it for simplicity, etc. Would depend if it included capital gains / investment income etc I suppose.
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@MattSpeller said:
@scottalanmiller I think that's a very recent development. Jefferson was notorious for playing hardball. Whole country was founded to ensure this crap never happened, which is amusing. Before confederation or whatever the heck you southerners did I recall that one had to subscribe to a particular religion to govern in certain states.
Um, no, that was the original constitution. Country was founded by religious organizations primarily. Don't buy into the advertising. Look at our bill of rights. That was the original founding fathers and that is where all the problems started when they guaranteed that the states could each choose a state religion and that the federal government would never have the power to interfere with church power in the states.
It is only recently that we've gotten upset about it and wanted to change it. But we've not changed anything.
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@MattSpeller said:
@IRJ Why would a flat tax be better than greater taxes for people who make more?
Only need to record really basic stuff. Total income, was the tax paid, name. Done. Makes the whole system simple and the number of systems fewer. Don't need special portals and whatever with a flat tax.
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@MattSpeller said:
@IRJ Why would a flat tax be better than greater taxes for people who make more?
Flat tax means that the people who make more pay more. That you can't get around that is what the flat tax means. It's not a flat dollar value, it's a flat percentage. If you want the wealthy to pay more, a flat tax is what you would normally want. If you want the rich to have lots of loopholes, you don't want a flat tax.
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@MattSpeller said:
I could buy into it for simplicity, etc. Would depend if it included capital gains / investment income etc I suppose.
Those are so different that they are not normally included. Flat tax is only spoken about in reference to income.
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Flat tax also eliminates the need for tax preparers. The number of people that could do something productive instead of having to be part of the government's circle of welfare would be pretty huge. The IRS could be a fraction of the size too. So many agencies could be trimmed down and those people sent out to do work in the interest of the civilization instead of just making the government expensive and inefficient.
I get that having a complex tax system provides a ton of jobs that don't feel like welfare so that those people can feel good about what they do while still getting a hand out. But it doesn't change what it is - an artificially created was to move money from the people who earn it to people who don't and provide no value. Not that those people individually couldn't or wouldn't, it's about numbers. It's tens of thousands of jobs. If they didn't have the IRS and tax preps and all of the other roles associated with it, the people who actually do those jobs would probably get jobs elsewhere - but they would displace still other people and one way or another, a lot of people would be out of work.
So it remains welfare, it is just impossible to identify which person is the one on the welfare. It's a tricky system that governments do to make it seem like the economy has many more jobs than capitalism would allow for.
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@scottalanmiller said:
So it remains welfare, it is just impossible to identify which person is the one on the welfare. It's a tricky system that governments do to make it seem like the economy has many more jobs than capitalism would allow for.
Some interesting points there, but I think you give the Gov too much credit in the last bit, I'd chalk it up to plain old inefficiency. I'm confident you could say similar about the military or whatever other hunk of bureaucracy you'd care to. I wouldn't want to only pick on the bean counters heheh
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@MattSpeller said:
@scottalanmiller said:
So it remains welfare, it is just impossible to identify which person is the one on the welfare. It's a tricky system that governments do to make it seem like the economy has many more jobs than capitalism would allow for.
Some interesting points there, but I think you give the Gov too much credit in the last bit, I'd chalk it up to plain old inefficiency. I'm confident you could say similar about the military or whatever other hunk of bureaucracy you'd care to. I wouldn't want to only pick on the bean counters heheh
Exactly. I say it about the military all of the time. Why is it so large and why do they take so many people who can't do combat? Same for while the government forces so many people to go to college. All of these things reduce the pool of people that can be considered in an "unemployment" number. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But when you realize how many people are working off of tax dollars it's not good. When the economy is failing, it helps to keep spirits up. But when there is any need for employees and they are not available because college, government agencies or military have taken them out of the work pool then it causes real financial damage to the economy.
It's what I call the economic circle jerk. Half of the jobs exists only to create jobs. They don't produce value and are the opposite of what people claim the economy is about. It's all for the illusion of having jobs.
If you read Scott Adams who is an economic adviser to the CIA, though, and then look at how the economy runs, it makes sense. It literally is a welfare system but one designed to make people proud rather than depressed. The problem is that it undermines much of the actual economy too and causes us to be war happy as side effects. It is as efficient, I think, as Adams' recommendation to just have those people stay home and pay them to do so. They are in the way of getting work done.
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But like I said before.... it's not necessarily the actual people in those positions that are the ones getting the welfare. Some Army General might be super valuable where he is. He's not the one on the welfare. It is some other job elsewhere in the private sector (maybe) that is available to someone less qualified who gets it because the general was used elsewhere. That's the trick that makes it so nice - you can never identify the actual people who are the ones on the welfare. It might be that bean counter, it might not be. You can never look at an individual and say "you, you are the one on welfare" because it's not really them. It just creates huge numbers of artificial jobs that are filled "by the economy".
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If you create artificial jobs, somewhere that means that there is one fewer person available for unemployment. But it also means that someone has to pay for the position that is filled. So it makes the economy look good and it makes people feel good but it is not good if the goal is to actually make things.
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@scottalanmiller I'll agree to most of that in principle, though I'd argue that keeping everyone active and proud (while wasteful) is a hell of a lot better than having them sit at home.
Only other part that rankled is your remarks about college being a drain. I know from other posts you've made that you're not a fan but it really does have value. Personally I think that after serving in the army and being paid little, college is not enough but it's certainly better than nothing! Gain valuable skills to put to use in a career.
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@MattSpeller said:
@scottalanmiller I'll agree to most of that in principle, though I'd argue that keeping everyone active and proud (while wasteful) is a hell of a lot better than having them sit at home.
So here is the question.... why? I agree that I kind of feel that way, but I am not sure why. If we can get over the stigma of it, why not let people spend time reading, doing art, playing music, drawing, writing, growing a garden. Sure, lots of people will just watch TV. So? If we find even 1% of people are actually awesomely creative and add to society, isn't that better than giving people false pride? And pride in what, really?
What's wrong with people sitting at home if that is what they want to do? It is less costly and less dangerous to have them at home than to have them working - and that's the point. Having people go to jobs created just to give the impression of working uses natural resources, creates highway congestion, creates pollution, uses energy, keeps families from spending time together, encourages pointless wars, costs lives, etc. Why not avoid all that when we can lower the cost and improve the quality of life? Everyone wins!
