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Scudworth posted:Look what living in a hosed up country with a hosed up antiquated tax system has done to your brain and thought process. The public and government aren't locked in a grift vs grift system elsewhere. Lol
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Feb 17, 2020 07:46
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Leperflesh posted:
It's this, more or less
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Feb 17, 2020 08:48
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Not really a bonus in any way, just kinda helpful for people who can't budget or plan ahead which tbf is a lot of them i guess
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Feb 17, 2020 08:51
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Crimpolioni posted:Not really a bonus in any way, just kinda helpful for people who can't budget or plan ahead which tbf is a lot of them i guess just like there's an annual bump in consumer spending after april 15 as millions of americans get a refund on the money they lent to the federal government interest-free and treat it like a windfall
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Feb 17, 2020 09:05
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That’d be a lot of effort to avoid taxes when there’s a 25% VAT smiling in the corner saying, “try to dodge this, motherfucker.” I’m going to go out on a limb and assume the tax break has an income cutoff. No C-level executives need help affording Christmas gifts.
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Feb 17, 2020 15:06
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Leperflesh posted:just like there's an annual bump in consumer spending after april 15 as millions of americans get a refund on the money they lent to the federal government interest-free and treat it like a windfall It is effectively a windfall though. Sure, technically speaking it's money loaned to the government, but it's hard to call it a loan when you never have a chance to use it for anything else. There is no practical difference between earning $15/hr and losing a chunk in taxes every paycheck, and earning $13.50 an hour and getting a windfall in April. Sure, you can manage your withholdings to make this loan as small as possible, but that is deliberately confusing and hard to do. And without resources/skills to calculate their taxes in advance and bake this into their anticipated annual income, people are naturally going to treat that money as nonexistent until it magically appears in the spring.
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Feb 17, 2020 15:42
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None of these references will be lost on modern audiences as taxes are still very contemporary.
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Feb 17, 2020 17:50
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wizzardstaff posted:It is effectively a windfall though. Sure, technically speaking it's money loaned to the government, but it's hard to call it a loan when you never have a chance to use it for anything else. There is no practical difference between earning $15/hr and losing a chunk in taxes every paycheck, and earning $13.50 an hour and getting a windfall in April. OK yes, it is a loan interest-free to the government. You can manage your withholding fairly easily and it is not particularly hard to do - the W-4 form is a single page and you can freely use lines 4b and 4c to add to or remove from your withholding. The resource for estimating your withholding in advance is actually provided for free by the IRS and it works well for most people who don't have complicated taxes (most people despite the feeling of dread and confusion about their taxes do not have complicated taxes - even people with multiple jobs and dependents mostly take the standard deduction). It is better to slightly under-withhold and owe a little money, but most people psychologically treat that as if they've done something bad/wrong and hate that they have a bill come april: but that means they had the use of all of their money (and then some, a little) for a whole year, which is like: a whole lot better! The underlying theme of course is that most people who make enough money that they could save money, are still very bad at saving money, and letting the government do it for them is not the ideal method since as I keep mentioning, the govt. doesn't pay interest. And yes, this is all stupid and wrong, other countries have tax authorities that simply calculate people's taxes and then charge them those taxes, but I think it's good to emphasize to people that the money they get back as a refund is exactly that, a refund, not a free gift (except when it is a free gift, as with tax credits).
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Feb 18, 2020 03:27
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Penguissimo posted:Also the origin of the title of the swing tune “Pennsylvania 6-5000” That number is still used by the Hotel Pennsylvania and is the longest continually operating phone number in the county
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Feb 18, 2020 06:03
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Leperflesh posted:It is better to slightly under-withhold and owe a little money, but most people psychologically treat that as if they've done something bad/wrong and hate that they have a bill come april: but that means they had the use of all of their money (and then some, a little) for a whole year, which is like: a whole lot better! The W4 tries to scare you into not withholding with the bit about throwing you in jail if you withhold too much
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Feb 18, 2020 06:10
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Midjack posted:None of these references will be lost on modern audiences as taxes are still very contemporary. Filing your taxes has changed drastically though. I remember watching my parents sitting and doing it by hand, all I have to do is to log onto a government site and check that the numbers are right.
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Feb 18, 2020 19:13
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Alhazred posted:Filing your taxes has changed drastically though. I remember watching my parents sitting and doing it by hand, all I have to do is to log onto a government site and check that the numbers are right. That's a reference in modern media that is lost on audiences stuck in antiquated tax codes.
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Feb 18, 2020 23:59
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I had our taxes balanced really close. Then we had another kid, bought a house and my husband went back for a higher degree that we are paying for out of pocket.
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Feb 20, 2020 00:06
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Leperflesh posted:How does this not get insanely massively exploited? Costa Rica has something like that in law, called the Aguinaldo. It's a thirteenth month of salary that must be paid by December 20th, for every employee. All else equal it's essentially the employer dividing your annual salary into thirteen monthly salaries instead of 12, but paying two of them simultaneously at the end of the year.
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Feb 20, 2020 00:48
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More Looney Tunes: a local theater had a showing of Bugs Bunny cartoons this last weekend, and one joke that stood out was Bugs using alum to shrink someone's head. Apparently alum used to be used as a pickling agent; nowadays that part of the joke is lost, and we're just left with the visual gag. There were also some jokes involving ether that are still understandable, but were probably a lot more so when it was still in common use as an anaesthetic.
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Feb 20, 2020 05:23
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Lord Hydronium posted:More Looney Tunes: a local theater had a showing of Bugs Bunny cartoons this last weekend, and one joke that stood out was Bugs using alum to shrink someone's head. Apparently alum used to be used as a pickling agent; nowadays that part of the joke is lost, and we're just left with the visual gag. There were also some jokes involving ether that are still understandable, but were probably a lot more so when it was still in common use as an anaesthetic. That's kinda funny -- alum is still sold for pickling, and you still find recipes suggesting it. But, it isn't actually a pickling agent itself. It just makes pickled cucumbers stay crisp. So the original writers kinda didn't know what they were talking about. This in itself isn't too surprising, since there was a strongly gendered division of labour at that point in time, and the people who were allowed to write for cartoons had probably never set foot inside a kitchen.
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Feb 20, 2020 07:58
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Alum is astringent. It is sometimes used an aftershave treatment, and that was more common in Bugs Bunny’s day. Some people say it feels like it “tightens” their skin temporarily. I can’t say that I feel that, but it does stanch bleeding from superficial cuts. Platystemon fucked around with this message at 11:25 on Feb 20, 2020 |
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Feb 20, 2020 10:36
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Lead out in cuffs posted:That's kinda funny -- alum is still sold for pickling, and you still find recipes suggesting it. But, it isn't actually a pickling agent itself. It just makes pickled cucumbers stay crisp. Yeah, I suspect that the reference has to do with using alum blocks after shaving to heal shaving cuts and nicks. That's an old-timey shaving thing. Your amateur sexism theory is pretty amusing though--you've done a pretty good job of demonstrating that some kind of narrative could be concocted to attribute almost any social phenomenon to sexism.
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Feb 20, 2020 11:22
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silence_kit posted:Your amateur sexism theory is pretty amusing though--you've done a pretty good job of demonstrating that some kind of narrative could be concocted to attribute almost any social phenomenon to sexism.  wonder why that might be
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Feb 21, 2020 13:36
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Someone posted a .gif in the pseudoscience thread of Tom guzzling alum powder out of a box like baking soda. That suggests that it’s bot about shaving and might be about pickling after all.
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Feb 21, 2020 15:22
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"It's 10 PM. Do you know where your children are?" I was watching the Simpsons, the one where Bart works for the burlesque house, and they do that gag where the Kent Brockman says it and Homer replies "I told you last night, no!" I was the only person in the room who laughed at that reference.  fake edit: looked it up on Wikipedia, and Andy Warhol did one in 1984?! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0p9zJoSQTA
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Feb 21, 2020 19:54
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Platystemon posted:Someone posted a .gif in the pseudoscience thread of Tom guzzling alum powder out of a box like baking soda. Is that powder that makes you say yes?
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Feb 21, 2020 19:56
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PHIZ KALIFA posted:
Yeah this. Also lol at getting butthurt that I brought up that the 50s we're much more sexist than today in the "references in older media lost on modern audiences thread."
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Feb 22, 2020 05:14
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Is silence_kit one of the like 4 resident chuds that floats around here looking for gotchas or al I misremembering?
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Feb 22, 2020 07:43
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The song No Aphrodisiac by The Whitlams starts "A letter to you on a cassette 'cause we don't write anymore." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qi7SlM1eDk
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Feb 25, 2020 10:06
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JacquelineDempsey posted:"It's 10 PM. Do you know where your children are?" Wait, other cities did the whole 'It's 10pm do YOU know where your children are?' commercial PSA's also? We had them in Atlanta because we had a serial killer who murdered 28 kids. And here I was thinking we were unique and special.
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Feb 25, 2020 14:28
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Krispy Wafer posted:Wait, other cities did the whole 'It's 10pm do YOU know where your children are?' commercial PSA's also? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_you_know_where_your_children_are%3F
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Feb 25, 2020 14:33
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Krispy Wafer posted:Wait, other cities did the whole 'It's 10pm do YOU know where your children are?' commercial PSA's also? Yeah, they had them in NY when I was growing up in the 80's. They always creeped me out because I only saw them when visiting my grandparents in NYC, who let us stay up that late when we visited on summer vacation. NYC was already kinda scary to me at night because we'd watch the 5'oclock news while eating dinner, and it was nothing but "woman raped in Central Park!" and "man shot in Brooklyn!" or "girl's body found in the East River!" compared to my relatively peaceful hometown upstate news of "look at this giant ear of corn this farmer grew!" So the last thing I'd hear before going to bed was the ominous Channel 5 voice booming "IT'S 10 PM. DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR CHILDREN ARE?!" like I was gonna get abducted and killed in my sleep. Not necessarily a media reference, but speaking of "o'clock" --- at my last few jobs I've been amazed at how many of the teens/20's co-workers have no idea how to tell time on an analog clock because they all just check their cell phones and no one wears an analog watch anymore. I usually work restaurants, and there's always a big rear end clock on the wall so every can see what time it is. So many times someone would ask me what time it was when their hands were too dirty to pull out their phone. I'd look at the wall right in their line of vision, and say, "... it's 5:25?" Do they not teach that anymore? And how many will not get older media bits because they can't see/understand the tension of a ticking clock and how much time is left before Bad Thing Happens?
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Feb 25, 2020 23:29
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unless you can use an abacus, shut up about young people.
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Feb 26, 2020 00:20
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imagening a princess in a huge conic hat with a scarf coming out the end straight scoffing at whatever german pederast invented a mechanical clock. "prithee and forsooth! what a jackanape, winding his springs all day long when THE LORD ALMIGHTY has provided for us sundials!"
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Feb 26, 2020 00:21
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jaquey demps over here jumping into a horse drawn buggy, "follow that cab and step on it!" on account of her manually cranked studebaker being in the shop
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Feb 26, 2020 00:22
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Nah people still use analogue clocks and ol' JD is just having some confirmation bias
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Feb 26, 2020 00:48
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there are absolutely people who go through life without being able to read analog clocks. they've been around since the pre-smartphone era though, and i don't think it's any more common now than in, say, 1995.
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Feb 26, 2020 01:01
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I think people just aren’t aware of wall clocks as much. They get in the habit of checking their watch or their phone and they don’t remember that the room they’re in has a clock on the wall. They could read it, but it doesn’t occur to them to look.
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Feb 26, 2020 01:11
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I think it's also just that it can take them a second. Like I'm able to do 652 - 417 in my head, but realistically I'm probably gonna do it on my phone. I think for some younger people, clocks might be edging in that direction.
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Feb 26, 2020 01:14
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i like nice words
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I don't think I encounter analogue clocks anywhere these days. Trains and airports use digital on their notice boards and in the office, I have a little digital clock in the corner of my screen, so I don't look at the wallclock anymore. If it weren't for my wristwatch, I don't think I'd ever look at one. I'm struggling to remember the last one I saw in the wild.
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Feb 26, 2020 01:22
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My gym has analogue clocks on the wall for some reason.
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Feb 26, 2020 01:45
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Anecdotal, but, I visit a lot of schools, which all have analog clocks in the classrooms and hallways, and I've had high school students flat-out tell me that they don't know how to read a clock. Also, good luck finding someone under 20 who can read and write in cursive.
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Feb 26, 2020 01:52
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Cursive is wholly obsolete (the only virtue it ever had was avoiding ink splots with a dip pen - manuscript is superior in both speed and legibility), so youths not learning it is a good thing.
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Feb 26, 2020 01:54
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Wasn't even gonna touch the cursive bit until it came up, but, yeah I've had to interpret cursive for younger folks too. Last time I needed it was 1995, when you did the GRE's you had to copy a whole paragraph in cursive to, I dunno, your handwriting proved it was you and not someone else taking the test? Cursive is, imo, obselete. Did not expect my post to turn into a slapfight/dogpile, jeez; I thought the whole point of this thread of this was older folks mentioning poo poo the kids of future generations would not get. Guess I'll go back to practicing my abacus.
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Feb 26, 2020 02:05
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