akg1's comments

akg1 · on Dec 27, 2011

> US having the highest percentage of population incarcerated of any first world country.

We have the highest incarceration rate, full stop.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcerat...

tankenmate · on Dec 27, 2011

“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons” -- Fyodor Dostoyevski

akg1 · on Nov 4, 2011

How can this be "regularly" happening? Wouldn't farmers stop selling to walmart if this happened even once?

And if they "committed" to buying all the output, why weren't there repercussions from breaking that commitment?

lallysingh · on Nov 4, 2011

It's not like huge customers for your crop are necessarily easy to get. And Walmart did buy all the non-spoiled output; they probably had the contract well-written to let them get away with what they did.

akg1 · on Oct 20, 2011

The tax rates vary from 10% up to 35%, as you go up the income scale [2]. So, there are your progressive taxes.

Income taxes vary from 10-35%. Payroll taxes vary from ~14% down to infinitesimal as you go up the income scale, they are not progressive, and for the people at the bottom end of that 'progressive' scale, they tend to cost more than income taxes.

It's frustrating that I even have to make this point. Everybody knows about this, and yet when these discussions happen, it's like payroll taxes don't exist, or don't count, or somehow or another are not part of the debate. For that matter, neither are capital gains.