> Of course, if you go to income tax free Texas (Austin, let's say), you get to keep that 14% you were paying to Seattle.

To compensate, Texas property taxes are amongst the highest in the country.

> they can get roommate in expensive cities and work their way up

Yeah, about that... https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thepitchkc.com%2Fsha...

One of the reasons I don't use Slashdot very often. Trying again.
I'm not exactly young and I still prefer texting to calling, for a few reasons:
- I can communicate without interrupting what I'm doing or disturbing the people around me.
- There's a written log of what was said so if someone lies to me I've got proof (especially good for salespeople)
- 90% of the time if someone calls me and it's a number I don't recognize, it's a telemarketer.

This last point applies to several kinds of communication methods. It usually goes like this:
- New communication method appears
- Said method becomes popular
- Marketers and advertisers latch on, flood it, and make it unusable
- People find a new means of communication

And the cycle repeats.

I'm not exactly young and I still prefer texting to calling, for a few reasons: - I can communicate without interrupting what I'm doing or disturbing the people around me. - There's a written log of what was said so if someone lies to me I've got proof (especially good for salespeople) - 90% of the time if someone calls me and it's a number I don't recognize, it's a telemarketer. This last point applies to several kinds of communication methods. It usually goes like this: - New communication method appears - Said method becomes popular - Marketers and advertisers latch on, flood it, and make it unusable - People find a new means of communication And the cycle repeats.

Possession: maybe. Distribution? no. A savvy lawyer could simply request immunity from prosecution for crimes unrelated to the search warrant in exchange for your cooperation.

That would only work if the defendant wasn't compelled by a court order. The lawyer doesn't get to say that you'll follow it in exchange for something.

I think he's talking about how terrorists often fund their operations by selling oil they've seized, among other things.

Not if the remaining people encrypt everything, delete all training material, and install timebombs in the mainframe.

Sure, prosecute them, but then you just guarantee your company goes under.

How do we NOT support breeding?

Turns out that developed countries have the opposite problem. At least one European country has produced ads to get people to have kids, and Japan is in desperate straits due to the lack of "breeders".

The solution is, DON'T force masses of people to live in squalor.

I'm wondering if you just phrased yourself poorly, or you don't know how to count.

I think even basic income is a crutch that will eventually stop working.

If you're a factory owner, for instance, and you're cranking out product to sell to people who get the money for free, how long until you decide to stop essentially giving away your products and retool the factory to produce only for yourself?

Until the 1%ers want their land.

Trademarks have to be defended because it's not just about the property of the trademark owner. It's also about the public being able to know what they're getting. If any software developer could call their product "Microsoft Widgets" then there would be extreme confusion over products. So the onus is put on the owner of the trademark - either defend it, or that word is going to become generic.

Nothing about getting that much money away from the rich is simple. There's a saying - politics is like water on cement - it finds every crack and crevice. The very very rich already have an army of accountants and lawyers whose sole job is to find every loophole that will let them keep as much money as they can, along with an army of lobbyists to make sure the laws you suggest either never get passed or are riddled with loopholes to the point that they're meaningless.

I'm not saying there's no solution, but I am saying there's no EASY solution.

The only good thing I can see in this is that it used to be much much worse. The very rich (nobles, kings, the high up clergy, etc) essentially sold the service of not murdering people, in exchange for complete and total servitude. Nowadays there are very big threats (too big to fail, etc), but instead of outright military force they use extremely complicated financial rules to fool people instead.

the founding mantra of the USA is "equal opportunity, not equal outcome".

As long as we pay for primary education via local property taxes, we are explicitly saying that we DON'T care about giving equal opportunity. Along with all the other implicit ways we do it means we don't get to claim that.