| General > General Technical Chat |
| Google threatens Australia |
| << < (6/6) |
| rstofer:
--- Quote from: Ground_Loop on January 22, 2021, 11:59:07 pm ---I see globally complaints about the evil rich not paying their fair share of taxes. Do you have a figure in mind that would correspond to Google's fair share. --- End quote --- Tax laws are written by politicians to benefit one group or another but never the tax paying middle class. The thing is, every company or person has the absolute right to organize their finances in such a way that they pay the least tax according to the law. Billionaires don't pay taxes, they have people to figure out how to use their wealth to avoid taxes - legally (usually). Companies don't pay tax at all. If you double Google's tax rate, they just pass the costs on to their customers with higher fees. Regardless of the amount flowing from companies to the IRS, the company doesn't actually take a hit. They just raise prices. The consumer always pays the taxes. The tax code itself is a concise 2,600 pages but the supporting documentation is around 70,000 pages (required reading for tax professionals): https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/29/15109214/tax-code-page-count-complexity-simplification-reform-ways-means By the time I pay federal and state income taxes, property taxes and sales taxes, never mind excise taxes, the .gov takes more than 50% of my earnings. I used to do some consulting many years ago. The .gov took half but they wouldn't send anybody to help. I don't do consulting any more. On that basis, Google should pay 50% of their Adjusted Gross Income - and they probably do. It's just that they have more 'adjustments' than I do. I would like to see what percentage of their revenue turns into Adjusted Gross Income. OTOH, did you know how much Google is spending on AI, self driving cars and other advanced computer applications? They do an enormous amount of research. About $26 Billion dollars last year for all R&D and $3.9 Billion just for AI: https://www.statista.com/statistics/507858/alphabet-google-rd-costs/ https://www.techrepublic.com/article/the-10-tech-companies-that-have-invested-the-most-money-in-ai/ That is a ton of money spent on furthering our knowledge re: machine learning. They couldn't do it if they weren't flooded in money. Big business needs to keep getting bigger and R&D is the way they do it. As a stockholder, I demand it! |
| S. Petrukhin:
--- Quote from: rstofer on January 22, 2021, 11:48:25 pm --- --- Quote from: S. Petrukhin on January 22, 2021, 11:07:46 pm --- --- Quote from: MK14 on January 22, 2021, 11:53:30 am --- It is rumored Google recently shut off the official president of the United States of America (although it seems, they were probably right to do it), along with Twitter, Facebook and maybe others. --- End quote --- The 70 million Americans who voted for Trump probably won't agree with you. :) --- End quote --- I suppose some of those folks gave up Twitter for Parler until Parler was dumped off of Amazon's AWS and Apple removed the app from their store. --- End quote --- When we have any restrictions in our country, all foreign media loudly shout about human rights. Just now, a wave is growing against the arrest of one person who looks very much like an ordinary crook. He calls for the overthrow of the government, his rich friend does the same from London. But they are freedom fighters in the face of foreign media. At the same time, we see how in the United States a man kills a woman with a shot at point-blank range. Does not shoot her in the arm or leg to save her life, but to interrupt her attempt to get through the door. And at the same time, there are police officers on the woman's side. It's hard to understand. Did your news show this footage? In many countries, people rebel and are suppressed by the authorities. Probably, there are some people who benefit from it, who have a profit or a perverted pleasure in it. Personally, I would very much not like to see shocks in the United States, for example, or in Germany. Not only because it will affect us badly, but also because I feel sorry for the people who are getting into trouble. |
| rstofer:
--- Quote from: S. Petrukhin on January 23, 2021, 12:51:13 am ---At the same time, we see how in the United States a man kills a woman with a shot at point-blank range. Does not shoot her in the arm or leg to save her life, but to interrupt her attempt to get through the door. And at the same time, there are police officers on the woman's side. It's hard to understand. Did your news show this footage? --- End quote --- I didn't see any footage. More to the point, the officer hasn't been identified (to my knowledge) and you can be sure if this had happened at a BLM rally, the officer would already have tried and convicted, tarred and feathered. I don't know the circumstances so I'm going to stay out of it. At some point, officers can fear for their lives or the lives of others and, at that point, they are allowed to use deadly force. I wonder what I would be feeling were I single-handedly facing an angry mob with no apparent backup. What did my training teach me about such situations? What are the rules of engagement? Am I going to go home to my wife and kids or are they going to carry me off in a body bag? Were it me (and thankfully, it's not), I would work in a direction that resulted in me going home, uninjured. Judged by 12 rather than carried by 6. It's a sad situation! |
| EEVblog:
Nope, we're done, thread locked. |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Previous page |