Womble

@Womble@piefed.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How to reform income tax: end the high marginal rate scandal⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes, if you want a social security net and dont live in the world's economic hegemon

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How to reform income tax: end the high marginal rate scandal⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  FWIW the article does make sense, though the conclusion I'd draw wouldnt be the same as theirs but:

  Jane is earning £60k and claiming child benefit for three children. That’s worth £3,094.

  She’s now in the 42% tax band.6 Jane still pays basic rate tax for her income between £12,570 and £50,270, but now pays 42% tax for everything over that. So her total tax bill is (50270 – 12570) * 28% + (60000-50270) * 42% = £14,643 and Jane takes home £45,357.

  Jane is thinking of working a few more hours to earn another £1,000. She’s in the higher tax band – so in a sane world she’d expect another £420 of tax, and a marginal rate of 42%.

  But that is not the result. Once Jane’s income hits £60,200, the “High Income Child Benefit Charge” (introduced by George Osborne) starts to apply to claw back her child benefit – 1% for every £200 of earnings.

  The marginal rate – the tax Jane is paying on that new £1,000. This is 56.5% – and we will have the same result for all incomes between £60k and £80k.

  The solution I'd draw from that would be to raise the higher rate from 42 to 45-50% and scrap the means testing of child benefits. Makes the tax take more progressive and reduces administrative burden by not having to assess people's income for if they are eligible for child support or not.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What's your thoughts on this?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If this university hadnt bought this meaningless advert it would have a tiny reduction in the demand for advertising potentially leading to less always lit billboards being made. So no, they dont get a pass for it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨China is about to launch SSDs so small you insert them like a SIM card⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think her point was that you were doing the annoying "everyone is from USA so I'll just talk like we all are" by bringing up Trumps tarrifs when they were not the topic of conversation and are irrelevant to everyone outside the USA.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AI industry horrified to face largest copyright class action ever certified⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It wont do anythign of the sort. Even if you accept the premise that somehow artists are being exploited from learning from their previous works, all that will happen is the AI companies will shift out of America to a juristiction that doesnt value extracting rents from IP above all else.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AI industry horrified to face largest copyright class action ever certified⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  For all those cheering on the copyright mafia going after Anthropic, consider that some of the groups supporting anthropic against this massive overreach of "we get to decide how you use our works" include:

  • Authors Alliance
  • the Electronic Frontier Foundation
  • American Library Association
  • Association of Research Libraries
  • Public Knowledge

  Maybe this is not such a great thing?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨GOG NSFW Giveaway⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Presumably the devs have to agree to it. I dont think gog cn just decide "were going to give away this game we dont own for free"

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨4.2% pay rise for police officers across England and Wales⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Eh, public services have been getting pay increases across the board to make up for the ridiculous tory freezes on wages for a decade. for example, just two monts ago there was a 4% increase for teachers and doctors in england, is that also Keir bribing teachers to get them on side?