Ian Stevens

18 Followers
62 Following
59 Posts
@codinghorror It's apparently called a "tax gap", and increasing funding for compliance could result in a gain of as much as $20 for every $1 spent. https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/quick-study-close-tax-gap-take-look-partnerships#:~:text=We%20calculated%20that%20for%20every,for%20itself%2C%20and%20then%20some.
Quick Study: To Close the ‘Tax Gap’, Take a Look at Partnerships

Hundreds of billions of dollars in tax revenue goes uncollected every year. Professor Rebecca Lester may have found some of it.

Stanford Graduate School of Business
@codinghorror I forget whether it was Offshore: Stealth Wealth and the New Colonialism or Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth where I learned if the US just collected the taxes the rich already owe and avoid paying, the resulting funds could increase the US budget by $470B.
they called it trickle-down economics because 'financial waterboarding' didn't poll well with focus groups

Zuckerberg has blown 77 billion – enough money to revitalize entire countries – on an idea so overwhelmingly, obviously stupid that I have never once heard anyone, from the Thanksgiving avuncular table to the most wretched depths of social media, say they liked it or even tried it. He was so sure that it would revolutionize the world that he renamed his extremely famous company after it. And now he's on to the next thing that he's so very, very sure about.

The world needs direction from sober people who aim to improve the human condition, not the whims of a handful of billionaire princelings who absolutely, positively cannot be dissuaded from failing at unprecedented scale while chasing their own vainglory off the edge of a cliff.

This is from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Just thought I'd post it here for no particular or current reason.
@popcornreel That's been the birthday song for the entire life of a close family member celebrating today. Good thing it's a great tune and never gets old.

Ex-farm worker here.

We need to talk about this whole "But a living wage for farm workers would spike the cost of food!" thing.

Not true AT ALL.

Y'all don't understand how fast experienced farm workers are.

The average tomato picker pulls 650lbs per hour.

At $20/hr, that's $0.03/lb for labor.

@Dianora What gets me is this info is often on separate a “contact” page. You're a store — contacting you should be the default!
Greed is such a blight on society. Why do VCs only want to hear billion dollar pitches? Why does every company need to grow endlessly? I wish there were more viable paths to modest goals. Underpromise and overdeliver.
Decades-old cultural clubs are “DEI” now?! If a university has these clubs, will they cease to receive US federal funding? What the actual fuck? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/05/us-military-academy-clubs-dei
West Point disbands student-led clubs after Trump’s DEI order

US military academy clubs include Society of Women Engineers, Latin Cultural Club and an LGBTQ+ support group

The Guardian