How would you know the open internet is one of the most democratizing things we have in a modern society? Net neutrality rules were just published to the federal register today so only today does the internet finally, at long last, start to become open? It seems net neutrality is yet another piece of social openness being hunted down by government regulation.

WTF? The cost of maintaining a country is based on the government budget, not GDP. GDP is a measure of economic output. If citizens have good saving habits and the government doesn't run deficits then the cost of maintaining the country can be a small fraction of GDP. For bad savers and runaway spending governments, the cost can be much higher than GDP.

And in your example, trucks are charged a highway tax all their own to help pay their share.

It's sad you work at McD's but stop hating on more economically successfull people. It's clear from your posts that you're a coffee shop marxist.

"Trickle-down economics" is a demogogue political term from William Bryan and is not a real thing in economics. It's a basically a talking point straw man.

How about if Google Car's auto driver races the electric car up Pikes Peak?

No kidding; it used to be a few AF jokes sprinkled among the regular stories, which is effective and entertaining. The last few years it's been nothing but all day, which loses appeal quickly.

The first and second versions had i5 processors. this third one has an Atom. trying to make battery life numbers and heat dissipation better?

in the fair tax book which explains the proposed system, they explain that the initial rate is designed to be revenue neutral. adjustments that you suggest are for future revisions.
some degree of debt/deficit is not automatically bad. debt/deficit is degrees of bad depending on what it's spent on and what % of revenue it represents. current levels are bad but automatically precluding any would be bad in its own way.

Plenty of people think the government gives them money every month already because it does. At least in the case of the fair tax, it be for a good cause (making the tax code fair).

Because as soon as you have an exemption, politics will put severe pressure to add more excemptions. This is why the Fair Tax plan just gives everyone a rebate based on typical low income consumption of essentials but sales taxes everything.

Yes, obviously. My post was mainly to inject some mildly ironic humor.

It's a vicious circle; Have you not seen the pictures from Beijing? There isn't much solar energy getting through the existing smog for panels to cut down on the coal power to cut down on the smog....

This is great for students who have lazy professors. Write a good introduction on page 1, a good conclusion on page 52, and use SCIgen on pages 2-51.

I thought they were desperately needed as computer programmers.

Make the attackers go through the school district's purchase order approval process to get their money. The computers will be restored in a few months with no payout.