All I can say is I have some fairly rich friends by my definition (MM's) and it is offensive some of the deductions they get. I would begin by removing ALL deductions and starting from scratch. I'd probably only put back in the classic schedule A deductions(mortgage, charity, health). For individuals, that is it. I would also eliminate trusts, which are probably the most valuable tax vehicle for the super wealthy. And no this is not about the NTSB being taxpayer funded, of course it should be. This is about why is the NTSB doing the R&D for VG. After the thing has flown a few successful simulated full on test flights, IE not development flights, I'd be ok with it. This thing is not even to alpha yet.

Only someone making 1M++ is going to pop for a 250K fun ride. I certainly agree that 100-750k/yr pays alot of tax, I don't consider that group rich however. They are upper middle class and I agree bear the brunt of taxes. Its the .1or even .01% that branson is attracting, and they should be bearing the cost here. But these people have very good accountants who know how to avoid tax and have very good connections to get the most out of the system. Nope, I stand by my original argument, the US taxpayer is getting the shaft on this one and once again the tax system is shifting wealth to the super rich. As a friend of mine likes to say, soon mexico will be as corrupt as the US.

While I am all for commercial space programs, I am a bit confused why NTSB is involved at this point. This was a test flight for what will never really be commercial travel for the masses. It seems to me, VG is getting alot of free help from me the taxpayer to figure out what went wrong. I will never have a 1/4 of mil for a fun 5 minute ride, so why am I paying to help it along. Or is this another case of the middle class screw? We pay for rich people's hobbies again.

You are restricting your viewpoint to limited countries. Certain asian countries still eat dogs and even transport it like we would livestock. If I remember right Thailand exports live dogs to Vietnam for consumption. In the US, most smart animal shelters carefully review who is adopting to make sure the adopter is not using the shelter as a meat supplier. I happen to be a dog lover and find it offensive, but I understand it is cultural. Much like I find Japan's slaughtering of dolphin to be cruel, but I don't care if people kill sharks. What we eat is based on local cultural norms. Think about how India feels about us eating cows for example.

Nope, in austin it is fairly easy to end up paying for energy you produce. When monthly usage exceeds 1000kwh, you pay 12.9c/kwh but you only received 10.7c/kwh for the energy produced by your panels. You stilll pay such wonderful extra tariffs like community benefit charges on total kwh used as well making the 12.9c go even higher. At the 500-1000 usage level it is more equal with the utility charging 11.7c/kwh. So the computation is not total usage - solar generation = charged usage. It is total usage x normal tariff - solar generation x solar rate = your bill. I was rather pissed when they changed to the new model. Previously it was net metered. And to add to the insult, they reserve the right to change the solar rate paid to you at whim. Previously they paid 12.7c/kwh which worked out to about even after you factor in all the other taxes etc they charge. I have to say, when I moved here, I put austin energy at the top of the heap for utilities and thought city run power was a good idea. After the baffoons wasted 60 mil on the new billing system that does not work, restructured the solar rates, and hoover cash from the utility to pay city shortfalls, I'd rank them as the absolute worst utility in history.

They effectively already do this in austin. The latest solar rate structure pays 10.5c/kwh but they charge 12.5c/kwh for users using over 1000kwh/mo. So even when I don't use the network I pay 2.5c/kwh for solar power I generate. Unfortunately they do not meter push/pull to/from network, they charge based on total solar generation and total usage. And of course they reserve the right to adjust how much they pay me at will. Last year solar power pay'ed 12.5c so it was a wash.

I think it is more like Elon saying to texas, change the law and I will come to texas. Elon is just being Elon. Whichever state offers Elon the biggest basket of goodies is going to get the factory. It is bribery and corruption at its best here in capitalist usa.

Or a reason to use a modified version of the old NED editor from rand. My homebrew version is 176K, and is more efficient at large files than vi. I built it after needing it for linux and giving up trying to update the original code about 5 years ago. Up until then I used the Rand code. The other handy thing about having your own editor is you can make it work exactly like you want. And since I've used it since college, it is like the back of my hand. I use it for everything from scripts to million line C projects.

He keeps his bitcoins and is charged 150K as any other customer would be. He is also fired.

Hydro may start getting some adds. The "other" problem of our overpopulated planet is water. TX just announced plans to build a new dam and I suspect may add more than one before it is over. Those dam's usually come with generators alost free.

Not at all. I am assuming as the lower priced shale approach runs out, the next lowest cost alternative will be used. It will not go to zero supply overnight. As nat gas supply starts running out, prices increase, and the next lowest cost alternatives will replace the not so cheap anymore nat gas. If nothing new is available at that time, it will be coal, renewables, nukes, hydro, and whatever else is currently used to make juice.

But you are assuming that no replacement other than nuke will be available when shale runs out. Who would have predicted cheap shale 10 years ago?

I took a snippet from the log below. Note, it needed a tow truck, they replaced the battery & drive unit which requires the rear subframe removal. Now either the battery is not easily replaced contrary to reports of battery quick change from tesla, or the "drive unit" is more than a simple motor controller. In any case, even if it is just the dealer cannot fix a water leak, lemon laws apply. Here it has left them stranded, which certainly qualifies for lemon law. While I agree the tesla is a hoot to drive (a friend did test drive one) I don't know if I would run to buy a tesla because my mercedes is unreliable. It appears the tesla could be more unreliable. The drive unit is only one of many problems they are having. From Edmund's... When we last left our 2013 Tesla Model S, it was on the back of a flat-bed tow truck, having died on my colleague, Matt Jones. It spent the night in a tow yard and was delivered to the Tesla service department in West Los Angeles the following morning. ... He called back about an hour later and said they would be replacing the drive unit and the high-voltage battery assembly. I asked Vince what caused the problems, but he said they don't open up the batteries at the service center. Like most warranty issues on new cars, the parts are replaced at the dealer and the old ones are sent to corporate headquarters for the engineers to study and see what went wrong. The service invoice didn't give me much more to go on, "During vehicle logs review, found fault related to internal drive unit failure. Replaced complete drive unit assembly per TDS case #9571." If you're keeping score, our Model S is now on its third drive unit: the one that came with the car, the one that was replaced in November, and this latest one. And that wasn't the only thing that was replaced on this service visit. After the power unit was replaced, the Model S needed a four-wheel alignment. That's because the rear subframe must be removed to extract the power unit.

You might want to take a look at edmund's long term road test of their tesla. Its on its third battery/drive train at 30K miles. One joke was that maybe a 10K service requirement is a new drivetrain/battery. It is eating tires because of misalignment. You can tell edmund's really wants to love all aspects of the car and granted it is a nice driving car, but reliable it aint. Several commenters at edmunds wonder why they have not lemon lawed their unit it is so bad.

This outsourcing of everything may get interesting very soon. Apparently, we buy engines for the rockets we use to launch military satelites from russia. The country we just stuck sanctions on. I think the article said they had a 2 year stockpile. Now that we outsource materials for that grand military of ours, it could get interesting. I was expecting the first issue to be with asian made chips and disk drives. Who would have guessed it would be a big ticket rocket engine. I wonder if we have any ISS personal up there now and if they are getting anxious too.