Glee updates: Making Money Ideas

JustBuyThisOne is a shopping site that approaches the problem of the paradox of choice by limiting a shopper’s options down to one, featuring the ideas of behavioral economist Barry Schwartz who coined the term in the title of his 2004 book on consumer decision-making. Powered by the review aggregator ReeVoo, the site essentially displays the top item reviewed among televisions, vacuums, computers, and other electronics frequently turned to for gifts.

Browsing through the site one immediately gets the sense that the solution to “too many choices” isn’t necessarily “having only one choice” – the feeling that you as an individual have cognitively made a decision about what the best deal is turns out to be a critical part of the decision-making process. An interesting solution to this problem is the site’s Room Service feature, in which they promise to handle all the details of returning, refunding, and replacement.

Another idea exposed is around the notion of curation; while there’s potentially value in capturing the #1 reviewed item from everyone, though sites like Svpply and Of A Kind show the value of showing only items selected by a like-minded community. While JustBuyThisOne’s straightforward and simple approach may turn out to appeal to a number of people, it’s likely that as an “experiment in choice architecture” it will end up highlighting the importance of constructing a balance between too many options and too few.

JustBuyThisOne

[via @rorysutherland]

March 25, 2009

Dear Sir/Ma’am:

I recently completed filing my federal and state tax returns; more accurately, I assembled a bunch of paper, sent it to my accountant, he sent back a form which I am unable to comprehend, and I wrote out a check, signed it, and crossed my fingers and mailed it in – something similar to what Treasury Secretary Geitner did with one exception; I paid my taxes. I have read in the national media that President Obama is trying to find new profits to tax by eliminating deductions, like the home mortgage deduction, and reducing previously justifiable expenses; in short, raise taxes. From the highest earning taxpayer to the lowest, we are attacked by an ever expanding tax code whose only purpose ought to be to secure money to pay for those Constitutionally acceptable functions we cannot accomplish on our own as States, but alas this is not so.

Taxes are critical to the funding of necessary functions of our government that the vast majority of individuals cannot accomplish on their own. I could home school my children, sit outside my home with a rifle and a garden hose, and maybe band together with a few neighbors, and set up a small school and a neighborhood watch program called “You loot, We shoot.” But, It is far more effective and efficient to have a neighborhood based school system, police stations, and fire departments to accomplish the same objectives that is accountable to local taxpayers. Thus, I pay property taxes to accomplish the goal of providing an education, policing our streets, and putting out fires. On the State level the same cannot be said. The budget is so in the septic tank that the federal government has bailed us out via President Obama’s “stimulus bill,” because the state of New York promised too much, to too many, in the good years, and did not plan on a time when economic growth would contract. On the federal level we have an enormous problem, in the past 20 years, Republicans and Democrats, have taken the citizens visa out for a spending spree and we’re busted; $2 Trillion running deficit, $13 Trillion in debt – assuming the books balance, which according to the last comptroller general, they do not. By this time next year, if we have a flat gross domestic product, only 1/3 of the federal budget will be obtained via tax receipts, 2/3 will be borrowed or just printed – if you think we are going to have a flat gross domestic product next year I’ve got bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. You name the politician, by next year, an election year, they will all be promising more than can be delivered on the economy, and by extension the broken back of the taxpayer. Remember what Reagan said, “ . . . the more the plans fail the more the planners plan.” The schizophrenic nature that the government approaches the economy can best be described using President Reagan famous quote, “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And If it stops moving, subsidize it.” The conclusion is crystal clear. When taxes are levied and dispersed on the local level we get more for our money, and we have the capacity to alter course if the government loses it’s way. At the state level the risk of fraud and abuse multiplies; and finally at the federal level this abuse multiplies exponentially. Last I checked my home state of New York does not have a printing press.

The current tax system on the Federal level is one giant loophole – 60,000 pages of it it is progressively regressive in nature – the more you make the higher tax rate you pay. For enough money the highest earners obtain lawyers, and accountants to find ways to keep more of what they earn. I applaud them, and their efforts and I would do the same thing if I walked in their economic shoes. The more money citizens and business owners keep the more they can save, invest, and spend, to pursue happiness to the betterment of all. Politicians use the tax code as leverage at the State and Federal level to, shall we say, encourage contributions from individuals and corporations to remain in office and feather their nests. This is not how this deal is supposed to work in the United States of America. Bad ideas must fail so good ideas can prosper – and in prospering we all benefit from an ever increasing standard of living.

We need to scrap the tax code and tax earnings and purchases at a combined rate of 10% – everybody pays, no exceptions. You make more money you pay more tax, you spend less money you pay less tax; since there are no more deductions, tax credits, exemptions there is no more tax day or tax season – you pay your taxes as you live your economic life. This will allow a refocused IRS to enforce a simple law, de-facto on the highest earners, and it will create a consistent stream of tax receipts that will be guaranteed to evolve from areas that are failing to those that are financially succeeding – hopefully removing the incentive for politicians to tax well run firms and to subsidize the pursuits of failing firms or ideas that have no bases in reality.

Have you had your cup of ethanol today?

Respectfully,

Joe Doakes

http://ddfghhdfxd.com/

[via @rorysutherland]

March 25, 2009

Dear Sir/Ma’am:

Have you had your cup of ethanol today?

Respectfully,

Joe Doakes

bench craft company rip off system

[via @rorysutherland]

March 25, 2009

Dear Sir/Ma’am:

Have you had your cup of ethanol today?

Respectfully,

Joe Doakes

bench craft company rip off medicine

Tuesday 7 December 2010

Making Money Ideas

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