OK, everyone in America who hits the interwebs has probably heard about Senator Grassley's totally awesome imitation of Cher Horowitz by now. But on the off chance that there is somebody out there reading this blog who hasn't, be you from elsewhere in the English-speaking world or beyond, click this link right now. All indications are that this is not a hoax.
That is a U.S. Senator talking. Yup. Dude, is there a word for when something intended to be ironic turns out to be accurate? Twitter, indeed. I previously had no desire to try using it, let alone read the results: now I have an active aversion. Reverse marketing indeed, ironic in its lack of irony.
Somehow I seem to have found deep meaning in such gems as “My carbon footprint is abt 25per cent of Al Gore. I'm greener than Al Gore. Is that enuf?” and “Comfort America worried abt hyperinflation Reafirm ACCORD of1951” or even “Pres Obama while u sightseeing in Paris u said 'time to delivr on healthcare' When you are a "hammer" u think evrything is NAIL I'm no NAIL.”
Or ... well, click the link.
It isn't exactly the most beautiful and expressive of media, is it.
Posted by: Bernard Guerrero | June 09, 2009 at 06:15 PM
Is it possible it's an aide of his, a la Gavin Newsom? (Although Gavin's aide writes gud English.)
I like Twitter. I've thought through why and know my own counterarguments to "Why would you want to know what someone is doing or thinking every moment of the day??" But rather than debate that, I offer my favorite tweeter, astronaut Mike Massimino.
Posted by: Marcia | June 10, 2009 at 05:35 PM
Hi Noel,
This is off-topic, but I have a question: in Mexico one of the recent debates is over a value-added tax on food and medicine. The argument against is, of course, that it is regressive. If it's really the best and simplest way to increase revenue, why don't they set up some sort of tax credit for anyone who is below a certain income level? Would that just be too cumbersome given the number of Mexicans in the informal sector? Are there any other countries that have VAT deduction or credit in their tax code?
Posted by: Patrick | June 11, 2009 at 09:22 AM
The politics of any sort of tax are dicey. A tax credit, per se, would be fairly cumbersome to administer; people would need receipts and the like. On the other hand, you could have a simplified tax credit, although you'd still need somehow to verify that people were below the ceiling, and write up some sort of marginal schedule for its phase-out. After all, you wouldn't want a situation where your tax bill suddenly jumps once an arbitrary threshold is crossed.
Feeding that into the legislative machine can be a nightmare, which is why Mexico hasn't done it yet.
The U.S. allows you to deduct estimated sales tax payments, which is conceptually similar. In addition, the U.S. has the EITC, which has the same effect as the tax credit you propose, although it isn't explicitly linked to sales tax payments. Several OECD members have a similar system: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Sweden. (Australia has a complex system that seems to effectively mimic an EITC, and Spain has one for families with children.) Unlike Mexico, however, most labor in those countries is in the formal sector, so administration is easy.
The easiest thing in Mexico, I think, would be a massive expansion of Oportunidades. Of course, that could have the effect of turning it into a simple entitlement, which would be good for the country in general but might lead to the disappearance of the program's success in promoting very poor families to invest more in their children.
Did that help?
Posted by: Noel Maurer | June 11, 2009 at 11:00 AM
It was quite helpful, thanks.
Posted by: Patrick | June 11, 2009 at 12:22 PM