GROWING numbers of policy analysts and politicians are saying that it may finally be time to consider a value-added tax as part of our federal revenue system. In years past, I would have been in the forefront of those denouncing the idea. But now, reluctantly, I have joined the pro-V.A.T. side. Here’s why.
There are many arguments against a value-added tax, which is essentially a sales tax that applies at each stage of production. It is costly to put into effect, and it hits the poor and the elderly hardest because they spend a higher percentage of their income.
Gordon Moore on 40 Years of Moore’s Law
When you look back, what products have inspired you to say, “Wow, that’s a beautiful piece of work?”
Moore: Well, the ones I think of as landmarks were not necessarily beautiful pieces of work, but they turned out to be economically viable. The first dynamic RAM we made at Intel is with that category–the old 1103. It was a 1K DRAM and that was our first really big-revenue product. I guess I have to put the first microprocessor in that category too. It was very slow, but it did the job that it was designed to do. There’ve been a lot of things since that have been very important economically. I tend to think of them as more evolutionary products.
Homeland Insecurity: Rosenzweig Chairman of DHS Privacy Board
The Department of Homeland Security’s privacy board chose as its chairman Paul Rosenzweig, a conservative lawyer best known in technology circles for his defense of the Pentagon’s Total Information Awareness project. Bowing to privacy concerns, Congress pulled the plug on the program two years ago.
Nuala O’Connor Kelly, the department’s chief privacy officer, nominated Rosenzweig for the job during the group’s first meeting in a downtown hotel here. Rosenzweig is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a former Justice Department trial attorney.
Why is Tommy Thompson Sad?
Finally, Thompson voiced his regret just one day after Medicare’s trustees announced that the drug benefit by itself has an unfunded liability 60 percent larger than that of the entire Social Security program. (The unfunded liability for all of Medicare is nearly six times that of Social Security.) Medicare’s financial outlook has grown so dire that its two public trustees broke with the trustees who are members of Bush’s Cabinet to say that it is in far worse shape that Social Security.
BBC Reith Lectures 2005: The Triumph of Technology
MP3 audio files & transcripts (how 21st century!) of this excellent series:
- Technology will determine the future of the human race
- Collaboration
- Innovation & Management
- Nanotechnology & Nanoscience
- Risk & Responsibility
Colorado Municipal WiFi
The DenverChannel writes that the Colorado senate is voting on a bill that would support local municipal wifi…. (still no wifi at the Madison airport…)
The Death of the Music CD
Mark Cuban on the death of the music cd.
Election Results
The Dane County Clerk’s website includes election results from races around the county. Wispolitics has statewide results here.
Vint Cerf on the Internet’s next step
“My initial job was getting IP on everything,” Cerf said. That’s been done by now. IP is on every device from the smallest handheld to the largest supercomputer.
“Now we need IP under everything,” he added. By this he meant that now that the computers are all connected, we need to make sure that every device can use and access any service or product available to any one device.
Cartago, Costa Rica VR Scene
John Riley posted a very nice Quicktime VR Scene from Cartago, Costa Rica.