Apple Got More Dosh Than US Government

[Atheist-Lite]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14340470

Apple holding more cash than USA

Apple now has more cash to spend than the United States government.

Latest figures from the US Treasury Department show that the country has an operating cash balance of $73.7bn (£45.3bn).

Apple's most recent financial results put its reserves at $76.4bn.

The US House of Representatives is due to vote on a bill to raise the country's debt ceiling, allowing it to borrow more money to cover spending commitments.

If it fails to extend the current limit of $14.3 trillion dollars, the federal government could find itself struggling to make payments, and risks the loss of its AAA credit rating.

The United States is currently spending around $200bn more than it collects in revenue every month.

Apple, on the other hand, is making money hand over fist, according to its financial results.

In the three months ending 25 June, net income was 125% higher than a year earlier at $7.31bn

(continued)

[Robert_S]

Steve Jobs for President.

[Seth]

Just goes to show you that when you produce a superior product, sell it at the right price, control your costs and service your customers properly, the amount of money you can make is unlimited.

The federal government would do well to learn that lesson.

[Gawd]

Just goes to show you that when you produce a superior product, sell it at the right price, control your costs and service your customers properly, the amount of money you can make is unlimited.

The federal government would do well to learn that lesson.

Would you like to pay more taxes?

[Seth]

Just goes to show you that when you produce a superior product, sell it at the right price, control your costs and service your customers properly, the amount of money you can make is unlimited.

The federal government would do well to learn that lesson.

Would you like to pay more taxes?

Depends on what I get for paying them.

[Gawd]

Just goes to show you that when you produce a superior product, sell it at the right price, control your costs and service your customers properly, the amount of money you can make is unlimited.

The federal government would do well to learn that lesson.

Would you like to pay more taxes?

Depends on what I get for paying them.

A balanced budget.

[Atheist-Lite]

Nothing can be done - quants put exponentials in the system and no amount of tax or defecit reduction will remove their shit. American capatalism is Communism and just like any artificial societal governing system (rigged and corrupt by human hands so power gravitates to a tiny elite) it is going to lead to famine. If Seth wants to see real Communists they are all holed up in Wall Street laughing at the fools who think their capatalists.

[Seth]

Just goes to show you that when you produce a superior product, sell it at the right price, control your costs and service your customers properly, the amount of money you can make is unlimited.

The federal government would do well to learn that lesson.

Would you like to pay more taxes?

Depends on what I get for paying them.

A balanced budget.

Screw that, I just want a budget. A hard one.

My proposal is that the government (any government) be constitutionally prohibited from collecting or spending more than 15 percent of the prior year's actual GDP except in time of war declared by Congress, in which case both spending and taxes may be increased, but ONLY to fund the war, and the increases are reversed to the 15 percent limit of the GDP of the year PRIOR to the beginning of the war upon cessation of hostilities.

The benefit of this requirement is that it puts the government on a lean-and-mean budget that it cannot exceed, and it guarantees that the government can never rape the public by seizing more than a specified percentage of the nation's wealth. At the same time, as the economy prospers and the GDP goes up, government gets more actual revenue to play with, which incentivises it to make laws and regulations that improve the GDP.

Fact: Over the last 100 years, the amount of revenues actually collected by the US Treasury has remained remarkably stable and close to 19 percent of GDP regardless of the marginal tax rates imposed on citizens. This means that as marginal tax rates went up, to as high as 75 percent or more, actual revenues collected decreased substantially to remain at the 19 percent of GDP figure as the economy slowed and floundered under burdensome taxation and overspending.

Likewise, when taxes were cut, the figure remained the same, but absolute government revenues increased substantially as the GDP rose and the economy prospered.

So, the obvious conclusion is that a vibrant economy with a rising GDP created through low taxation and smaller government is far superior to the opposite, high taxation and a slowed economy, and the way to achieve that is to tie government revenues directly to the growth or shrinkage of the GDP.

Low taxes and an on-fire economy create a bigger pie from which government gets the same percentage (15%) but a bigger absolute piece. High taxes and a stultifying economy that always results from raising taxes, results in a smaller pie of which the government gets a smaller absolute share.

Obviously the former is preferable in all circumstances.

[Gawd]

Seth, your plan is laughable. You guys are always at war with someone. You go out of your way to make sure that there is war. When was the last time you were not "fighting" someone?

And isn't it interesting that when I said "balanced budget", you said "screw that"?

[Azathoth]

Just goes to show you that when you produce a superior product, sell it at the right price, control your costs and service your customers properly, the amount of money you can make is unlimited.

The federal government would do well to learn that lesson.

more like you can sell any old shit for whatever you like if it is in a pretty box

[Seth]

Seth, your plan is laughable. You guys are always at war with someone. You go out of your way to make sure that there is war. When was the last time you were not "fighting" someone?

The last time Congress declared war was December 7, 1941. My plan would make the President take money for military adventurism sans Congressional declaration of war out of his budget for other things. This would make military adventurism, like Libya, very personally expensive to the President politically, because his military aspirations would mean direct cuts to federal spending.

You have a problem with keeping the President from committing troops to outside conflicts?

And isn't it interesting that when I said "balanced budget", you said "screw that"?

All a balanced budget means is that the government has to raise taxes sufficiently to cover expenditures. That's hardly enough control over federal tax and spend policies, so yes, screw it...in favor of a FIXED budget that must, of necessity, be "balanced." Every year Congress only gets 15 percent of last year's GDP to play with. How they spend their allowance is up to them, but they don't get a dime more than 15 percent, and if they go over and deficit-spend, the percentage of GDP they can spend drops one percent permanently.

[Atheist-Lite]

Seths idea is just another system and will be corrupted in time. What you need is natural law - small markets where people know each other and buy, sell, demand taxes and determine prices by natural human interaction. Computer generation of stocks and shares should be abolished. It doesn't work - and it doesn't work big time as we're all about to find out.

[Tero]

I'm actually frustrated with iTunes. I Pod and phone are fine. Need some competition with tune storage and organizing.

Spotify?

[JimC]

Our school is helping them out - all Year 7s had to buy an iPad this year...

[Robert_S]

Our school is helping them out - all Year 7s had to buy an iPad this year...

Seriously?!?