This is the sensible approach and completely standard. The other problem with registration is getting out of state cars to meet CA smog requirements used to be expensive at times.

I would go insane if I lived in California.

At least, if it weren't for all the hot girls and party atmosphere.

I've always wondered what it would be like to be broke in California, live in some ****ty town and still have all the insane costs of living. That's gotta be a special kind of hell.

I think it's pretty ridiculous that Amazon can squeeze out local retailers even further by not paying sales tax in most states.

welfare state tho

True. True.

"These out of state operators are making money by illegally servicing the California market. Californians cannot sit by and allow companies to flaunt it's laws based on where they are located."

From the upcoming shutdown of Amazon.com

locus though. When you buy from Amazon in CA, you (the customer) owe "Use tax" which is the same rate as sales tax. So it's really quite equal!

Or you could move to Alpine County, population 1300: http://www.alpinecounty.com/history.html

Germany, arguably the strongest economy in the world right now, mandates at least 4 weeks vacation per worker: http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/05/23...ex.html?hpt=C2

I know socialist hell and all, but who wouldn't like European style vacations?

This is also why I don't buy any of the minimum wage/overtime/whatever other worker benefiting law = economy crushing. Even freaking Japan mandates 4 weeks. I know I could get my job done just as well with 2 extra weeks off. Maybe Americans would actually be encouraged to see the world a little more and not be so easily duped about how hellish conditions supposedly are over there.

Yeah, everyone owes sales tax on everything, so the losers here are companies that can't avoid withholding the tax. It gives Amazon.com a built in 5-10% price edge over Barnes & Noble's website. Laws written before 1990 did not contemplate the intarwebz.

Did anyone catch "Too Big to Fail" on HBO tonight?

If I were allowed to create threads anymore, I'd do so for a catch-all on Sorkin's work and the 2008 collapse, but I'd welcome anyone else to do so.

Very well done. Giamatti as Bernanke was spot on.

I thought the Sorkin book was pretty weak - some good insights but very, very kind to basically everyone involved, even Dick Fuld.

How did I not know Obama was part Irish? We could be related!

Helps explain his disdain for the English...

Really?

Im guessing on his mother's side.

Social contract/cohesion is epically strong in Germany. It really is remarkable.

They also aren't burning all their money on idiotic foreign adventures.

Yea, I think they got their fingers burnt in that regard.

Germany is active in Afghanistan. It's obviously not at the same scale but it's not like they're isolationistic .

The latest Louis special is really good:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...a_Jail_Part_1/
(you will have to have a UK IP to view it i assume)

Its about Miami's mega jail, which houses a couple thousand people awaiting trial, most for violent crimes. Many are housed in cells that hold approx a dozen and conditions are in some cases worse than actual prison despite them being considered innocent in the eyes of the law.

His grandfather's grandfather on his mother's side left Ireland during the famine in 1850.

The 4 weeks are only the legal minimum. Average vacation days are around 29 (that's plus 10-15 official holidays depending on your federal state).

There is a nice table on average vacation days on the right hand side of this Wikipedia article. It is in German, but it just shows "average vacation days agreed upon by unions and employers in 2003". Most countries should be pretty easy to identify.

And as fat as getting burned for "foreign adventures" (I think the posters are referring to the Euro and not Afghanistan): The most recent forecasts of GDP growth for 2011 and 2012 are >3%. Funnily enough, everyone hates our government.

edit: Oh, just noticed that TomVeil was in fact talking about military "adventures". Let's just say a lot of people in Germany think the Euro is our foreign "adventure".

Maybe if the government didn't artificially lower employment with taxes and regulation we would have enough job competition which would require companies to fight for workers and not the other way around. If someone is willing to work more to get a job you're saying they shouldn't be able to?

Lol what

Germany has higher taxes, more regulation, and better working conditions than America. Clearly, the problem is that America's lower taxes are still too high, and we need to lower them so that we can wrap around and end up treating employees better.

Good conservatives know that government is always the problem. Like in some of the health care threads multiple Obamacare opponents argued that European countries outperform American health care outcomes because they have "less red tape." How did they "know" they have less red tape? Why, they outperformed American health care outcomes.

I mean, there's a totally legitimate argument that mandating vacation times decreases productivity and we shouldn't do it, but that's not good enough. Government is the problem. Rush Limbaugh says so. That statement has truthiness.

I always find it best to look around the world, see what's working, then do the exact opposite.