Tax Cuts: A Simple Lesson in Economics
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all
Ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it
would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day
and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw
them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers, he said, 'I'm
going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.
Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the
first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what
about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the
$20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized
that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted
that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would
each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it
would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he
proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before And the first four continued to
drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare
their savings.
'I only got a dollar out of the $20', declared the sixth man.
He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!'
'Yeah, that's right', exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a
dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than me!'
'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10
back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'
'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We
didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth
man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without
him. But when it came time to pay the bill they discovered something
important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half
of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax
system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from
a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they
just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas
where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
Contrary to Internet folklore, Dr. David R. Kamerschen is
NOT the author of "Tax Cuts: A Simple Lesson in Economics." Additionally, he does
NOT know who wrote it.
Guilt of a poem
Never try to hide your guilt behind a poem
This lesson I have learnt
I have committed this blunder before
And so have I burnt
But for all my past
I have not learnt the right lessons
I still commit the folly
That my devilish side beckons
Sitting here today I realize again
The uselessness of my venture
Writing a poem on this cold morning
I hope that this is a right gesture
I won’t go into the details
I have already bored you
Most people are great people
And writing is not what they do
Even Frost had his bad days
I shouldn’t have made fun
I have already said enough,
I’ll just go to burn under the sun.
Home goes wireless
Our home finally went wireless today. We purchased a new wireless router and connected it to our broadband. It works like a charm.
Finally set up a new development box with an XFCE DE. Just wanted to see it. Well it looks ugly
(compared to GNOME and KDE) but its pretty fast on half the RAM.
How to make the Indian Cricket League work?
Making a professional sports league work is very simple in India. Make it professional, keep the sport and make it a league. Yet, there aren't any successful professional leagues in India. Why?
The answer is simple: The failure to identify the target audience.
Millions of Indians pay their hard earned money to view EPL, Serie A, F1, Tour De France, NBA. Some even pay big money on MLB and Golf Tournaments. So why couldn't an Indian sports league get the same kind of money. It's because till now Indian Leagues' have not offered a package deal. By package I mean a wholesome entertainment experience for their target audience.
Indian Cricket League is the Essel Group's foray into this space and I think they will have to be genuinely foolish to lose money on this. But till now they have made a mess of it.
First, of all they must accept that they are in it for the money. Second, they have to tell the people that they are here to give the viewer's a better experience. Third, they must stick to 20-20 and hit it hard on the BCCI's face.
20-20 is a very powerful medium. Packer changed the cricketing world with his limited over's format. Twenty20 too is here to stay and may become the world's new cricketing format if correctly marketed.
So what should ICL do? Well, they should change the Cricket Package that I see on TV. I have been bored enough by cricketer's who were great in their time but are terrible commentators. We need the Harsha Bhogles to comment and not the Sunny Gavaskar's. We need constantly running chirpiness from someone or the other.
We need to see the commentators on the sidelines of the ground, than in faraway commentary boxes. We need to talk more often to the players (not just one player in the middle as happens in Twenty20). We need to talk to coaches, physio's in real time....do it continously.
We need professional coaches/background staff etc...and professionally fit players. we need players who can run 4 runs when in normal cricket players run just 2.
And if need be, most importantly ICL needs to change the game. Use smaller pitches and grounds. We need to see harder shots to the boundary. Use more tech intervention in umpiring. Use livelier wickets, use different stuff, change the sidescreens, let one bowler bowl continous overs, let captains' change balls as they wish.
But whatever you do stick t one set of rules for the whole season, and don't change them too much in the second season.
Give viewer's an experience that traditional cricket does not give them....and see money running into your coffers.
I just hope ICL does all this, then I will certainly switch, cause even though we are fans of traditional cricket, we are bored of it.
