Audeze LCD-3

[roadtonowhere08]

It is, ironically, one of the best arguments for why fraud is such a social problem. It erodes trust in public institutions that are necessary for the maintenance of functioning societies.

Trust in public institutions is earned. The taxes outlined by spritzer are insane and are just BEGGING people people to circumvent them. Functioning societies are maintained when both sides (private and public) are thinking long-term. These taxes are a cash grab that is insulting to the consumer... not to mention far from consistent. That erodes trust in government.

Spritzer, I am curious as to your observations about the people in your country. What do you think are the main factors leading to their apathy? Is it a sudden development, or has it been pervasive for a while?

[dsavitsk]

Trust in public institutions is earned. The taxes outlined by spritzer are insane and are just BEGGING people people to circumvent them. Functioning societies are maintained when both sides (private and public) are thinking long-term. These taxes are a cash grab that is insulting to the consumer... not to mention far from consistent. That erodes trust in government.

That's exactly what I was saying, that the arbitrary application of law erodes trust in institutions. Sorry if I did not make it clear.

[dsavitsk]

the astounding part to him is that nobody seems to care one bit about this.

I don't understand why they would?

[roadtonowhere08]

That's exactly what I was saying, that the arbitrary application of law erodes trust in institutions. Sorry if I did not make it clear.

I read and reread your statement after the fact, because I was not clear about it. I was just about to add an edit stating that. I misinterpreted your post, my apologies. This post clarifies things perfectly.

[limp]

I don't understand why they would?

Might the 'this' he's alluding to be the erratic tax system?

[Wmcmanus]

No one gives a shit what you think.

Nor a fuck. Not one fucking shit, you fuck!

[jgazal]

To say I'm defrauding the state of something they are due has to be one of the most retarded arguments I've ever read. The simple fact is that the whole customs structure here is as unfair and unjust as they come and run by people who should be taken out back and shot. Take for instance the ubiquitous ipod. They are by far the most expensive in the world here and the only reason is an extra 30% tax since you technically have the option to record with these things so they class it as a sound recorder. The iphone on the other hand has no tax (besides the 25.5% vat) yet has all of the same features plus being a phone. There are around 90,000 ipods in circulation here but only 15000 were sold in Iceland. The lost VAT alone dwarfs what is gained by that 30% tax yet they won't back down and change it. Ohh and the real clincher, anything that is not an Apple ipod yet has all the same features isn't taxed with that extra 30% tax...

Another example which I was told about last week. So this company imports wood burning stoves and classifies them as heating appliances. That's what they are used for in our cold climate and they are very popular in all the houses we have scattered around the country side. Years pass with no problem and then somebody from customs sees this and decides wood burning stoves are for cooking and thus have to carry an extra 25% tax. When pressed for how this was a stove for cooking and not for heating they claimed it couldn't be used as a heater since it didn't have anything connected to it that distributed the heat to surrounding areas. IR rays apparently don't count and the company was forced to pay that 25% tax on every unit they had sold over a 4 year span. One can also buy an oil filled stove which is plugged into the mains to give some extra heat (so it does exactly the same as the wood burning stove) and there is no tax on that...

One more... TV's are considered a luxury item in the customs laws and carry a 30% tax (same as audio gear) yet if one goes bankrupt then TV's are considered a necessity and it is illegal to seize it to pay ones debts.

To say that everybody cheats would be an understatement and it is on both sides of "the law". Why this stuff isn't fixed in a nation of 300.000 is beyond me though. Perhaps I should give our lesbian PM a call and talk to her about it. It's not like she isn't related to me or anything...

Try to tell her this:

Kaplow, Louis. "The Theory of Taxation and Public Economics". Princeton University Press. 2008. Pages 123-124.

6.Income and Commodity Taxation

(...)

It is useful to begin by considering the basic reason why commodity taxes are not fundamentally a sensible way to redistribute income when an income tax is available. Consider a tax on yachts, designed to further redistributive objectives. Such a tax will distort consumption expenditures of the rich; they will spend less on yachts and more on mansions, air travel, and other diversions. Furthermore, luxury items will distort labor supply in a manner similar to that caused by income taxation. To illustrate this poitn, suppose that, on account of taxes on yachts and the like, disposable income effectively buys 2% less that it otherwise would. This reduction in purchasing power will reduce the utility benedit of the incremental earnings just as would a higher marginal income tax rate that directly reduced disposable income by the same amount. As a result, using commodity taxes to redistribute income imposes the same sort of cost in terms of labor supply distortion as the income tax does and also imposes additional costs through the distortion of consumption choices. Thus, although second-best reasoning indicates that is is not generally true that a greater number of distortions implies more distortion overall, in the present setting this is so because adding distortions across commodities does not in the basic case reduce the distortion of labor effort due to redistributive income taxation.

The particular method of analysis employed here to make the argument rigorous follows that sketched in chapter 2. At its core is a construction in which any reform of commodity taxation is joined with an adjustment to the income tax (and transfer) schedule that, taken together, leaves the distribution of utility constant. It can be demonstrated in a basic case that, when such a combined reform is implemented, labor supply is unaffected as well. As a consequence, the only effect of the composite policy - the commodity tax reform and the corresponding income tax adjustment - will be on the efficiency of individuals' consumption decisions. Accordingly, uniform commodity taxation - equivalent to no commodity taxation - is most efficient because it avoids any distortion of consumption choices.

The conclusion that the availability of income taxation undermines the redistributive role of commodity taxation reinforces the book's overall theme that an integrated view of government activity is necessary to properly assess any particular policy. The argument presented in deriving this result also supports the more specific idea that distribution-neutral policy analysis has important virtues even when considering policies that are generally understood to have important distributive implications.

(...)

Edited October 27, 2011 by jgazal

[jdkJake]

Gotta admit, never thought I would learn this much about Icelandic customs and tax law while just trying figure out if the LCD-3 sound matches it's price.

Wow, what a wild ride....

[fishski13]

The problem we have is being a nation of alcoholics that are easily distracted so when Saturday night rolls around we all get absolutely shitfaced and forget all our worries.

i've always received unlimited complimentary beer when flying Iceland Air coach from Minnesota to Europe. i'm not sure how much corporate welfare exists in Iceland, but i'm guessing you subsidized my beers on some level. needless to say i slept very well.

[Hopstretch]

Nor a fuck. Not one fucking shit, you fuck!

This is my favorite part so far.

[complin]

The problem we have is being a nation of alcoholics that are easily distracted so when Saturday night rolls around we all get absolutely shitfaced and forget all our worries. We also just don't give a fuck about pretty much anything. One of the things that amazes my expat friend Stuart isn't that we have a lesbian prime minister who is married to her wife in a church, no the astounding part to him is that nobody seems to care one bit about this. She is by far the worst PM we've ever had so plenty of opposition from pretty much everybody yet this is never brought up in a negative light.

Well that seems a very good thing to me, as she's just a bad politician, being lesbian or otherwise doesn't really make her more or less politically astute. Perhaps they both get pi**ed too much which is why they make bad decisions. Not really good for the old brain cells!

Mind you it must be bloody cold for a lot of the time there (otherwise it wouldn't be called Iceland?) so you need a bit of alcohol in the blood as anti-freeze!

Edited October 27, 2011 by complin

[kevin gilmore]

The problem we have is being a nation of alcoholics that are easily distracted so when Saturday night rolls around we all get absolutely shitfaced and

And the stuff they get shitfaced on is NASTY.

Birgir sent me a bottle of that crap, and the hangover

that must generate is probably why you see those

guys with horns on their heads and a large sword in their hands.

[jvlgato]

What kind of crap do they drink?

[kevin gilmore]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenniv%C3%ADn

and it is NASTY

[jvlgato]

NASTY in all caps!

That does sound NASTY ..

'...It is sometimes called svarti dauði ("Black Death")...

At times it is drunk as a "chaser" after sampling hákarl, which consists of putrefied shark flesh, to mask the fish's taste. The word brennivín literally translates into English as 'burning wine', and comes from the same root as brandy, namely brandewijn which has its roots in the Dutch language (also compare German Branntwein).'

You might have to bring some to the next gathering!

Black Death!!! Long Live Spritzer!

[swt61]

Gotta admit, never thought I would learn this much about Icelandic customs and tax law while just trying figure out if the LCD-3 sound matches it's price.

Wow, what a wild ride....

Most Head Case threads go well off topic at some point, and we're fine with that.

[Clarkmc2]

I think Iceland is one of the Northern nations that has hot Glogg in the Winter. That would redeem the country in my eyes. As for Brennivin, all schnapps is forbidden to enter my body. Don't ask.

[skullguise]

And the stuff they get shitfaced on is NASTY.

Birgir sent me a bottle of that crap, and the hangover

that must generate is probably why you see those

guys with horns on their heads and a large sword in their hands.

But who paid the dues?

[RudeWolf]

I tried the black death after eating some putrid shark. That fish tasted like herring mixed with ammonia and old socks, seemed like a good snack with strong drinks, maybe even wine. But the Black Death is overrated. I've drank absinthe in many ways, hell I've even tried eau de Cologne in my wilder days but the Black Death tasted like average schnapps with a nice caraway flavor. A girly respite after the horrors of the putrid shark, it wasn't black and it sure wasn't deadly.

I'd happily try some more of that sharky. Better than putrid ram's testicles, that's for sure.

[jvlgato]

So where does an Icelandic pick up putrefied shark fish? Is it readily available at the local shop?

[RudeWolf]

So where does an Icelandic pick up putrefied shark fish? Is it readily available at the local shop?

I think that some local shops carry them. I tried mine in a hotel restaurant together with various other Icelandic "goodies." Though I'm not sure if locals very often eat all the putrid foods. From what I've heard these meats were eaten at the end of the winter when there was nothing else left and the Icelandic "bon appetit" literally translates as "may this do good for you" as in "I hope you don't get sick from this stuff". Maybe I'm mistaken though and I'm sure that Birgir will correct me.

[limp]

[dsavitsk]

A day of reflection. I didn't mean to stir so much up, and I definitely stepped in it. I apologize to KG directly, and to everyone else. So, I'll sit on my hands for a while.

[spritzer]

Wow, I have an Icelandic patient who said exactly this about his homeland. I always just figured it was because he was depressed. I guess he was just stating a fact.

I think we are all depressed to some degree though not as bad as the Finnish. The real problem here is that 100 years ago we were amongst the poorest nations in Europe and now we are the richest. Despite the economic meltdown and all the bad things it brought with it the living standard here is still very high. This brings a lot of problems since some things change quickly while others stay the same. Lack of roots is a real problem here.

Another issue here is that we are pretty much a class less society in the normal fashion as money doesn't buy you better schools, better healthcare etc. People can advance based on their family (not family name though since we don't have them) but it's mostly due to who you know rather then who you are.

There is also the massive safety net of the welfare state where you can fuck up pretty much everything but it will all be made better for you.

I don't understand why they would?

In the US there might be just a bit of resentment to say the least.

Well that seems a very good thing to me, as she's just a bad politician, being lesbian or otherwise doesn't really make her more or less politically astute. Perhaps they both get pi**ed too much which is why they make bad decisions. Not really good for the old brain cells!

Mind you it must be bloody cold for a lot of the time there (otherwise it wouldn't be called Iceland?) so you need a bit of alcohol in the blood as anti-freeze!

It's not that cold though. I certainly would never need a snow blower or even see much frost below -7°C or so even during the worst winter can throw at us.

So where does an Icelandic pick up putrefied shark fish? Is it readily available at the local shop?

Yup... Due to tradition this stuff is mostly consumed in February since that's when food stocks were often running low and it was almost impossible to get out to sea.

Edited October 27, 2011 by spritzer

[jvlgato]

Interesting stuff. Thanks for the education on Icelandic society!

And in that pic, at least, the stuff doesn't look all that putrid. Maybe looks even tasty, esp when washed down with a bit of Black Death!