The Altera Centauri collection has been brought up to date by Darsnan. It comprises every decent scenario he's been able to find anywhere on the web, going back over 20 years.
25 themes/skins/styles are now available to members. Check the select drop-down at the bottom-left of each page.
Call To Power 2 Cradle 3+ mod in progress: https://apolyton.net/forum/other-games/call-to-power-2/ctp2-creation/9437883-making-cradle-3-fully-compatible-with-the-apolyton-edition
Going to Wendy's instead of Burger King should be one of those things that goes without saying. Why anyone would choose otherwise regardless of where their business office is located, I have no idea.
I'll take an Angry Whopper over a Baconator any day.
Also, they are the only fast food chain that has done a decent chicken parm sandwich.
No, I did not steal that from somebody on Something Awful.
BK's franchise quality is so random it's like they're each individual restaurants. And they don't use fresh beef, which does make a difference. Their new fries are better, but they still end up being soggy messes when they screw up the hold times.
<Reverend> IRC is just multiplayer notepad.
I like your SNOOPY POSTER! - While you Wait quote.
I think legitimately moving their base of operations to another country they have a real, meaningful presence in is perfectly okay. Double irish and such, where they transfer money back and forth between shell corporations that exist just to avoid taxes, is not, and isn't illegal only because we haven't figured out how to make it illegal yet.
The tax code is totally useless right now for the modern day. Internet business, massive service economy, and basically barrier-free international trade are all things that our tax system doesn't really handle well.
We also don't handle political disputes well, because we separate funding from taxing. My county (and I think many) handle this in a better way with property taxes. You don't have a tax rate until the budgets are finalized. When budgets are finalized, total tax base is calculated - ie, how much the county has to raise in total - and then your rate is determined (everyone's is the same, except for certain differences between commercial and residential property). The total value of land in the county is $1.5 billion, say, and FY2014 cost is $150 Million; then everyone has a 10% tax rate. Changes in appraisals or sale values might change who pays into that $150 million coffer, but the net is always 150 Million. Tax rates can't be reduced: if you want to reduce taxes you have to reduce costs. They can add exemptions to reduce the cost for primary residences, like they did in 2008-2012, or for seniors etc., but they don't have this ability to just lower taxes and collect less money - the tradeoff is explicit.
That's the real problem I think: Republicans want to lower services, but can't vote to lower Medicare, for example, without getting laughed out of office; so they just vote to lower taxes. Democrats want to raise taxes and services, but can only do the latter without getting laughed out of office. So we have more going out and less going in. Attempting to link revenue to outgo in a legal fashion (like the 2011 or whatever budget deal supposedly did) is too easy to get around.
I think it's not hard to understand that there are downsides to almost all taxes (discouraging investment or corporate growth, hurting poor people, whatever), but because of that it's hard to have a functioning government.
<Reverend> IRC is just multiplayer notepad.
I like your SNOOPY POSTER! - While you Wait quote.
NO OTHER COUNTRY taxes businesses on overseas income. NONE. And they're not doing anything illegal. Or immoral. Businesses based outside the US don't pay taxes on business they transact outside the US, but OUR businesses do. So obviously everyone's going to try reincorporating overseas, until we get rid of that retarded policy.
This isn't tax evasion, it's just companies voting with their feet. If they didn't move, they'd eventually be beaten and bought out by their competitors overseas which can operate on higher margins at lower prices because they pay lower taxes. It is absolutely not possible to stop our businesses from going overseas. It is like trying to bail out the tide or make water run uphill. No tax policy will succeed because it isn't ****ing possible. The sooner Congress figures this out and fixes the corporate tax code, the better off we'll be.
It's easy to suggest a flat tax, and to suggest removing or lowering corporate income taxes because it's a double tax: but when they rarely actually give money to their shareholders, you too often fail to realize that money at any stage, and adding in low capital gains taxes means you really have a hard time coming up with an equitable way to tax people.
I'd support any tax scheme that was guaranteed to raise sufficient revenue to pay for the budget, was pro-business growth and investment, and showed exactly how it fairly distributes the weight of the cost of the system on the poor and middle class. I tend to feel that my total tax burden is about right between property and income tax; it's sort of high, but I think that's the cost of living where I do. I have something like a 25% effective tax rate combining income and property taxes, and I think that's fair. So make a system that works, show how it would get its money from the various income levels (and differentiate capital gains vs. earned income, at least in how it would affect those people differently vs. now - if it's a true flat tax it wouldn't differentiate, but the current system does), and it'd get my vote. I just want something that feels fair and pays for all of the services we currently provide, and has the ability to continue doing so even if that base grows.
<Reverend> IRC is just multiplayer notepad.
I like your SNOOPY POSTER! - While you Wait quote.
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