Tag Archives: based-on-total

AP Shocker: Bush Tax Cuts Didn’t Just Help The Rich

For almost ten years, the Bush tax cuts have been depicted by media as only helping rich people. Now, with them set to expire, and a Democrat in the White House desperately needing a stronger economy to help him and his Party’s political fortunes, the Associated Press is telling readers the truth with the following headline: Expiring Tax Cuts Hit Taxpayers at Every Level     If you think that’s amazing, wait until you see the contents : A typical family of four with a household income of $50,000 a year would have to pay $2,900 more in taxes in 2011, according to a new analysis by Deloitte Tax LLP, a tax consulting firm. The same family making $100,000 a year would see its taxes rise by $4,500. Wealthier families face even bigger tax hikes. A family of four making $500,000 a year would pay $10,800 more in taxes. The same family making $1 million a year would get a tax increase of $53,200. The estimates are based on total household income, including wages, capital gains and qualified dividends. The estimated tax bills take into account typical deductions at each income level. Okay, so putting this in reverse, doesn’t that mean that when these tax cuts were first implemented – you know, when that awful Republican named George W. Bush was president! – a typical family of four with a household income of $50,000 a year saved $2,900 per annum as a result ? And a family making $100,000 a year saved $4,500?  Gosh, that means these tax cuts weren’t just for the rich as virtually every media outlet in America has been claiming since they were first proposed. Makes you wonder how such organizations can stay in business when they do such a terrible job. 

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AP Shocker: Bush Tax Cuts Didn’t Just Help The Rich

Achievements Are Coming

When I started working here at Current TV, one of the first projects I took on was an achievements platform. We designed a rudimentary set of levels for the launch of Current:News with the intent to eventually replace them with achievements, but we never got around to releasing the achievements platform as planned. There was a lot to be done in preparation of launching achievements, so the concept never went away 100%. Now we are just a few weeks away from unleashing our first batch of achievements. How will they work? Various activities, like commenting, voting, and sharing, will count towards earning achievements. When you complete certain numbers of those activities, or perform them in combination with other activities on the site, you could end up unlocking an achievement. For example, if you comment a certain number of times on the site you may unlock an achievement based on total number of comments. If your comments rack up a certain number positive votes from others in the community, you might unlock a different type of achievement. Each achievement you unlock will come with a badge that is worth points. Some badges will be worth more than others, and you’ll be able to find a summary of points and badges earned on a shiny new profile page. From time to time we’ll unleash new batches of achievements to unlock. Some will be time-sensitive, and others will require some hunting in order to unlock. But I’ll have more on all of that in a future post. What does this mean for our existing levels? Better yet, “what about my swag?” When we launch achievements, we will simultaneously discontinue levels. Yes, we’re sad to see them go. But in many ways this overhaul is long overdue. Those of you who have worked hard to achieve levels in the system will be rewarded with badges indicating your accomplishments. The coolest part is, these old-school level badges will not be available to anyone joining the site after the new achievements platform launches. If you're still waiting on a swag pack in the mail, don't fret. You will receive your swag in due time, but we’re a little backed up right now. Consider this post fair warning if you still hope to achieve level 3 in our old school levels. There will be more swag opportunities via achievements in the future, but those of you who have not reached level 3 when achievements launches in a few weeks will be out of luck as far as swag is concerned. So get cracking! If you have questions, feel free to hit me up in the comments. I’ll have more to post about this release when launch day comes around. added by: mario_a