Survivor 14

[Alex]

So, does Yau get to keep the truck after all or does Dreamz still get it?

I don't watch the show (though I've read episode recaps as they cycle through the TVgasm blog) so I don't know if Dreamz is a self-proclaimed nickname or an imposed one. If the former, I just want to say that anybody who would take such a nickname deserves neither a home nor to win Survivor. They need to live a life of squalor as an example to any impressionable young people who might otherwise follow a path towards a really stupid nickname.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

So, does Yau get to keep the truck after all or does Dreamz still get it?

Yau could have kept the truck, but he has said that he's still giving to Dreamz.

I don't watch the show (though I've read episode recaps as they cycle through the TVgasm blog) so I don't know if Dreamz is a self-proclaimed nickname or an imposed one..

I think he had the nickname beforehand. But it's hard to be sure. It seemed to me like the producers have started to encourage nicknames in response to the popularity of nicknames on other reality shows. The survivors seemed to be going out of their way to give nicknames to each other and, more annoyingly, their alliances. But with Dreamz, it did seem like he came pre-nicked.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Strangler Lewis

Frankly, I'm surprised Survivor allowed the deal given that agreements to split winnings are prohibited. Yes, people have horsetraded votes during the final immunity challenges, given up family visits, etc., but giving somebody a $30-40,000 prize is a whole different animal.

Meant to address this. Starting last season, they explicitly gave the winner of the car the option to give it away to someone else. That, in my mind, makes it a de-facto bargaining chip.

[Nephythys]

Originally Posted by Strangler Lewis

I didn't follow the season much, but, yes, that was an obnoxious jury. Stop talking? Immature Christian? Eeny, meeny, miny mo? One must wonder if three white people would have been treated with such derision.

Well, of course, he was playing the game, but I think he crossed a not terribly fine line. He targeted the least well off person with a huge monetary bribe. That everybody on the jury seemed to think that the poor black guy should have been content to sell his birthright for a new truck and effectively withdraw from the game to me speaks volumes.

I didn't tune in until after the Warriors game ended. Did Dreamz have the chance to throw the challenge to Earl or Cassandra so that Yau could have been voted off without controversy?

Honestly- why does race have to be the issue here?

DREAMZ made the deal. What in the world is wrong with expecting him to live up to his word?

He had killed himself with the jury a long time ago-that was just a final nail.

But dangling race as if it was an issue and if he had not been a black guy they would not have treated him the same??? Please-there were 3 african american's in the final three-what the heck does race matter? Buncha pissed off white people mad that they got one upped by a minority?

How insulting.

[Gemini Cricket]

I don't think race had anything to do with it. That jury was nuttier than a squirrel's breakfast.

The real issue is that GD and CP got me hooked on this dumb show. The last time I watched 'Survivor' was never.

Boo looked better shaved. Earl looked better at the reunion show. Cassandra actually looked better on the island... And Dreamz's newer hairstyle looked like a shower cap...

China, eh?

[Strangler Lewis]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Yau could have kept the truck, but he has said that he's still giving to Dreamz.

Yet another example of why life--if reality TV is life--is a law school hypo. If the truck is really Yau's, and he gives it to Dreamz, he has to pay both income tax and gift tax on it. I would think that once they made the deal, they huddled with the Survivor producers to establish that Dreamz had officially earned the truck for income tax purposes. If it had not been established that the truck was Dreamz's, I think we would have heard about it. Like many people who win such things, Dreamz will probably have to sell it to pay the taxes on it unless he hits a post-Survivor windfall of paid appearances. Or unless the producers promise to pay his taxes, like they did for Richard Hatch.

Yau could, of course, sue Dreamz for breach of contract for either the value of the truck or the difference between fourth and third place. It would probably be too speculative to say his damages were a million dollars. However, based on his comments last night, it sounds like he's not going to.

[Prudence]

Of course, if the producers pay his taxes, wouldn't he then have to pay taxes on that payment, too?

[thecorndogwalker]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

Boo looked better shaved.

I liked Boo with a little scruff. But he is a Hottie regardless....

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Prudence

Of course, if the producers pay his taxes, wouldn't he then have to pay taxes on that payment, too?

It's a tricky bit of accounting, but when I was given an ipod as a bonus at work, they added the cost of the ipod + a bit more $ to my salary that week. Then they took withholding out, then they deducted the cost of the ipod post-withholding, resulting in the same amount of take home pay. I tried to explain this to a coworker, but he still thinks they took $250 out of his salary because all he sees is the "-$250" line on the pay stub.

I wouldn't be surprised if that's what they do with the truck, and possibly even with the $1 million (though probably less likely with the $1 million as the taxes on that are pretty hefty). I didn't really follow the Richard Hatch case, but it's entirely possible that they gave him a large enough sum that after taxes would leave him with an even million and he read (or pretended to read it) as, "we've already paid your taxes," rather than, "We've given you enough money to cover your taxes, but you have to take care of actually paying them).

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Prudence

Of course, if the producers pay his taxes, wouldn't he then have to pay taxes on that payment, too?

Yes, but then they just pay more recursively until it works out to the appropriate amount. This is the way sales tax works in Hawai'i. Hawai'i's sales tax is actually an exise tax (a tax on business income) that business just pass directly to the consumer (and ends up looking like a sales tax). So they tack on 4%, which is then a 4% increase in business income, so that 4% is taxed at 4%, which is passed on to the consumer and becomes income which is taxed at 4% and so on until 4% is a very small amount.

The sales tax is itself taxed. So the 4% (when I was there) exise tax is really something like 4.17% when it gets added to a purchase price.