Survivor 14

[Alex]

Except they don't. Everything you buy in Hawaii has (had, anyway) 4.17% added. I never saw anybody competing on price by eating some of the tax.

And industry wide I'd wonder as well since almost everything sold in Hawai'i in imported from somewhere else so that purchase price is dictated by forces outside of the tax structure in question.

But yes, there is undoubtedly some price suppression caused by the tax, but the point was to demonstrate the recursive taxing that turns a 4% announced tax into a 4.17% real tax. And that it would work the same way if you want to give someone $1 million, after taxes.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

Except they don't. Everything you buy in Hawaii has (had, anyway) 4.17% added. I never saw anybody competing on price by eating some of the tax.

In a system where the tax always existed, it's not really visible. If the tax were to suddenly disappear, I bet 4.17% of my income that prices would not simply fall down to the sans-tax level, they'd settle somewhere above it. How much so depends on the price elasticity of the product.

And industry wide I'd wonder as well since almost everything sold in Hawai'i in imported from somewhere else so that purchase price is dictated by forces outside of the tax structure in question.

Surely an added wrinkle complicating things, but the importers and resellers still mark up the price from whatever they're paying to import. The amount of that markup is still subject to the laws of supply and demand.

But yes, there is undoubtedly some price suppression caused by the tax, but the point was to demonstrate the recursive taxing that turns a 4% announced tax into a 4.17% real tax. And that it would work the same way if you want to give someone $1 million, after taxes.

Yeah, I know. I just like to bring up that finer point of sales tax that most people aren't aware of. A X% increase in sales tax does not translate directly to an X% increase in prices to consumers.

[Strangler Lewis]

Originally Posted by Prudence

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

Unless tax law has changed since I took it. As I recall it, "The producers took care of it," was one of the defenses he put on or wanted to put on but which has no basis in law. It certainly wouldn't explain why he didn't pay taxes on a bunch of other income from the year in question.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Strangler Lewis

Unless tax law has changed since I took it. As I recall it, "The producers took care of it," was one of the defenses he put on or wanted to put on but which has no basis in law. It certainly wouldn't explain why he didn't pay taxes on a bunch of other income from the year in question.

Which is why I have my theory. I bet his contract said something along the lines of, "We're including extra cash to cover the taxes," and he played dumb. "They said they were covering taxes."

[Strangler Lewis]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Which is why I have my theory. I bet his contract said something along the lines of, "We're including extra cash to cover the taxes," and he played dumb. "They said they were covering taxes."

Except it didn't. He got $1,010,000 from the show. I guess the $10K was an appearance fee. He wanted to show, but I believe was not allowed to, that the producers agreed to pay his taxes if he agreed to keep quiet about them tampering with the game.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Strangler Lewis

Except it didn't. He got $1,010,000 from the show. I guess the $10K was an appearance fee. He wanted to show, but I believe was not allowed to, that the producers agreed to pay his taxes if he agreed to keep quiet about them tampering with the game.

Ah. I didn't really follow it closely enough to know, I was just guessing. In that case, he's probably just a jerk.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Yes, I know those are all factors. My only nitty point in the first place was that it's not quite a perfect parallel to the "We'll cover the taxes" situation because while the value of my ipod was guaranteed to be $250 no matter what extra money was paid to me to cover taxes, the price of a product to which sales tax/exise tax is applied stands the chance of being a moving target depending on the specifics of its S&D curves.

But yes, assuming the price stays stable and the full burden of the excise is passed to the consumer, the math is the same.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Interesting. In looking to see if there's any info on a cast for China, I noticed a site that pointed something out. For only the second time in Survivor history, they didn't bring family members in. The other time was Africa. But that time they did a live satellite feed at least. Zilch this time, other than the letters. I suppose the most likely explanation is that the attempted coup that happened during filming made it impossible.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Wow, those are some pretty wild conjectures there. Let's start with the fact that I've never heard the "catch a n****r" version of eenie meanie, so I am rather skeptical of your "reasonably well known" claim.

As for Boo, considering that Dreamz and he had seemingly discussed religion, and Dreamz actually said, "I swear to God" and then went back on his word, I don't particularly blame him for jumping on that.

Beyond that, I saw nothing that indicated any racial motivations. 9 of the 12 people there at the end were minorities. None of them had expressed anything that would indicate racial prejudice.

Now, if you wanted to accuse Rocky of badgering Cassandra because she's a woman, that I'd buy. He did much through his whole time there to prove that he's a misogynist with zero respect for women. Show me anything that any of the others did that indicated that kind of prejudice re: race and you might have something. But I sure didn't see it.

[Jughead P. Jones]

In the end, while I wish Yau-Man didn't make that deal with Dreamz at all, which may have given him a better chance at winning, I'm really glad Earl won. He more than deserved it.

Now, the most important thing...

What the heck was Lisi on during that final tribal council? And, more importantly, where can I get some of what she had?

(I should also note that in the beginning, they were initially going to break the tribes up into race again for this season, with 20 castaways, but one dropped out just before the series took place, and as a result, we had two tribes, 19 people, and four different racial groups. If the game had progressed initially, it would have looked like this...

TRIBE #1 - Jessica, Gary, Boo, Rocky
TRIBE #2 - Cassandra, Dreamz, Erica, Anthony, Earl
TRIBE #3 - Alex, Edgardo, Lisi, Rita, Liliana
TRIBE #4 - Stacy, Michelle, Yau-Man, Mookie, Sylvia