Category Archives: Editorial
Ohio Taxes and Why Ohio’s Recovery Will Take Longer (Editorial)
Tax season is upon us. While this is on our minds, it is fair to ask: Does Ohio’s tax structure help or hinder the economy in the current climate?
We don’t just focus on technology here, as technology is really a tool to get things done. Seeing as taxes affect both individuals and small businesses, I hope you don’t find this article too far off topic. I have to warn you, though, this is definitely an editorial piece.
According to Google, the unadjusted unemployment rate for Ohio peaked just shy of 12% and as of December 2010 was 9.3%. That’s still pretty high, when you think about it. Chances are that out of ten of your friends, one of them is unemployed.
What is Ohio doing about this? I want you to consider a few things:
- Many more people in the past few years have been drawing unemployment. State taxes are not withheld from the checks. We certainly could debate the morality of taxing the unemployed, but more to the point is how moral is it to hit them at the end of the year with a huge tax bill? Let’s be realistic: If someone is unemployed, then they are probably doing all they can do to pay the bills, keep the house, clothe and feed their families, and so how likely are they going to be able to set aside money to pay a huge tax bill?
- Many more people in the past few years have had to dip prematurely into retirement funds. Often, it is a choice between that and their home. They get hit with 10% federal taxes and a 10% penalty. Then again, the state then comes along after the fact wanting its share.
- Many areas in Ohio have a sales tax on top of all of this, whereas some states seem to get by with only a sales tax. If someone spends roughly 40% on a mortgage and utilities, then in theory they could be paying as much as 6% on the remaining 60% in sales tax. That’s an effective tax of 3.6% on your income.
It quickly becomes obvious that individuals, especially the 9% unemployed, are feeling the heat. What is Ohio doing to attract more jobs then? Good question!
According to the paper “2010 State Business Tax Climate Index An Executive Summary” by Kail M. Padgitt”, Ohio is ranked #47 as far as favorable business climates go. It is only over California, New York and New Jersey as far as the worst of states goes! While the rank has not changed from 2009 to 2010, the same paper shows that the actual score went down 0.08 points. The same report says:
Tax competition is an unpleasant reality for state revenue and budget officials, but it is probably the most effective restraint on state and local taxes. When a state imposes higher taxes than a neighboring state, business will cross the border to some extent. Therefore states with more competitive tax systems score well in the SBTCI because they are best suited to generate economic growth.
To be fair, there are changes being undertaken, according to the Ohio Business Development Coalition. However, when I look at the link to the “impressive menu of incentive offerings", I come away with the feeling that it is all temporary stuff. A lot of it is to attract new businesses or attract existing businesses into expanding into other areas. Where is the long term plan to keep businesses here in Ohio? Are artificial incentives attempting to steer business in an artificial direction really going to work?
WikiLeaks Criminals Attack Websites
Well, Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and some political sites have been under attack by cybercriminals who are retaliating for criticizing and/or pulling financial transactions that support WikiLeaks following the arrest of and the denial of bail of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
These people are not honorable. They are thugs, thieves and cyberterrorists. What they are doing is illegal and goes way beyond any measure of civil disobedience.
This just proves that Julian Assange is an enemy of free speech, rather than his attempted portrayal of one who desires full and open communication.
Why Dell PCs are Losing Out
[Note: Make sure you don't miss the followup to this article in "Dell Update & Other Warranty Work Meanderings".]
The PC market is coming back strong, according to new research released today by Gartner and IDC. But HP and Dell, the leading US manufacturers, are losing share to their Asian rivals.
~ Mullin, Sheppard. (14 Apr 2010). PC market roars back, rivals gain on HP and Dell. Retrieved from: http://www.siliconbeat.com/2010/04/14/pc-market-roars-back-rivals-gain-on-hp-and-dell/
Dell stocks seem to be going back up on rumors of a Dell Windows 7 smartphone and some Android ones as well.
However, I believe that consumers will continue to turn elsewhere for PCs and, particularly, laptops. I have had more than one customer tell me that they did not want to buy another Dell laptop.
The first time I heard this, I was puzzled. Admittedly, Dell has put out some dogs, but most of them have been in their desktop lines, not their laptop lines. Even their Lattitudes seem to take some punishment, and you can still find D600s and even C600s out on eBay. Inspirons, their more modest but feature rich consumer line, are probably somewhat less durable, but they are also one of the easiest laptops in the world to service.
The second one brought it home for me, though. He absolutely did not want another Dell laptop. He had purchased 2 of them for his daughters, and each of them quickly broke. That, however, was only the surface of the issue. As we talked, he complained about the Dell warranty and the frustration in finding a suitable service center.
That’s when it clicked. I had attempted to get Dell certification for John D’s in order to do warranty work. I got nowhere. So, I decided to give it another go.
Even finding the Dell Certification program takes quite a bit of Google’ing. I wound up on the DSCE (Dell Certified Systems Expert) page, which has a very short Program Overview. On it, you read:
The program allows technicians to validate their technical knowledge through self study, self assessments and examinations covering all Dell product lines while improving their installation, troubleshooting, repair, and restore skills for Dell products.
View the ESF Version 4.0 Product Matrix
So, click on the “product matrix”, and you are taken to a login page. In fact, click on any of the links, and you are taken to a login page.
Hello? Dell? I don’t have a login.
So, I naturally click on the “Click here for DSCE specific login-information and assistance with the site.” I am confronted with “Log in with the Tech id and PIN that you would have used on the DCSE site. On the new DTT, your Tech ID is a Username and your PIN is a password.”
Hello? Dell? I don’t have a Tech ID and PIN.
So, naturally, I click on “Never used the DCSE site? Click here for additional information”. It takes me back to the Program Overview!
OK, I must be doing something wrong. I click on the Back button. Then, I notice, “Click the ‘Set up Account’ link. If you are prompted to create / update profile, please complete this page before proceeding.” Finally! Getting somewhere! But, where is this link? OK, so I go back to the login screen, and sure enough, in very small letters it says, “Set up Account”. So, I go there.
I start to fill in the information. Stupid form does not show my state! OK, maybe it is an Internet Explorer friendly page. So, I go to that page in IE. I fill in everything I can, click on Submit, and I’m greeted with “CompanyId and EmployeeId cannot be empty”.
Hello? Dell? I don’t have a CompanyId.
OK, so you tell me why someone has trouble finding a Dell service technician nearby.
Oh, it gets better yet. I swear if I had an employee that did this, I would fire them.
I go to submit feedback on the site. Here is what I wrote:
This website goes in circles. How do I become DCSE certified and how much does it cost?
The reply? “Not my job”! I kid you not:
Dear User,
Thanks for your email. Sorry to say that this is out of my area of support.
The DTT team
No “contact so-and-so”, no acknowledgement that their website is crap and not even a decent link to point me to.
OK, so why do I think twice about recommending Dell? Why do people have such bad experiences after buying Dell laptops? If nothing else, “that’s not my job” says it all, doesn’t it?
The Disposable Printer and Computer
You know, the green revolution doesn’t impress me all that much. Back in the 70s, “ecology” was the buzz word of the day, and I don’t know that “green” is going to fair much better.
Go by any landfill, and it just amazes me how much trash we can generate.
I took apart an inkjet printer the other night. Notice I did not say I took it apart and put it back together! The stupid thing had pieces glued on! They offer no manuals, and I couldn’t even find parts for it searching the web. About the only thing I could find, other than shipping for a new one is as much or more than the cost of the printer, is that the company whose name is on the printer doesn’t even make them!
We have disposable lighters, disposable diapers, disposable marriages and disposable lives.
I was talking to someone the other day, and he took apart a netbook. Apparently, you aren’t even supposed to change out the memory in that make and model. It is somehow sandwiched in between the layers of the keyboard membrane.
It won’t be long before computers are disposable as well. Netbooks are just pushing the bar down lower in that regard.
I once had a discussion with a colleague about our economy. We could, if we wanted to, make things last a lot longer. “You can’t!” he exclaimed. “If we did that, our whole economy would collapse. It is built around obsolescence.” Somehow, he didn’t seem to think there is a problem with that.
Let me put it to you this way: Planned obsolescence means you have to manufacture more of the items. Thus, you are depending upon a manufacturing economy to make the items. So, now that a lot of our manufacturing has moved overseas, who is getting the money in this scheme?
You don’t have to have a PhD in economics to see problems with this model. At least, if things were manufactured to last long enough, you could maintain a healthy service economy. Many predicted that is where our economy would go. However, since we don’t service things but rather throw them away, where is that service economy going to build?
McD can only support so much of the economy, after all.
Boss Keys (Think Dilbert)
You probably have heard of a “boss key” for work. It’s a key sequence used to hide your browser, game, whatever, whenever the boss shows up. The danger should be pretty obvious. If the boss sneaks up on you and you’re not fast enough, they will see you aren’t hard at work, and you are busted.
I guess that’s why some developers created the Firefox extension Decreased Productivity, which was reviewed on LifeHacker under “Decreased Productivity Helps You Browse at Work Without Getting Busted”. That way, web pages always look the same, no matter the URL, and so they don’t know what websites you are browsing.
Um, I’m no prude, and I think some companies treat their employees more like third graders than grownups, but this is such a bad idea.
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A lot of companies don’t allow you to install your own software. Therefore, IE might be the only option.
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Some companies don’t even allow browsing period. So much for web surfing.
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Companies that do allow web browsing and do allow Firefox probably log URLs anyhow. They will know someone has visited those sites, and a quick look at some logs can verify who.
In these days of more unemployed workers than jobs, I just wouldn’t chance it. Even in these tough economic times, you can still discreetly look for a job to replace the current one you hate. Remember, if you get fired, there’s no unemployment!
My $0.02.
