Walter E. Williams & Taxation

While listening to the radio today, Walter E. Williams, was substituting for Rush Limbaugh (who was busy getting married). Every time I hear Mr. Williams it has really be a treat. He is clearly extremely intelligent and well spoken, but has a way of bringing very complex economic ideas down to a simple example.

Here is one that I found extremely interesting regarding taxation. It goes something like this.

A man is walking down the street and sees a poor, hungry, old lady on the side of the road. He says to himself “I need to help this person.” He then pulls out his gun, walks up to you and says “give me your money now.” He takes your money and goes to buy the women food, shelter, clothing, and maybe even a car and a new cell phone.

What would this man be committed of? Robbery. Thief. Etc. While the result of what he was using the money for was good, the way he went about it was not. Theft is theft.

How then is it any different for the Federal Government to come in and force one tax payer to give them their money so that they can redistribute it to another tax payer which that Government deems to be worthy of these funds? How does this in any way equate to protecting the constitution?

Thus is taxation in America today.

Apple TV

It may not be this week, but before the end of the year, my guess is that Apple is brewing (and had been) brewing something BIG in TV land. The Apple TV, iTunes, iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch are a perfect storm to reinvent video just as they already have music. Get ready… It’s coming.

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

John Wooden

New AT&T Plans for iPhone & iPad

This week, AT&T announced new data plans for iPhone and iPad users starting June 7th. The biggest change is that AT&T will no longer be offering unlimited data plans for iPhone or iPad users. What they will be offering, are two lower cost options with capped bandwidth.

There are basically 2 options now for data usage.

  1. DataPlus: $15/mo for up to 200MB of data ($15 for each additional 200MB after limit is met)
  2. DataPro: $25/mo for up to 2GB of data ($10 for each additional 1GB after limit is met)

In addition to the above two plans, AT&T is also now allowing “tethering” on the iPhone for $20/mo. Unfortunately this does not include any additional data and seems to be a mear convenience charge. In my opinion, this would be fine with an unlimited plan, but the $20/mo should include some amount of additional data since it will be using data already paid for in the DataPro plan.

Note to current iPhone and iPad users, if you already have the unlimited plan, you can keep it at the current price but if you ever downgrade or change the plan, you will never be able to get the unlimited plan again.

Overall, I am happy with the new options AT&T has to offer and will be taking advantage of some of the savings.

Currently in our home, we have 2 iPhones (mine and my wife’s) and 1 iPad 3G. We currently pay a total of $90/month for data with AT&T ($30 for each iPhone and $30 for the iPad 3G), this includes unlimited data on all 3 devices. My wife uses less than 200mb/mo, so she can downgrade to the $15/mo plan (savings of $15/mo), I never go over 500mb, so I can downgrade to the $25/mo plan (savings of $5/mo). We can add tethering to my iPhone and remove the 3G from the iPad (savings of $10/mo).

Total savings with new setup, $30/mo (or $360/year). Not to mention the fact that I could potentially sell the iPad 3G and switch back to an iPad WiFi since the iPhone will now act as the WiFi hub.

Not a bad deal at all.

UPDATE: A recent post on TUAW seems to indicate that it will not be possible to tether an iPad to an iPhone. As a result, I will be keeping my unlimited 3G plan on the iPad but still downgrading my iPhone plans to save a few bucks come Monday. Overall savings is now $20/mo (or $240/year). Still not too bad.

iTunes Rental vs. Blockbuster Express

Why is it that I can go down to Publix to a Blockbuster Express kiosk and rent a new movie like Alice in Wonderland for $1/night but I can only buy it on iTunes for $15? I can’t even rent it from iTunes at the overpriced, overprotected $4.

Apple, please get these movie publishers under control. We, the consumer, want to buy from iTunes, but the prices are not competitive and the selection is not good.

I love my Apple TV, just wish it actually had content at reasonable prices to rent or buy.

Speaking of Blockbuster Express, check out these free rental coupon codes when renting online at Coupon Dad. A free movie rental and a bag of popcorn make for a cheap date night at home.