Zhanga: March 23, 2004

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Tuesday, March 23, 2004 (5 comments)

I failed the AIME. Craig, Dragos, Masashi, Fanoe, and I were in the room at the end. We put down the same answer for none of the problems. After working together for a little while, we managed to agree on two or three of them. That was rape.

[20:40:07] ManOfAwesome: "they are different things" "i dont understand your math"
[20:40:10] ManOfAwesome: 2 best quotes ever
[20:40:14] icydog1: lol
[20:40:18] icydog1: different BASES
[20:40:18] icydog1: lol
[20:40:21] ManOfAwesome: oh
[20:40:22] ManOfAwesome: yes
[20:40:22] icydog1: i should have said
[20:40:28] icydog1: ALL YOUR BASE ARE BESONG TO US
[20:40:28] ManOfAwesome: "all your base are belong to us"

Do we just own or what?? (check the last timestamp) This is about the Herman Cain guy, that African-American Georgia Republican running for Senate. This must have been the most intense eighty minutes this week. Unfortunately I wasn't awake for the first thirty minutes because someone *cough* decided to slack off and not come and keep me awake. (and I asked if it was 2-3 hours and they laughed at me lol)

So he's talking about stuff while I'm asleep, and then he opens up for questions. A few questions are asked, and sometime after this, I wake up and the story begins.

Ronjon begins the fun by asking a question about how Medicare will be funded if taxes go from 30% to 23%. At this point, I find out Cain had said that he would like to eliminate income taxes completely, and in its place, institute a federal sales tax. So he says that the 30% income tax will be replaced by a 23% federal sales tax. He said and confirmed this over and over. So with that out of the way, on to my question.

In response to Ronjon, he had said that the government will still receive the same amount of tax money as it does today with the 30% tax. Now, this makes no logical sense. (23%)(Sales)=(30%)(Income) - solve for Sales and it comes out as (30/23)*Income. So I followed up with a question that went something like "If the government is to make the same amount of money from a 23% sales tax as it does today from a 30% income tax, then wouldn't there have to be more sales than income?"

He looked at me and told me he didn't get what I was saying. I repeated myself in what I thought were clearer terms. It elicited a blank, confused look, and then the best response ever.

"I don't understand your math."

Whispers and noises all of a sudden spread through the previously silent room at an almost alarming rate. He had just made a complete fool of himself.

He replied over and over again, at least three times, that income and spending are two different "bases." (refer to Ronjon convo at the beginning) Maybe this has some meaning in economics that I'm not familiar with. But to me, spending can't be 30/23 times the income. You can't just generate money like that.

Then, more intelligent words flowed out of his mouth. He tried explaining percentages to me. Excuse my pretentiousness, but at that point it seemed that I should be the one teaching him. This is evidenced by what he says in his explanation to me.

"Suppose you make $100. Under the current system, you'd take home $70 and the government gets $30."

That's fine. Sounds good. It seems to be a little patronizing, though.

Then he says something about how if we were to institute the 23% sales tax, then "you'd be able to spend $100 and pay $23 in sales tax."

Although this is mathematically sound, it is an unbalanced comparison. Notice that you're spending $100 money on $70 of goods in the first example, while in the second example, you spend $123 on $100 of goods. I point this out and he replies with the clincher, the one that makes me want to give him a course in introductory arithmetic:

"Well ok, then you'd spend $77 and pay $23 in tax."

Do you see something wrong with this? 23% of $77 is not $23! It's more like $81.30 + 23% sales tax = $100.00. I gave up, thinking that this guy is hopelessly not a math guy. No wonder he didn't "understand my math." But then Ronjon kindly reminded me at this point that this man is a math major! I remember hearing this in the introduction by Mr. Nixon before I dozed off.

Either way, even with his bad math, $23 of taxes per $100 earned (or $18/$100 with real math) is far less than the $30/$100 that he claims the government gets today. This does not equate. His initial claim was that the same amount of tax money would be raised, and that was clearly my question. He had simply disproved himself. I still do not understand how he plans for the government under this system to make as much money as they do today.

Now, I realize that there likely exist complex economic factors that I don't and probably will never know about; however, he chose to present the facts in a specific and seemingly simplified way. If this is all I have to work with, then this is all I have to base my calculations upon. If he deceived me and the rest of the audience, then that is not my fault or problem. Like, I don't know where his 30% is from. Maybe it's an average or something. But if he wants to use this number, then he's just digging a hole for himself.

Initially, I wasn't trying to make fun of him or what he said. I was sincerely asking a totally legitimate question. But then as his answers got worse and worse, I got a little annoyed. And he completely refused to answer some questions. He would just bluntly change the subject. Especially on Ronjon. Poor guy didn't get any of his questions properly answered.

I would like to take credit for being the first to ask an evolution question. His claimed view was too apathetic for any fun to result, however.

He is too Christian. He claimed that his father had only three things, and I forgot the first two, but the last one was his belief in God. Great for him. Then he kept bashing atheists. How we're loudmouths and a small minority who complain about everything and how Christians, in contrast, are the quiet "vast majority" and don't ever fight back. So when you lose nowadays, you just say that there never was a fight? Being godly will win you more than enough devout Christian votes to make up for the lost atheist (me) votes, but insulting atheists really doesn't help his campaign much.

I also don't like his I HATE GAY MARRIAGE policy. Ronjon asked about gay people living together, and I felt the urge to act really gay because we were sitting really close to each other on the couch in the media center (which was, by the way, at the far far left). But I contained myself and held back a smile.

10:37PM

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