Bonam

Just saw this story on CBC:

 

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...rs.html?cmp=rss

 

Basically, it seems RBC is using the temporary foreign workers program to replace existing employees. That is supposedly against the law, though I'm sure they've found some loopholes. Probably to do with the fact that they aren't actually hiring the foreign workers as new employees, but rather just getting service contracts from iGATE, a company that specializes in replacing personnel with foreign workers to learn the jobs, then later once they've learned them, bringing them back to India and having the client (RBC in this case) outsource the jobs to the overseas location.

 

One of the sad things is it's this kind of irresponsible behavior that will force government to keep making immigration paperwork more and more onerous and difficult until there's no way to immigrate without paying tens of thousands in lawyers fees to navigate through it all. Having just gone through America's immigration process with lawyer and filing fees over the years totaling upwards of $25k, such things tend to piss me off. 

 

It also seems humiliating to be required to train your replacement prior to being laid off. I think I'd just quit before doing that.

Just a topic for some thought. Had this discussion with a friend recently and wondering what people here think about it.

On one hand, everyone speaking one language would make for easier communication, would perhaps improve international relations as people from different areas could more easily understand and relate to one another, would reduce costs and logistical challenges of international trade and business, etc.

On the other hand, knowing multiple languages gives one additional insight into each of those languages, insight that is hard to gain otherwise unless one studies linguistics. And most people think in a language, and the structure of that language affects their thought process. Languages with different structures, vocabularies, and connotations can lead to quite differing thought processes, providing additional perspectives and ideas that may be hard to come by if only one language existed (people fluent in more than one language will know what I'm talking about here). Further, there is a certain richness and diversity in culture that results from there being so many languages, some long lost, others alive and evolving, that would not be preserved in a world with just one language.

For reference, the world today has about ~7000 languages as tallied by linguists. It's estimated about 80-90% of them will be extinct by the middle of the century. About 500 languages have just a handful of aged speakers left as of right now, with some of those having just one remaining speaker. The top 100 languages are the mother tongues of about 75% of the world's population.

Thoughts?

http://www.economist...ts-too-big-jail

So after knowingly and purposefully facilitating billions of dollars in money laundering for terrorists and drug cartels, HSBC gets off scot-free, with a trivial $1.9 billion fine. Why? Allegedly, politicians are too worried that criminal prosecution or more significant fines would damage the bank's operations in America, thus costing jobs.

Here's what I think: a few jobs at a stupid bank should never come before the fundamental concepts of justice and the rule of law. Politicians are so obsessed with avoiding a recession and "creating jobs" that they will let absolutely anything else by.

The US should have prosecuted the bank's top officials subject to US jurisdiction for treason (materially supporting America's declared enemies) and pushed for life imprisonment, and should have initiated extradition proceedings for the bank's top executives abroad. Further, they should have banned all operations of HSBC in the US, banned all American companies from doing business with HSBC, and confiscated all holdings of HSBC in the US.

Now, instead, every bank will know that you can do business with America's sworn enemies and in the worst case, if you get caught, you'll be fined for a bit of pocket change and go on with business as usual. This settlement is a disgrace.

So the US came to a "fiscal cliff deal", summarized here:

http://www.washingto...al-cheat-sheet/

Highlights:
- income taxes go up on people making over 400/450k (35% -> 39.6%)
- taxes on investment income for those making over 400/450k goes up (15% -> 20%)
- estate tax goes up from 35% to 40%
- payroll taxes on employees go from 4.2% to 6.2%
- some deductions/exemptions for people making over 250/300k are removed

Altogether, the estimate is about $600 billion more revenue over next 10 years as compared to if the 2012 tax rates had continued. No significant cuts included in the deal, but the cliff has been kicked two months down the road at which point the issue of cuts will have to be addressed.

A good graphic of the offers and counteroffers along the path to what we ended up with:



Based on the graph, Obama got about half the tax increases he wanted, but no cuts were done. But the cuts will still have to be done since we still have a "half cliff" coming up in 2 months, as well as the debt ceiling, which the Republicans will once again use for leverage.

Any thoughts on the deal?

Personally, I think this deal will be the entirety of the tax increases. I don't think Republicans will allow any further tax increases to pass, so $620 billion is all Obama will get. So what's left is spending cuts. Republicans I think threw away the chance to do $925 billion in spending cuts in Obama offer #3, and I don't think the democrats will offer cuts on that scale again, we'll probably end up with something closer to the $600 billion in cuts in Obama's first offer when the next deal is done 2 months down the road.

In total, that's about $1.2 trillion over 10 years or about $120 billion annually, which reduces the US annual deficit from $1.4 trillion to $1.28 trillion, only about 10% of the way to a balanced budget...

An admitted murderer is released just 3 years after slaying his 2 children. Apparently, he's all better now.

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...ew.html?cmp=rss

I'm sure some left wing posters will now inform us how this is all fully justified and reasonable.