I have also not beat it yet but was enjoying it more than Elden Ring (which I have also not finished).

I think Sekiro is still my personal favourite out of the games they’ve made. Dark Souls might edge it if I did a top 5 due to the nostalgia factor. Honorable mention to Bloodborne.

I think we agree about the nature of scientific enquiry, how it is all based on inductive reasoning and cannot provide the certainty of mathematics. Additionally, it looks like we agree that the Laffer Curve has been used to justify bad policy in the past.

However, I don’t think that the theory has been debunked in the way you are describing. There is broadly a difference of opinion between Keynesian economists who are skeptical of the theory and then Supply-Side economists who endorse it; and then a whole spectrum of views in the middle from Behavioural economists or other schools of thought who are more ambivalent.

Academics who do support the view have done empirical studies over the years that they believe suggest that the Laffer Curve is real, see:

• Romer & Romer, 2007: The Macroeconomic Effects of Tax Changes: Estimates Based on a New Measure of Fiscal Shocks
• Mertens & Ravn, 2013: The Dynamic Effects of Personal and Corporate Income Tax Changes in the United States
• Trabandt & Uhlig, 2009: How Far Are We From The Slippery Slope? The Laffer Curve Revisited

It’s a matter of live debate in the field regardless of your opinion of the theory.

All economic theories are unproven, approximations about how economists think people might behave. There’s a reason it is often referred to as the ‘dismal science’. Quite often they are based on counterfactuals and projections of what might have happened.

The Laffer Curve is not a rule which always reflects reality but it has explanatory power in certain situations, since logically there has to be a point where avoiding taxes becomes more appealing than paying them.

Regan, et al deploying the theory as part of their political rhetoric - potentially in bad faith - shouldn’t discredit the concept itself because doing so would be throwing the baby out with the bath water. It’s an ad hominen attack against an economic theory; a bit like saying capital controls are always bad because President Xi in China frequently uses them.

That’s interesting - I had read it being described as a cliff in various places online where people were discussing personal finances. Double checked now and you are right that it is less of a cliff than I’d thought. Good to know in case I ever get close to that tax bracket!

After reading this thread I feel like the original post is more like a soapbox than a shitpost. No personal opinion about the politics but I thought this was a humour sub.

It’s especially bad with the recent inflation here causing fiscal drag. People are being dragged into higher tax brackets by their incomes rising in line with inflation (if they are lucky) but the tax bands are remaining at their pre-inflation levels so in real terms we are taxed more while earning less.

I think “the cliff” ended up being introduced in better times when £100k was an extremely good salary. It still is a good salary but it seems like when they introduced the policy they were likely thinking that folks earning it were making so much that it wouldn’t be worth their while to put the effort into avoiding it. However with recent cost of living challenges the demand for avenues to avoid the cliff rose and employers started to respond by offering schemes like the salary sacrifice pension one I mentioned in order to keep their employees happy.

Edit: There are many ways to avoid taxes such as creating your own limited company, paying for your lifestyle as a business expense and then only paying corporation tax on those expenses (currently 20% in the UK). At the same time you draw a “salary” from your own company which is substantially lower than what you would be getting if you include the expenses and then pay income tax for a lower band. The reason most people don’t do this - aside from the obvious moral implications - is that it’s usually more effort than it’s worth for them. At a certain point though, tax avoidance becomes so worthwhile that the temptation is too great for many to ignore.

I tend to pick up Gamepass for 1 month at a time when there is a game I want to play on there. Last time it was Hellblade 2, I grabbed it and played a couple sittings to finish it and then cancelled the sub immediately. I feel that is good value for money since I can check out a few other games in the 30 days.

I wouldn’t consider it worthwhile if I didn’t have an Xbox Series S though. If my main gaming device was a PC then I’d stick to being patient and waiting for sales. Series S + Nintendo Switch has been a solid combo for my budget gaming needs this gen.

Back in the 50s and 60s after WW2 the UK had a 95% tax band for the highest earners. This was due to the country struggling to pay off its debts to the USA after WW2. The Beatles even wrote their song Taxman about it in 1966.

Ultimately there is a problem with these super high taxbands whereby countries that try them will often encounter something called the Laffer Curve whereby overall tax take decreases as the tax rate increases. This isn’t even necessarily tax evasion, all it takes is for wealthy people to be suitably motivated to avoid taxes.

In the UK now if your income breaches £100k then you are paying a higher rate of tax on everything earned over that amount but also you lose the £12.5k tax free allowance that all citizens are entitled to. Overall breaching £100k leads to you paying a marginal rate of tax of 60% even if you don’t earn much over it. Because of this high earning jobs often let you put money into salary sacrifice pension schemes to avoid breaching the £100k mark. It only becomes worthwhile earning over £100k when you reach the region of ~£130k, which is substantially more. Essentially the system encourages tax avoidance by having this cliff which people who are behaving like rational agents will do anything to avoid. If it were less punative then some economists argue that the government would raise more money.

My mind is telling me “no”…

Extremely spicy but I can respect it

Obviously Japan has got their employment rights policies more correct than the US but there are some trade-offs to having policies like this. The main one would be that employers are less likely to “give a chance” to a candidate who has limited experience entering an industry if it is difficult to fire them when if it doesn’t work out.

Economists have pointed to this being a factor in high youth unemployment rates in countries like France and Spain.

Kind of disagree that the article is unbiased. However I do agree with your general point that these issues are a matter of shades of grey. For example, lootboxes are 100% predatory and even parents who are older gamers might not be aware of them.

Parents need to accept responsibility for their children’s behaviour. Obviously a separate example from this article but the recent suggestion that we should ban sales of mobile phones to under 16 year olds was entirely driven by pearl clutching parents who are unable to say “no” to their offspring - or at least spend 5 mins setting up parental controls.

His first console was a gameboy advance? My first was a gameboy and I’m 31! How old is this jabroni from the article?

“Sixteen at the time” is doing a lot of work in this article.

Yes the decline of “third spaces” which are not work or home is a huge factor. Even in adults who in theory could meet at their local pub (assuming they can afford a £7 pint and it hasn’t shut down).

This will be terrible but I’ll watch it. The story in the games is soap opera tier but somehow it works as part of the full package.

The level requirement is offputting! I’ll need to progress another 50+ levels in the base game to be able to play this DLC. Maybe this is a sign that I ought to finish the main game (or at least get much closer to the end) before jumping on the hype train and grabbing this DLC!

A boring dystopia

Actually just finished the game last night and didn’t like the ending that much. At least the ride was fun!

I love when people say they hate Hippocrates on social media