More On Happy Farmers, Yet Again... And Taxes!

As if Taiwanese can't get enough of Happy Farm and their obsession over US Beef, here's an interesting article citing the author's own obsession over Happy Farm, and for many others in Asia (specifically Taiwan).

The author, Victor Cheung, links to a picture off of a website called MMdays, showing a real-life "Happy Farm" on Yangmingshan. Hats off to whoever got that farm created up there, as it'll likely be a nice tourist spot for the 80% of Happy Farmers who are Taiwanese.

Anyways, another article where the author admits his own happiness with playing Happy Farm, here.

In other news, I came across this story on a website I frequent, and I found it rather interesting in putting America's tax situation into something more easily understood. Take it for what it's worth:

From Keith Franklin:

I was having lunch with one of my favorite friends
last week - a very liberal college professor - and the
conversation turned to the government's recent round of tax cuts.

"I'm opposed to those tax cuts," the Professor
declared, "because they benefit the rich.
The rich get much more money back than ordinary
taxpayers like you and me and that's not fair."

"But the rich pay more in the first place," I
argued, "so it stands to reason they'd get more money back."

I could tell that my friend was unimpressed by this
meager argument.

So I said to him, let's put tax cuts in terms
everyone can understand:
Suppose that every day 10 men go to a restaurant
for dinner.
The bill for all ten comes to $100.

If it was paid the way we pay our taxes,
The first four men paid nothing;
The fifth paid $1;
The sixth paid $3;
The seventh $7;
The eighth $12;
The ninth $18.
The tenth man (the richest) paid $59.

The 10 men ate dinner in the restaurant every day
and seemed quite happy with the arrangement
until the owner threw them a curve.

Since you are all such good customers, he said, I'm
going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20.

Now, dinner for the 10 only costs $80. The first
four are unaffected. They still eat for free.
Can you figure out how to divide up the $20 savings
among the remaining six so that everyone gets his
fair share?

The men realize that $20 divided by 6 is $3.33, but
if they subtract that from everybody's share,
then the fifth man and the sixth man would end up
being paid to eat their meal.

The restaurant owner suggested that it would be
fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the
same percentage, being sure to give each a break, and
he proceeded to work out the amounts each should
pay.

And so now:
Along with the first four, the fifth man
paid nothing,
The sixth pitched in $2,
The seventh paid $5,
The eighth paid $9,
The ninth paid $12,
Leaving the tenth man with a bill of $52
instead of $59.

Outside the restaurant, the men began to compare
their savings,
"I only got a dollar out of the $20," complained
the sixth man, pointing to the tenth, "and he got $7!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I
only saved a dollar,too.
It's unfair that he got seven times more than me!"

"That's true," shouted the seventh man. "Why should
he get $7 back when I got only $2?
The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men. "We
didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor."

Then, the nine men surrounded the tenth man (the
richest one, paying the most) and beat him up.

The next night the richest man didn't show up for
dinner, so now the nine men sat down and ate without him.
But when it came time to pay the bill,
they discovered something very important. They
were $52 short!

And now people and college professors, this is
how America's tax system works.
The people who pay the highest taxes get
the most benefit from a tax reduction.
Tax them too much, attack them for
being wealthy, and they just may
not show up at the table any more.