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Another interesting Ukrainian ad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1UGZtz83co Not as well produced as the last one but it gets it's point across well.
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Oct 27, 2014 06:19
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Speaking as someone who produces ads as his job, that was probably a very low-budget production company that has good ideas and not a lot of time to film. Either way, I like it.
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Oct 27, 2014 06:29
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sparatuvs posted:Another interesting Ukrainian ad. who's the funding source for that one?
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Oct 27, 2014 07:15
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Discendo Vox posted:who's the funding source for that one? I wouldn't be too surprised if it was a major Ukrainian consumer goods manufacturer.
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Oct 27, 2014 07:47
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Niedar posted:This is the tax that is going to be capped at 3 dollars per month and you are talking about how it will costs you a thousand dollars to download a steam library? The official proposal has nothing on caps. Some government-side websites have started spreading a misreading of the announcement (as this new measure is the extension of the pre-existing telecommunication tax, imposed on phone calls and text messages AND capped at the aforementioned levels). The original text has no mention of this, and only yesterday did the governing party announce that they will suggest some kind of limit. Just to shed some light on it: reputable sources say the PM (who is well-know for having problems with using a cellphone, even) saw that there is no funding for the promised wage developments of law enforcement, and has decided that the internet should be taxed then. There were no industry negotiations, no effect studies, nothing, it was an overnight deal. After the first announcement experts tried to do the math and they have realized that there is no way the expected income was based on any real usage statistic (and later the Ministry of National Economics has admitted to this).
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Oct 27, 2014 08:17
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So I just got back after watching this enter the port of Klaipeda, Lithuania: Wonderful sight. LNG tanker for the extra options for liquefied natural gas.
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Oct 27, 2014 09:20
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Apparently it can supply up to 90% of the Baltics' natural gas needs. Not too shabby, not too shabby indeed. EDIT: Yo, Karmalis, are you from Klaipeda? awesome-express fucked around with this message at 14:13 on Oct 27, 2014 |
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Oct 27, 2014 14:10
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awesome-express posted:Apparently it can supply up to 90% of the Baltics' natural gas needs. Not too shabby, not too shabby indeed. That is correct.
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Oct 27, 2014 14:29
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HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:Look at Lukashenko. Being president for life has been very profitable for him and his inner circle. The Belarusian economy has been doing poorly for some time, so Lukashenko declares at the beginning of the year this will be a "year of thrift" and that everyone has to scrimp and save. Of course nothing gets better, prices go up, so he demands that some industrial sectors must stay on their jobs and they can't quit or retire. He did this with the wood manufacturing industry last year and threatened to do it with the collective farms this year. Most recently he decreed it is illegal to be unemployed and wants people without jobs to be treated like criminals. As if the problem is the fault of those who can't find work. People who rule for life have no one to answer to, the problem can't be them or the people would vote them out, right? It's not quite like that. What is happening is that Lukashenko targets people his audience often perceive as horrible spawns of capitalism. Basically, people who work overseas, freelancers and such, who most of the time don't pay taxes in Belarus, yet still use all social benefits. It is a problem on many levels, but instead of coming up with laws to tackle it specifically, all people who don't actively seek employment might punished in some way in future (bear in mind, this law is not approved yet). On top of that, this issue is nothing compared to hidden unemployment. Even at huge factories like MTZ people tend to work two days of the week to fill their quota and just drink all day three other days, because what their produce will go straight to the storehouse and might stay there for years. It's bogus why you would need more people working, when in fact there's nothing to work on.
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Oct 27, 2014 14:33
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Meanwhile Estonia had it's first school shooting. A 9th grade student killed a teacher. Well here's hoping that the law will come down on him very hard and on the person who left a gun lying around.
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Oct 27, 2014 15:20
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQBKTQeSAoY U.S. war games in Germany. Relevant as the U.S. pulled its M1 tanks out of Europe last year. Now they're back I WONDER WHY THAT IS.  quote:The 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division (Ironhorse), stationed at Ft. Hood, Texas, is the brigade combat team designated as the Army's regionally-aligned force for the U.S. European Command. BrutalistMcDonalds fucked around with this message at 17:24 on Oct 27, 2014 |
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Oct 27, 2014 17:21
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And meanwhile a cap was proposed for the tax: HUF 700 (~$3) per month for private users and HUF 5,000 (~$22) for companies. I live in the capital, where a 50/10Mbps consumer cable subscription goes for HUF 3,000-6,000, so while that part is only a 2x% increase, our company's main internet connection goes for HUF ~12,000, and that one is way more brutal. Of course telcos are supposed to pay this from their profits. Discendo Vox posted:That's just bizarre. I always have trouble understanding why repressive regimes make their countries as unprofitable as possible- surely if you have the power to be president for life it'd be better to make your country's economy stable. Repressing independent media, I can understand- repressive taxes just destabilize your grip on the country's population, though. It's easy when your voter base believes more in your primitive freedom fighter speeches than their own eyes. Just like the dozens of other austerity measures this one will be sold with the rhetoric of "we are finally punishing the evil multi-national corporations who make us work and pay and then bring their profits back to their masters" (this is no exaggeration, if you don't hear this line verbatim at least once a day, you aren't following 70% of the media). e: just saw an article that did the math: this tax would take 44% of the total telecommunication industry's 2013 profits. I'd say it's a bit rude. Jim DiGriz fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Oct 27, 2014 |
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Oct 27, 2014 17:23
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Omi-Polari posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQBKTQeSAoY European Activity Set makes it sound like some kind of educational playset for toddlers.
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Oct 27, 2014 17:26
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Slashrat posted:European Activity Set makes it sound like some kind of educational playset for toddlers.
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Oct 27, 2014 17:31
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Slashrat posted:European Activity Set makes it sound like some kind of educational playset for toddlers.
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Oct 27, 2014 17:32
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What the gently caress happened to Hungary? Why are they letting their country turn into a creepy two-bit authoritarian banana republic? It honestly bothers me since I used to have a high opinion of them. I just don't understand. Them voting Orban or even Jobbik is their own choice, but you shouldn't let your leaders get away with shady Chavez/Putin-tier stuff like changing the constitution to stay in power. No matter who they are. Wake up, Hungary. Do you really want to turn into mini-Russia?
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Oct 27, 2014 17:57
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So Ukrainian parliament proportional portion count is being quite intriguing: with 68.48% counted, the far-right Svoboda has 4.70% --- just shy of the 5% cutoff. Also the PM's party is thus far beating the president's by 0.35%. Some of the individual districts are a complete mess --- in one district near Odessa, after some allegations of numbers not adding up surfaced the entire district electoral commission disappeared.
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Oct 27, 2014 18:27
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Jim DiGriz posted:And meanwhile a cap was proposed for the tax: HUF 700 (~$3) per month for private users and HUF 5,000 (~$22) for companies. I live in the capital, where a 50/10Mbps consumer cable subscription goes for HUF 3,000-6,000, so while that part is only a 2x% increase, our company's main internet connection goes for HUF ~12,000, and that one is way more brutal. Of course telcos are supposed to pay this from their profits. If they really wanted to tax the profits of a company, they'd have to tax the dividends rather than the activity. Any tax on the activity is just going to be passed down to the consumer/customer.
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Oct 27, 2014 18:53
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Phlegmish posted:What the gently caress happened to Hungary? Why are they letting their country turn into a creepy two-bit authoritarian banana republic? It honestly bothers me since I used to have a high opinion of them. I just don't understand. Them voting Orban or even Jobbik is their own choice, but you shouldn't let your leaders get away with shady Chavez/Putin-tier stuff like changing the constitution to stay in power. No matter who they are. Most people have no idea how business works, for example. We're talking average Joes here who don't accept that when a company/bank/whathaveyou sells something, it does it to make money. Hungarians have a weird sense of self-entitlement (how else could you explain the anti-EU rhetoric while 92% of every development in the country is from EU funding?), and they think they just deserve stuff like wages, jobs, health care etc. "Entrepreneurship" is something of a swearword around here, due to the "wild capitalist" era of the 90s, when white collar crime blew up. "Profit" is now also despicable, because one should not earn money from other people or something, it's baffling. And still, a hundred thousand of these people are practically at ready to go and march to show support to Orbán. By the way: the current government has a 2/3 majority of the Parliament, simply by engineering the election laws until the 44.87% of the votes cast on them in the 2014 elections were enough to achieve this. And this 44.87% was of the 61% who actually got up and went to vote, so the claims of "by the power of the majority of Hungary" is a bit weak. God, I'm so loving angry, I could type through the night. The only thing I hope for now is sending my kids away to another countries as soon as possible - well, if they don't just close the borders by the time they grow up. For the first time in my life I'm planning to go to a protest tomorrow, and I'm ashamed it came to this.
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Oct 27, 2014 19:03
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Cat Mattress posted:If they really wanted to tax the profits of a company, they'd have to tax the dividends rather than the activity. Any tax on the activity is just going to be passed down to the consumer/customer. Of course, but if they deny it enough, people won't notice. Or if they do, they either don't care or can't do poo poo. This is Hungarian politics 101.
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Oct 27, 2014 19:06
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Oh no, not people who think they deserve jobs, wages and healthcare 
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Oct 27, 2014 19:23
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Should think that EU would stop subsidies and other transfers at some point, when the power grab is so obvious.
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Oct 27, 2014 19:29
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It needs to be said on that Orban had also been pretty nice to those with wealth and businesses, Orban instituted a 16% flat tax on income instead of a progressive system. One of the reason consumption taxes are so high is because of it. Also corporate and capital gains taxes are also pretty low. For the EU admittedly it might be too late to economic isolate Hungary, and also I don't know if there is the same consensus in the EU as a whole nowadays towards a turn to right-authoritarianism. The EU works on consensus and at this point, no one is happy with the EU. Ardennes fucked around with this message at 19:34 on Oct 27, 2014 |
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Oct 27, 2014 19:32
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Jim DiGriz posted:Most people have no idea how business works, for example. We're talking average Joes here who don't accept that when a company/bank/whathaveyou sells something, it does it to make money. Hungarians have a weird sense of self-entitlement (how else could you explain the anti-EU rhetoric while 92% of every development in the country is from EU funding?), and they think they just deserve stuff like wages, jobs, health care etc. "Entrepreneurship" is something of a swearword around here, due to the "wild capitalist" era of the 90s, when white collar crime blew up. "Profit" is now also despicable, because one should not earn money from other people or something, it's baffling. And still, a hundred thousand of these people are practically at ready to go and march to show support to Orbán. It's interesting to see how different experiences with capitalism shape policy responses. One of the reasons I was initially defensive about the internet tax is because in the US some companies do place disproportionate burdens on bandwidth and effectively freeride on some parts of the system- and ISP profits are (too) healthy. It's a complete looking glass situation.
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Oct 27, 2014 19:32
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Jim DiGriz posted:God, I'm so loving angry, I could type through the night. The only thing I hope for now is sending my kids away to another countries as soon as possible - well, if they don't just close the borders by the time they grow up. For the first time in my life I'm planning to go to a protest tomorrow, and I'm ashamed it came to this. I was there yesterday, see you there tomorrow?
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Oct 27, 2014 19:50
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Wierre posted:I was there yesterday, see you there tomorrow? This had better end with one of you dramatically saving the life of the other.
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Oct 27, 2014 19:51
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Forgall posted:Oh no, not people who think they deserve jobs, wages and healthcare I always thought that the state should provide a good, regulated market that creates jobs and thus wages. Healthcare is a tricky one (especially seeing how it works in the U.S, for example, which is terrifying), lemme explain: we have social health care here, but the health insurance we pay doesn't cover its costs, so it's critically underfunded. Back in 2006 or so the government came up with an idea of a "visiting fee", a HUF 300 payment (about $1.5 back then) that everyone going to the doctor would have to pay for the first 20 visits or so. Beside helping with the funding, it had a secondary purpose of teaching people how healthcare costs money. Some months later Fidesz had masses on the street against it and a referendum organized to thwart it. With and by the same people who now say "well, HUF 700 a month isn't a big deal". And an average nurse still earns about HUF 100,000 after taxes (the minimum wage after taxes is now ~HUF 80,000).
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Oct 27, 2014 19:51
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Jim DiGriz posted:Beside helping with the funding, it had a secondary purpose of teaching people how healthcare costs money.
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Oct 27, 2014 20:02
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Discendo Vox posted:It's interesting to see how different experiences with capitalism shape policy responses. One of the reasons I was initially defensive about the internet tax is because in the US some companies do place disproportionate burdens on bandwidth and effectively freeride on some parts of the system- and ISP profits are (too) healthy. It's a complete looking glass situation. We don't really have services like Netflix or Hulu around here (HBO GO is the only streaming available legally, now that I think of it, any other VOD solutions are the providers' own ones via IPTV). And ISPs around here might have been too profitable once in the past, but currently they have at least two special taxes aimed at them alone, beside the usuals like corporate tax. The third biggest mobile carrier finished its last fiscal year in the red due to taxation alone. Actually, for me there are two disturbing factors, neither of them is the sum to be paid. First, the act of the introduction of the tax itself. With a levy that takes almost half of an industry's annual profit, one would expect some preliminary negotiations with the companies affected, or something. But not only did they skip that part, they have just rolled the dice and said "all right, a Gigabyte sounds big while HUF 150 is nothing, let's go with that". And by next Tuesday it will be adopted. Second, instead of the current government's plans of making a small China with cheap manual labor I think value-added, tech-focused businesses could be the real future around here. But hell, even the current trend of shared service, financial and logistics centers being set up in the country is good, but this all needs infrastructure, cheap, high-quality telecommunications. We have it, and hindering it with any extra taxation and threats to ISPs is goddamn counter-productive. Wierre posted:I was there yesterday, see you there tomorrow? I'll be on it, definitely. Gotta bend work and family life and chores around a bit, but this is building up to be the biggest anti-government protest in the last four years (and the first against this guys), so I don't wanna miss it.
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Oct 27, 2014 20:11
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Luhansk airport https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=pfeu1ztU-to
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Oct 27, 2014 20:13
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Jim DiGriz posted:...and they think they just deserve stuff like wages, jobs, health care etc. "Entrepreneurship" is something of a swearword around here, due to the "wild capitalist" era of the 90s, when white collar crime blew up. "Profit" is now also despicable, because one should not earn money from other people or something, it's baffling. What kind of person doesn't think that people 'just deserve' wages, jobs, and healthcare and isn't suspicious of ~wild capitalists~? Jim DiGriz posted:I always thought that the state should provide a good, regulated market that creates jobs and thus wages. Oh, right. The kind of person who believes in the invisible hand of the free market will provide and discourages people from going to the doctor. Radicalism and growing distrust of the government throughout Europe is directly related to people who believe this kind of dumb poo poo being in charge.
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Oct 27, 2014 20:24
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Forgall posted:What's the point of that? People don't go to the doctor for funzies. Actually if you want to reduce costs you need to encourage them to visit regularly because prevention is so much cheaper. That's an absolutely good point, but the system needed (and still needs) funding, so there's that. And I've seen enough senior citizens just visiting the good old doc for some chat because they were lonely, and there definitely are healthier alternatives to that.
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Oct 27, 2014 20:25
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Jim DiGriz posted:I always thought that the state should provide a good, regulated market that creates jobs and thus wages. A "good regulated market" isn't good at providing basic services though, and I don't think cost shifting to the public is going to help much. Ultimately what is going to have to happened is a return to a more progressive income system. I think the average Hungarian is rather trapped at the moment, since either Orban or a more economically liberal approach is probably going to work out well for them. Hungarians do need higher wages but they need social protections and too much of the tax burden is put on people of lower income. It is also unclear that old people going into the doctor to chat is really the issue with the Hungarian medical care system, a small co-pay is one thing but where do you go from there? Ardennes fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Oct 27, 2014 |
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Oct 27, 2014 20:28
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Forgall posted:What's the point of that? People don't go to the doctor for funzies. Actually if you want to reduce costs you need to encourage them to visit regularly because prevention is so much cheaper. As healthcare is deducted from your salary before it reaches you, people have no sense of actual healthcare costs, they just go to the doctor get examined get prescriptions and leave. And as mentioned by Jim DiGriz, the health insurance costs are not enough to cover the actual healthcare costs, and as a reason our healthcare system is in dire condition, with heavily underpaid doctors and nurses. But as it costs "nothing" to the average Joe, people do go to the doctor for funsies, like for example trying to get prescriptions for whatever pills they run out of at home, so they could get it slightly cheaper.
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Oct 27, 2014 20:30
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Jim DiGriz posted:That's an absolutely good point, but the system needed (and still needs) funding, so there's that. And I've seen enough senior citizens just visiting the good old doc for some chat because they were lonely, and there definitely are healthier alternatives to that. It is pretty astounding that you buy this argument, but then again your 'analysis' of the austerity of the 2000s and late 90s is that the dumb old people just don't understand capitalism and don't get why the market should control all these essential parts of their lives. Wierre posted:As healthcare is deducted from your salary before it reaches you, people have no sense of actual healthcare costs, they just go to the doctor get examined get prescriptions and leave. And as mentioned by Jim DiGriz, the health insurance costs are not enough to cover the actual healthcare costs, and as a reason our healthcare system is in dire condition, with heavily underpaid doctors and nurses. But as it costs "nothing" to the average Joe, people do go to the doctor for funsies, like for example trying to get prescriptions for whatever pills they run out of at home, so they could get it slightly cheaper. Attaching a fee to going to the doctor is just going to discourage poor people from going to it, which is the real goal. Lo and behold, that's exactly what happened, too!
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Oct 27, 2014 20:33
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Maarek posted:What kind of person doesn't think that people 'just deserve' wages, jobs, and healthcare and isn't suspicious of ~wild capitalists~? Okay, I'm probably not using the right wording here, sorry. When I say "deserve" I mean it in the "when I get out of the school of my choosing, no matter what educational level, the state should grant me a job that pays well and an apartment. No taxes, please". I believe in a regulating state that allows competition to thrive. I believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to find work and live as they see fit. But this can't come free, right?
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Oct 27, 2014 20:37
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Jim DiGriz posted:Okay, I'm probably not using the right wording here, sorry. When I say "deserve" I mean it in the "when I get out of the school of my choosing, no matter what educational level, the state should grant me a job that pays well and an apartment. No taxes, please". I believe in a regulating state that allows competition to thrive. I believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to find work and live as they see fit. But this can't come free, right? That idea is undermining the rest of Europe at the moment as well, Spain has around 50% youth unemployment and 26% total unemployment and I don't think it is just about people being "lazy." The government shouldn't be there to nationalize random businesses for the leader's extended family, but ultimately having the government there to provide a robust safety net and as much employment as possible.
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Oct 27, 2014 20:43
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Jim DiGriz posted:Okay, I'm probably not using the right wording here, sorry. When I say "deserve" I mean it in the "when I get out of the school of my choosing, no matter what educational level, the state should grant me a job that pays well and an apartment. No taxes, please". I believe in a regulating state that allows competition to thrive. I believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to find work and live as they see fit. But this can't come free, right?
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Oct 27, 2014 20:45
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You think the idea that someone would expect the government makes sure that everyone gets a good wage and decent place to live is some sort of impossible fantasy, but entrepreneurship and 'competition' will create those things for us any day now, right???Forgall posted:Lol those dirty uneducated proles who want enough to live on and have a roof above their worthless heads. Maybe they are voting for semi-fascist shithead because alternative is you. The unspoken thing we're supposed to accept is everyone deserves the opportunity to get those things, but not all of them will. When people get mad about the conditions that leads to, welp, you get your semi-fascist shitheads.
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Oct 27, 2014 20:47
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Karmalis posted:So I just got back after watching this enter the port of Klaipeda, Lithuania: That is really impressive. Phlegmish posted:What the gently caress happened to Hungary? Why are they letting their country turn into a creepy two-bit authoritarian banana republic? It honestly bothers me since I used to have a high opinion of them. I just don't understand. Them voting Orban or even Jobbik is their own choice, but you shouldn't let your leaders get away with shady Chavez/Putin-tier stuff like changing the constitution to stay in power. No matter who they are. Belarus already beat you to that.
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