OK, hold up. So, dwelling for clearly non-insignificant time on minutia of taxation is A-OK in your book, but spending maybe an hour or two on researching energy/water ratings on lasting-more-than-fiscal-year home appliances is some recondite voodoo normal people shouldn't be expected to handle on their own? How does that work?I don't see anything wrong with Lowe's hiring people ("corrupt tax-experts"!) to look for grounds to ask for a lower assessment. When I file my taxes, I look for legal ways to reduce the amount owed. Sometimes, like with the mortgage interest deduction, it seems strange that I am getting a break now but not when I was a renter.
I think customers should consider energy usage. Older appliances could cost more in energy than they did to purchase. I question whether government-sponsored programs like Energy Star and the EU energy label are a net benefit to customers. With Energy Star, it seemed clear that manufacturers use the blue stickers to promote more expensive (and often, less energy efficient) models. The EU system may well have the same issue, as well as being confusing with its major recalibrations. The Energy Star approval of a gasoline-powered alarm clock does not improve my confidence.
Right. See, you found an example of what is legally known as fraud. Fraud is bad. Fraud is against the law. Lowe's tax strategies have been found to be fraudulent. Fraud is bad. Fraud is against the law. Here's the thing: the gas-powered alarm clock never existed. It was part of a sting instituted by the GAO to improve the Energy Star program. That's regulators improving their regulation for the betterment of manufacturing and commerce. Lowe's? that's just business. So here you are, raising up a sting operation by the government to improve governance as an example of government overreach, while being entirely okay with consumer abuse by corporations and I mean, you're a smart guy. You pay attention. You have bright things to say and you have a keen eye for detail but the minute the argument is economic you become so fucking facile it's infuriating. What I think you refuse to understand is that when you debate other people as if they have the worldliness of 8-year-olds you are fundamentally putting forth the impression that you hold literally everyone else in utter contempt and do not feel we are worthy of a good-faith debate. I don't give a fuck how you vote or how you live or what you read or the air you breathe or the water you drink but when you come into these conversations with a "fucking magnets how do they work"-level of rhetoric it derails everything in a stupidly avoidable way. You don't actually believe any of this shit, you've just learned that your ideas are easier to defend if you obfuscate and deflect every time someone questions your logic. Stop it.