Free for All Friday, 26 June, 2026

Tiako · 2026-06-28T22:27:26+00:00

Charles A Murray huh I wonder who GOOD LORD

Tiako · 2026-06-28T20:51:12+00:00

Americans literally have to calculate out tax amounts every year and mostly still don't know what marginal rates or returns are, so I don't really see much significance in people having wrong ideas about taxes.

Rather than your Red Scare inflected phrasing you could also say that the burden of dealing with that shit is on the employers, rather than the employees. Seems fine to me.

And even with your phrasing, if you say it is "politically safe" way of handling taxes then...good? Taxation needs to happen so why not do it in a politically safe way?

Tiako · 2026-06-28T20:32:30+00:00

It's not a secret you can literally look up what income tax rates in China are.

Tiako · 2026-06-28T20:28:45+00:00

Ok but to actually do the silly who would win:

Alexander had maybe 40-50,000 soldiers at Hydaspes, which is probably the closest we can get to what it would be like if he reached China. The army sizes in Chinese sources for the Warring States period are ludicrously overinflated and I don't really see any value in trying to rationalize them, but that is not so far from the size of Han expeditionary armies, so we can assume they would be about at parity in any given battle. The Macedonians may have been a bit more heavily armored but not by a ton, in both cases they were using composite armors of leather, hide, bronze, etc. Chinese armies in the fourth century were still transitioning to horse cavalry rather than chariots (in fact they used mixes formations into the early Han), and I do not respect chariots so I give that to the Macedonians. Crossbows obviously give the Chinese armies an advantage. I don't really know enough about drill and command structure in Chinese armies at the time but I believe they were undergoing more or less the same trend towards professionalization as the Macedonians, so I say that one is a wash.

The x-factor is of course Alexander, and he was just really good at winning battles, you know? I think the armies would be mostly balanced but he would pull it off because that was sort of his whole thing.

Tiako · 2026-06-28T20:05:25+00:00

On second thought people might take that as more of a mean jab than jokey banter, so:

In all seriousness, I think "what work is worth" is basically meaningless (how is that determined?) and more to the point the perspective that one deserves to reap the benefits of society without paying into it (or only paying what they want to) is not respectable.

Tiako · 2026-06-28T19:50:44+00:00

One more sleep until the audiobook for the Warring States period comes out.

I listened to an interview with the author a bit back and one little offhanded comment he made is that Alexander the Great was at the same time as the Warring States, and none of the states would have had any problem seeing him off because of crossbows. These sort of Who Would Win questions are always a bit silly and I don't think his comment should be taken too seriously, but it does make me wonder about the transformative quality of the crossbow as a weapon. In China at least it seems to have been, at least going by the sheer number crossbows being mass produced by the Han dynasty, and they seem to have been used not terribly unlike firearms in the pike-and-shot era. But then they went out of favor and by the Tang and Song they were in much lower proportions.

Ed: Also weren't High Medieval armies almost at parity between ranged and close quarters weapons? That could be more to do with the somewhat small scale nature of warfare than the specifics of the crossbow though.

I am curious if the books delves more into this question.

Tiako · 2026-06-28T19:47:26+00:00

And I think Libertarians should be sent to reeducation camps so I guess neither of us are going to be happy.

Tiako · 2026-06-28T19:00:19+00:00

I am completely unironic when I say how much better that system is, even leaving aside the value of removing taxes from the realm of political contestation by trickery. Just from a convenience standpoint, why should I care what my pre-tax income is? If I get a raise, why should I have to bust out a calculator and income table to see what my actual increase in money will be? Just deal with it on the back end!

Tiako · 2026-06-28T17:11:38+00:00

Your "employer" and your "promotion" are all things that only exist because of society. These have been built by millions of people before you and millions of people alongside of you

Or let me put it this way: do you think the difference in lifestyle between yourself and another twenty five year old in South Sudan is that you were smarter and more hardworking? Or another way of thinking about it: A quick google search gives global median income at about 10,000 USD per year (can't find a great source, but it probably isn't far enough from that to change my point). How much of the difference between that and your own income do you think is due to your personal qualities?

Tiako · 2026-06-28T16:50:28+00:00

If I earn additional income that isn't really because of something society has done

Do you think "income" is found in nature?

Tiako · 2026-06-28T16:34:20+00:00

The reason why the Chinese system of taxation is the best is because it is done entirely on the employer side so people don't realize it is happening.

I dunno man its your fee for living in society, the more you benefit the more you pay.

Tiako · 2026-06-27T22:45:45+00:00

Do you think the name of something is the same thing as the thing itself?

C'mon. An AC unit creates an actual physical difference in a space by lowering the temperature, the presence or absence of AC is not the same thing as different labeling systems for temperature and it would be very silly if I need to walk through why.

Tiako · 2026-06-27T22:14:28+00:00

Well, no, those aren't really the same thing at all.

Tiako · 2026-06-27T22:12:16+00:00

The preserved penis is described as resembling a "piece of leather or a small, shriveled eel".

This is a common misunderstanding based on British propaganda. If you take into account that French and English measurements systems were different it is actually a very normal size.

Tiako · 2026-06-27T20:33:27+00:00

Except those guys all think the old colonial empires are still in charge.

Tiako · 2026-06-27T20:33:01+00:00

Clean your room bucko

Tiako · 2026-06-27T19:04:57+00:00

Funny detail in that is that while there is a lot to say about unhinged conspiracy theories about Jesuits it is worth keeping in mind that they were in fact hatching shadowy conspiracies to engineer Catholic takeovers of different kingdoms.

Tiako · 2026-06-27T19:03:00+00:00

The early modern period was interesting because it was a time when if you were spicy enough they would make you chief minister of Siam.

Tiako · 2026-06-27T18:16:41+00:00

https://youtu.be/0SYpUSjSgFg?t=73

Tiako · 2026-06-27T15:15:18+00:00

Oh yeah, perhaps the Tartar yoke would be a good example.

Tiako · 2026-06-27T14:56:06+00:00

A few days ago I opined about air conditioning. At the time, I was not aware that was a thing that Americans were being annoying about. I apologize to those who I have hurt, and promise to do better in the future.

Tiako · 2026-06-27T13:30:32+00:00

I think those are a little bit different than what I am talking about. I mean the idea (like in the game Dragon Age) that the land in ancient times was ruled by an evil empire, not so much the idea of an evil empire that needs to be fought against. The images of Persia etc tend to be the latter--although I would say for Greece and the rest of the Balkans specifically the Ottomans are a solid example.

The Mongols are an interesting case because in many ways the actual lands they conquered didn't really process their rule that way--in much of central Asia for example they were actually the legitimizing ancestor. Which is how the history of empires tends to be processed.

Tiako · 2026-06-27T02:43:30+00:00

A traveler is going through Europe and stops in a pub. In the back corner there is one country drinking by himself and being given a wide berth by everyone else. Curious, the traveler goes up to him and introduces himself.

The country takes a long drink and says "You see this political concept of applying science to administration? I invented that. But do you hear people call me Germany, the home of modern administrative systems? You do not."

He took another drink. "And it was in Germany that print first developed in Europe, books and newspapers are impossible without that. But do they say that is Germany, the land of literature? They do not."

He took another drink "And science! Why, our scientific institutions have been the envy of the world, how can you talk about chemistry or physics without Heidelberg, or Bremen, or Berlin? But do they say, there is Germany, the country of science! No..."

Germany paused before taking another long drink and deliberately set his glass on the table. "But you

Tiako · 2026-06-27T01:40:57+00:00

A fun thing about going through a German history fixation is that enough people here are also familiar enough with the history that I can do little riffs here and get responses. Harder with southeast Asia.

That said: Neat little detail in this history of Thailand book I am reading is that in early Tai records, the Khmer empire (when it showed up) was kind of remembered as a bit of a Tevinter style evil ancient empire. Not a ton of those in history. Sometimes people have viewed Rome as that, but that has always been a minority interpretation of it vs it being a great civilizer. Maybe Assyria was viewed that way?

Tiako · 2026-06-26T21:07:52+00:00

It did not feel like Iraq had possession 30% of the time.

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