Philosophy of information and organization

Philosophy of information and organization -- Part 1 of a series about how we see things in nature and society (i.e., "epistemology.") -- Comments are invited to make it better and to clarify the issues.

Essentially it is a metaphysics of "information" and "organization" in the biological and social sciences. It developed as part of the standard grammar for an animated flow-chart energy language.

The last 1/3 will show some examples, touch upon how institutions in economics correspond to the pattern, compare the very different type of system in climate and ecology (i.e. flow-through webs,) and end with a very simple summary. It will be posted shortly.

The little black bar at the bottom is for the time-cursor and the symbol list, which I don't add until the animation is entirely finished. (To see how that works, please look at some of the other animations. Click on "leearnold," above.)

How the minimum wage hurts the ones that it is supposed to help, and creates unemployment?

How the minimum wage hurts the ones that it is supposed to help, and creates unemployment.

Cartoon: Economic growth (Irwin Schiff 1985)

Irwin Schiff's 1985 pictorial introduction to basic economics is made available free on this site. Each page is represented by a .gif image, and any can be accessed via the index below. 


Irwin Schiff´s 1985book  
 

Noam Chomsky- Alternatives to Capitalism

Taken from a larger video titled: The Chomsky Sessions If you like Noam you may like the book "Days of War, Nights of Love found here for free - www.daysofwarnightsoflove.com/ also on youtube you may like this channel www.youtube.com/user/stimulator

The 30 Percent Rule (NL)

The 30 Percent Rule

The 30 Percent Rule is a personal income tax reduction for select employees in the Netherlands. It applies to specialized foreign employees who are brought to the Netherlands because their skills are scarce in the Dutch marketplace. The scarcity of work force with particular skills is reviewed annually "The 30% rule".
The purpose of the 30 Percent Rule to compensate employees for the extra costs of their temporary stay in the Netherlands. The effect is to make the Netherlands competitive in the international marketplace for skilled labour, since normal Dutch income tax rates are high (in comparison with other countries) and may discourage some employees from accepting assignments in the Netherlands.
However, there are consequences for possible future unemployment aid, tax deduction for a mortgage and other benefits.
The 30 Percent Rule allows an employer to exempt from income tax up to 30% of the employee's annual remuneration (the "Basis") and used to be applicable for the first 10 years of their stay in the Netherlands Inkomstenbelasting Wet 2001.
New legislation, is in force from 1 January 2012. By new legislation, period is shorted from 10 years to 8 years, with 5 year transition period. Also, foreign students acquiring PhD in the Netherlands are eligible for 30% ruling, even though they were not hired from abroad "Changes in 30% rule".
The Dutch tax authority allows for two options:

• 30% tax-free is reimbursed based on registered receipts for extraterritorial costs (e.g. maintenance of an own house in the country of origin, travel expenses, relocation costs, language courses, long-distance telephone calls)
• the Dutch tax office can upon an approved application of an employee grant 30% tax exemption on the employees remuneration.

In addition, the employer may provide a tax-free reimbursement of the fees paid for the employee's children to attend an international school.
The Dutch income tax law does not, however, specify, how will the benefit of the 30% rule be divided between the employee and his/her employer. Some employers (e.g. Shell B.V.) have stipulated in their general working conditions that the 30% rule benefit is solely for the benefit of the company arguing that salaries of their local workers would not be on par with their foreign work force.
A similar rule also applies to compensate Dutch employees who are assigned to work in designated developing countries or to the Dutch nationals returning to the Netherlands after a substantial period of living abroad.
Note that it typically takes two to three months from the application for the rule to be granted. The excess tax paid in the meantime is repaid to the applicant once the rule is granted.

See also

• Corporate Tax in the Netherlands
• Taxation in the Netherlands
•  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_Netherlands

Educación Cívico-Tributaria

¿Por qué preocuparse de una Educación Cívico-Tributaria?

En ocasiones se considera la fiscalidad como un hecho que afecta solamente a los adultos. Por tanto, los jóvenes no tendrían que preocuparse por la fiscalidad ya que serían totalmente ajenos al hecho fiscal hasta que se incorporaran a la actividad económica y estuvieran obligados al cumplimiento de las obligaciones tributarias. La Educación Cívico-Tributaria de los ciudadanos más jóvenes carecería, por tanto, de sentido desde esta perspectiva. Ahora bien, ¿es cierto que los jóvenes no ejercen actividad económica alguna?, ¿puede decirse que los jóvenes son totalmente ajenos al hecho fiscal?
En sociedades que han alcanzado un cierto grado de desarrollo y bienestar, los jóvenes empiezan muy pronto a tomar decisiones económicas como consumidores de bienes y servicios. Por tanto, desde la vertiente de los ingresos públicos, su consumo está generando ingresos tributarios. Desde la vertiente de los gastos públicos, la fiscalidad está posibilitando la igualdad de oportunidades en múltiples aspectos, entre los que destacan la sanidad y la educación, por ser los más visibles en estos estratos de edad. Sin esa inversión de solidaridad, que se efectúa desde el esfuerzo tributario aportado por los ciudadanos y que se gestiona a través de las diferentes administraciones públicas, la vida cotidiana y las perspectivas de futuro de los jóvenes serían muy distintas. Por ello, resulta preciso hacerles conscientes de esta realidad.
En la actualidad, la conducta fiscal es una pauta que han de incorporar los individuos en su etapa adulta, sin que se les haya socializado adecuadamente en este aspecto desde edades tempranas. Así suele reducirse el complejo tema de la fiscalidad al pago material de los impuestos, e incluso, a cuánto se paga a Hacienda, cuando el mero pago es una parte importante pero no agota el significado de las obligaciones tributarias.
No cabe duda de que la conducta fiscal adulta sería distinta si se educara adecuadamente a los niños y jóvenes de la sociedad española en el hecho fiscal, como se viene haciendo en otros países (entre otros, Reino Unido, Suecia, Noruega y Estados Unidos). Incorporarían las pautas de conducta propias de individuos que de adultos van a vivir en una cultura democrática que hace de la solidaridad tributaria uno de los pilares básicos del modo de organizar su convivencia social.

¿Qué se entiende por Educación Cívico-Tributaria?

La Educación Cívico-Tributaria no pretende reducirse a la enseñanza de unas prácticas que capaciten para abordar los requerimientos del sistema fiscal. Tampoco ha de limitarse a ser una exposición académica del sentido y la finalidad de los impuestos en una sociedad democrática.
La Educación Cívico-Tributaria tiene como objetivo primordial transmitir valores y actitudes favorables a la responsabilidad fiscal y contrarios a las conductas defraudadoras. Por ello, su finalidad no es tanto facilitar contenidos académicos cuanto contenidos cívicos.
La Educación Cívico-Tributaria ha de tratarse como un tema de responsabilidad ciudadana que se traduce en asumir las obligaciones tributarias, primero porque lo manda la ley y, después, porque se trata de un deber cívico, poniendo de relieve qué efectos tiene el incumplimiento de estas obligaciones sobre el individuo y sobre la sociedad.
De este modo, la Educación Cívico-Tributaria debe convertirse en un tema para:

• Identificar los distintos bienes y servicios públicos.
• Conocer el valor económico y la repercusión social de los bienes y servicios públicos.
• Reconocer las diversas fuentes de financiación de los bienes y servicios públicos, especialmente las tributarias.
• Establecer los derechos y responsabilidades a que da lugar la provisión pública de bienes y servicios.
• Interiorizar las actitudes de respeto por lo que es público y, por tanto, financiado con el esfuerzo de todos y utilizado en beneficio común.
• Asimilar la responsabilidad fiscal como uno de los valores sobre los que se organiza la convivencia social en una cultura democrática, identificando el cumplimiento de las obligaciones tributarias con un deber cívico.
• Comprender que la fiscalidad, en su doble vertiente de ingresos y gastos públicos, es uno de los ámbitos donde se hacen operativos los valores de justicia, equidad y solidaridad en una sociedad democrática.

La Educación Cívico-Tributaria pretende, por tanto, proporcionar a los ciudadanos más jóvenes unos esquemas conceptuales sobre la responsabilidad fiscal que les ayuden a incorporarse a su rol de contribuyentes con una conciencia clara de lo que es un comportamiento lógico y racional en una sociedad democrática. La formación de una verdadera conciencia fiscal consiste en asumir que, por encima de opciones y modelos fiscales concretos, cambiantes como es previsible en toda sociedad dinámica, existe una serie de criterios justificativos de la financiación solidaria de las necesidades públicas y comunes. El principal de tales criterios es el de ciudadanía, que implica asumir las responsabilidades sociales como una contrapartida necesaria al ejercicio de los derechos cívicos.






Portal de educación Cívico-Tributaria

Chapter Three: Ancient Mesopotamia

The Ethics Workbook I:

World History Chapter Three

Ancient Mesopotamia

When you studied about ancient Mesopotamia you learned that the land between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates was the home of many civilizations. Among the most important of these was ancient Babylonia. Its capital, Babylon, was at one time considered to be the richest, most beautiful, and advanced city in the world. Hammurabi was king of Babylon, and he is famous for issuing the first written code of laws. Hammurabi had his laws chiseled into a flat stone monument so that everyone would know exactly what the rules of Babylon were. We are going to study some of Hammurabi’s laws, and carefully compare them to both the Egyptian Book of the Dead and to the Old Testament. But first we need to review the discussion we had about the difference between western and eastern ideas about how people relate to nature. Take a few minutes to look back at the first part of Chapter Two and see if you can finish the following sentences: 

1. Ancient Egyptian ideas are basic to eastern philosophy because

They stress the importance of finding a balanced existence with nature. 

2. Hebrew ideas are basic to western philosophy because

 They stress the idea that man should control nature and that nature exists only for man’s benefit. 

Now read some lines from Hammurabi’s Code and write a paragraph telling if Hammurabi’s Code is more western or eastern in its philosophy. Treat this like a test to see if you really understand. If any one be too lazy to keep his dam in proper condition, and the dam breaks and all the fields  are flooded, then shall he in whose dam the break occurred be sold for money, and the money shall replace the corn which he has caused to be ruined. If he can’t replace the corn, then he and his possessions will be divided among the farmers whose corn he has flooded. If any one opens his ditches to water his crop, but is careless, and the water floods the field of his neighbor, then he will pay his neighbor corn for his loss. If a man lets in the water, and the water overflows the plantation of his neighbor, he must pay ten gur of corn for every ten gan of land.

Hammurabi’s Code 53-56 simplified 

This shows western thinking since man is expected to control nature and make it beneficial

Now let’s do some more comparisons. Read the following rules from Hammurabi’s Code and compare them to the Old Testament. If a man puts out the eye of another man, his eye will be put out. If he breaks another man’s bone, his bone will be broken. If he puts out the eye of a freed man, or breaks the bone of a freed man, he must pay one gold mina. If he puts out the eye of a man’s slave, or breaks the bone of a man’s slave, he will pay one-half of its value. If a man knocks out the teeth of his equal, his teeth will be knocked out. If he knocks out the teeth of a freed man, he will pay one-third of a gold mina. 

Hammurabi’s Code 196-201 simplified

 This introduces students to the idea of relativity in ethical standards since the law does not apply evenly to everyone 

We call what’s happening in Hammurabi’s Code a relative ethical standard because circumstances change the outcome. We have already begun to talk about this, and you have developed some views on it. We are going to talk about it some more. What kinds of circumstances are changing the outcome here in Hammurabi’s Code? Does this seem right or wrong to you? 

Students will naturally expect circumstances to cause the relative standard, but here it is a different standard for different people. It’s who you are that counts. Hammurabi’s Code is very different in the way it applies the rules. Compare the following lines from Hammurabi’s Code with similar lines from the Old Testament. Look back at Chapter Two and compare them carefully. What’s the difference? If after a judge tries a case, and presents his judgment in writing, an error appears in his decision, and it be through his own fault. Then he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case; and he will be publicly removed from the judge’s bench, and never again will he sit there to render judgment. 

There is accountability on the part of the authorities. The beginnings of the concept of fundamental fairness is present. Remember the importance of the family relationship in the Old Testament and the son who disobeyed his parents? Here is a similar case from Hammurabi’s Code. Compare the two. If a man wants to put his son out of his house, and declares before the judge “I want to put my son out,” then the judge will examine into his reasons. If the son is guilty of no great fault, for which he can rightfully be put out, the father will not put him out. If he is guilty of a grave fault, the father must forgive him the first time; but if he is guilty of a grave fault a second time the father may put him out. 

Reciprocal obligations and fundamental fairness are basic; power alone is not enough. 

This is a whole new idea in ethics. See if you can figure out what it is. 

Finish the following sentence with one word. 

The rules must be fair 

See how this principle shows up again and again in Hammurabi’s Code: If a man is captured, and he has the means to buy his freedom, he will buy himself free; if he has nothing in his house with which to buy himself free, he will be bought free by the temple of his community, if there is nothing in the temple with which to buy him free, the court will buy his freedom. His field, garden and house will not be given for the purchase of his freedom. 

Hammurabi’s Code 32 simplified If anyone takes over a field to till it, and obtains no harvest from it, it must be proved that he did no work on the field before he must deliver to the owner of the field. 

Hammurabi’s Code 42 simplified If anyone owes a debt for a loan, and a storm destroys the grain, or the harvest fail, or the grain does not grow for lack of water he pays no rent for this year. 

Hammurabi’s Code 48 simplified If a man marries a wife, and she be seized by disease, if he then wants to marry a second wife, he cannot put away his first wife, who has been attacked by disease. He must keep her in the house that he has built and support her so long as she lives. 

Ethics Workbook I ©Anthony Tiatorio 1999