>it can look like a lot of times rich people get away with something that less rich people might get busted for

a scandalous and far-fetched idea!

Tax law is complex and this is a place for oversimplification, so it's hard to answer in detail. Even the concept of "taxes" varies a lot by jurisdiction.

But in general, if a tax is an "income tax" how much you pay depends directly on how much "income" you have. I put it in quotes because the definition of "income" is going to be the concern of an awful lot of the relevant tax law. It's more complex than just "how much money you made".

For example, if you own a business, it's understood that you have to use some portion of your money on business expenses like salaries. Since those salaries become employee income that gets taxed, that's some money that you can subtract from your business's "income". There are a lot of other categories of expenses that the law decides is worthy of removal from your "income".

Usually a "write off" is some thing that costs money that you normally wouldn't buy, but if you spend money on it that money gets subtracted from your "income" and creates an advantageous situation.

One way that happens is when taxes are "bracketed". For example, a very simple "bracketed" income tax might say you pay 0% on up to $10, 1% on $10-$100, and 10% on $100-$1000. So if you get paid $120 for something, you pay:

• $0 on the first $10 ($140 remains)
• $1 (1%) for the next $100 ($10 remains)
• $1 for the remaining $10 (at the 10% tax rate)

So in this case, you might really want to try and find a way to "write off" $10 of your income. If you can buy something that lets you deduct it from your income, your $110 will only get taxed $1 instead of $2 for the $120. You "lost" $10 on some business expenses, but it saved you $1 in taxes so it's more like you got a 10% discount on that expense, in the big picture. In real-life scenarios, sometimes a write-off means a person goes from paying taxes to getting a refund!

That's the kind of situation where people consider write-offs: sometimes spending a little bit of money can dramatically reduce how much you owe in taxes.

It is different for students, corporations, and independent workers, but that's mainly because:

• Students don't generally have a lot of income, and likely have a lot of debts, so they don't tend to have complicated income scenarios or owe a lot of taxes unless they're very well off. The things they can write off tend to be related to loan payments/interest.
• Corporations have a lot of assets, a lot of expenses that can be write-offs, and the resources to hire lawyers and accountants that let them structure their "income" in different ways.
• Independent workers are basically like small corporations: common write-offs are money spent for office space (even if you build a home office, it can be deducted from income if it meets certain criteria), equipment, supplies, etc.

But you could also say it's "the same" for all of them, because the idea is we want to tax people who make a lot of money and spend it on luxury more than we want to tax people who make a lot of money but invest that money back into business ventures and we DON'T want to tax people who aren't making a lot of money. This gets kind of cloudy and frustrating because it means rich people get a lot of ways to not pay taxes on income, and the way companies "invest" the money doesn't always benefit their workers the way the system intends. People in the middle don't tend to have as much flexibility and it can be frustrating to hear that a man is worth $200 billion but gets to publicly brag that he's not sure if he plans on paying any taxes.

> why can't do the same with wall plugs.

There is absolutely no scenario when a properly used wall plug is exposed when energized. Is is only possible when utter morons use "suicide cords":

• for extensible christmas lights they installed backwards so the socket end is near their wall socket. In that case, the user needs to suck it up and take it down then put it up the right way. It's an educational experience.

• for plugging in generators to a wall socket when the power goes out. This is illegal as fuck and dangerous to linemen working on the pole outside. An excellent way to bumble your way into manslaughter. When generators are used for a home, a generator inlet socket and transfer switch is used The house side is male with exposed pins, but due to the transfer switch it is physically impossible to have it connected to the house wiring while the house is fed from the mains, so it is safe.

Well students can, write off expenses, but any tax software you use will rightfully swap that for the standard deduction. I don't know what it is this year but it usually exceeds whatever tax deductions you can claim as a student.

Really savvy business owners or other entrepreneurs can report expenses in a way that exceeds the standard deduction and lowers their tax liability. Things like business expenses and the interest on mortgage loans are big chunks of what people claim for "itemized deductions". If the total of itemized deductions exceed the standard deduction, it lowers the amount of your income that can be taxed at all. The lower taxable income decreases your tax liability. The lower tax liability means you get a bigger refund if you've reported standard withholdings when your turn in your form W-4 to your employer.

Yes, it is different dependent on who you are and what country you are in. An independent worker could potentially have write off connected to tool usage (if you use your personal tools), maybe some administrative write offs, but as I said it depends on your country and you have to check that yourself.

Generally speaking if you have been disadvantaged in some way it can be considered a tax write off. (Example: You lost money investing in stocks, that loss can be written in your taxes and parts of it can be reclaimed)

oh wow that's alot

Seven digits gives us 10,000,000 possible numbers. Area codes add three more digits, so that's 10 million people max per area code, with 1,000 possible area codes, and an additional 10 country codes.

100,000,000,000 possible codes.

Yep, the vast majority of public companies impose blackout periods on insider stock transactions

This is why water feels colder than air at the same temperature, because water has a higher heat capacity than air so it will take it away from you that much faster.

Because it’s not 7 digits… it’s 10 if you count area codes.

Up to 14 if you include country codes.

People who have a marketing degree commonly say they have a “business degree” so people assume they’re educated in something smart, like finance or economics, rather than marketing.

because we have area codes that make phone numbers 10 digits.

then add country codes for even longer numbers.

Simple. People can(and do) have the same number [prefix and suffix] with different area codes.

North American telephone numbering plan numbers are 10 digits long including a 3 digit area code

Despite some area codes and branch prefixes being reserved, this still provides enough numbers for current needs.

Because male-male USB plugs still have their power-providing contacts out of reach of your grubby little fingers AND only deliver 5V DC.

A male-male wall plug has the power-providing contacts exposed (while "hot"), delivers 120V A/C, and it would require redesigning nearly every single appliance that uses 120V A/C in order to make it worthwhile. Not to mention that 1) they're explicitly illegal in the U.S. and 2) they violate nearly all existing electrical codes.

Are you trying to electrocute yourself?

Because humans count BIRTHdays. Plus, conception is harder to pinpoint, exactly. Therefore, counting in years, from the date of birth, is the standard worldwide. (Except in societies or social groups or religious groups where birthdays are not celebrated.) This has been the way, going back as far as 3000 BC, at least, when there is documentation of an Egyptian Pharaoh's date of birth.

USB as a whole is both female and male. They have interconnected shapes that make use of both types, with the power being supplied from the internal connection. Most AC connectors utilise the same principal where the pins are shielded from prying fingers, the direct wall plugs being the exception, but they're also fairly poorly designed as a whole, and from a time before our current understanding of proper power safety mechanics. Some are better than others, the US' standard is quite poor by comparison to the other standard's.

If you've ever had a laptop or games console with a barrel plug (looks similar to USB-C, but circular), they are the reverse of USB-C, with the live outside, and ground inside. They're still not terribly dangerous, as they also don't carry a very high voltage. Although you can actually feel the power flowing through those, where as USB standards, if you touch the metal are such low voltage that its almost negligible. Both work on the same principal though, that DC is not terribly dangerous in low voltages, where as AC is consistently quite dangerous.

The lightning cable (Apple's phone standard) is effectively the reverse of USB-C, with the male cable plugging into the female device. Although these are live on the outside of the connector, Apple doesn't utilise quick charge technology on it's lightning connector, so the power delivery is lower than most of the previously mentioned barrel plugs.

So it's like that to reduce heating, thanks!

I get it now, thanks.

Many consumers want brand name products... they're loyal to the brand, not the store. They'll just go elsewhere if you don't what they have today, and you forego any additional items they may buy. Say somebody is out of their deodorant and decides to go to Target for it. But they then also remember they need more Band-Aids, they may as well grab some cereal since they're running low, a bottle of wine when they see it on an end cap, and a couple throw pillows that are cute. That $4 deodorant run netted $75. Now, imagine the customer knew Target didn't carry their brand and they went to Walgreen's instead... $0 instead of $75.

Plus, you're more likely to convert a customer to the store brand by having the name brand next to it for direct comparison. Somebody comes in for a bottle of Tylenol or bag of Domino sugar sees the store brand that's only 2/3 the price for same amount, and they can compare to see it's exactly the same ingredients so they decide to switch. Without the brand name for comparison, the customer might not be willing to pull the trigger.

But you do see some stores that do almost entirely move away from name brands and are successful... look at Aldi or Trader Joe's.

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People who insist on buying the name brands are willing to pay more for them, and will buy them even when store brands are available.

People who are willing to buy the store brand will buy it even if a more-expensive name brand is available.

By offering both name brand and store brand items, the store gets both of those people to come in and shop.

Yeah that seems about right. It just seems a little shortsighted on the US manufacturers side though.

Yeah I picked Ritz because it's one brand I'll stick with. I got the store brand once and they were actually really good, but apparently I picked an above-average box because the next three were flavorless and bad. Went back to Ritz because the worst box of Ritz is still better than the average box of store brand.

The Japanese believe that if they make good cars, people will buy their cars again when they need to buy a car. American automakers believe that if people have to replace their cars more often, they'll make more money.