Replicating memes

Een zelfstandige in België hoort zijn sociale bijdrage (bv. per kwartaal) vooraf te betalen. Je bent een debiel als je dat niet doet, want dan vragen ze na vier jaar lekker veel interest op het hele bedrag.

Iedereen die je tegen het lijf loopt wanneer je je firma opstart zal het je ook opnieuw zeggen. De mensen bij Unizo, op de cursus boekhouden, mijn boekhouder, de mensen van de bank en zelfs mijn notaris was het aan het uitleggen bij de oprichting. En allemaal met een dringende toon: doe dit, vergeet dat niet. Vergeet dat écht niet. Écht niet!

Je bent dus onwenselijk dom als je het toch niet doet. Maarja, dat er domme mensen bestaan is geen nieuws.

Wat weinig mensen weten is dat je het zelfs kan omdraaien: in tegenstelling tot voorafbetalingen van vennootschapsbelastingen, krijg je voor voorafbetalingen van je sociale bijdrage wél interest op het teveel betaalde bedrag.

En dat is een interest die momenteel hoger ligt dan wat je op een ferme spaarrekening krijgt.

Uiteraard moet je gokken wat je zoal gemiddeld zal verdienen op vier jaar. Dus uiteraard mag je dat vrij hoog inschatten. Weet jij misschien precies hoeveel meer winst je over enkele jaren zal maken? Nou ik niet. En ik geef mezelf uiteraard meer salaris wanneer er meer winst is, meneer de controleur. Maar ik kon het niet weten dat er na vier jaar toch niet zoveel winst was! Tja!

Dus, schat je dat vrij hoog in. En betaal je vier jaar lang te veel sociale bijdrage. Na vier jaar storten ze het teveel terug, mét een hoge interest.

Netjes toch?

Ik denk dat ik dit ga moeten vieren!

Nu niet teveel van jullie freelancers dit gaan doen he! Ik wil nog een paar jaartjes genieten van hun “probleem” ;-)

Today after I brought Tinne to the airport I drove around Zürichsee. She can’t stay in Switzerland the entire month; she has to go back to school on Monday.

While driving on the Seestrasse I started counting luxury cars. After I reached two for Lamborgini and three for Ferrari I started thinking: Zimmerberg Sihltal and Pfannenstiel must be expensive districts too… And yes, they are.

I was lucky today that it was nice weather. But wow, what a nice view on the mountain tops when you look south over Zürichsee. People from Zürich, you guys are so lucky! Such immense calming feeling the view gives me! For me, it beats sauna. And I’m a real sauna fan.

I’m thinking to check it out south of Zürich. But not the canton. I think the house prices are just exaggerated high in the canton of Zürich. I was thinking Sankt Gallen, Toggenburg. I’ve never been there; I’ll check it out tomorrow.

Hmmr, meteoswiss gives rain for tomorrow. Doesn’t matter.

Actually, when I came back from the airport the first thing I really did was fix coping with property changes in ontologies for Tracker. Yesterday it wasn’t my day, I think. I couldn’t find this damn problem in my code! And in the evening I lost three chess games in a row against Tinne. That’s really a bad score for me. Maybe after two weeks of playing chess almost every evening, she got better than me? Hmmrr, that’s a troubling idea.

Anyway, so when I got back from the airport I couldn’t resist beating the code problem that I didn’t find on Friday. I found it! It works!

I guess I’m both a dreamer and a realist programmer. But don’t tell my customers that I’m such a dreamer.

Today Tinne and I visited Switzerland’s capital, Bern.

We were really surprised; we’d never imagined that a capital city could offer so much peace and calm. It felt good to be there.

The fountains, the old houses, the river and the snowy mountain peaks give the city an idyllic image.

Standing on the bridge, you see the roofs of all these lovely small houses.

The bear is the symbol of Bern. Near the House of Parliament there was this statue of a bear. Tinne just couldn’t resist to give it a hug. Bern has also got real bears. Unfortunately, Tinne was not allowed to cuddle those bears.

The House of Parliament is a truly impressive building. It looks over the snowy mountains, its people and its treasury, the National Bank of Switzerland.

As you can imagine, the National Bank building is a master piece as well. And even more impressive; it issues a world leading currency.

On the market square in Oerlikon we first saw this chess board on the street; black and white stones and giant chess pieces. In Bern there was also a giant chess board in the backyard of the House of Parliament. Tinne couldn’t resist to challenge me for a game of chess. (*edit*, Armin noted in a comment that the initial position of knight and bishop are swapped. And OMG, he’s right!)

And she won!

At the House of Parliament you get a stunning, idyllic view on the mountains of Switzerland.

It’s crossing my mind to move here in ~ two years.

Today we visited Zug; it has a Ferrari shop.

Zug, where an apartment costs far more than a villa in Belgium. Briefly a million euros.

It also comforts me. I could be here. Zug has a volière with exotic birds and a lake.

When Tinne and me were driving back to Oerlikon, we listened to Karoliina’s Symphonic dream.

The music; a canvas for the paint, Switzerland.

Die Lichter auf dem Berg. Die sind alle Seelen.

Congratulations to Mr. Van Rompuy for helping the EU powers to find a compromise.

Diplomats credit him with a shrewd sense of deal-making and a determination that is belied by his quiet anti-charisma, and he has already begun to win plaudits from Paris, Berlin and other capitals.

– Financial Times, Saturday Mar 27 2010 (alt. link)

Finally a politician to be proud of as a Belgian!

The mouse is dull grey
It steps into the sunshine
The mouse is snow white

I’m worried about the EURO’s M3 if a European version of the IMF (a EMF) is to be installed.

Nonetheless, I think the European community should do it just to strengthen Europe’s economy. I’m not satisfied by Europe’s economic strength: I want it to be undefeatable.

We must not let the IMF solve our problems. Europe might be a political dwarf, but we Europeans should show that we will solve our own problems. We’re an adult composition of cultures with vast amounts of experience. We know how to solve any imaginable problem. And let’s not, in our defeatism, pretend we don’t.

A EMF is a commitment to future member states: Europe often asks them fundamental changes; economic strength is what Europe offers in return. This needs to come at a highest price: Greece will have to fix their deficit problem. Even if their entire population goes on strike. Greece will be an example for countries like my own: Belgium has to fix a serious deficit problem, too.

An EMF comes at an equally high price, and that frightens me a bit: I don’t want the ECB to go as ballistic on money creation as the FED has been last two years. I want the EURO to be the strongest relevant currency mankind has ever created. No matter how insane the rest of the world thinks that ambition is: I believe that keeping the EURO’s M3 in check is a key to creating a wealthy society in Europe.

Politically I want European nations to negotiate more and more often. The European Union is a political dwarf only because finding agreement is hard. But in the long run will our solution be the most negotiated, most tested on this planet.

Together we can deal with anything. That doesn’t mean it’ll be easy; it has never been easy: just seventy years ago we were still killing each other. We’re all guilty of that one way or another. And before that it wasn’t any better. Today, not that many people still care: “it wasn’t me”, right? So stop being a bitch about it, then.

It’s time to let it be. It’s time to start a new European century that will be better. With respect for all European cultures, languages, nations, nationalities, values, borders and interests.

But also a European century with economic responsibilities for each member. It’s our strength: we figured out how to keep our population wealthy: let’s continue doing so in the future.

We would rather suffer the visible costs of a few bad decisions than incur the many invisible costs that come from decisions made too slowly - or not at all - because of a stifling bureaucracy.

– Letter by Warren E. Buffett to the shareholders of Berkshire, February 26, 2010