[crouton] Nathaniel Trost: Apparently, the Undead are Alive

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Posted by Nathaniel Trost:
Apparently, the Undead are Alive
http://crouton.powerblogs.com/archives/archive_2007_03_04-2007_03_10.shtml#1173037335


   While America undoubtedly is possessed of some overbearing cultural
   pride, other societies do need to remember the stones in glass houses
   adage when making fun of Americal Idol, NASCAR and Anna Nicole Smith.
   In case any European readers have managed to successfully managed to
   block it out of their minds again, let me remind you: Eurovision.
   Example A for 2007: [1]Vampires Are Alive. Thanks a lot Switzerland.
   Every once in a while, I run across a contest where Iâm not entirely
   sure who the intended target audience would be for the prize. Todayâs
   example is [2]the Microsoft Office Live âIâm Going Placesâ
   Sweepstakes. The grand prize is ten flight hours for you and up to six
   friends on a private jet. While thatâs a cool idea for a prize, the
   absurdly high value of the prize ($50,000), makes it a bit silly to
   offer as a prize. Since that value is taxable, youâre looking at
   anywhere from $10,000-$20,000 in federal and state taxes depending on
   your existing income bracket. To put it mildly, if youâre well off
   enough to even be able to consider affording that kind of a tax bill
   for a prize, youâre probably in the higher tax brackets, so weâll say
   $20K. So the prize is basically a 60% discount on private jet fare for
   one long round trip, or two medium trips at a cost per head that takes
   you into first-class commercial territory even if you were able to
   split the cost between all the travelers. Microsoft canât be targeting
   rank and file IT workers with this contest, who are they after,
   cheap-ass CTOs? Do they think a cheap-ass CTO is going to buy Office
   Live for their company? The mind boggles.

References

   1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-dDxp8Cez0
   2. https://microsoft.eprize.net/msofficeliveimgoingplaces/index.tbapp?noflash=flash&page=intro&session_id=0l39b7dnlbfsdng3