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From: geoff@desint.UUCP (Geoff Kuenning)
Newsgroups: net.legal,net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Abuse of social contracts.
Message-ID: <339@desint.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 14-Feb-85 04:36:24 EST
Article-I.D.: desint.339
Posted: Thu Feb 14 04:36:24 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 16-Feb-85 01:39:43 EST
References: <2748@dartvax.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: his home computer, Manhattan Beach, CA
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Xref: utcs net.legal:1413 net.philosophy:1410

In article <2748@dartvax.UUCP> karl@dartvax.UUCP (Karl Berry.) writes:

>I recently found a strange advertisement in my mailbox, from an outfit
>called Boardroom Books. They wanted to sell me The Book of Inside
>Information, for a substantial [in their eyes] discount. The advertisement
>starts:
>
>WHAT CREDIT CARD COMPANIES DON'T TELL YOU. PAGE 10.
[etc]

Boardroom Books is an offshoot of a newsletter called Boardroom Reports,
which I have subscribed to for years.  Basically, it is a series of
one-paragraph tidbits mixed with a few two-page articles, all on the basic
subject of business (though they divert to anything that might interest the
executive, including medicine and tennis).  ALL of their books, as far as
I can tell, are simply collections of the tidbit parts of their newsletters.

I find their information to be useful in the newsletter, though you have to
take it with a bit of a grain of salt and possibly some moral filtering.  I
have quit buying their books because I don't read them and don't refer to
them.

Most of their "secrets" are not very earthshaking, and are not not
necessarily as immoral as they sound when you find them out.  For instance:
"How to deduct...medical bills paid for non-dependent."  Well, it turns out
that there are IRS rules for handling such things as splitting Mom's medical
bills with your siblings, none of whom pays 50% of Mom's medical bills or
support (the normal IRS test).  The IRS allows you to shuffle your finances
so that one of the siblings gets to deduct all of the bills and split the
take with the rest.  Not very exciting, and not at all immoral -- it's
precisely what the IRS set that particular rule for.

"Legal ways to take tax deduction for full cost of trip mixing business and
pleasure."  The IRS allows you to deduct the full cost of transportation if
more than 50% of the time was spent on business (you can never deduct the
cost of the pleasure days).  The loophole is that travel time is considered
as business time.  So, if you are going to a European conference, you can
take the boat one way (which takes 5 days or so), spend 3 days at a
conference, fly back in 1 day, and still be able to spend up to 8 days
gallivanting around Europe without losing your expensive travel deduction.
This is an example of some of the shadier morality of Boardroom.  It's
perfectly legal within the IRS rules, but it's obviously circumventing their
intent.

I have posted a few sample excerpts from "The Book of Business Knowledge"
(another Boardroom Book) below so you can get a flavor of what these books
are like:

"MAKING A GOOD TELEPHONE IMPRESSION:  Tape some telephone conversations and
note how many "ahs," "ers," and "ya knows" are said.  Try to eliminate
these verbal pauses.  Speak in sentences or complete phrases.  Then be
silent when pausing or thinking.  IN conversations without these
hesitations and sounds, callers will receive a more positive image." (p. 64)

HOW TO BUY CAVIAR [about 30 lines]...BUYING A PIANO [about 15 lines] (p. 234)

"SETTING PRICE OF A HOME:  Don't rely too heavily on a real estate broker's
advice.  A broker makes more on quick sales than big ones.  A fast
commission of $5,000 on a $90,000 sale is much more attractive than $6,000
on a $100,000 sale that takes months to make.  Check out brokers carefully
before giving an exclusive.  Look into prices of recent sales in the
community."  (p. 315)
-- 

	Geoff Kuenning
	Unix Consultant
	...!ihnp4!trwrb!desint!geoff