arshneet

I don't understand CA's taxation as much, except the income taxes are very high with little in terms of actual quality of life improvements. I do understand Canadian and UK taxation somewhat and most rich people don't pay themselves a high salary. There are "City of London" loopholes people can use to form a company and not pay tax. There's another one in the UK, where income not sourced inside the UK isn't tax, and that can be used in creative ways. Which means you can form a company in a tax haven and move your revenues there. In Canada, the corporate tax rate is like 15% and goes down to 9% for small business. And of course there are other avenues through which people form charities for tax avoidance and what not that I haven't dug deeper into. A lot of companies in the US also use the double Irish (closed now) and other similar schemes, don't they? I might not know as much here, so would love to know more. I highly doubt millionaires and billionaires pay 50%+ tax rates anywhere. They would be using loopholes I think. Kind of why I believe income tax is for the most part a failed scheme if you want to tax the rich. Tiered sales taxes might actually achieve more fair taxation.

Is it true that the super-rich pay higher tax rates? My understanding is most of them have great accountants, and the salaries they pay themselves are generally very low. They use loopholes (intentional or unintentional by the government) to avoid the high income tax rates. Which is why I find the whole fantasy around raising income tax rates to tax the rich to be a smokescreen, and not very well researched. It'd hardly affect the super-rich. The top 1% will mostly be salaried people who can't use the loopholes.

Langar doesn't have to be in a Gurdwara. The purpose of the meal is to serve food to all (especially the needy), and for even the privileged ones in the society to sit down and have the same food in the same conditions (even the richest person should be in the same queue and have Langar with people from all strata of society) to promote a sense of equality. One of the major Langar charities, The Midland Langar Seva Society (https://www.midlandlangarseva.org/), does it on the streets, as do many others. The first ever Langar by Guru Nanak (the founder of the religion) was on the street as well. But, it's kind of hard to tell (without more details) whether what you had was langar. And, it doesn't really matter whether it is Langar, because it serves the same purpose, and the people doing that are definitely doing a service to the society the same way.

When it comes to using charity as a tool to lure people into some ideology is what puts me off. Ideally, charity should be done to help others, and not for self-promotion or for the promotion of an ideology is what I've learnt as a Sikh, and would like to retain the same belief even if I'm not a Sikh some day.

I'd say this is not entirely correct. There is no sect of Sikhism that shuns the turban to the best of my knowledge. And, I think there is this gross misunderstanding that you have to wear the turban to be a Sikh. As a Khalsa, you have to have unshorn hair, and turban is a practical way to cover it up. In fact, turban isn't mandatory when looking at the technicalities (there are a lot of Sikhs who might disagree with me on this). The Kes (unshorn hair) are. And, that too is a requirement only for Khalsa. I'm a Sikh (not Khalsa), but I keep unshorn hair and wear a turban because I like it. And, there are a lot of people like myself. A lot of non-Khalsa Sikhs wear turbans as a step towards the path to becoming a Khalsa.

There is a channel called Basics of Sikhi on Youtube. It was started by a Brit called Jagraj Singh, and it is one of the golden resources to get started. Jagraj is no longer alive and succumbed to cancer, so the channel might not be as active. But, it should still have relevant content, as the age of the content shouldn't really matter.

I'm glad you liked it. Exactly! All those lines are artificial, and it's sad the world hasn't yet left behind discrimination, and it's a major problem in almost every society in one form or the other.

I don't know much about Protestants, despite having lived in England for a while. I live in Canada and regularly travel to the US, and still don't know about Protestantism deeply. The little bit I do, has generally led to a positive opinion, as it aligns somewhat more with what I'd believe in.

People do convert to Sikhism, but Sikhs don't focus as heavily on getting people converted. The religion is inclusive, and is generally quite welcoming, but there's hardly any appetite for forcing it upon others. This is primarily because the religion is secular at its very core. It had a pivotal role in standing up for rights of other religions during the Mughal rule in the Indian sub-continent. And, there's also the belief that just by putting on the 'Sikh' label, you don't really gain anything. The ultimate purpose is to just become a better human being (the barometer here being the teachings of Guru Granth Sahib, which is generally quite humanistic in its approach. The authors in fact include a number of non-Sikhs). As long as you're a good human being (as in help others, meditate and earn honestly to be basic), it doesn't matter what label you are, is one of the core beliefs. Converts aren't looked down upon, because almost everyone really converted at some point in time, as it's around 500 years old as a religion. On a side note, you'll sometimes hear its 300 years old, but that's incorrect, as that event refers to the birth of Khalsa. A Sikh should generally aim to become a Khalsa. Becoming a Khalsa is kind of similar to baptism, but it's voluntary and mostly done when you grow up and feel you're ready for it (some teens do it under the influence of parents, but I, along with many other Sikhs probably, tend to believe that is against the spirit of the religion. People in early teens don't have a full understanding of what they want, and that's why parents shouldn't do it for them IMHO). I'm in my late 20s and not a Khalsa, for example. And, there are many (probably the majority) like me, not Khalsa but just Sikh.

An example is - I studied in two different schools. The first school was Catholic, and I studied there for 12 years. The management used to heavily encourage conversion. For students, there were some benefits like no tuition fees, and maybe some other stuff. For teachers, it was probably a better career. I spent another 2 years in a Sikh school. In that school, rewards were totally independent of religion. If you scored above 90%, you'll get your tuition fees waived. If you were a single girl child (due to female infanticide in the region), I think they did something as well. There was no focus on converting non-Sikhs. This is not to diss on Catholicism, as I've respect for Christians in general and I personally know many good ones, it's probably just that my school didn't do it right. I just find being charitable only to people who are the same religion as yours, not a great idea. Religion shouldn't be a consideration during charity (and in conduct towards people otherwise too).

(edited for clarity)

This is one of the concepts I like the most personally. The plan was to remove discrimination as the emphasis is on an egalitarian society. It also ensures women don't change their surnames after marriage (if they are practicing Sikhs). The religion is pretty egalitarian in that respect, and there is no role the women can't take up in the religion. Since most of the Sikhs are Punjabis, and Punjabi society still isn't quite feminist, you don't get to see this as much in practice as you should. As in, I don't know of a female Head Granthi in major Gurdwaras. For context, a Granthi is a reader of the religious text, employed by the Gurdwara for daily services. Anyone can read the book though, just to be clear. Some people might use the word priest for Granthi, but that's incorrect because Sikhism doesn't have priests or bishops, as everyone is equal, and positions of power that wield influence aren't supposed to be present, as Sikhism doesn't believe special titles like priests or bishops bestow any special capabilities. I do hope that as the Punjabi society progresses (or we see more people from other ethnicities taking up these roles), we'll see more involvement of women in such roles, as the egalitarian bit and no degradation of women is something I've always liked quite a bit personally.

I'm a Sikh, and that's very correct. Sikhism discourages living as a recluse or retreating from the world. You are supposed to actively participate in the society, while continuously learning how to become a better person. That's the literal meaning of the word 'Sikh' - a disciple or learner.

Amazon Web Services | Senior Software Engineer; Senior Software Engineer in Machine Learning | Vancouver, Canada; Seattle, WA | Full-time | ONSITE, VISA |

RDS is looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join our team working on AWS scale big-data analytics problems. RDS Performance Insights team is working on a new and as yet unreleased service which will reshape the way that customers use databases and redefine industry expectations of what a modern, enterprise grade cloud-native database provides. Leveraging a number of AWS services including Kinesis and EMR/Spark, our mandate is to provide actionable insights into underlying database performance and push the boundaries of product and technology innovation in this area. As the only big-data, analytics and ML focused team in RDS, our greenfield project is worked on by a tight knit devops team, owned, and operated entirely from the new Amazon office here in Vancouver, Canada. If you’re a snowbird in the winter, love long summers and beaches, and want to work on a very engaging, highly impactful product with extremely high customer demand, endless learning and collaboration in a world-class group then get in touch!

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– Have a scope of influence in development practices, methods and approaches across the team and RDS organization

Requirements:

- Comp Sci, Engineering, Stats/Mathematics BA/MA/PhD

- 8-10+ years professional experience in software development

- Experienced technical leader, excellent communication skills. Recruitment, coaching and mentoring of other engineers.

- Ability to independently define and execute against a technical vision and roadmap

– Strong will to adhere to best practices in OO development and a need to leave well–structured code in your tracks

For more information and to apply:

https://www.amazon.jobs/en/jobs/392408

Please feel free to directly contact me (I'm an engineer on the team) [MyHNUsername][AT]amazon.com, or my manager pimmel[AT]amazon.com for any questions that you might have.

Amazon Web Services | Senior Software Engineer, Senior Software Engineer in Machine Learning | Vancouver, Canada; Seattle, WA | Full-time | ONSITE, VISA |

RDS is looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join our team working on AWS scale big-data analytics problems. RDS Performance Insights team is working on a new and as yet unreleased service which will reshape the way that customers use databases and redefine industry expectations of what a modern, enterprise grade cloud-native database provides. Leveraging a number of AWS services including Kinesis and EMR/Spark, our mandate is to provide actionable insights into underlying database performance and push the boundaries of product and technology innovation in this area. As the only big-data, analytics and ML focused team in RDS, our greenfield project is worked on by a tight knit devops team, owned, and operated entirely from the new Amazon office here in Vancouver, Canada.

Requirements (Senior Software Engineer): - Comp Sci, Engineering, Stats/Mathematics BA/MA/PhD - 8-10+ years professional experience in software development - Experienced technical leader. For more information and to apply: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/jobs/392408

Requirements (Senior Software Engineer in ML): - Post-graduate level Computer Science, Machine Learning, Mathematics, Operational Research, Statistics or a related quantitative field with up to 5 years of related work experience - 10+ years professional experience in software development - Ability to independently define and execute against a technical vision and roadmap – Recruitment, coaching and mentoring of other engineers – Strong will to adhere to best practices in OO development and a need to leave well–structured code in your tracks. For more information and to apply: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/jobs/425454

You can also directly contact me (I'm an engineer on the team) [MyHNUsername][AT]amazon.com, or my manager pimmel[AT]amazon.com

Amazon Web Services | Senior Software Engineer, Senior Software Engineer in Machine Learning | Vancouver, Canada; Seattle, WA | Full-time | ONSITE, VISA |

RDS is looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join our team working on AWS scale big-data analytics problems. RDS Performance Insights team is working on a new and as yet unreleased service which will reshape the way that customers use databases and redefine industry expectations of what a modern, enterprise grade cloud-native database provides. Leveraging a number of AWS services including Kinesis and EMR/Spark, our mandate is to provide actionable insights into underlying database performance and push the boundaries of product and technology innovation in this area. As the only big-data, analytics and ML focused team in RDS, our greenfield project is worked on by a tight knit devops team, owned, and operated entirely from the new Amazon office here in Vancouver, Canada.

Requirements (Senior Software Engineer):

- Comp Sci, Engineering, Stats/Mathematics BA/MA/PhD

- 8-10+ years professional experience in software development

- Experienced technical leader. For more information and to apply: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/jobs/392408

Requirements (Senior Software Engineer in ML):

- Post-graduate level Computer Science, Machine Learning, Mathematics, Operational Research, Statistics or a related quantitative field with up to 5 years of related work experience

- 10+ years professional experience in software development

- Ability to independently define and execute against a technical vision and roadmap

– Recruitment, coaching and mentoring of other engineers

– Strong will to adhere to best practices in OO development and a need to leave well–structured code in your tracks. For more information and to apply: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/jobs/425454

You can also directly contact me (I'm an engineer on the team) [MyHNUsername][AT]amazon.com, or my manager pimmel[AT]amazon.com

Senior Software Engineer (Amazon Web Services RDS) | Vancouver, Canada; Seattle, WA | Full-time | ONSITE, VISA |

RDS is looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join our team working on AWS scale big-data analytics problems. RDS Performance Insights team is working on a new and as yet unreleased service which will reshape the way that customers use databases and redefine industry expectations of what a modern, enterprise grade cloud-native database provides. Leveraging a number of AWS services including Kinesis and EMR/Spark, our mandate is to provide actionable insights into underlying database performance and push the boundaries of product and technology innovation in this area. As the only big-data, analytics and ML focused team in RDS, our greenfield project is worked on by a tight knit devops team, owned, and operated entirely from the new Amazon office here in Vancouver, Canada. If you’re a snowbird in the winter, love long summers and beaches, and want to work on a very engaging, highly impactful product with extremely high customer demand, endless learning and collaboration in a world-class group then get in touch!

- Lead the design, build and operations of our application stacks – Deliver industry disruptive advancements driven from a customer focused technical product development approach in your work – Deliver aspects of critical path code - Ability to influence adoption of capabilities built by the team to AWS teams outside of RDS - Continuously discover, evaluate, and implement new technologies to maximize development and operational efficiencies – Have a scope of influence in development practices, methods and approaches across the team and RDS organization.

Requirements: - Comp Sci, Engineering, Stats/Mathematics BA/MA/PhD - 8-10+ years professional experience in software development - Excellent written and spoken communication - Deep and broad technical experience - Experienced technical leader - Ability to independently define and execute against a technical vision and roadmap – Recruitment, coaching and mentoring of other engineers – Strong will to adhere to best practices in OO development and a need to leave well–structured code in your tracks – Strong analytical and problem–solving skills – Experience developing for multiple platforms a plus. For more information and to apply:

https://www.amazon.jobs/en/jobs/392408

Please feel free to directly contact me (I'm an engineer on the team) [MyHNUsername][AT]amazon.com, or my manager pimmel[AT]amazon.com for any questions that you might have.