your first concern is exactly why I noted that only business properties were to be taxed - in my idealistic proposal no ones primary residence (aka homestead) would ever be subjected to this, although perhaps secondary vacation homes could be. Noting that a Land Value Tax only taxes based on assessments of the market value of the unimproved land, so that it does not disincenttivize businesses from making improvements or developing on their land, as the tax stays the same regardless. In fact an LVT incentivizes businesses not to just sit on empty or decaying lots.
the solution is to eliminate income taxes, and replace them with a national Land Value Tax on business properties, excise taxes and fines on anything that causes "negative externalities" (aka pollutants), and fees on every equities market transaction. That way these are way harder to avoid, and don't depend on self reporting
the thing is the "devil they know" is still likely more reliable towards so called "US interests," even with them moving towards more ties with China, than what they could end up with via the fallout after another US supported coup (which would likely trigger mass protests and conflicts for power)
they won't as long as El-Sisi is in power - him and the Muslim Brotherhood (who are sympathetic/likely allied towards Hamas) have an obvious and long standing beef, given the 2013 coup against Morsi's gov that put El-Sisi into power.
That's what the FUTO Circles project was supposed to be about, but sadly the project got ditched by the original devs for it only a year after it started. Info on that here - https://youtu.be/OKTOhxeKrK0
Except within the USA, declining population growth could be reversed immediately simply by returning to our pre-1924 immigration laws (i.e. the Ellis Island era) that between 1890 - 1924 allowed the USA to have some of the largest economic growth it ever has done. Yet "conservatives" (better termed "regressives" or "reactionaries") these days want to do the exact opposite, out of xenophobia.
It's not out yet, but there is a kickstarter from German company Volla, coming in the next few days for a 12" tablet running a Mediatek soc that will be capable of running Ubuntu Touch - for which you can use UT native apps, webapps, some Linux desktop apps via their "Libertine" container, and some Android apps via "Waydroid." And Volla has an excellent track record of delivering on their product promises - in contrast to Purism.
There are "vanilla" versions (which is what I use) that are basically de-googled AOSP which work well with apps from F-droid, Izzy-on-droid, and free apps from Aurora stores, which you can also install MicroG on if you wanted to - and there are "Gapps" versions which have Google Play Services, the Google Play Store and some of the basic Google apps pre-loaded.
Yeah, which is why I use de-googled "vanilla" Bliss ROM 17.2 (Android 14 with latest security patch) on my Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro instead of going the Graphene or Calyx + Pixel route. This way I have the hardware features I wanted (headphone jack, micro SD card slot, 5000mAh battery, 108mp camera, stereo speakers, 120mHz refresh rate) all for cheaper than a Pixel, and the Bliss ROM community is pretty friendly and dedicated in my interactions with it.
In USA I've found it's pretty easy to live without banking on your phone, although you can't say the same for some other countries. Granted I have a job where I am working with my own desktop computers most of the day, so I can pay bills and transfer funds on them during those times - and lots of people might not have the same luxury. But I've yet to feel a need for any of them while out and about beyond a few occasions of Venmo'ing funds on the go - and at least Venmo still allows you to use their site via browser.
Obviously floating point is of huge benefit for many audio dsp calculations, from my observations (non-programmer, just long time DAW user, from back in the day when fixed point with relatively low accumulators was often what we had to work with, versus now when 64bit floating point for processing happens more as the rule) - e.g. fixed point equalizers can potentially lead to dc offset in the results. I don't think peeps would be getting as close to modeling non-linear behavior of analog processors with just fixed point math either.
Dalton is an amazing and very cool guy, and when he left it was indeed a big hit to dev speed at first, but recently a few super smart and dedicated guys have been able to do a big jump in updating the base from 16.04 to 20.04 (which involved moving from upstart to systemd) and they are getting close to rebasing to 24.04 (target for this is this June in fact). Plus Waydroid support has gotten really good in the time since Dalton moved on, and snap support is getting worked on now as well.
your first concern is exactly why I noted that only business properties were to be taxed - in my idealistic proposal no ones primary residence (aka homestead) would ever be subjected to this, although perhaps secondary vacation homes could be. Noting that a Land Value Tax only taxes based on assessments of the market value of the unimproved land, so that it does not disincenttivize businesses from making improvements or developing on their land, as the tax stays the same regardless. In fact an LVT incentivizes businesses not to just sit on empty or decaying lots.