Death and taxes bubbs. Such is life.
Personally I've found rather then crying about what the world owes me, that if I rolling up my sleeves and getting to work always ends in a better place.
Essential Economics for Politicians
- Thread starter Bruddah IZ
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Death and taxes bubbs. Such is life.
Personally I've found rather then crying about what the world owes me, that if I rolling up my sleeves and getting to work always ends in a better place.
Bruddah IZ
DA
Thatʻs what I meant by letting the market decide.
Bruddah IZ
DA
Actually the opposite. The government subsidizes business, primarily big business.
Bruddah IZ
DA
And where does government extract those subsidies from?
taxpayers.
Bruddah IZ
DA
Then they give those subsidies to big business. See the problem now?
Bruddah IZ
DA
That is government being pro-business as opposed to pro-market. Subsidies always distort the market and people typically see subsidies to big business as a failure of markets when really it is a failure of government distorting markets, whether health care, banking/real estate, energy, etc., by artificially driving up product and asset prices through subsidies.
Bruddah IZ
DA
The Numbers Are in: Social Security Robs the Working Poor
The Social Security Administration's own numbers reveal that a private investment pays more than Social Security.
https://fee.org/articles/the-numbers-are-in-social-security-robs-the-working-poor/
The Social Security Administration's own numbers reveal that a private investment pays more than Social Security.
https://fee.org/articles/the-numbers-are-in-social-security-robs-the-working-poor/
I love when we agree.
It happens when you say something smart.
Let it happen more often.
Bruddah IZ
DA
Back in 2011, investment guru Warren Buffett famously complained in the New York Times that his secretaries were paying higher federal payroll tax rates than he was:
Our leaders have asked for 'shared sacrifice.' But when they did the asking, they spared me.... what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income – and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.”
Buffett used some creative accounting for his numbers; he used only “taxable income,” which means he didn't count all the deductions his employees were using to write off their income taxes. For middle-class workers making about $75,000 per year, that's typically a heavy percentage of their income. Moreover, for the tax rates Buffett claimed applied to his assistants, they must have been paid in the range of $200,000 per year or more.
Despite Buffett's accounting trickery, there was a level of truth to his complaint: the burden of Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes does fall almost exclusively upon the poor and middle classes. And Buffett acknowledged this fact in his New York Times op-ed:
The mega-rich pay income taxes at a rate of 15 percent on most of their earnings but pay practically nothing in payroll taxes. It’s a different story for the middle class: typically, they fall into the 15 percent and 25 percent income tax brackets, and then are hit with heavy payroll taxes to boot.”
Our leaders have asked for 'shared sacrifice.' But when they did the asking, they spared me.... what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income – and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.”
Buffett used some creative accounting for his numbers; he used only “taxable income,” which means he didn't count all the deductions his employees were using to write off their income taxes. For middle-class workers making about $75,000 per year, that's typically a heavy percentage of their income. Moreover, for the tax rates Buffett claimed applied to his assistants, they must have been paid in the range of $200,000 per year or more.
Despite Buffett's accounting trickery, there was a level of truth to his complaint: the burden of Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes does fall almost exclusively upon the poor and middle classes. And Buffett acknowledged this fact in his New York Times op-ed:
The mega-rich pay income taxes at a rate of 15 percent on most of their earnings but pay practically nothing in payroll taxes. It’s a different story for the middle class: typically, they fall into the 15 percent and 25 percent income tax brackets, and then are hit with heavy payroll taxes to boot.”
Bruddah IZ
DA
As long as tenacious doesn't mind rolling up his sleeves and gettin' to work so he can pay not just for his families healthcare but, the healthcare of those who do cry about what the world owes them.
I just took the statement on its own.
It sounds like something I would say.
Sheriff Joe
DA
He must have been hacked.
Bruddah IZ
DA
Rule of Experts
The impact that the field of economics has on our daily lives is not easily recognized by the majority of people. Preoccupied with our immediate needs and daily tasks, the state of the economy not only seems disconnected from our lives, it feels almost completely irrelevant.
And since something as complex as the national economy is usually left to the great “experts” to decide, many also assume that it is an issue completely out of their control. This presumption is something economic planners rely on to maintain their authority.
But economics is intrinsically connected to almost every single aspect of our lives. From the clothes we wear to the food we eat, to our jobs and our education: economics is in all things. And without economic freedom, there can be no liberty. Period.
Anyone having any doubts that economic control will necessarily lead to tyranny and oppression, need only look to Venezuela.
The impact that the field of economics has on our daily lives is not easily recognized by the majority of people. Preoccupied with our immediate needs and daily tasks, the state of the economy not only seems disconnected from our lives, it feels almost completely irrelevant.
And since something as complex as the national economy is usually left to the great “experts” to decide, many also assume that it is an issue completely out of their control. This presumption is something economic planners rely on to maintain their authority.
But economics is intrinsically connected to almost every single aspect of our lives. From the clothes we wear to the food we eat, to our jobs and our education: economics is in all things. And without economic freedom, there can be no liberty. Period.
Anyone having any doubts that economic control will necessarily lead to tyranny and oppression, need only look to Venezuela.
Bruddah IZ
DA
Why Detest Commercial Freedom?
It has always been peculiar to me that socialists believe so fervently in social freedom and yet detest economic liberty. This is why many proponents of socialism and other forms of state control will advocate for economic restrictions, without a concern for civil liberties. They believe them to be separate entities, each existing without impacting the other.
But once economic control has been seized by the government, the stripping of our individual rights will soon follow. And today, we have the unfortunate opportunity of witnessing a once prosperous country completely succumb to the tragedy of a controlled economy.
The situation in Venezuela has become so dire, it would fit perfectly into the plot of any dystopian novel. What started as an economic crisis has now escalated to a humanitarian nightmare of which there appears to be no end in sight.
It has always been peculiar to me that socialists believe so fervently in social freedom and yet detest economic liberty. This is why many proponents of socialism and other forms of state control will advocate for economic restrictions, without a concern for civil liberties. They believe them to be separate entities, each existing without impacting the other.
But once economic control has been seized by the government, the stripping of our individual rights will soon follow. And today, we have the unfortunate opportunity of witnessing a once prosperous country completely succumb to the tragedy of a controlled economy.
The situation in Venezuela has become so dire, it would fit perfectly into the plot of any dystopian novel. What started as an economic crisis has now escalated to a humanitarian nightmare of which there appears to be no end in sight.
The USA is probably further from their model than any country on the planet, yet you always bring up Venezuela as an analogy. It’s really the strangest thing.
Wez
DA
It's like a mental patient in the corner babbling Venezuela over and over... I try to avoid eye contact and ignore it.