TE999
How 'bout a kiss, baby
- Joined
- May 4, 2006
- Posts
- 30,088
And here I thought political threads were verboten in the AH. Silly me.
Consider this: This country is in a fiscal hole that will take a miracle to crawl out of no matter who is president. Unless we drastically cut spending there aren't enough taxes to toss in said hole to appreciably fill it. We could become like Sweden where you have no take home pay to speak of, but everything is 'free' from the government; and if that isn't an incentive to better yourself, I don't know what is.
The so-called 'rich' among us (who need to be taxed more) are. for the most part, middle class businesspersons trying to make a living and providing jobs in the process. The more they're taxed, the less businesses can expand due to lost capital, the less expansion, the fewer people they hire ... see the pattern? Occasionally product demand can bridge the gap, but unless you invent something no one can do without and can successfully market it, you're pretty much stuck in neutral.
If you confiscated all the wealth in this country tomorrow, it wouldn't run the government for a week. Once the rich geese have been plundered for their golden eggs and, since the government will continue to expand and more money is needed, the middle middle and lower middle classes will be asked to pay their 'fair share' of the bloated tax burden. Less take home pay, less spending ... tra, la, la.
What the fuck is considered a 'fair share' anyway? Better still, what is meant by 'fair'? Fair is the place you go to ride the ferris wheel and have your strawberry rhubarb pie judged. I guess it's what the government says it is. Whoopee!
Another thing, expect increased usage of automation in years to come as human workers become more trouble than they're worth. A machine can be designed to do almost anything efficiently with minimal mistakes; ask the UAW. Imagine a fully automated McDonald's, Burger King, Carl's Jr. or Jack in the Box; no snotty, indifferent, bored teenager to take your order or a guy who lives in a piano crate under the I-10 overpass making your hamburger ... works for me.
Along that line, tell those college bound kids of yours to not waste their time getting a BFA in Post-Modernist Lesbian Poetry ("Would you like fries with that?") and get a BS (better still, a Masters) in Computer Science. Like the Japanese are doing now, we're gonna need to design and build lotsa robots to take care of all the senile Boomers flooding into rest homes dribbling Quaker Oatmeal on their 'AC-DC' bibs and pissing in their Docker cargo shorts.
Over the last sixty some-odd years, America has slowly accumulated an obligation to support uncounted millions of people through various programs that have expanded exponentially to meet various demands of the population. Now, between the 'Boomer' generation retiring by the thousands every minute, increasingly lax regulation and enforcement of existing federal program requirements, hordes of illegal immigrants making our border with Mexico look like the start of the Boston Marathon and politicians being politicians and trading goodies for votes, we have reached a tipping point in our country's fiscal history. There is simply not enough money coming in to meet our obligations, period. We could print more, of course, then Mr. Inflation comes a'knockin' at the door and it's the Weimar Republic redux.
Taxing the 5% of the 'rich' in this country is the currently popular way out of our money problems, but the very rich do not earn a salary that can be taxed at paycheck rates; they earn money from investments in the form of capital gains and dividends. If you raise the taxes on these items, then you reduce the value of the investment portfolio of every person who has a 401K, an IRA or owns shares in a Mutual Fund. Then they'll have to depend on Social Security and Medicare to live on and here we go again.
With the ceiling of being classified as 'rich' (in order to be increasingly taxed) currently lowered to those making a salary of $250K a year, this includes a good 90% of the owners of small to medium sized businesses who employ most of the workers in America. Lessened capital and slower growth lead to more job losses again.
Another thing: Corporations are not toad-like creatures the size of Cleveland waiting to gobble up unwary busloads of people heading to the nearest Native American casino. They are not evil. They are made up of people called stockholders who have invested their money in said corporations seeking a profit. They are managed by people hired by the stockholders to run the corporation in the most efficient ways possible. Corporations make things that people need which is why they exist. They do not exist to guarantee employment, rather they offer it in return for paying wages and salaries. They are not obligated to employ anyone that is not qualified to do the work; especially because of some arbitrary quotas or guidelines set by some bureaucrat in DC.
The short version is the US Government is running out of money ... fast. We can either tax ourselves into oblivion while we continue to spend more on entitlement programs (which we will), or we cut government spending.
Don't even think about cutting the Defense budget as a way of saving money; in fact it should be increased.. In this time of increasing world tensions, the last thing we need is a weak military. Keeping our defenses strong is a small price to pay for freedom. BTY, the Defense budget comprises this much of the Federal budget, while this is how much of the budget goes to entitlement programs.
There are various elementary ways to trim the federal budget, yet no one wants to listen to them because they have been demagogued and overblown by the Liberal Left to scare voters into voting for them. Remember the campaign ad showing grandma being pushed off the cliff in her wheelchair by the uncaring Republicans? That sort of thing. This annoyingly sophomoric crap solves nothing, yet leaves a lasting impression on the increasingly short attention span of the American people. Which in turn pretty much explains Obama's re-election.
Expect little or no improvement in America's situation in the next four years. What you can expect is more taxes, more regulations, smaller paychecks (for those of you who have jobs, that is), increased conflict in the Arab world as they make the transition from dictatorships to Radical Islamic Fundamentalism, more people dependent on the government for their very lives, increasing nationalization of industries via government bailouts to 'keep jobs in America', more calls for increased tariffs and excise taxes on goods from overseas to raise revenue, more plant and business closings to avoid taxes and Obamacare costs and pretty much the same shit we've had the last four years.
Don't worry, though. The Republicans will finally cave on raising taxes in exchange for vague promises of budget cuts by Obama and the Democrats which will never happen. Their constituencies are counting on them to keep the goodies flowing.
The Republicans don't really care anyway, because being in the minority party ain't bad since you get all the perks and not have to do any of the heavy lifting. They can satisfy their constituents with goodies too and at election time they go home and say "Well, we tried to cut spending" and get re-elected.
I know everyone has some sob-stories or pitiful examples (usually apocryphal) of how so-and-so came to a sad end because the government wasn't there for them and if the government had more more money we could ... blah, blah, blah. That is not how you make government policy; running from one poor soul to another with another program and the attendant bureaucracy to maintain it. Those private, non-profit aids to the sick and poor that still exist have been shoved aside by Nanny Government to the expense of everyone.
There are things called churches and charities that deal with people in need every day and do it more cheaply and efficiently than the government. The government isn't a 'nationwide coordinated relief effort' either. Ask those people in the northeast who were bitch slapped by Hurricane Sandy and the Nor'easter combined about that. Red tape, over regulation and general incompetency kicks in and the result:chaos. Expect the same results from Obamacare once it fully kicks in. Look for the government medical clinic coming to your town soon.
Central government planning has been and always will be an abysmal failure (see USSR and other socialized economies), yet that is what America seems to want. Expect a bushel basket of disaffection and frustration among the populace as the years roll by and things don't improve and get worse.
To remind my readers: I am a Libertarian as far as politics go. I'm fiscally conservative and a moderate socially. I care about people, yet I don't let my heart rule my head as so many of those with good intentions do. After all, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. I believe in being practical, straightforward, prudent, rational and sensible. I am definitely not Don Quixote tilting at social windmills.
Finally: Someone on this thread was worried about the State of Israel starting a war. Since it's inception, Israel has never started a war, but they've finished a few. They have retaliated when attacked, that's it. Since the much heralded 'Arab Spring', Arab nations friendly with or indifferent towards Israel have become hotbeds of Islamic fundamentalist factions like al-Quida hell bent on destroying the Jews. Now that Iran is getting nukes and it's delivery systems up to speed, Israel is in grave danger. This will not be allowed to continue and the homeland will be defended at all costs. Never again.
That's all for now.
Let the catcalls, insults, name calling, Iggy button pushing and other expressions of fear and loathing begin.
Consider this: This country is in a fiscal hole that will take a miracle to crawl out of no matter who is president. Unless we drastically cut spending there aren't enough taxes to toss in said hole to appreciably fill it. We could become like Sweden where you have no take home pay to speak of, but everything is 'free' from the government; and if that isn't an incentive to better yourself, I don't know what is.
The so-called 'rich' among us (who need to be taxed more) are. for the most part, middle class businesspersons trying to make a living and providing jobs in the process. The more they're taxed, the less businesses can expand due to lost capital, the less expansion, the fewer people they hire ... see the pattern? Occasionally product demand can bridge the gap, but unless you invent something no one can do without and can successfully market it, you're pretty much stuck in neutral.
If you confiscated all the wealth in this country tomorrow, it wouldn't run the government for a week. Once the rich geese have been plundered for their golden eggs and, since the government will continue to expand and more money is needed, the middle middle and lower middle classes will be asked to pay their 'fair share' of the bloated tax burden. Less take home pay, less spending ... tra, la, la.
What the fuck is considered a 'fair share' anyway? Better still, what is meant by 'fair'? Fair is the place you go to ride the ferris wheel and have your strawberry rhubarb pie judged. I guess it's what the government says it is. Whoopee!
Another thing, expect increased usage of automation in years to come as human workers become more trouble than they're worth. A machine can be designed to do almost anything efficiently with minimal mistakes; ask the UAW. Imagine a fully automated McDonald's, Burger King, Carl's Jr. or Jack in the Box; no snotty, indifferent, bored teenager to take your order or a guy who lives in a piano crate under the I-10 overpass making your hamburger ... works for me.
Along that line, tell those college bound kids of yours to not waste their time getting a BFA in Post-Modernist Lesbian Poetry ("Would you like fries with that?") and get a BS (better still, a Masters) in Computer Science. Like the Japanese are doing now, we're gonna need to design and build lotsa robots to take care of all the senile Boomers flooding into rest homes dribbling Quaker Oatmeal on their 'AC-DC' bibs and pissing in their Docker cargo shorts.
Over the last sixty some-odd years, America has slowly accumulated an obligation to support uncounted millions of people through various programs that have expanded exponentially to meet various demands of the population. Now, between the 'Boomer' generation retiring by the thousands every minute, increasingly lax regulation and enforcement of existing federal program requirements, hordes of illegal immigrants making our border with Mexico look like the start of the Boston Marathon and politicians being politicians and trading goodies for votes, we have reached a tipping point in our country's fiscal history. There is simply not enough money coming in to meet our obligations, period. We could print more, of course, then Mr. Inflation comes a'knockin' at the door and it's the Weimar Republic redux.
Taxing the 5% of the 'rich' in this country is the currently popular way out of our money problems, but the very rich do not earn a salary that can be taxed at paycheck rates; they earn money from investments in the form of capital gains and dividends. If you raise the taxes on these items, then you reduce the value of the investment portfolio of every person who has a 401K, an IRA or owns shares in a Mutual Fund. Then they'll have to depend on Social Security and Medicare to live on and here we go again.
With the ceiling of being classified as 'rich' (in order to be increasingly taxed) currently lowered to those making a salary of $250K a year, this includes a good 90% of the owners of small to medium sized businesses who employ most of the workers in America. Lessened capital and slower growth lead to more job losses again.
Another thing: Corporations are not toad-like creatures the size of Cleveland waiting to gobble up unwary busloads of people heading to the nearest Native American casino. They are not evil. They are made up of people called stockholders who have invested their money in said corporations seeking a profit. They are managed by people hired by the stockholders to run the corporation in the most efficient ways possible. Corporations make things that people need which is why they exist. They do not exist to guarantee employment, rather they offer it in return for paying wages and salaries. They are not obligated to employ anyone that is not qualified to do the work; especially because of some arbitrary quotas or guidelines set by some bureaucrat in DC.
The short version is the US Government is running out of money ... fast. We can either tax ourselves into oblivion while we continue to spend more on entitlement programs (which we will), or we cut government spending.
Don't even think about cutting the Defense budget as a way of saving money; in fact it should be increased.. In this time of increasing world tensions, the last thing we need is a weak military. Keeping our defenses strong is a small price to pay for freedom. BTY, the Defense budget comprises this much of the Federal budget, while this is how much of the budget goes to entitlement programs.
There are various elementary ways to trim the federal budget, yet no one wants to listen to them because they have been demagogued and overblown by the Liberal Left to scare voters into voting for them. Remember the campaign ad showing grandma being pushed off the cliff in her wheelchair by the uncaring Republicans? That sort of thing. This annoyingly sophomoric crap solves nothing, yet leaves a lasting impression on the increasingly short attention span of the American people. Which in turn pretty much explains Obama's re-election.
Expect little or no improvement in America's situation in the next four years. What you can expect is more taxes, more regulations, smaller paychecks (for those of you who have jobs, that is), increased conflict in the Arab world as they make the transition from dictatorships to Radical Islamic Fundamentalism, more people dependent on the government for their very lives, increasing nationalization of industries via government bailouts to 'keep jobs in America', more calls for increased tariffs and excise taxes on goods from overseas to raise revenue, more plant and business closings to avoid taxes and Obamacare costs and pretty much the same shit we've had the last four years.
Don't worry, though. The Republicans will finally cave on raising taxes in exchange for vague promises of budget cuts by Obama and the Democrats which will never happen. Their constituencies are counting on them to keep the goodies flowing.
The Republicans don't really care anyway, because being in the minority party ain't bad since you get all the perks and not have to do any of the heavy lifting. They can satisfy their constituents with goodies too and at election time they go home and say "Well, we tried to cut spending" and get re-elected.
I know everyone has some sob-stories or pitiful examples (usually apocryphal) of how so-and-so came to a sad end because the government wasn't there for them and if the government had more more money we could ... blah, blah, blah. That is not how you make government policy; running from one poor soul to another with another program and the attendant bureaucracy to maintain it. Those private, non-profit aids to the sick and poor that still exist have been shoved aside by Nanny Government to the expense of everyone.
There are things called churches and charities that deal with people in need every day and do it more cheaply and efficiently than the government. The government isn't a 'nationwide coordinated relief effort' either. Ask those people in the northeast who were bitch slapped by Hurricane Sandy and the Nor'easter combined about that. Red tape, over regulation and general incompetency kicks in and the result:chaos. Expect the same results from Obamacare once it fully kicks in. Look for the government medical clinic coming to your town soon.
Central government planning has been and always will be an abysmal failure (see USSR and other socialized economies), yet that is what America seems to want. Expect a bushel basket of disaffection and frustration among the populace as the years roll by and things don't improve and get worse.
To remind my readers: I am a Libertarian as far as politics go. I'm fiscally conservative and a moderate socially. I care about people, yet I don't let my heart rule my head as so many of those with good intentions do. After all, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. I believe in being practical, straightforward, prudent, rational and sensible. I am definitely not Don Quixote tilting at social windmills.
Finally: Someone on this thread was worried about the State of Israel starting a war. Since it's inception, Israel has never started a war, but they've finished a few. They have retaliated when attacked, that's it. Since the much heralded 'Arab Spring', Arab nations friendly with or indifferent towards Israel have become hotbeds of Islamic fundamentalist factions like al-Quida hell bent on destroying the Jews. Now that Iran is getting nukes and it's delivery systems up to speed, Israel is in grave danger. This will not be allowed to continue and the homeland will be defended at all costs. Never again.
That's all for now.
Let the catcalls, insults, name calling, Iggy button pushing and other expressions of fear and loathing begin.