Where is the US economy headed?

@georgeob1,

georgeob1 wrote:

Perhaps you should do some research about the self employment tax and the alternative minimum tax. You are wrong on several points ... though you have through your foolosh rhetoric set yourself up fairly high on your petard.

I look forward to your example with actual numbers george.

0 Replies

@okie,

Quote:

And your 34.7% is not even counting all the sales tax, property tax, excise taxes, lodging taxes, phone taxes, and all the other taxes too numerous to mention now, not only by the business in course of doing business, but by the individual aside from running the business.

Yes, I realize that okie..
But if you pay property tax, it is deducted from your income for tax purposes.
If you pay sales tax it is only on the money spent. You can't spend more than you earn after taxes every year and stay afloat. Yes, you can have large expenses one year that would cause sales tax to push you over 50% but that won't happen every year.
Phone taxes and lodging taxes are relatively minor since you don't spend even 10% of your income in those areas.

If you pay 35% in income and Fica taxes, that means to reach 50% you have to get another 15% tax burden on your income. Since you can only spend 65% of your income that mean to reach another 15% the tax rate on those dollars would have to be 23%. When you can find me something you can spend ALL your money on that is taxed at 23% then we can discuss it. Even phone taxes and lodging taxes have a hard time reaching the 23% threshold required.

1 Reply

I went on an extended outing this weekend, ending up in a small town in northwestern MA that found a way to partially substitute for the lost mill revenue by turning itself into an arts mecca.

The town, however, is poorly laid out and is under non-stop construction, so getting about is difficult.

The last time I had participated in this annual event, I had dinner in a town four miles down the road. In need of coffee before my hour drive home, I drove down Main Street of this second community, looking for coffee. I passed several closed restaurants. A Dunkin Donuts was open but I prefer not to patronize chains. I pulled into the tourist office. The girl behind the desk said that everything is closed on a Sunday in a small town. She suggested a place called "Nana's" or the Dunkin' Donuts. Nana's was open but it was not in the center.

A coffee shop whose hours stretch from morning to dinner (or late afternoon) is a boon to a small town. It provides employment and a place for locals to gather and for tourists to refresh themselves. While Starbucks has become the butt of jokes, providing coffee and tea in an atmosphere that casual is a good thing for a town on several levels. That it is a commercial asset is the least important aspect. What matters is a place where people can gather changes the way the town is perceived by its own citizens.

Giving people a reason to be 'downtown' is the first step toward a strengthened local economy.

0 Replies

@Finn dAbuzz,

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

If this group agrees with you then Okie should take pride in the truth of his expressions and not, for a minute, second guess himself.

The arrogance that this post of yours expresses is breath taking.

Finn, If anyone posts here on a semi-regular basis for many years, I think any reasonable person would admit that they would not remember every single word or phrase that they might have used. We also know that during an election campaign, that political rhetoric can run fairly high. I make no bones about the fact that I vigorously opposed Obama, and I still do vigorously oppose his policies. Although I have accepted him as our president, I will actively oppose him in the next presidential election as well.

I also admit that some days I felt more frustration toward Obama during the campaign, then during his administration, and might have been more severe some days than others in the words that I used in my opinions. I make no apologies, because I believed those things when I said them. There are others, including on this forum, that have been even more severe and strident in their opinions and accusations in regard to Obama and the Democrats. In fact, I am on record as upbraiding a fellow conservative for using terms for the president that I felt were inappropriate to use for any president.

The reasons for my opposition of Obama are clear. I do not believe the man is a good president, for many reasons. He lacks appropriate experience, he has the wrong philosophies of politics and government, and I do not think he is 100% on board with free market capitalism, which I view as a crucial part of freedom and liberty. Relative to this issue, I believe he has sympathies toward Marxist philosophy, and I have provided valid reasons for why I believe that. To repeat again, I do not believe he has the proper respect and love for this country as a president should. Does that translate into hatred for the country, not necessarily. I believe the press made a mistake to promote Obama as it did, and I think the voters made a mistake to elect him, but we also need to remember that he did not win by a huge margin at all.

Of course, those are my opinions, and everyone has one. I would say however that a significant portion of the American people roughly agree with me, or I agree with them.

To remind the liberals here, how much hatred, criticism, and disrespect were leveled at George Bush when he was president? And they still seem to want to blame most of the problems on Bush, even close to 2 years after the election of Obama, the man that supposedly had all the magic answers to all the issues facing the country.

1 Reply

@okie,

The issue isn't what you posted in 2000 but what you posted last week. Seriously, you should talk to your doctor about early onset Alzheimer's. I am not trying to insult you but your memory should concern you.

I can remember things I wrote as a teenager.

0 Replies

@parados,

parados wrote:

Quote:

And your 34.7% is not even counting all the sales tax, property tax, excise taxes, lodging taxes, phone taxes, and all the other taxes too numerous to mention now, not only by the business in course of doing business, but by the individual aside from running the business.

Yes, I realize that okie..
But if you pay property tax, it is deducted from your income for tax purposes.

Not necessarily. I pay perhaps around 1,000 per year in property tax, but I do not deduct it, I instead take the standard deduction. I have generally found almost every year that the standard deduction is as good or better than itemizing. Besides, I don't donate my underwear to Goodwill and take the deductions like - was that Clinton that did that?

Quote:

If you pay sales tax it is only on the money spent. You can't spend more than you earn after taxes every year and stay afloat.

And I don't spend more than I earn, but consider the fact that state and local sales tax is often 6% at least, perhaps more depending on where I buy stuff. Also consider the fact that the business pays sales tax on stuff like office supplies and all manner of things. Sure it is deducted as a business expense, but it is still a tax that is paid. Consider the fact also that many taxes are hidden in business expense, such as my office space rent is charged in part due to the exorbitant property taxes that my landlord pays every year. Also I don't know if you are aware of all the taxes that a business pays for employees as well?

Quote:

Yes, you can have large expenses one year that would cause sales tax to push you over 50% but that won't happen every year.
Phone taxes and lodging taxes are relatively minor since you don't spend even 10% of your income in those areas.

How do you know that? I probably do not, but if I am doing field work, I pay lodging tax, then in my personal life, I pay lodging taxes on trips, and I can tell you some states or towns are not cheap.

Quote:

If you pay 35% in income and Fica taxes, that means to reach 50% you have to get another 15% tax burden on your income. Since you can only spend 65% of your income that mean to reach another 15% the tax rate on those dollars would have to be 23%. When you can find me something you can spend ALL your money on that is taxed at 23% then we can discuss it. Even phone taxes and lodging taxes have a hard time reaching the 23% threshold required.

parados, I am going to let you and george argue the 50% tax issue. In the first place, can you even provide the quote or quotes where I mentioned this issue in the first place? If you could, that would be a good starting point to see in what context that I discussed it or mentioned it. We have not even established for sure what is being argued here. To resolve a question, you must first establish what it is. You need to provide something more concrete than some vague accusation of yours that I claimed that I paid 50% of my income in taxes. I am not at all sure that I said that, or if I did whether I was talking about myself or about everyone. In other words, I am no way going to depend upon what you say that I said, without more solid proof of it. Proof of it should include some context and further elaboration of the issue, which would help immensely.

3 Replies

@okie,

I see...
Your standard of proof for calling Obama a Marxist is what? Different from the standard that you apply to others?

1 Reply

@okie,

You only pay $1,000 in property tax?! The property taxes on my former house were $6,000/annum. They are half that where I live now.

Most people don't consider any taxes other than payroll deductions. I have never lived without sales tax. Why fuss over it?

Until a year ago, sales tax in MA was 5%. Now it is 6.25% Well, in other states, it is higher. 8 and 3/4% is a percentage which is often spoken about with amazement.

0 Replies

@okie,

Show us where Clinton donated his underwear to Goodwill and made a deduction on his taxes for it.

You fuking liar!

2 Replies

@cicerone imposter,

Apparently, the story about Hilary having donated Bill's underwear to Goodwill has legs . . . but only in fora and blogs. I could not find it on Snopes or FactCheck.

What I could find was a detainee at a prison camp having his underwear cut off him.

0 Replies

@parados,

I don't know what you are trying to argue here, parados. Obviously Obama doesn't tell us plainly or convincingly what he is in regard to his political philosophy, so it is up to us to make informed judgements about him. If you actually care, and if you are opposed to communism, you might wish to start your research in a number of places, such as in the following, which discusses the folks in Obama's life and political career, folks like Frank Marshall Davis, Alice Palmer, William Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohrn.

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/vernon/080526
"Barack Obama's communist connections"

By the way, parados, are you opposed to communism, and if so, how much and why? Can you elaborate on your political beliefs. I think that would be interesting. After all, this is a political forum to express your beliefs, not just a place to belittle others that are not aligned with your party, which in your case seems to be obviously Democrat.

4 Replies

@okie,

So which US president explained their political philosophy to the American people?

1 Reply

@okie,

Quote:

I don't know what you are trying to argue here, parados. Obviously Obama doesn't tell us plainly or convincingly what he is in regard to his political philosophy, so it is up to us to make informed judgements about him.

Yes okie, and obviously you don't tell us plainly or convincingly but when it comes to YOUR statements you require actual proof before you will accept them and you won't accept interpretations but only the actual words. Now.. why won't you apply the same standard to Obama?

0 Replies

@cicerone imposter,

cicerone imposter wrote:

Show us where Clinton donated his underwear to Goodwill and made a deduction on his taxes for it.

You fuking liar!

ci, I am surprised you missed that. It was well reported on. Here is the documentation. Now apologize for calling me a liar. By the way, I don't know if it was Goodwill or not, but it was probably some outfit like that if it wasn't Goodwill.

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/16/us/clinton-taxes-laid-bare-line-by-line.html

"In previous returns, when Mr. Clinton was the Governor of Arkansas and his wife was a partner in a Little Rock law firm, the Clintons had gone so far as to deduct $2 for underwear donated to charities. The deduction was ridiculed by comedians and pundits, and the White House did not itemize the Clintons' $17,000 in charitable contributions on the 1993 return."

1 Reply

@okie,

Your concern about communism reflects the thoughts of Sean Wilentz on the Tea Party reaching back to the days of the John Birch Society for tone and intensity.

Perhaps, if you put on a more positive aspect and rid yourself of this anti-communist fervor, things would go better for you and you wouldn't need to be so angry on these boards.

0 Replies

@okie,

What proof do you have of Obama's communist connections? Please provide a reliable source here, so we can all see it.

When you say "connections," what exactly do you mean?

2 Replies

@okie,

Quote:

Goodwill or not, but it was probably some outfit like that if it wasn't Goodwill.

I see.. so if you use a word it can be interpreted to mean like ideas? Or is that still verboten?

0 Replies

@cicerone imposter,

cicerone imposter wrote:

So which US president explained their political philosophy to the American people?

I would say most of them. Obama has been one of the most cryptic in my opinion, in other words, not an open person in regard to his beliefs. I read his book in an attempt to find out. And I watched most of the presidential debates. It isn't as if I did not try to find out from him.

Dwight D. Eisenhower is one president that stands out in my mind as being very clear where he stood, as evidenced by his lengthy article in the Saturday Evening Post, titled "Why I Am A Republican." I have posted that by the way as a thread of its own, mainly because there had been those that claimed Ike was liberal instead of conservative, which his article clearly dispels as myth.

1 Reply

@cicerone imposter,

cicerone imposter wrote:

What proof do you have of Obama's communist connections? Please provide a reliable source here, so we can all see it.

When you say "connections," what exactly do you mean?

I will ask you the same question as I did parados. Do you oppose communism, and if so, why? After all, you are on a political forum, which is for the purpose of expressing your beliefs, and if you believe something, you should have no hesitation to be proud of what you believe. What do you believe, pom, I am seriously interested.

1 Reply

@okie,

Why ask me if I'm a communist; it has absolutely nothing to do with your claim that Obama has communist connections.

You're a loser through and through; absolutely no ethics or conscience about how you demonize people without one iota of evidence.

That you claim success in school and business belongs on the laffer curve; it has no reflection on your inability at common sense or logic.

What my political beliefs are has no bearing on Obama's political beliefs. That's Logic 101.

Your mind is poisoned by the extremists on the right side of politics, and there is nothing that will save your evil mind.

Here's a link to answer the question about Obama's connection to communists.

I know you can't read nor understand simple English, but give it a 4th grade try. There isn't any difficult words in it.
http://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2008/12/barack-obama-is-a-communist/

0 Replies

Where is the US economy headed?

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know