Where is the US economy headed?

There is another factor in play from the dvd "The End of Surburbia" which points out that the car culture that saps so much oil and oil becoming scarce and more expensive, could lead to a downturn as people start abandoning their homes as it gets too much expensive to commute. This car culture was the engine of growth in the last seventy years.

What about the possibility of the end of urban downtown centers? What if it is more efficient for people to work where they live in scattered locations than it is to transport them all into concentrated areas. After all, it should not be totally impractical in an age of high tech communications. Only in the manufacturing sector is it necessary to congregate at the manufacturing plants, which would not be usually located in concentrated areas or downtown areas.

As an example, here is an alternate viewpoint in an article about the inefficiencies of transit in London.
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2009/08/uk-motorists-foot-the-bill-for-inefficient-london-mass-transit/
"UK: Motorists Foot the Bill for Inefficient London Mass Transit
By The Newspaper on August 8, 2009"

From the Care2 website:

For many of us, we've been lucky if we've held on to jobs, or even got a cost of living increase during the recession that has been plaguing the country for the last decade. But for one highly specific area of banking, the hedge fund manager, not only have paydays been increasing, they're now five times as big as they were just ten years ago.

Via the New York Times:

Ten years ago, when the hedge fund industry was much smaller than it is today, it took 25 hedge fund managers to earn a combined annual payday of $5 billion.

Last year, it took only one.

...

Last year was very lucrative for some of the biggest and best-performing hedge funds’ chiefs. Wealth was so concentrated that a mere 25 people pocketed a total of $22.07 billion, according to this year’s annual ranking by AR Magazine, which tracks the hedge fund industry. At $50,000 a year, it would take the salaries of 441,400 Americans to match that sum.

But just because these executive are cashing big checks doesn't mean that they have big tax bills. Sure, they are likely giving Uncle Sam more money than you are, but as a percentage of their income they are no where near close to what you pay. Wonkroom writes:

[H]edge fund managers benefit from preferential tax treatment that middle-income Americans don’t. Due to what’s known as the carried-interest loophole, the income that hedge fund managers receive if their funds make money is treated as capital gains — rather than ordinary income — and gets taxed at the capital gains rate of 15 percent. Even though the pay is performance-based compensation (just like any other performance-based bonus made by any other worker), hedge fund managers receive a tax break on that income. This results in hedge fund managers paying less in taxes on this income than middle-class workers, who are subject to a 25 percent top marginal tax rate.

So a hedge fund manager that is making $1 billion a year is really only probably bringing home $850,000,000. That makes you feel better, right?

When the Republicans say that rich people need to have their taxes but because they pay most of the taxes, remember that this is what they are talking about -- someone who makes one billion dollars only gets to keep $850,000,000 of it, and the GOP thinks that they should be able to many millions more. Where as someone who makes $50,000 should be forced to lose collective bargaining rights to ask for more than 2 percent in a raise for the following year.

The above post was followed by this reader response:

Tax Rates on the Wealthy.

1952 91.0 %
1953 91.0 %
1954 91.0 %
1955 91.0 %
1956 91.0 %
1957 91.0 %
1958 91.0 %
1959 91.0 %
1960 91.0 %
1961 91.0 %
1962 91.0 %
1963 91.0 %
1964 91.0 %
1965 70.0 %
1966 70.0 %
1967 70.0 %
1968 75.3 %
1969 77.0 %
1970 73.5 %
1971 65.0 %
1972 60.0 %
1973 60.0 %
1974 60.0 %
1975 60.0 %
1976 60.0 %
1977 60.0 %
1978 60.0 %
1979 60.0 %
1980 60.0 %
1981 60.0 %
1982 50.0 %
1983 50.0 %
1984 50.0 %
1985 50.0 %
1986 50.0 %
1987 38.5 %
1988 28.0 %

Hey, okie wants them to pay less in taxes; even as the average worker's pay barely keeps up with inflation. There's no cure for stupid, but okie is an idiot without any brain power to think beyond FOX News.

I see today that McDonald's plans to have a nationwide job fair on Tuesday, April 19th with the goal of hiring 50,000 jobs. The rate of pay is listed as being an average of $8.30/hour.

That's not bad for high-school level workers.

Cycloptichorn

At full-time, that produces only $17k in income. Unless one lives in a low cost area, that will not be sufficient to live. Do they get medical insurance?

They currently have a mini-med program which I have talked about before (which means I have forgotten how it works. Suffice it to say it is not a very comprehensive plan and will not meet the standards of Obamacare. I will have to re-research the details).

It doesn't, so they were granted a one year waiver by HHS. Of course, the Republicans are all over this waiver business.

Only 20 cents less per hour than I make at my liquor store job. Gee, I should apply for a burger flipping post. I could walk to work and make up the 20 cent difference in gas saved. Why didn't I think of that earlier?

A second thought on those 50,000 jobs; the GOP is going to cut many social programs at all levels of government, so anybody that wants to eat better apply for those jobs.

Gallows humor.

Still the reality.

Did you know that some players in the fast food industry are working on a new scheme involving drive through business? Instead of talking to someone inside the place, what you say into the squawk box will go to a call center and then will come back to the eatery as a printout order. The advantages are that the order takers are in India or somewhere where labor is cheaper and, because of different time zones, it's always breakfast or lunch somewhere so they will have no downtime on, say, an 8-hour shift.

It is doable as long as travel time and distance are cut. But people need to live in scattered urban ares of multi-storey buildings instead of scattered suburbia. Infrastructure is expensive i.e. maintaing the highway system. Heavy equipment operators make $60 per hour. The semi trucks, 18 wheelers do most of the damage to roads and I don't pay for the damage done. However you look at it gas prices are going to go up not down.

As I recall, the McD program cost about $20 a month. It covers routine checkups and other stuff to about $2500 a year in claims. The need for the waiver came about because the admin costs by the insurer exceeded Obamacare rules.
I certainly may be wrong about the details, though. But I think I am close.

I happen to think giving almost 20 grand to the government from an income of less than 100 grand should be enough. I worked and earned every dime, and it is obvious to me that bureaucrats are sitting on their behinds in many a place. Its time they grow up and live within their means. Besides, what are many of the bureaucracies providing to us in terms of actual services? Example, the Department of Education in Washington and the Department of Interior all over the country, not only in Washington?

okie, You self-evaluate your job performance, but that's about as stupid as representing yourself in the court of law as your own attorney.

The math was in the article I read, Tak. Total increase in McD's payroll is projected to be around $550 million which works out to about $11,000 per part time job@ 8.30 an hour.
The comments responding to the article were pretty scathing, as you might expect.
$11K is not a living wage. It is exploitation of the workers, the argument goes.
Are these people advocating for an increase in the minimum wage? To what level?
You know, I used to get job applications from young people (16-20) wanting to work for me part-time or in the summers. I don't see those kids anymore. They have given up on that.
One of my employees has two sons, 17 and 18. They have never yet had a job, while he got his 1st job at aged 14 and I got mine at 15. Part of that is, of course the economy - I don't really need them. But part of it is that there is the thinking that people don't want to start at the bottom and work their way up, learning job skills like showing up for work on time or treating customers well.
The 50,000 McD jobs will get scoffed at, and probably will be filled by minority workers settling for what they can get. McD can continue to sell a sausage biscuit for 99 cents.
All is well.

Pretty much. I think there are several ways to get the waivers, and not meeting the annual coverage limit is one way. HHS has a list of those receiving the waivers but it hasn't been updated in a while, I don't think. Entire states have received waivers. The New York Times reported on four recently, but I can't recall offhand which ones.

The people that are really making money off this new bill are the lobbyists (of course), the attorneys and the healthcare consultants. They're trying to set up those ACO's as envisioned in the new law and charging whopping fees ($25,000 for a day of strategy and as much as $1M to actually implement it). It's very complex. But, still, nice work if you can get it