However in this election, the racist psychotic redneck fuckwits have been extremely vocal and are making us look very very bad.
The nation is split pretty-much 50/50 when it comes to this sort of sentiment, but both sides are fairly clearly demarcated on an urban/rural basis. Depending on where you are in the country, you'll see drastically different levels of racism and the like.
"Obama's tax plan will cause small business owners to pay income tax of 39.6% by 2011 and the sole proprietor and partner rate would rise to 50.3%.. wow! WTF!" "fuck that socialist robin hood bs." "no we just know we can count on people being ignorant enough to think that 250,000k is a enough for a small business to be paying 37%...and lazy enough to accept a take from the rich and give to the poor type situation"
"Obama's tax plan will cause small business owners to pay income tax of 39.6% by 2011 and the sole proprietor and partner rate would rise to 50.3%.. wow! WTF!" "fuck that socialist robin hood bs." "no we just know we can count on people being ignorant enough to think that 250,000k is a enough for a small business to be paying 37%...and lazy enough to accept a take from the rich and give to the poor type situation"
"Obama's tax plan will cause small business owners to pay income tax of 39.6% by 2011 and the sole proprietor and partner rate would rise to 50.3%.. wow! WTF!" "fuck that socialist robin hood bs." "no we just know we can count on people being ignorant enough to think that 250,000k is a enough for a small business to be paying 37%...and lazy enough to accept a take from the rich and give to the poor type situation"
Who are you quoting?
A Texas A&M; Aggie that was in my high-school class. Uber Republican. What do you guys think?
My wife-to-be's small business may make it to that $250K tax bracket, so it's an issue that's important to us.
As someone who makes (and wastes) quite a bit of money, I'm regardless strongly in favor of progressive taxation and the construction of public works.
I make more money personally than 85% of American households; my "household" more than 94%. Should I not shoulder a greater social burden than these people?
My wife-to-be's small business may make it to that $250K tax bracket, so it's an issue that's important to us.
You realize it's 250K profit, right? That's after expenses and write-offs, and I'm pretty sure paying employees and such are expenses. If you're making over 250K in profits, then your business is doing extremely well.
Progressive taxation is great, as long as it isn't too progressive. Should Bill Gates pay a higher percentage of his income in tax than I do? Absolutely. Should a person who works at McDonald's pay almost no tax? Absolutely. However, if you tax too heavily on the progressive scale, incentive to grow and work harder actually results in a decrease of revenue for the government, and disaster for the economy.
Getting the percentages and brackets just right is key. I don't think our current bracket setup is perfect, but it's not too bad either. Personally I would like to see more brackets. I would also like to see different percentages of taxes based on where people live. Someone making $50,000 in New York City and someone making $50,000 in bumblefuck Kansas currently are in the same tax bracket. Yet, due to the cost of living in NYC, it's fair to say that the NYC person actually earns less than the Kansas person, and therefore should pay less taxes, even though their wages are numerically identical.
Progressive taxation is great, as long as it isn't too progressive. Should Bill Gates pay a higher percentage of his income in tax than I do? Absolutely. Should a person who works at McDonald's pay almost no tax? Absolutely. However, if you tax too heavily on the progressive scale, incentive to grow and work harder actually results in a decrease of revenue for the government, and disaster for the economy.
Getting the percentages and brackets just right is key. I don't think our current bracket setup is perfect, but it's not too bad either. Personally I would like to see more brackets. I would also like to see different percentages of taxes based on where people live. Someone making $50,000 in New York City and someone making $50,000 in bumblefuck Kansas currently are in the same tax bracket. Yet, due to the cost of living in NYC, it's fair to say that the NYC person actually earns less than the Kansas person, and therefore should pay less taxes, even though their wages are numerically identical.
While I agree with this premise, damn would that be a lot of work to pull off and regulate. I mean the difference between costs of living within New York City and the surrounding area alone would cause trouble.
You realize it's 250K profit,right? That's after expenses and write-offs,and I'm pretty sure paying employees and such are expenses. If you're making over 250K in profits, then your business is doing extremely well.
Yes. I realize that. Finding water tables in a major agricultural area is an incredibly lucrative business, and there aren't many people who do it.
I make more money personally than 85% of Americanhouseholds; my "household" more than 94%. Should I not shoulder a greater social burden than these people?
Should you? I don't know. Maybe, if it's actually necessary. The problem is that it might not be. If spending was massively cut for both inefficient social programs and the military, that would likely free up enough money to pay for things like healthcare reform and needed infrastructure improvements - like bringing broadband Internet access to rural areas - without having to raise taxes.
While I agree with this premise, damn would that be a lot of work to pull off and regulate. I mean the difference between costs of living within New York City and the surrounding area alone would cause trouble.
This is a frequent problem in government. A good policy can't be implemented because the costs of the additional bureaucracy equal or exceed the benefits to be gained. For example, it's a good idea for the patent office to reevaluate every single patent every year. The problems is that it is just plain stupid to do so because the cost of doing such a thing is unreasonably high.
Over the years, many good ideas in government have been rightfully shot down for this very reason. However, something has changed. We now have developed incredibly powerful information technology. Because of that technology it is possible for government to implement many of these formerly stupid policies. The problem is that all three branches of government are almost completely ignorant when it comes to technology. The system I just proposed of having varying tax brackets based on cost of living wouldn't be trivial to implement, but it is completely reasonable. If I were given the necessary data, mostly from the census, and a set of rules were agreed upon, someone like myself could program a tax bracket calculator. You would input your income and your address(es), and it would tell you what percentage you had to pay. It could even hook into Google Maps.
If our government took advantage of even a handful of the most basic possibilities offered by information technology, there would be incredibly large and obvious benefits to all citizens in their every day lives. It wouldn't be because of any direct interaction with technology by the people. It would be because good policies that were formerly unreasonably costly to implement are now quite reasonable because of technological advancements.
I live in this sexist, racist, ass-backwards suburb where the only truly normal people are the cityfolk who moved here when they had children (like my parents). Their children are, in turn, the crazy democrats, Yippies, anarchists, libertarians, etc. of the area.
My brother and I fall into this category. On Saturday night we're planning a midnight cruise to abscond with all the "McCain-Palin" lawn spam we can find. I've already noted at least twenty pieces within two square blocks of my house.
My brother and I fall into this category. On Saturday night we're planning a midnight cruise to abscond with all the "McCain-Palin" lawn spam we can find. I've already noted at least twenty pieces within two square blocks of my house.
I imagine Rochester to be a pretty conservative place (more than half of my coworkers don't believe in evolution), but the Obama/Biden signs outnumber McCain's by at least 7:1.
I imagine Rochester to be a pretty conservative place (more than half of my coworkers don't believe in evolution), but the Obama/Biden signs outnumber McCain's by at least 7:1.
Yeah, they do. I've scouted at LEAST 20.
Like I said, this place is nuts. People have leveled town legislation against Muslims here because they have a NIMBY stance against mosques. No joke.
I once saw a sign that had "SARAH" in large, bold words, and then a smaller "McCain/Palin 2008" underneath it.
*steals*
Anyway, I'm trying to find a creative thing to do with the gathered lawn signs. I'm thinking of laminating them into thick vinyl "fabric" and making messenger bags or bike panniers out of them.
EDIT: So taking those signs is illegal. Maybe I'll make ridiculous Yippie and Anarchist signs and put them up on easement?
Comments
The nation is split pretty-much 50/50 when it comes to this sort of sentiment, but both sides are fairly clearly demarcated on an urban/rural basis. Depending on where you are in the country, you'll see drastically different levels of racism and the like.
"fuck that socialist robin hood bs."
"no we just know we can count on people being ignorant enough to think that 250,000k is a enough for a small business to be paying 37%...and lazy enough to accept a take from the rich and give to the poor type situation"
...
Why does it sound so familiar to me.
I make more money personally than 85% of American households; my "household" more than 94%. Should I not shoulder a greater social burden than these people?
Getting the percentages and brackets just right is key. I don't think our current bracket setup is perfect, but it's not too bad either. Personally I would like to see more brackets. I would also like to see different percentages of taxes based on where people live. Someone making $50,000 in New York City and someone making $50,000 in bumblefuck Kansas currently are in the same tax bracket. Yet, due to the cost of living in NYC, it's fair to say that the NYC person actually earns less than the Kansas person, and therefore should pay less taxes, even though their wages are numerically identical.
Should you? I don't know. Maybe, if it's actually necessary. The problem is that it might not be. If spending was massively cut for both inefficient social programs and the military, that would likely free up enough money to pay for things like healthcare reform and needed infrastructure improvements - like bringing broadband Internet access to rural areas - without having to raise taxes.
Over the years, many good ideas in government have been rightfully shot down for this very reason. However, something has changed. We now have developed incredibly powerful information technology. Because of that technology it is possible for government to implement many of these formerly stupid policies. The problem is that all three branches of government are almost completely ignorant when it comes to technology. The system I just proposed of having varying tax brackets based on cost of living wouldn't be trivial to implement, but it is completely reasonable. If I were given the necessary data, mostly from the census, and a set of rules were agreed upon, someone like myself could program a tax bracket calculator. You would input your income and your address(es), and it would tell you what percentage you had to pay. It could even hook into Google Maps.
If our government took advantage of even a handful of the most basic possibilities offered by information technology, there would be incredibly large and obvious benefits to all citizens in their every day lives. It wouldn't be because of any direct interaction with technology by the people. It would be because good policies that were formerly unreasonably costly to implement are now quite reasonable because of technological advancements.
My brother and I fall into this category. On Saturday night we're planning a midnight cruise to abscond with all the "McCain-Palin" lawn spam we can find. I've already noted at least twenty pieces within two square blocks of my house.
I imagine Rochester to be a pretty conservative place (more than half of my coworkers don't believe in evolution), but the Obama/Biden signs outnumber McCain's by at least 7:1.
Like I said, this place is nuts. People have leveled town legislation against Muslims here because they have a NIMBY stance against mosques. No joke.
Anyway, I'm trying to find a creative thing to do with the gathered lawn signs. I'm thinking of laminating them into thick vinyl "fabric" and making messenger bags or bike panniers out of them.
EDIT: So taking those signs is illegal. Maybe I'll make ridiculous Yippie and Anarchist signs and put them up on easement?