Sacrificing Our Standard Of Living

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Jccarlton
Posts: 1747
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 6:14 pm
Location: Southern Ct

Sacrificing Our Standard Of Living

Post by Jccarlton »

The beginning of the end. Do we really want tosacrifice everthing we have built to Progressivism?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 53776.html

KitemanSA
Posts: 6179
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 3:05 pm
Location: OlyPen WA

Post by KitemanSA »

No, but those that own the progressives want to own you too, and this is one way to do it.

djolds1
Posts: 1296
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2007 8:03 am

Re: Sacrificing Our Standard Of Living

Post by djolds1 »

Jccarlton wrote:The beginning of the end. Do we really want tosacrifice everthing we have built to Progressivism?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 53776.html
Much of what we have built for the past 80 years is progressivism - or more accurately, the progressive social welfare state. The irony is that the "Liberals" are now the true conservatives - fighting to preserve what they've built over four generations. The tragedy is that they've lost sight of the missions they set out on in favor of the bureaucratic organizations that no longer accomplish those missions very well.

There is broad support for the New Deal state - a minimum social safety and services net. The "conservative base" is "conservative" for the New Deal state in most ways. The New Deal state was about social unity. The Great Society state by contrast was about social balkanization.

If we managed to prosper and have working CEOs and "talent" in the '50s with top marginal rates of 90%, we can function and even prosper tomorrow with 70% top marginal rates. "Lower taxes!" is no longer policy - it is a religious mantra, as much so as the Liberal "spend more!" refrain. Fiscal sanity will end up somewhere in the middle - hard cuts in benefits and higher taxes. But I doubt either of the existing parties will get us there - they are as trapped by irreconcilable ideologies as were the Slave and Free state factions of the US in the 1850s. And just as in the 1850s, the increasing tempo of five or six decades worth of partisan rancor has ground the actual business of state to a halt.
Vae Victis

ANTIcarrot
Posts: 62
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Re: Sacrificing Our Standard Of Living

Post by ANTIcarrot »

Jccarlton wrote:The beginning of the end. Do we really want tosacrifice everthing we have built to Progressivism?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 53776.html
How many zeros can appear on my paycheck before I'm eligable for this 70% income tax? Because if someone has 6 or 7 zeros, then they do NOT need all that money, and they if they are scoffing that much cake for themselves they are NOT interested in job creation.

If company executive choose to spend a million build a new factory, they are creating jobs and are not taxed this way. If company executives choose to spend the same money buying themselves a sixth penthouse, then they are not, and screw them.
Some light reading material: Half Way To Anywhere, The Rocket Company, Space Technology, The High Fronter, Of Wolves And Men, Light On Shattered Water, The Ultimate Weapon, any Janes Guide, GURPS Bio-Tech, ALIENS Technical Manual, The God Delusion.

Jccarlton
Posts: 1747
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 6:14 pm
Location: Southern Ct

Re: Sacrificing Our Standard Of Living

Post by Jccarlton »

ANTIcarrot wrote:
Jccarlton wrote:The beginning of the end. Do we really want tosacrifice everthing we have built to Progressivism?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 53776.html
How many zeros can appear on my paycheck before I'm eligable for this 70% income tax? Because if someone has 6 or 7 zeros, then they do NOT need all that money, and they if they are scoffing that much cake for themselves they are NOT interested in job creation.

If company executive choose to spend a million build a new factory, they are creating jobs and are not taxed this way. If company executives choose to spend the same money buying themselves a sixth penthouse, then they are not, and screw them.
if you make about 60000, you are right in the crosshairs.

necoras
Posts: 59
Joined: Wed Sep 08, 2010 9:28 pm

Post by necoras »

Their numbers are crap. Look at this statement:

"Take a teacher in California earning $60,000. A current federal rate of 25%, a 9.5% California rate, and 15.3% payroll tax yield a combined income tax rate of 45%."

One, the 25% rate is only on wages above ~35,000. On wages between 8500 and 35000 you pay 15%, and only 10% on wages less than that. In actuality this theoretical teacher is actually paying 18.5% federal taxes.

That payroll tax rate is crap too. The employer pays half of that, so the individual is only actually paying around 7.5%. Yes, I understand that theoretically the individual could be getting paid that 7.5%, or that it could go to another retirement account, but that's not what I'm addressing here.


But that's ignoring deductions. If she's actually paying 9.5% state tax, then that's subtracted from her federal taxes, as is all of the payroll tax. Assuming she has children, gave to charity, or is paying interest on a home or student loan, that number is even lower. So, rather than paying an astounding 45% of her income to various governmental agencies, she's actually paying something closer to 15%.

You'd think that a professor of economics would know how to do some basic math here.

Does there need to be spending/tax reform? Of course, but this is just fear mongering with bad math sprinkled throughout. Guess that's what happens when your paper is acquired by Murdoch.

hanelyp
Posts: 2261
Joined: Fri Oct 26, 2007 8:50 pm

Post by hanelyp »

What the leaches need to give up: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/27 ... n-mcintyre

What is today in the developed world regarded as poverty is great wealth by the standards of a couple centuries ago or the 3rd world.

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