tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post7960621994277277315..comments2023-09-15T08:07:28.542-06:00Comments on Western Hero: Government-Sponsored InequalitySilverfiddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13541652236676260219noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-15287183170024989792012-04-21T23:41:13.067-06:002012-04-21T23:41:13.067-06:00I like your plan, especially the bits about burnin...I like your plan, especially the bits about burning stuff and selling off the buildings of bureaucracy.MathewKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14385674205383405783noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-2912786347149665212012-04-19T06:07:22.381-06:002012-04-19T06:07:22.381-06:00FT,
If this were truly a "land of the free,&q...FT,<br /><i>If this were truly a "land of the free," it would be possible truly to OWN property without the threat of ever-rising tax liability.</i><br /><br />Since 2001, I've seen the taxes on my little place rise from $200/month to over $400/month -- at the same time that health insurance premiums took off for the moon as did energy costs. I feel as if I don't even own this property anymore, particularly if I factor in all the zoning regulations. Leave something out for over 48 hours and in will swoop the zoning enforcers with their $100/day fine. So far, they will allow me to leave out the garden hose and the barbecue. So far. <br /><br />I'd like to put up another shed, but the county squawks about "exceeding my carbon footprint." <br /><br />As a Boomer, I should have been an economic driver. Well, since about 2005, I've spent <b>NEARLY NOTHING</b> (except for essentials such as food and meds).Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-14919209389484813062012-04-19T05:51:57.257-06:002012-04-19T05:51:57.257-06:00Z,
I think the home mortgage write-off is what kee...Z,<br /><i>I think the home mortgage write-off is what keeps people buying homes, frankly.</i><br /><br />To a certain extent, yes.<br /><br />And that mortgage interest deduction does create expendable income.<br /><br />But what of those who own homes without mortages? And what of the government-budget impact of the mortgage interest deduction?<br /><br />I also think that, to a certain extent, the deduction has motivated people to buy homes that they really could not afford, particularly when recession or tragedy strikes.<br /><br />Local governments are likely aware that the mortgage interest deduction and raise local real estate taxes accordingly.Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-1689947711053476612012-04-19T05:49:31.645-06:002012-04-19T05:49:31.645-06:00and let the invisible hand fist us up the butt?
....<i>and let the invisible hand fist us up the butt?</i><br /><br />...better an invisible hand then Barack Obama's!Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-62778316201356011092012-04-19T05:20:42.475-06:002012-04-19T05:20:42.475-06:00The media has trotted out Newt Gingrich’s ex. They...The media has trotted out Newt Gingrich’s ex. They trotted out an alleged mistress of Herman Cain. Why are they so silent about Barack Husein Obama’s ex? Humm??<br /><br />http://www.theblogmocracy.com/2012/01/22/picture-of-obama-and-his-ex/American Jihad https://www.blogger.com/profile/12392062519041191036noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-13831695518558396122012-04-18T22:37:40.430-06:002012-04-18T22:37:40.430-06:00Paying rent is like paying taxes -- the moral equi...Paying rent is like paying taxes -- the moral equivalent of flushing money down the toilet.<br /><br />Owning property is not a "right," of course, but it's a highly desirable goal for most people, and -- at least until the recent depression in the housing market -- it has always been a bulwark against inflation. It builds equity for the future -- a nucleus of the "nest egg" one needs if one hopes to enjoy a comfortable retirement.<br /><br />There is also a joy in owning and developing a piece of real property largely unknown to inhabitants of rental property. Home ownership promotes stability and gives focus to those who take pleasure in their surroundings.<br /><br />If this were truly a "land of the free," it would be possible truly to OWN property without the threat of ever-rising tax liability. Homeowners who've spent a couple of decades paying off a mortgage while raising children ought by all that's kind and decent to be EXEMPT from paying property taxes in their declining years.<br /><br />Everyone is hunted by predatory forces at the federal, state and local level threatening to tear them to pieces and cast their remains on the scrap heap if the fail to PAY and PAY and PAY and PAY and PAY till the day they die. And after that the federal and most state governments want to take even MORE from the little that may remain.<br /><br />Why should we be slaves to the ravening wolves of TAXING AUTHORITIES who, if truth be told, are the only TRUE "OWNERS" of ANYTHING?<br /><br />Our entire lives are spent in a desperate struggle to defend ourselves against the aggressive, corrosive, oppressive policies of KLEPTOCRATS.<br /><br />Even so with property ownership on a least has a place to live and enjoy hobbies and leisure time and STILL build some equity for the future over the long haul.<br /><br />Take away the incentives to own property and you have smashed The American Dream, stomped it to death and kicked its remains into Oblivion.<br /><br />There is an unsettling ASSUMPTION at the root of these discussion that somehow government , as we have come to know it, DESERVES our support -- that it is worthy and serves us well.<br /><br />Nothing could be farther from the truth.<br /><br />Except for the military, building and maintaining roads, bridges and tunnels, overseeing the water supply, funding police forces and building, maintaining and staffing prisons, EVERYTHING should be run by the <b><i>PRIVATE</i></b> SECTOR.<br /><br />The country was far better off under the rule of Plutocrats than it has been under the gun of crypto-Marxism.<br /><br />~ FreeThinkeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-20269969227364293042012-04-18T21:28:33.281-06:002012-04-18T21:28:33.281-06:00Sounds like a plan SF.
I'm all for a flat t...Sounds like a plan SF. <br /><br /> I'm all for a flat tax as our current muddleheaded system prima facie violates equal protection. <br /><br /> Dump the loopholes, stop the bailouts, and trim the deadwood from the Feds is all good. <br /><br /> Most importantly though, we need to have a balanced budget amendment prohibiting borrowing except in times of declared war, and pay off what we owe. Do that and we can pare down that 17% even further.viburnumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15381796879179539552noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-45737886945770536112012-04-18T21:22:33.517-06:002012-04-18T21:22:33.517-06:00Z: Why is home ownership more worthy than renting...Z: Why is home ownership more worthy than renting?<br /><br />This is the slippery slope. Everybody wants their piece of the pie and we all have our own ideas of what is noble and should be rewarded.<br /><br />imho, government should be rewarding nothing, and instead tending to the enumerated powers.Silverfiddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13541652236676260219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-84687207246869271822012-04-18T20:52:58.415-06:002012-04-18T20:52:58.415-06:00I sure wouldn't. I think the home mortgage wr...I sure wouldn't. I think the home mortgage write-off is what keeps people buying homes, frankly.<br />I know that in Canada that's not a write off and people buy houses, but I think getting rid of that would be a disaster.Zhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15989573357446569262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-12120862248451251002012-04-18T18:53:46.015-06:002012-04-18T18:53:46.015-06:00Z: Yes. I would get rid of it all.Z: Yes. I would get rid of it all.Silverfiddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13541652236676260219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-83555588071564439822012-04-18T18:20:46.807-06:002012-04-18T18:20:46.807-06:00So we have too large an income gap and your reason...So we have too large an income gap and your reasoned answer is to make goverment larger and give it more money.<br /><br />Brilliant!<br /><br />You progressives sure are a funny bunch.<br /><br />Here's a thought, cut government 10% across the board and let the people keep their money.<br /><br />Aye, but there's the rub... when a significant portion of us pay no taxes at all reducing their tax burden does nothing for them.<br /><br />I don't wish to argue numbers, but the Joint Committee on Taxation says that only slightly more than half of us have a positive tax liabiltiy and roughly 30% of us make money off the system designed to make the government money.<br /><br />http://finance.senate.gov/newsroom/ranking/download/?id=9fe27e9f-a5e0-4010-8461-ffc00b5c00ef<br /><br />Fair warning, the link will open a pdf file not a website, with a memorandum from the Joint Committee on Taxation from 29 April 2011.<br /><br />How can you expect representative democracy to work when a statistically significant portion of the voter base has no vested interest in the cost of government.<br /><br />We are close to the tipping point at which the majority of voters will have no interest at all in the process, unless of course you are talking about cutting benefits.<br /><br />What does the average voter care what the government spends, especially if it benefits them?<br /><br />The system is broke.<br /><br />Cheers!Finntannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09234170229108668040noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-78904878041874274072012-04-18T16:59:36.750-06:002012-04-18T16:59:36.750-06:00"Are the rich making their gains at the expen..."Are the rich making their gains at the expense of the poor? Studies have not shown that."<br />Common sense does, too. <br /><br />I wish I could see more people getting rich and richer...I don't. Does anybody here on this commentary? And the poor, those suffering badly right now, are losing jobs largely because businesses are afraid of Obamacare and uncertain of the future..tax-wise and otherwise.<br />Very few people are hiring. Jobs go overseas and, the worst part is we're hearing jobs must go overseas because our kids aren't trained to do the jobs. THAT is scary and another aspect of why there are fewer jobs...who wants to hire untrained people? <br /><br />I like your plan, SF....would you delete the mortgage deduction?Zhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15989573357446569262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-39305913046590788012012-04-18T16:58:55.330-06:002012-04-18T16:58:55.330-06:00So that makes it ok? Spoken like a true hopium-sto...So that makes it ok? Spoken like a true hopium-stoned Obamabot goose-stepper.Silverfiddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13541652236676260219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-22622388421390240002012-04-18T16:49:54.353-06:002012-04-18T16:49:54.353-06:00GE benefits from a loophole which BUSH put in plac...GE benefits from a loophole which BUSH put in place. Nice try!Liberalmannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04612454539046863752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-26736817815096736312012-04-18T13:34:45.113-06:002012-04-18T13:34:45.113-06:00Liberals should look at wage inequality in coutrie...Liberals should look at wage inequality in coutries like China, North Korea and, Cuba. That is not to say that the growing wage inequality in the US is not a serious problem. It is. However, it is not due to fre market capitalism but to a lack of free market capitalism. Innovation and entreprenuership are what is needed and they flurish best in free markets. Cronyism and stangulating regulatory systems are killing innovation in this country.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-45075248970593250922012-04-18T12:51:57.577-06:002012-04-18T12:51:57.577-06:00There's room to quibble over scope and magnitu...There's room to quibble over scope and magnitude, but no one is denying income inequality exists.<br /><br />The question is, what do we do about it?Silverfiddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13541652236676260219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-38917438848626206912012-04-18T12:34:02.039-06:002012-04-18T12:34:02.039-06:00Americans should be concerned with the growing inc...Americans should be concerned with the growing income inequality. It is a subject of concern to many economists, political scientists, and other wonks. <br /><br />Even Alan Greenspan, a one-time Ayn Rand follower, believes we should worry about the growing disparity between the wealthiest and the middle class and the poor.<br /><br />Greenspan speaking at a symposium sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, August, 1998: <br /><br />“That this supply-demand gap has been an important source of widening earnings inequality is now widely accepted within the economics profession. However, the considerable diversity of experiences across countries as well as the finding that earnings inequality has also increased within groups of workers with similar measured skills and experience suggest that we may need to look deeper than skill-biased technological change if we are to fully understand widening wage dispersion. In particular, how have private and public institutions influenced inequality over the past two decades? What roles have been played by growing international trade and the evolving ways in which production is organized? Again, the participants in this symposium are well-equipped to speak to these issues, and we should learn much more about the causes of widening inequality during the next two days.”<br /><br /><br />“..from 1980 to 2005, more than 80 percentof total increase in Americans' income went to the top 1 percent. Economic growth was more sluggish in the aughts, but the decade saw productivity increase by about 20 percent. Yet virtually none of the increase translated into wage growth at middle and lower incomes, an outcome that left many economists scratching their heads.” --Timothy Noah, writing in SlateShaw Kenawehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08637273000409613497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-25761949279970129542012-04-18T06:54:12.924-06:002012-04-18T06:54:12.924-06:00Ducky: Quantify your statement on social mobility...Ducky: Quantify your statement on social mobility, and not with a Nation article, but with real data.<br /><br />I am familiar with the authoritative studies, are you? Or are you just parroting what the red propagandists tell you?<br /><br />And this is a nonsensical statement, typical of the left:<br /><br /><i>Which means that when the disparity becomes so large that it works to the detriment of society we just do it the von Mise way and let the invisible hand fist us up the butt?</i><br /><br />If we only had a strong man, right Ducky? Whose iron hand could set it all right?<br /><br />Your propaganda is stale and you've become boring and predictable.Silverfiddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13541652236676260219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-79929635777877828122012-04-18T06:48:02.085-06:002012-04-18T06:48:02.085-06:00Silver, an explanation<a href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/8564-can-you-understand-the-republican-brain?" rel="nofollow">Silver, an explanation</a>Ducky's herehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608115001116619877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-38444797159973850432012-04-18T06:44:14.642-06:002012-04-18T06:44:14.642-06:00Duck,
Social mobility is declining in America. Rap...Duck,<br /><i>Social mobility is declining in America. Rapidly.</i><br /><br />True!<br /><br />And one of the roads to social mobility, especially since the FDR administration, has been government employment. <br /><br />In my own family, if not for FDR's bureaucracy, my mother and her family would still be living in the poverty of East Tennessee Appalachia.Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-90923817719166343682012-04-18T06:41:59.275-06:002012-04-18T06:41:59.275-06:00We commoners also enjoy a cornucopia of luxuries t...<i>We commoners also enjoy a cornucopia of luxuries that were only available to the rich back in the 50's. </i><br /><br />No doubt.<br /><br />For example -- and I'm not kidding -- no more outhouses here in Northern Virginia. As recently as 1980, some houses here did not have inside lavatories -- and central heat, for that matter.<br /><br />I agree with the idea of the flat tax. To a certain extent, my position on this issue is a selfish one: I've never been able to avail myself of any of the loopholes (except recently with soaring medical bills). Hell, I've never even been able to avail myself of the mortgage interest deduction as I've never had a mortgage. I saw no point in taking on the burden of a mortgage when I've had a family home to live in, albeit an older home with lots of "issues."<br /><br />Of course, such a system would put a lot of IRS employees and private accountants out of work as the tax code would be simplified. Not that my point should preclude implementing the idea of a flat tax.Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-43009871423041010662012-04-18T06:15:31.722-06:002012-04-18T06:15:31.722-06:00Income inequality is a natural result of a free ma...Income inequality is a natural result of a free market<br /><br />--------<br /><br />Which means that when the disparity becomes so large that it works to the detriment of society we just do it the von Mise way and let the invisible hand fist us up the butt?Ducky's herehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608115001116619877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7674333464171899932.post-82261502626475902072012-04-18T06:11:27.069-06:002012-04-18T06:11:27.069-06:00We are also an economically mobile society, with p...We are also an economically mobile society, with people moving both up and down. <br /><br />--------<br /><br />Social mobility is declining in America. Rapidly.<br /><br />Were you home schooled by an Austrian?Ducky's herehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608115001116619877noreply@blogger.com