State Budget (Richmond: credit, loans, purchase)

[Curmudgeon]

Too many tax evaders!

If California taxpayers paid up, state's deficit would disappear - Capitol and California - The Sacramento Bee

[steel7]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Too many tax evaders!

If California taxpayers paid up, state's deficit would disappear - Capitol and California - The Sacramento Bee

Do you agree with the article ?

[nullgeo]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Too many tax evaders!

If California taxpayers paid up, state's deficit would disappear - Capitol and California - The Sacramento Bee

Good report ... has been true of all societies / governments throughout time, but most egregiously a disaster in modern, capitalist times. Why? Because our society lionizes the behaviors of the cleverest top-tier earners. And the rest follow the example of greed as acceptable.

Friend sent me a quote yesterday that relates:
"If a man has an apartment stacked to the ceiling with newspapers, we call him crazy.
If a woman has a trailer house filled with cats, we call her nuts.
But when people pathologically hoard so much cash that they impoverish the nation,
we put them on the cover of Fortune Magazine and pretend that they are role models."

B. Lester

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by nullgeo

Good report ... has been true of all societies / governments throughout time, but most egregiously a disaster in modern, capitalist times. Why? Because our society lionizes the behaviors of the cleverest top-tier earners. And the rest follow the example of greed as acceptable.

Friend sent me a quote yesterday that relates:
"If a man has an apartment stacked to the ceiling with newspapers, we call him crazy.
If a woman has a trailer house filled with cats, we call her nuts.
But when people pathologically hoard so much cash that they impoverish the nation,
we put them on the cover of Fortune Magazine and pretend that they are role models."

B. Lester

Well its not like those rich people are keeping stacks of actual cash in their house and out of circulation. Their money is invested back in the system and available to the capital markets.

[nullgeo]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

Well its not like those rich people are keeping stacks of actual cash in their house and out of circulation. Their money is invested back in the system and available to the capital markets.

That is very untrue at this time.
Investigative reporting and government and industry studies ALL show that there is a huge cash-holding cycle going on right now in this economy in this country. H U G E.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by nullgeo

That is very untrue at this time.
Investigative reporting and government and industry studies ALL show that there is a huge cash-holding cycle going on right now in this economy in this country. H U G E.

"Cash" doesn't have to mean actual paper currency.

[nullgeo]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

"Cash" doesn't have to mean actual paper currency.

meaning what?

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by nullgeo

meaning what?

Meaning that when a company is sitting on a pile of "cash", they don't actually have a warehouse full of hundred dollar bills. That "cash" is still invested somewhere which means its still in the economy.

[nullgeo]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

Meaning that when a company is sitting on a pile of "cash", they don't actually have a warehouse full of hundred dollar bills. That "cash" is still invested somewhere which means its still in the economy.

No. That's not true. The "cash", whether in bills or in other assets is not circulating or working. That is the situation as reported by every agency, public and private, today. It is being quite literally "hoarded". And that word, "hoarded", is used specifically in report after report and has been for several years now. Businesses and investors are "hoarding" cash assets.

Wall St. Journal (a conservative, Murdoch, newspaper)
Companies Shun Investment, Hoard Cash - WSJ.com

NY Post
Companies sit on $2T as economy tanks - NYPOST.com

The UK Guardian (from European perspective)
Companies must stop hoarding cash and start investing instead | Will Hutton | Comment is free | The Observer

From "The Tax Foundation"
The Tax Foundation - Why are Businesses Hoarding Cash and not Hiring?

ABC News
Hoarding not Hiring

Google it yourself:
"businesses hoarding cash"
you'll have 3/4 million hits to read

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by steel7

Do you agree with the article ?

Pretty much. But without going into detail, suffice it to say that even if collections were enhanced, the Legislature and the Governor would find various ways to dispose of the additional revenues without necessarily touching the deficit.

Jesse "Big Daddy" Unruh, former Speaker of the Assembly, had it right when he said, "Money is the mother's milk of politics." The politicians are more interested in winning their next elections and advancing to the next higher elected office than they are in governance and doing what's right for the state and the people. Consequently, any and all "windfalls" are historically used to increase spending on otherwise unfunded, perpetual mandates of categorical funding and doing the bidding of their "masters," the unions, big business and othe deep-pocket, special interests.