Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Lol. Timing isn't the problem with any budget. Lol as LE mentioned it's what to cut. I'll admit as a senior I get ornery when they even hint at social security or Medicare cuts
Don't you just LOVE how 'they' call Social Security an 'entitlement' now? Someone calculated that IF we had all of the money that we were 'required' to have deducted from each and every paycheck, matched as well by the company we work for.....IF we had invested it privately we would each have a retirement fund of over $400,000? It isn't coming from 'other people's taxes', it's coming from our pay (and 1/2 paid by employer). How many times have they 'borrowed' from it for the 'general fund' or whatever?
Okay, the law comes from the government and that law makes it mandatory unless someone gets paid "under the table". NO great favor (under the table wages) for sure! You have to pay your OWN deduction and your EMPLOYER'S part all by yourself when you file your taxes. It is a big shock, and probably in a lot of cases it is not legal for your employer to declare you an 'independent contractor' when you are not in any sort of actual 'business'. You get NO workman's comp, or unemployment, either when you work 'under the table. Why do they keep telling us SS is going bankrupt by such a year and then 'borrow' from it? and....WHY can't they find out what happened to the 6billion missing from the state department when Hillary was done working for Obama?
Below there is an excerpt from the lease agreement signed between a Walmart-owned Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and another Walmart unit.
The arrangement takes advantage of a tax loophole that the federal government plugged decades ago, but which many states have been slower to catch. Here's how it works: One Walmart subsidiary pays the rent to a REIT, which is entitled to a tax break if it pays its profits out in dividends. The REIT is 99%-owned by another Walmart subsidiary, which receives the REIT's dividends tax-free. And Walmart gets to deduct the rent from state taxes as a business expense, even though the money has stayed within the company.
North Carolina tax authorities are challenging Walmart, saying its REIT strategy was intended to "distort [the company's] true net income," according to its filings in the case in Superior Court in Raleigh, N.C. The state calls captive REITs a "high priority corporate tax sheltering issue" and in 2005 ordered Walmart to pay $33 million for back taxes, interest and penalties stemming from the REIT. The company paid it and then sued the state for a refund.
I'm not one of the OCD types here who has to win every single argument with every single person; I long ago learned to cut my losses.
Good strategy!
Quote:
I'll just say that I've had my core argument with names that would undoubtedly impress you, and while I didn't convince them, they had valuable insight that came from reaching outside their indoctrination. (The true mark of genius: realizing your own viewpoint may not be the only or only correct one.) And... I've had Econ professors storm out of the room screaming at me. Doesn't bother me.
Ah, “name dropping without dropping names.” If you believe that it will bolster your agrgument, or that I will be impressed, by all means - name names. Otherwise, this just looks more than a bit silly.
But let me ask, are these impressive names ones that you have lunched with in the Chairman’s Cafeteria?
Quote:
Let me put it simply: I don't think you're wrong. You're just obsolete, the way Einstein was obsolete in the face of quantum theory - which he never fully accepted. (That list goes way back, as I'm sure you know.) We are at a point where our economic theory and practice must change radically - no matter how perfect and polished and "true" it's been made. Some will see this. Others will defend current theory until they die. There are enough people grasping and supporting my ideas that I don't care about outliers - be they some idiot who read Adam Smith once or, say, Econ Ph.D.s.
Below there is an excerpt from the lease agreement signed between a Walmart-owned Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and another Walmart unit.
The arrangement takes advantage of a tax loophole that the federal government plugged decades ago, but which many states have been slower to catch. Here's how it works: One Walmart subsidiary pays the rent to a REIT, which is entitled to a tax break if it pays its profits out in dividends. The REIT is 99%-owned by another Walmart subsidiary, which receives the REIT's dividends tax-free. And Walmart gets to deduct the rent from state taxes as a business expense, even though the money has stayed within the company.
North Carolina tax authorities are challenging Walmart, saying its REIT strategy was intended to "distort [the company's] true net income," according to its filings in the case in Superior Court in Raleigh, N.C. The state calls captive REITs a "high priority corporate tax sheltering issue" and in 2005 ordered Walmart to pay $33 million for back taxes, interest and penalties stemming from the REIT. The company paid it and then sued the state for a refund.
When you do your own taxes, do you pay the least amount that you can, or do you instead pay significantly more? You know, in order to be “more ethical,” or maybe just because? When your tax return says that you owe $1,500, do you instead cut a check for $10,000, because $5,000 is too little, and you want to pay “your fair share?”
Most of health care cost is labor cost. The US pays the most. Switzerland comes close and per capita spending on health care is 90% of the US. A bunch of northern EU countries are up near or over $6k per capita. Netherlands. Belgium. Germany. Denmark. Sweden. Norway. Canada has to pay well or their workers would flee to the US.
Comp in US health care is totally out of line with the rest of the economy. It’s across the whole spectrum from the guy pushing the broom in the hospital to the surgeon making 7 figures.
Most of the health care cost in the US is profiteering. I paid cash for a hip replacement for my dog. It's the same procedure and the same technology as in a human. It cost me $6,000, at the top osteopathic surgeon in my state. I will guarantee that the veterinarian and the vet assistants are not working for free. For a human hip replacement, the average cost is about $39,000. The hip mechanism alone costs more than my dog's hip operation, and it's the same technology, manufactured the same way.
That's not labor costs, it's a monopoly charging whatever the market will bear.
Why would anyone believe it is Walmart's duty to pay their employees a living wage?
Furthermore, why is Wal Mart always singled out? What about the Mom&Pop shops who are often held up as heroes standing tall in the face of corporate hegemony, they pay worse than Wal Mart so let's go have a protest in front of their store as well.
I object to the OP calling calling government obligations entitlements. Follow the law and stop trying to disenfranchise those who gave so much to the system for so many years.
The word “entitlement” has long been the standard terminology for payments made under government programs that guarantee and provide benefits to particular groups. Persons who have demonstrated their eligibility to claim such payments are entitled (i.e., “qualified for by right according to law”) to receive them.
The usage has nothing to do with pejorative connotations associated with the word (e.g., “a sense of entitlement”) which are often applied to denote people expecting or demanding something they do not merit.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
