Sorry, teachers, I just did the math and... (Mexico, Clinton: standard of living, tuition)

[I_Love_LI_but]

Originally Posted by Interlude

Reform is needed, but I'd start with consolidating districts, cutting administration, etc. before going after salaries and pensions. I might even try to improve things for the struggling masses - bringing everyone up is always preferable to tearing one group down so that everyone is equally miserable.

What are your suggestions for bringing everyone else up?

[I_Love_LI_but]

Originally Posted by ABACAB

I have to correct the misinformation you post. And yes, every man for himself will make it much more difficult for your average scam artist to retire on the high hog courtesy of the tax payer.

Let's just thank God the average scam artist is not that disabled and they can play golf while on decades worth of early retirement courtesy of the taxpayer! Imagine otherwise and they were REALLY REALLY disabled ... I think it would be too brutal to bear and they would commit suicide in droves. Even though that would save us taxpayers money I am not that cruel that I would want to see things turn out that way. I do, however, think Social Security needs to have a family income limit when handing out checks to passels of children who have a disabled parent. That is just common sense. The Dems/Libs might have missed that one on purpose, but where are the Repubs/Conservs when these checks go out to families already earning quite a bit to get by on (like being subject to AMT) without the chidren's SS checks?

[Interlude]

Originally Posted by I_Love_LI_but

What are your suggestions for bringing everyone else up?

Tax and spend.

Get money here:

End Iraq/Afghanistan/Libya wars
Withdraw forces from overseas (South Korea, Germany, etc.)
Cut overall military spending, mostly on pork weapons projects
Return highest tax brackets to Clinton-era levels, or higher as needed
Raise capital gains tax to match income tax brackets
Bring back estate taxes for large estates
Enforce taxes on corporations that attempt to avoid paying in the US
Apply FICA taxes to all income, not just the first $106k
End war on drugs (savings in police, prisons, courts, border patrol, may even reduce illegal immigration as conditions in Mexico improve)
End subsidizes to the oil and farm industries

Use money here:

Regulate Wall Street (giving the new consumer protection agency some teeth is a nice start, also mandating transparancy at the Fed, prohibit SEC investigators from joining financial firms for some period of years, repeal Gramm-Leach-Bliley, allow institutions that gamble on high-risk investments to fail rather than be bailed out by taxpayers, etc.)
Institute single-payer national health care. Simply extending Medicare to all Americans would be the easiest
Massively subsidize higher education
Bolster social security (via those new FICA taxes)
Massive investment in infrastructure - roads, high-speed rail, mass transit, sewers, water supply, nuclear power, etc.

I mean it's just a start. For other ideas-

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...ts-graphic.html

[formyblog]

I agree that we need to make more in Taxes. Basic Education should be subsidized as much as possible but there should be some things that should be exempt from subsidy. If taxes are high then we don't need all those sports programs etc. Plus we need a tuition fee per child in schools even if that is nominal (exempt for poor) so that when taxes go up tuition also goes up and parents can realize the real effects of that. Just like if i make the Copay for your doc visit zero then even though you pay premiums for the insurance you abuse it more.

[Interlude]

I guess that certain things could be cut from curriculum but why sports? There's ample evidence of the benefits of participating in those activities, and Americans are fat enough as it is.

Anyway, have you ever heard of people going to the doctor for no reason because it's free? Who actually does that? Moreover, who believes that anyone would actually do that? A much bigger problem is that people don't get the preventative care that they need and end up in the emergency room once they require acute - and expensive - care.

[Goodnight]

Originally Posted by Interlude

I guess that certain things could be cut from curriculum but why sports? There's ample evidence of the benefits of participating in those activities, and Americans are fat enough as it is.

Anyway, have you ever heard of people going to the doctor for no reason because it's free? Who actually does that? Moreover, who believes that anyone would actually do that? A much bigger problem is that people don't get the preventative care that they need and end up in the emergency room once they require acute - and expensive - care.

Why should any programs that have been in place for the last 50+ years need to be cut? They need to learn how to budget.

[formyblog]

What i meant by sports in not cutting sports in school. Just like any other class such as math you need to have a gym class where you can do any kind of physical activity including play games such as baseball. Not teams that have to play long distance. And if you are concerned about being fat then they should stop playing baseball and start playing soccer better for the time spent. Plus its cheaper sport !

What i meant by doctors visit is people will just go if they just sneeze if you make copay 0. Anyway what is your opinion about having a tuition fee for kids ?

And when you talk about tax increase then you must also include public employees benefits. They must pay at par with private employees when it comes to medical benefits so that we don't have to pay so much tax and pension also need reforms. Just taxing in not a solution need to cut these fat benefits too.

[formyblog]

Originally Posted by Goodnight

Why should any programs that have been in place for the last 50+ years need to be cut? They need to learn how to budget.

I was just giving an example. Why cut sports when you can cut employee salaries? The issue is we can't do that, so all they do is cut programs all the time and keep increasing taxes to pay benefits to employees.

[Interlude]

Originally Posted by formyblog

What i meant by sports in not cutting sports in school. Just like any other class such as math you need to have a gym class where you can do any kind of physical activity including play games such as baseball. Not teams that have to play long distance. And if you are concerned about being fat then they should stop playing baseball and start playing soccer better for the time spent. Plus its cheaper sport !

Is taking a school bus and driving a team from one town in Nassau to another once every other week really costing us that much? It just seems like nickeling and diming.

What i meant by doctors visit is people will just go if they just sneeze if you make copay 0. Anyway what is your opinion about having a tuition fee for kids ?

I don't see copays as a disincentive if someone is really nuts enough to abuse going to the doctor. I don't think we've ever had a problem with that in this country. Growing up our insurance paid for everything and I didn't go to the doctor gratuitously. As I said, the larger problem is people not going to the doctor enough. My own internist told me last week that he has a lot of patients avoiding coming in for checkups etc. because they can't afford co-pays. That is going to bite us in the ass when small problems become large ones due to lack of treatment. It already costs us a ton when the uninsured rely on the emergency room for everything.

Not sure what you mean by a tuition fee. We already pay school taxes, why is that insufficient?

And when you talk about tax increase then you must also include public employees benefits. They must pay at par with private employees when it comes to medical benefits so that we don't have to pay so much tax and pension also need reforms. Just taxing in not a solution need to cut these fat benefits too.

Cops and teachers on Long Island and a few other places, yes. Public employees in general, no, not really. I refuse to use the private sector as a barometer of what wages and benefits "should be" when US wages have remained stagnant for decades and companies do everything they can to screw their employees. That's what needs fixing the most.

[NYEconomist]

Originally Posted by Interlude

Tax and spend.

Get money here:

End Iraq/Afghanistan/Libya wars
Withdraw forces from overseas (South Korea, Germany, etc.)
Cut overall military spending, mostly on pork weapons projects
Return highest tax brackets to Clinton-era levels, or higher as needed
Raise capital gains tax to match income tax brackets
Bring back estate taxes for large estates
Enforce taxes on corporations that attempt to avoid paying in the US
Apply FICA taxes to all income, not just the first $106k
End war on drugs (savings in police, prisons, courts, border patrol, may even reduce illegal immigration as conditions in Mexico improve)
End subsidizes to the oil and farm industries

Use money here:

Regulate Wall Street (giving the new consumer protection agency some teeth is a nice start, also mandating transparancy at the Fed, prohibit SEC investigators from joining financial firms for some period of years, repeal Gramm-Leach-Bliley, allow institutions that gamble on high-risk investments to fail rather than be bailed out by taxpayers, etc.)
Institute single-payer national health care. Simply extending Medicare to all Americans would be the easiest
Massively subsidize higher education
Bolster social security (via those new FICA taxes)
Massive investment in infrastructure - roads, high-speed rail, mass transit, sewers, water supply, nuclear power, etc.

I mean it's just a start. For other ideas-

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...ts-graphic.html

I'm sorry, all I got from that was that you want other people to pay more taxes to fund what you want to see more of. If you want to see more taxes why don't you volunteer to pay more?