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The economy was already on life support. That's what the huge tax cut stimulus and dropping interest rates last year were for. Republicans learned their lesson in 2008, when their tax cuts and free money didn't get them across the election finish line. This time they lined up a huge stimulus to keep the ball rolling, only to have an epidemic turn it into a gutter ball. Their only hope is to reopen everything and have the economy roar back, without killing too many people.
The Fed rescued the stock market with $6 trillion in free money, but the stock market is not the economy, which is in a coma on life support. I think the expectation that it's going to leap back to health is a delusion. A significant part of the service sector will not survive, which will put the retail sector into the dunk tank. Cities, counties and states are already going broke, which will cut government expenditures for the rest of the biennium. The estimate of a 15% drop in GDP looks pretty realistic to me. I'm an old man. I have seen some ugly times, but nothing as ugly as that.
So where are your posts about all the large corporations that pay zero income tax? And how subsidizing those large corporations is stealing money from taxpayers? And how everyone and every entity should pay its share for the services our government provides?
Where are your posts about all the corruption in corporations? The things they've done to hurt employees physically, that has cost the country trillions? Like asbestos. And the corruption in false accounting to shore up their stock values?
Where are your posts about wealthy people paying a lower net rate of income tax than the lower middle class? About that being theft from the American taxpayer, because of exemptions & deductions they paid for with donations to politicians?
Where are your posts about the corporations that are getting multiple millions of stimulus dollars when they don't need it, having a heckuva lot more money than that sitting in banks...depriving small businesses from getting what they need to prevent their losing their businesses? (Shake Shack & another business returned the millions they got, so hopefully that money would get to the small businesses that money was intended for.)
Where are your posts complaining that the "common people" (that's what Trump calls us all) can't get virus tests, but the privileged can. No questions asked. If you have money or connections, you and yours get all the tests you want. They don't even have to have symptoms.
You don't complain about these things that really matter. That strike at the heart of democracy and that fly in the face of everything our Founding Fathers thought they had prevented. Instead, you lose sleep over the worry that Cathy Cashier is getting $100 a month more than you think she should, for 4 months.
So where are your posts about all the large corporations that pay zero income tax? And how subsidizing those large corporations is stealing money from taxpayers? And how everyone and every entity should pay its share for the services our government provides?
Where are your posts about all the corruption in corporations? The things they've done to hurt employees physically, that has cost the country trillions? Like asbestos. And the corruption in false accounting to shore up their stock values?
Where are your posts about wealthy people paying a lower net rate of income tax than the lower middle class? About that being theft from the American taxpayer, because of exemptions & deductions they paid for with donations to politicians?
Where are your posts about the corporations that are getting multiple millions of stimulus dollars when they don't need it, having a heckuva lot more money than that sitting in banks...depriving small businesses from getting what they need to prevent their losing their businesses? (Shake Shack & another business returned the millions they got, so hopefully that money would get to the small businesses that money was intended for.)
Where are your posts complaining that the "common people" (that's what Trump calls us all) can't get virus tests, but the privileged can. No questions asked. If you have money or connections, you and yours get all the tests you want. They don't even have to have symptoms.
You don't complain about these things that really matter. That strike at the heart of democracy and that fly in the face of everything our Founding Fathers thought they had prevented. Instead, you lose sleep over the worry that Cathy Cashier is getting $100 a month more than you think she should.
Some people.....I swear...
Low corporate taxes are nothing compared to tax cheats in the underground economy.
Quote:
Estimates vary widely, but some put the underground economy at 11% to 12% of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). In 2018, GDP was $20.5 trillion, so that puts the underground economy at about $2.25 trillion to $2.46 trillion.
And you know how corporations avoid taxes? By investing in research and giving employees more money in the form of stock options.
Quote:
The giving of stock options to employees, as a part of their compensation, is another avenue that has helped companies reduce their total tax bill. When the options are exercised, the difference between what employees pay for the stock and its market value can be claimed for a tax deduction.
Finally, some industries such as research, oil and gas drilling, ethanol production, alternative energy, video game and film production, are privileged by the federal tax code to receive certain tax breaks.
Hoping for a vaccine to bail us out is rather like hoping for the Second Coming or the benevolent aliens to bail us out.
We need to get our house in order and stop all of this corruption, greed, and sick behaviour. We need to completely change the way we govern our countries.
If we are going to keep money then as I have said before, I think a 0.5% or 1% tax on everything going through the banks would give the country enough money to run things, but we need a fairer way to distribute the money. The greed aspect is all about thinking we have to collect as much as we can for ourselves and to hell with everyone else.
You know how when things are going along fairly nicely, you get the feeling that something nasty is coming down the line? Well maybe this is it. Maybe this pandemic will force a major change on all of us but it is up to us to make that change the best we can.
Trouble is, no-one has defined the problems and nor have they any idea what to do to sort our those problems.
Oh sure. But they CAN and probably WILL demand a doctors note if it’s a CV19 sick call. And I feel there will be a limit on how many days you can use it. Eventually you call out too much they will find someone else.
The extra unemployment only lasts until July. All the jobs won't be back by then. Most people are not so short-sighted. I could google around and post just as many links to articles about people willing to put their lives at risk to go back to their jobs and yearning for a return to their normal lives.
It might come to a point where the Feds will have to bail out a few states. Some states by law need to have a balanced budget and cities running out of $ if unemployment stays bad, they might run out, they will have to cut public services like police, EMT, etc. to balance it. The economy will get worse with states budget shortfalls. Just hope unemployment improves somewhat in the next few short months.
Last edited by JL; 05-03-2020 at 08:45 AM..
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Let me take the way back time machine
