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Guess I'm the only one who gets what the OP is saying about tax breaks for the wealthy......but the pull yourself up by the bootstraps crowd here completely missed it.
Maybe one of the resident genuises here can explain why when an individual makes 41,775/yr they only get a 12% Fed tax bite, but, when they earn 41,776/yr they can suddenly "afford" a 22% Fed tax bite?
There goes that EV and solar panels purchase.
Must be because they were "lazy".
In your scenario, you’d only pay 22% on $1. The $41,775 still gets taxed at 12%. That’s how Tax Brackets work.
Yes, America has gone even farther away from "equal opportunity." I guess that's what happens when the people making the laws are all millionaires and the executive branch is ruled by the ultra-wealthy, and the Supreme Court members were born with silver spoons in their mouths, for the most part. We are increasingly ruled by an aristocracy that has a members-only mentality. Other First World countries are ruled by the ultra-wealthy, too, but interestingly have maintained a better balance and more opportunity for the populace than America. A large part of that is health care, a huge cost to the average person. As long as that albatross is hanging around his neck, he can't advance as much as in older days, compared with the ultra-wealthy whose health costs are just a fraction of their expendable income. So the rich get richer, and the middle class gets poorer.
Except your thesis is wrong...........great way to fumble though life.
Being poor also comes with a set of advantages. It changes the risk equation and opportunity cost to allow for chances, innovation, and bold moves. It’s freeing in many ways. You’re not bound by tradition or rules. They’re disrupters. People who have had it hard can be destroyed mentally and give up, but for some this constant cloud and bad news eventually makes them unbreakable because they’ve overcome obstacles time and time again. A common example of it was London during the blitz from Nazi Germany. The terror bombing eventually became a siren that people would ignore and go about their day. “a near miss leaves you traumatized, a remote miss makes you feel invincible.” If you being poor isn’t traumatic enough to break you, it can be the single greatest advantage a person can have.
It’s why some of histories greatest empires have been brought down by guerrillas. It’s why generational wealth is gone within 3 generations across most cultures. You can’t duplicate an underdog mentality that isn’t real.
“If you came from a place of nothing, that’s everything you need”.
This seems backwards and pollyannaish.
Most poor people aren't temporarily poor people on their way to success with the right risk. They are permanently poor people due to a variety of circumstances, for whom a risk gone bad can be devastating.
There's a reason you need money to be an accredited investor. You can better bear the risks.
Most poor people aren't temporarily poor people on their way to success with the right risk. They are permanently poor people due to a variety of circumstances, for whom a risk gone bad can be devastating.
There's a reason you need money to be an accredited investor. You can better bear the risks.
The greatest risk of all would be to stay where you were from an opportunity cost perspective. It’s a risk to the human spirit itself. We literally owe it to ourselves to find out how far we can go.
Like Les brown says, some people die at age 25 and don’t get buried until they’re aged 65.
People should all take a lesson from the U.S military special forces. In that manual it states that other than death, all defeat is psychology. It’s in your head. It’s an opportunity to regroup, reassess and come back.
Last edited by Thatsright19; 03-27-2023 at 06:25 PM..
Solar credit is 30%, not including state incentives. Like I said, payback is less than 6 years, possibly under 5 if electricity costs continues to rise.
I purchased an EV to replace a gas guzzler on its last legs so the savings are from day 1, and time to recoup is only a few years, not 16. The price difference between a comparable gas car is only a couple thousand.
You forget that electric driven devices have basically zero maintenance. I have power tools with batteries that are 10+ years old that are still going strong.
I'm in my 30s (I know, a huge outlier among these boards). I've done the math. I will come out financially ahead.
Location: Formerly Pleasanton Ca, now in Marietta Ga
10,353 posts, read 8,581,497 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bpollen
Yes, America has gone even farther away from "equal opportunity." I guess that's what happens when the people making the laws are all millionaires and the executive branch is ruled by the ultra-wealthy, and the Supreme Court members were born with silver spoons in their mouths, for the most part. We are increasingly ruled by an aristocracy that has a members-only mentality. Other First World countries are ruled by the ultra-wealthy, too, but interestingly have maintained a better balance and more opportunity for the populace than America. A large part of that is health care, a huge cost to the average person. As long as that albatross is hanging around his neck, he can't advance as much as in older days, compared with the ultra-wealthy whose health costs are just a fraction of their expendable income. So the rich get richer, and the middle class gets poorer.
I disagree. There is no other country that has more opportunities. People are just lazy and entitled here.
I have friends that came here very poor from other countries and hustled and became far wealthier than people I grew up with who,had every resource needed to,do better. They told me they could not have done this in their countries.
I think people that think only the wealthy control everything believe that to make themselves feel,better.about what little they have achieved.
A lot of countries that subsidize a lot also have heavy taxation so the middle class stays there. A friend from Finland told me that. I also was talking to a taxi cab driver in Belgium who expressed how hard he worked and how much of it went to taxes.
Wealth, denominated in worthless repudiated securities is not synonymous with real goods and services that they were traded for.
And since those "paper assets" depreciate over time, as well as get taxed more, accumulating them is hazardous. After a major SHTF event, they have no real trade value nor use.
Quickly trading them for useable goods and services, that reduce consumption of resources, while meeting personal requirements is prudent.
In that regard, one would be a wise invester who traded his paper for:
_ an autonomous, self sufficient, disaster resistant, superinsulated dwelling (preferably private property and not real estate, for maximum benefit)
_ _ _ with independent sources of potable water, close proximity to rail transport or navigable water, and access to hydroelectric power
_ enough arable land to support agriculture suited to meeting one's needs and a surplus for long term storage
_ tools to support a vocation that would be in demand over the decades
_ within a walled / fortified village or community
A man with a year's supply of food will outlive a man with a year's supply of wealth.
the man with the years supply of food may be out in a year …the man with wealth can buy food year after year.
the man with a years supply of food has no choice in what to eat .
the man with wealth can buy many choices in what to eat.
some sayings just sound better then their meaning.
my favorite is give a man a fish and you feed him a meal .
beat him with the fish and he will leave you alone forever
Last edited by mathjak107; 03-28-2023 at 04:40 AM..
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