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Old 07-26-2011, 07:00 PM
 
Location: London, UK
410 posts, read 948,082 times
Reputation: 331

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Interlude View Post
Hey people making $250k a year - you're in the top 1% of earners in the US! That means that 99/100 families make less than you do! Congratulations!

Know how you're responsibly making your mortgage payments? Saving for your retirement? Taking a vacation once or twice a year? Going out to eat at nice restaurants every so often?

Yeah, see, people making far less than that - those 99%! - can't do that. They may able to afford rent, maybe some consumer electronics (which are nice and cheap due to labor exploitation overseas), have a crappy car that they can barely afford to fix, can't save a penny for retirement and can easily go bankrupt if they get sick because their health insurance (if they have any) sucks!

It's super duper that you are so responsible with your money, not spending it on lavish vacations or corporate jet timeshares. But see, if you wanted to live irresponsibly and high on the hog, you have that option. $250k buys a lot of nice vacations if you don't want to put money in your 401k. Others don't have that option.
Never mind socialist!
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Old 07-26-2011, 07:02 PM
 
3,852 posts, read 4,506,012 times
Reputation: 4516
Quote:
Originally Posted by Benjamin Hubard View Post
Never mind socialist!
Thank you for the compliment.
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Old 07-26-2011, 07:02 PM
 
8,392 posts, read 7,354,917 times
Reputation: 8707
Quote:
Originally Posted by cyclone8570 View Post
Look at it this way: if my high school kid scored in the top 95% with a 95 on an exam, and the top 1% scored a 50,000 on the exam (or 526x what he scored) I would not consider him rich.
But I'm not talking about whether your kid was rich, I was talking about whether your child was bright. Maybe he's not genius grade, but you'd probably boast about it to your neighbors.

And I'm just using an analogy to make a point. I do understand that people standing on the income later 95% of the way up are looking at the other 5% way up where. I just think that the people at $250K should realize that they're not 'average' when it comes to income.

Quote:
On the graph you posted it is obvious that cutting off at 250,000 is a stupid idea, why not 2 million? Why not 150,000? Where did this arbitrary cutoff come from?
Actually, not arbitrary. As I pointed out, that $250K spot corresponds with where income for the wealthy really takes off, where it really begins. Mathematically speaking, the tangent of the Income function has a slope of 1, below that point the slope is very much below 1 and above that slope it is very much above 1.

Quote:
None of this will make a dent in the debt in this country anyway. The only way to really reduce the debt is to shut down military bases overseas, and cut government departments and seriously reduce spending.
Just because this one action won't resolve the deficit at one blow doesn't mean that it can't partially help. The solution may be a lot of not so large adjustments, not one great big cut.

Also, if you make $251K in income, the extra 3.6% of income tax would only kicks in on amounts over $250K, resulting in an extra $36. That's it, an extra 36 bucks per thousand per year.

Yeah, I know...easy for me to say.
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Old 07-26-2011, 07:04 PM
 
5,747 posts, read 12,032,538 times
Reputation: 4511
There is nothing wrong with fixing my old car, and that's most probably what I'll end up doing especially given how much I like the vehicle. (And for the record, it's nothing grand, just an average sedan.) My point is that all consumers, including those of us with generous incomes, would likely pull back dramatically, making it extremely difficult for our government to plan for and meet its obligations. In turn, the slowdown would also ripple through our economy, potentially leading to even higher unemployment numbers and lower tax revenue. I cannot fathom why you think this is a good move.
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Old 07-26-2011, 07:10 PM
 
4,127 posts, read 5,059,149 times
Reputation: 1621
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katiana View Post
Oh, c'mon! We put two through on less income than that! One went to a private college that was not real generous with the scholarships.

The cost of a new starter home in my area is just under a cool million. That's not a mansion and it's not in an exclusive area. It's just a house. You must consider that while $250K may in fact be a lot of money in some areas, in others it's not. According to Reuters, the present median home price in the US is $235K. In some areas that will buy you a waterfront McMansion in a great neighborhood. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area it'll get you a 90-year-old shotgun shack in one of the seedier parts of Oakland or Richmond. Money just doesn't work the same from coast to coast.
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Old 07-26-2011, 07:11 PM
 
24,834 posts, read 37,276,103 times
Reputation: 11538
Quote:
Originally Posted by formercalifornian View Post
So you are exactly the kind of person our President is calling out for taking advantage of the loopholes in our tax code to avoid paying your fair share.
Oh, I am the person who pulled out of banks to hurt Obama.

Took my money right out of the system.

Obama is feel to redistribute his money.
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Old 07-26-2011, 07:12 PM
 
6,734 posts, read 9,325,964 times
Reputation: 1857
Quote:
Originally Posted by Benjamin Hubard View Post
Never mind socialist!
That word is so overused it has as much bite as calling someone a poo poo head.
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Old 07-26-2011, 07:15 PM
 
Location: Inis Fada
16,966 posts, read 34,636,857 times
Reputation: 7722
Quote:
Originally Posted by formercalifornian View Post
Perhaps so, ohbeehave, but what exactly does that have to with repealing the Bush-era tax breaks?
I am responding with both my posts in mind as they were sort of

Like some others here, I watch this fearing my financial well being. If tax breaks are repealed, the higher earning (affected) clients spend less, business slows but my obligations remain (various insurance, rent, phones, vehicles, equipment, maintenance.). Salary has to be adjusted down but other household costs continue rising (taxes, HO insurance, phone, cable, health insurance, heating oil, etc.)

If repealing the tax breaks doesn't impact us as dips have in the past, we run the risk of having profits added into our income, bumping us into a category which could hurt.

I feel like we're on a teeter totter.
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Old 07-26-2011, 07:15 PM
 
2,714 posts, read 4,272,784 times
Reputation: 1314
Quote:
Originally Posted by djmilf View Post
Just because this one action won't resolve the deficit at one blow doesn't mean that it can't partially help.
Then why don't liberal $250K+ earners start sending checks to the government? They keep saying "it won't make a difference..." well you can't have it both ways. Either it will, or it won't...
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Old 07-26-2011, 07:18 PM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,475,124 times
Reputation: 35920
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe_Ryder View Post
The cost of a new starter home in my area is just under a cool million. That's not a mansion and it's not in an exclusive area. It's just a house. You must consider that while $250K may in fact be a lot of money in some areas, in others it's not. According to Reuters, the present median home price in the US is $235K. In some areas that will buy you a waterfront McMansion in a great neighborhood. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area it'll get you a 90-year-old shotgun shack in one of the seedier parts of Oakland or Richmond. Money just doesn't work the same from coast to coast.
No s***, Sherlock! Good grief, you must think I'm pretty naive if you think I don't know that. I don't know what that has to do with putting kids through college. By then, your house payment is usually fairly low in comparison to your income, lower than it was when you bought the house, anyway.
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