Posted on 09/17/2011 4:14:38 AM PDT by Kaslin
That hits the nail so squarely on the head, that there really is no comment I can make.
Yeah, half a billion tax dollars that went to Solyandra for toilet paper, we have nothing to show for it but the bill. Our kids will be paying that one for a while, eh?
312,232,964 people in the United States a half a billion flushed—we all could have had a million dollars. Imagine what THAT would have done for the economy.
We are being so royally screwed. Taxing us, our kids and grand-kids just to throw money away. Well a politician and a few rich folk prob’ly made out good.
The federal government is spending nearly 25% of GDP right now. And that’s just the federal government. Then there’s state and local taxes... Government at all levels is spending us to death - literally.
I thought the article was good, but I have to add, that it gets old hearing about how “If you own your home, you pay property taxes, too.” Renters pay property taxes too, it’s just collected by the property owner and passed on to the government, like any other tax on corporations, etc. It is included in the cost of business. When I last lived in an apartment, my bill had the breakdown, including the amount in property tax I paid to them that they passed on. EVERYONE pays property taxes, unless their housing is paid for, for them.
That being said, taxes and regulation are strangling this country. It’s intentional. People have excellent ideas and means of producing goods and services in order to survive and thrive. But people are taxed and regulation to the point that they generally must go into debt to open a business, and the taxes/licenses are overwhelming if they even make it that far.
Half a billion dollars is about $5 a taxpayer - not anywhere near a million dollars each.
When Bush handed out Chinese money (stimulus), people saved it or used it to spend down debt (Wisely). That’s why you will never, ever, ever, see that type of payment again to the average person (The EIC winners get it every year). The income tax needs to be abolished. The permissive acts of allowing government to nickel and dime your income before you ever saw it was one of the greatest failures of the 1900’s.
“And that's why the economy is having so much trouble.”
I do give him credit for mentioning the waste and the failed keynesian communism... he should have named it for what it is but... with that one sentence... o’bloviator excuses all of the decades of deficit spending and the open marxism of the left and the incrementalism that has brought us to the brink of collapse worldwide. Consumers are not spending... that is simply a symptom of the disease... IT IS NOT THAT SYMPTOM THAT IS KILLING US... IT IS THE CANCER OF THE COMMUNIST DREAM!
Our taxes are so high because of... redistribution programs of welfare (20 million flavors of that in America today) and ponzi schemes like socialist security... that allow the government to collect insane amounts of money from workers... promise that money back to them when they retire... plus a lot of other peoples money thrown in... and then allows them to spend that money today on socialist programs and green pipe dreams and corrupt slush funds for supporters... and at the end of the day... they have to borrow money from our enemies (chicoms) to finance the programs that they collected the money for in the first place... wake up bill... it may be too late to save America but you should have watch the destruction of America that you helped to bring about.
LLS
Yeah, I was a dumb azz there...oops *blush*
Though, it would still be more than we have to show for it now. This whole mess just makes me sick to my stomach.
Solyandra provides a perfect example of wealth destruction. Half a billion dollars in hard-earned taxes go in, or in this case a half-billon dollar IOU against future taxes plus interest, and that money vanishes as another politically connected company goes belly up.
Poor? You bet. Social Security survivor benefits don’t cover the bills anymore. One child, and that one well-educated (homeschooled), smart, sensible, wonderful — but not a prayer of going to college. Finding a job would answer our prayers. We go nowhere unnecessarily in our clunker car, that I can’t afford to fix or fuel up. Sewer tax is now higher than water usage. Electric has gone up, and space heaters will keep the pipes from freezing because oil is unaffordable. Medical insurance went out the window five years ago, along with property insurance and all but the absolute legal minimum of auto insurance. We do volunteer work delivering food to people with air conditioning, tv and fancy phones and spiffy cars — we have no a/c, no tv (you couldn’t pay me to turn one on if I had it!), a pay-go cell phone about 6 years old, and the car is a heap.
The scariest part is that everyone we encounter says the smart approach is to go to public housing — i.e., to go on relief. We have a house, and they say to leave it and get a free apartment! Yet we are in a rural area, mostly conservative.
People were softened up for this depression we’re in. They think government is the solution.
When you get really poor you begin to see it: more people than you ever imagined, are pushers and/or users of government.
Well, that and some happy and rich Obama donors who cashed out before TSHTF.
Nope. We don’t have a video-game console, more than one television, or cable. We can’t be poor.
15% of the population lives in poverty, and Obama says he won’t rest until we are all in the poorhouse.
The answer, I think, is that we have constructed a massive, complex economic system that simply relies on these unseen institutions (governments and others) to mask the fact that our high standard of living is largely an illusion. And what I mean by that is that in recent decades we have come to rely increasingly on GDP growth that isn't "real" at all. Instead, it is based on growth of business activity that has replaced personal "non-financial" activity (like schools and day care centers replacing parents for raising children) or entire industries built on the idea of third-party payment as the norm (health care and education, for example).
My grandson, a high school sophomore, wouldn't have a prayer of going to college either . . . if he depended on his parents paying for it. His dad has been unemployed for a couple of years and mom's paycheck barely covers household expenses for the family.
Instead, he expects to get a ROTC scholarship that will cover his tuition, provide a textbook allowance, cover most lab fees, and they'll give him $500 spending cash per month to boot!
He's in the JAFROTC now and loves it! He's one of four Flight Commanders in the school and supervises about 40 cadets.
My homeschooler wanted to join the service, but I started opposing it when Obama became Commander-in-Chief. We’re not far from a military base, would have been convenient, financially a big relief, and the kid wants a legal career. But if you go up the chain and Barack Obama is on top...NO. Flat out NO.
My family of six has an annual income of about 80 grand. Although we are a one income family, a good amount of people aren’t. If we were a two income family, we would definitely be over 100 grand. That is good money but having my wife at home is 100 percent worth living on a lower amount of money. Is that 50,000 only one income per family. I don’t know of any families with TWO incomes making 50,000 or less. I think they are fudging the numbers.
I went into the service in 1987 and a few years later Clinton was President. I survived. Completed 24 years in June. Don’t keep your son out of the service over a President who won’t be there in one year or five years. The service is VERY good regardless of the naysayers on this site who have become anti-military zealots. Code pink is very proud of those folks.
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