Posted on 04/05/2013 9:41:51 PM PDT by goldstategop
Congress is small matter. It's far more difficult to deal with 49% of US families and 47.8 million individuals who depend on social security disbursements to live. Their food is paid for by your taxes.
Some of those recipients are genuinely unable to work due to illness and should be cared for by the society. But the majority is formed by people whose entire occupations are wiped out; by those who are older and cannot find a job; and by those who are career welfare recipients.
In essence, we are all passengers, locked in a vehicle that speeds down a mountain road without brakes or steering. The government gave up on trying to fix things, even if we believe that at some point they wanted to. It was an exciting ride since the US dollar was detached from gold and was printed left and right. But we are running out of the road ahead.
“With a top rate of 35%, we are better off than Europe but not by much.”
Top rate for federal income tax in 2013 is 39.6%. Add social security and state income taxes and it is easy to be over 50%.
We’ll never get a flat tax.
We have a graduated er progressive income tax system.
I don’t agree with Putin on everything but if you want smaller government - meaning a government that lets you keep most of your paycheck, fight for it!
A flat tax of 20% would be an improvement over the 50% effective tax rate we have now.
The laws of nature ensure that a society which operates on such an equation, is doomed to failure. The above isn't sustainable, no matter how altruistic some are with other people's money.
To paraphrase Lev Bronstein, you may not be interested in Putin - but Putin is interested in you.
I think that, as the EU collapses, two possibilities emerge - one, the failed EU states come together under German suzerainty, or two, the Germans and the Russians come together in some sort of condominium.
We are not like them because our government wishes us to experience the above.
The average Russians I know remind me of what this country was like before we became a worker's paradise.
I am even glad, to some extent, because the events have shown how risky and insecure investments in Western financial institutions can be. By the way... The income tax rate for natural persons in Russia is only 13 percent.Luckily for taxpayers, only the government is allowed to own industry under The Not-So-Great Helmsman.
Yet they’re heading straight for it again.
Far from it. Read what Putin has said about taxes. Russia, even under Putin, is becoming more open and free. But yet Putin is still willing to stand firm against Islam. He has repeatedly refused all encouragement to raise taxes.
You can have all the democfracy you want but in the end your only as free as your tax burden. By that measure I am about 50% free. I spend half of my life in forced service to my countrymen.
Russia becoming more open and free? With the clamps down on free speech that are already on the record? With the police being a bit too free with the truncheon? With Putin (and his KGB background) getting his third term as president? With the government buying controlling shares in what are supposed to be private companies? Should we get into the assassinations too . . . ?
Obama’s open deference to Medvedev and Putin should have told one all one needs to know about Russia, never mind all the rest.
>>>Russia becoming more open and free? With the clamps down on free speech that are already on the record? With the police being a bit too free with the truncheon? With Putin (and his KGB background) getting his third term as president? With the government buying controlling shares in what are supposed to be private companies? Should we get into the assassinations too . . . ?<<<
In fact KGB and Police are pretty much more restrained in Russia under Putin comparing to Yeltsin’s regime.
There is a rule of law of some kind for investors who aren’t about to exploit corruption for their interest.
Ask Ford, IKEA etc. They have exposed any nasty approach from Russian politicians and unions and nobody dare to touch them ever since.
Both makes billions in Russia now.
Oh please. This sounds exactly like the same kind of propaganda used to get people to invest in Red China. And for the record, Red China is the one country in the world that Russia is getting closer and closer to. Putin is going further away from the West (I don’t mean the EU); and I will never be convinced of any of the pro-Putin propaganda on here until he becomes openly friendly to Israel and the USA (which he is neither) and stops investing in Iran particularly.
The last comparison in the Western media to a past Russian leader that was used for Putin was to Tsar Nicholas I. Seems to fit, what with the efforts to build his “Eurasian Union” (the name derived from “European Union”, of course) out of the former Soviet Union (which the EU itself is patterned on). This is a man who does not think of World War II as the twentieth century’s greatest geopolitical catastrophe; instead, in his view, that was the fall of the USSR.
>>>until he becomes openly friendly to Israel and the USA (which he is neither) and stops investing in Iran particularly.<<<
C’mon. If not for the Russian ‘help’ Iran could have a bomb years ago.
Russia is de-facto pretty friendly to Israel, thus it can’t expressed officially because it may hurt Russian business with Arabs.
About a quarter of Israel’s population is of Russian descent, even more for IDF. These people have relatives in Russia, including those influential in business and politics. Flights to Israel and back are also the most crowded regular flights in any Russian international airport. Both nations allows either side’s nationals visa-free.
Sorry, but I’ll believe the rhetoric out of the Kremlin over your unsourced sales pitch.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.