patrick.net

Troy says

again with the thought-terminating cliches

propose cuts to the “politicians’” spending or STFU plz.

Everything I say to you is a thought terminating cliche when it disagrees with you.

Wal-mart is the main reason that small business have a tough time.

It sells EVERYTHING.
Food, banking service, drug, video games.

I've spent roughly 500 on gas last month. It is insane.

Taxpayer says

My solution is
1. Make it impossible for SS fund to be used for anything other than paying benefits. (aka keep defense contractors away)

Kinda late for that. The entire surplus from the boomers paying in is now in the form of IOUs. The problem all along has been an accounting problem. Spending that money was one thing. We were borrowing money anyway, so borrowing it from ourselves isn't or wasn't the problem.

The problem is that we did not consider it to be deficit spending. Say you had a year where the actual defictit spending was 300 billion, but that year the SS surplus (difference between money coming in and money going out) was 180 billion. Then congress considered the deficit that year to be 120 billion.

So I tend to agree with this as raiding or stealing from the treasury. Remember Al Gores "Lock Box." That was the proposal to stop doing that, and account for it separately.

Taxpayer says

Defense contractors stole from SS; hence it is reasonable to tax any rich person in sight, regardless of how they made their money.

That doesn't sound that far fetched to me. But unfortunately the over 106K crowd includes the very richest of our plutocracy who seem to be hell bent on destroying this country, at least what it was intended to be.

Famous quote from Eisenhower that we all know, but some of us refuse to reflect on:

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist."

Obviously I (the commie librul union shill) appreciate Troy's point.

Let's drill down a bit. State Governments are running massive deficits. And your view is that a little more money coming in to offset the red ink can not do that, and will only be spent. The only way to reduce deficits for real, is by cutting govt spending - even if it directly cuts reasonable service jobs (remember unemployment is very high - and is a cost to us in multiple ways (benefits/lost taxes/lost services)

Tax revenue, even when we are in the red, can only cause worse deficits.

OH yeah, and decreasing taxes now (when tax rates near their all time lowest) will cause government revenues to increase and job creation.

Have I summed it up fairly well ?

Did your assertion not prevent you from thinking about most of this? I think "thought terminating" was very accurate. You buy and sell that stuff. (or do you just sell it ?)

I can predict exactly where Chris is likely to go now. (hint: unions) Speaking of thought terminating cliches.

I am not suggesting any new taxes. But, my friend is conducting business using Ebay and Craigslist. He has paid zero tax on tens of thousands of dollars of sales and income probably.
The funny thing is he complains bitterly about Ebay, but I sometimes remind him that having almost free worldwide advertisement is worth something.
He is escaping paying any taxes at all, but he strangely believes the government may someday confiscate financial assets of everyone, so he has some silver coins in his safe. He had some gold coins but had to sell them a few years ago.
He also is bitter about the value of his house/land dropping, and told me to buy his neighbor's 11 acre lot. The guy was first asking about $1 million.
"About $100,000 an acre for Santa Cruz woods? This isn't the Napa Valley you know."
Now the guy is asking about $500,000. Down and down she goes.

So how is California going to go about enforcing a California State Law on a business in another state?

There have been multiple court cases regarding this same issue involving many different states and businesses and they all turned out the same. A state can't force a business in another state to collect taxes on their behalf.

I once wrote software for a National mail order catalog company.
Very often I would have to run all kind of reports for official offices from all kinds of states. Many were about sales tax.
Of course there was already Florida sales tax, we paid sales tax on all Florida customers, but we would have also send other states sales tax, that had sales tax, when residents from those states bought from us.

We used to fill up when we went for gas in either of our two vehicles.
I told my wife a few months ago, only put in 20 bucks, regardless how much gas costs. If we keep filling up the tank, then the Oil Bastards at the Oil companies will break their goddamn arms patting them selves on the back that profits are up, if we piss 70-90 dollars down the gas tank. I'm not contributing to my own fuckification.

marcus says

But unfortunately the over 106K crowd includes the very richest of our plutocracy who seem to be hell bent on destroying this country, at least what it was intended to be.

Shame on you for attacking my end-of-year SS tax holiday.

marcus says

Let’s drill down a bit. State Governments are running massive deficits. And your view is that a little more money coming in to offset the red ink can not do that, and will only be spent. The only way to reduce deficits for real, is by cutting govt spending - even if it directly cuts reasonable service jobs (remember unemployment is very high - and is a cost to us in multiple ways (benefits/lost taxes/lost services)

Tax revenue, even when we are in the red, can only cause worse deficits.

OH yeah, and decreasing taxes now (when tax rates near their all time lowest) will cause government revenues to increase and job creation.

Have I summed it up fairly well ?

Not even close there Marcus. You still don't get it at all. You still have a gullible belief that government cares about you and that these goons can create jobs.

Government officials in CA are a bottomless pit of spending. You give them a dollar they spend 5 and ask for 10 next time around, and that circle keeps going. All they do is spend other peoples money. Government officials are not looking out for the best of the state, mainly for their own well being and their closest friends and biggest campaign donors.

This tax will hit the middle class and the poor further and take money out of private sector trickling down entire supply chain of businesses.

If I don't buy a product because it gets too expensive due to taxes, the store won't get paid, their staff wont get paid, the engineer who designs the product wont get paid, the manufacturer wont get paid, the marketing guru wont get paid, the truck driver whose job is to deliver wont get paid, the payment processor wont get paid, the customer service guy wont get paid... etc... But politicians will now have more money to hand out to their closest friends continuing a vicious cycle of screwing everyone for the benefit of the few.

We in CA go through this every time around and around.

Tenouncetrout says

We used to fill up when we went for gas in either of our two vehicles.

I told my wife a few months ago, only put in 20 bucks, regardless how much gas costs. If we keep filling up the tank, then the Oil Bastards at the Oil companies will break their goddamn arms patting them selves on the back that profits are up, if we piss 70-90 dollars down the gas tank. I’m not contributing to my own fuckification.

we are doing the same. it is just insane how much it costs now. for me alone it costs around 500/month, my wife about half of that. ~40% of income is taxes, $750 on gas monthly. At this rate I haven't bought anything yet or fed my family and already lost a huge chunk of my income. Lovely how this system works.

thunderlips11 says

My point is not about Sex and Violence being permitted, there’s plenty of it today. It’s about the context of sex and violence and what it supports/opposes.

What do you think?

The Media are changing. The same pop music stations which played "I shot the sherriff" later played Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York". Now what was the mainstream media is being eclipsed by niche media and individualized media.

Everything will be released and it hardly matters what the surviving mass media companies do or don't do.

SS (& mediaid etc) was initially created to fund a portion of people’s retirement. Its purpose is to ensure that the basic needs were covered.

The keys are "a portion" and "basic needs". As time goes on, the mindless narcistic public wants "all portion" and then some, and luxuaries become "basic needs". Say, your heart has a problem it beats erratically, well, in the past you died as you supposed to. But now, you want it to be "basic coverage".

Think of your own situation, if you buy everything you "want", there is no money left to support yourself. But of couse, Joe Bloe wants government to make others pay more so he can get to buy what he wants.

MoneySheep says

Think of your own situation, if you buy everything you “want”, there is no money left to support yourself. But of couse, Joe Bloe wants government to make others pay more so he can get to buy what he wants.

Actually, if everyone is required to pre-pay their life costs (via social insurance) these expenses will come out of LAND RENT.

Low taxes = high rents. High taxes = low rents.

This is obvious, no?

I say....abolish ALL taxes...yes, all of them..Income, corporate, sales, property, capital gains...everything.

Institute a National VAT of 15-20%. Based on recent GDP numbers, that should be about revenue neutral.

The more you consume, the more VAT you pay. Wanna save money? consume less.

The tax code will end up being a single 8.5x11 page and single spaced at that.

If you are a company "doing business" in the continental US, you collect VAT.

The tax revenue goes to the Federal govt and the states apply for their share from the Feds. But thinking about it further..why should we have different govts anyway?

Abolish all state and local govts. Make them Feds. Single jurisdiction, single law.

Oh and rename the country to United America. Lose the "States of". (I'm just kidding about the name but everything else, I'm serious about.)

state says

umm, tpb, i hate to tell you this but not filling your tank up all the way does not mean you spend less on gas. the only way to spend less on gas is to not drive as much

Sure it does in this day and age where profits are measured by minutes not days and weeks.
By not dropping $70 dollars at one pop in the Greedy ass speculators pockets, the inertia of the Idiot Herd soon gets bored. Thus bringing gas down way down far down in the long run. I don't expect this Oil cat and mouse game to last much longer. THE PEOPLE wont have it.

state says

maybe you should drive less???

i dunno guys, gas in europe costs 8 bucks a gallon and yet somehow they survive

You are aware Europe isn't "A" country, but many countries.
Many small countries many smaller than Duval County Florida, which encompasses all of Jacksonville, the largest City in the US.

More over Europe did...

You know what? Fuck Europe, and fuck $100 Oil, YOU can't have it.
You Greedy asses, go get a REAL job. If I can screw you over, by manipulating the Fickle lemmings into thinking people are driving far less, and spending far less by only putting in enough gas for a day or two, and doing the bulk of shopping down the street at Mom and Pop shops, or online. Then that's what I'll do. It obviously works and I'm not the only one doing it.
and that little piggie went wheeee wheee wheee all the way home, when the Profit report came out.

Income taxes today are lower than they were under Reagan, and yet Chris thinks taxes are too high.

You answered 25 out of 33 correctly — 75.76 %

I'd think some of the questions had nothing to do with Civics and were more Opinions. Also the wording on some questions were ridiculous.

Incorrect Answers

Question: What was the main issue in the debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in 1858?

Well I disagree:"This declared indifference, but, as I must think, covert real zeal for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. "-Abraham Lincoln

Question: The Bill of Rights explicitly prohibits:

DOH!

Question: In 1935 and 1936 the Supreme Court declared that important parts of the New Deal were unconstitutional. President Roosevelt responded by threatening to:

Question: What was the source of the following phrase: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people”?

Question: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas would concur that:

Well why don't we dig them up and Ask them?

Question: A flood-control levee (or National Defense) is considered a public good because:

That's not what Obama has been saying.

Question: The Puritans:

Question: International trade and specialization most often lead to which of the following?

I stand by my assertion. I was around in the Regan Years.

The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%

That doesn't surprise me at all.
So how did you do, Shrenk?

MJ says

income

Stick to the sections you do enjoy then. I'd say that, at least from my perspective, half of this duet has it's facts straight and the rest are all Bachmann-Palin acolytes.

For example, the "facts" about income tax are untrue...we had income taxes during the Civil war, the Papal States had them and the Han dynasty had them.

That's the problem with Glennbeckistan---facts are indeed pesky.

I got 32 out of 33. Missed the philosopher's question. Too bad I didn't read TOT's gimme of the answers first. Now what? Do I get a gold star?

uestion: What was the main issue in the debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in 1858?
Your Answer: Is slavery morally wrong?
Correct Answer: Would slavery be allowed to expand to new territories?

***D'oh, that was my first answer, but I changed to the broader choice as I wasn't 100% about it ***

Question: If taxes equal government spending, then:
Your Answer: government debt is zero
Correct Answer: tax per person equals government spending per person on average

Sorry, I'm right on this - If government only spends what it takes in, then there would be no debt!

Question: International trade and specialization most often lead to which of the following?
Your Answer: a decrease in a nation’s economic growth in the long term
Correct Answer: an increase in a nation’s productivity

Importing goods from abroad does not NECESSARILY help a nation's productivity. That's a THEORY with BOTH positive and negative evidence for and against.

Question: Name one right or freedom guaranteed by the first amendment.
Your Answer: Right to bear arms
Correct Answer: Religion

DUH! Did not read this well enough, I lept to the answer without reading to the end of the question. I do like my guns.

Question: A progressive tax:
Your Answer: encourages more investment from those with higher incomes
Correct Answer: requires those with higher incomes to pay a higher ratio of taxes to income

A higher tax encourages people to plow money back into their investment in the form of machinery, training, etc, as they would rather delay taking profits until later (when taxes might be lower or the gains amplified over time) rather than pay high rates today, esp. if they already have plenty of money to spend.

There is strong evidence for this, when the cap gains was adjusted in 1986, there was an all time record selling of investments, which quickly returned to normal.

Question: The United States Electoral College:
Your Answer: is otherwise known as the U.S. Congress
Correct: is constitutionally mandated

BOTH answers are correct. The electoral college IS Congress AND Constitutionally mandated.

There was a mild bit of Free Trade/Free Markets bias here. Free Trade and Free Markets are NOT explicitly guaranteed in the constitution, BTW. In fact, Tariffs are the ONLY explicitly mentioned source of Federal Income in the unamended, original Constitution.

While I was thinking about this, I found a great movie about the MPAA, called "This Film Has Not Yet Been Rated".

Check it out! It's on Netflixx.

The MPAA has no guidelines, has a secret identity review board, and does not allow filmmakers to compare their films with other films. In other words, "How can you give my movie, which features no violence and just one fully-clothed lesbian make-out scene an NC-17, when you gave American Pie that has a ton of partial and full nudity and a guy with his naked butt in the air trusting into a pie, an R?" cannot be argued by filmmakers when appealing the Rating.

HousingWatcher says

Income taxes today are lower than they were under Reagan, and yet Chris thinks taxes are too high.

I don't remember Reagan being a benchmark or being part of this conversation.

state says

ChrisLA says

private sector trickling down entire supply chain of businesses.

supply side/trick down economics has been disproven over and over and yet you still believe this.

Thats because I live this side of business. I don't care if someone wrote a fancy paper being a devils advocate, in reality supply side chain does trickle.

"in reality supply side chain does trickle."

And it has done a GREAT job hasn't it, with 9% unemployment, right?

What are the three branches of government?

a) executive, legislative, judicial - real answer.

c) bureaucratic, military, industry - more in line with todays reality.

ChrisLA says

What are the three branches of government?
a) executive, legislative, judicial - real answer.
c) bureaucratic, military, industry - more in line with todays reality.

Haha, yeah agreed.

I think though that I would put "corporate" rather than "industry". The word industry indicates that goods are actually being produced, and a lot of the financial/banking corporations do not actually produce anything.

thunderlips11 says

While I was thinking about this, I found a great movie about the MPAA, called “This Film Has Not Yet Been Rated”.

Check it out! It’s on Netflixx.

It is worth watching. No surprise that the MPAA has easier standards for the studios than the independents.

Thanks to such newer media players such as Netflix (patting themselves on the back) the MPAA and the studios are becoming increasingly irrelevant.

HousingWatcher says

“in reality supply side chain does trickle.”
And it has done a GREAT job hasn’t it, with 9% unemployment, right?

They take it out and we'll have a much higher unemployment. 9% although is high, could be a lot higher if government starts taxing us more and spending via unproductive endeavors.

The less money is in a private sector, and/or the less efficient the money is, the less the private sector will grow or even worth may shrink instead of grow (as of lately).

Cook County resident says

Thanks to such newer media players such as Netflix (patting themselves on the back) the MPAA and the studios are becoming increasingly irrelevant.

What's cool about the movie, in the credits it was partially financed and marketed by Netflixx.

It's a great service, and long overdue.

What's the point of a "poll test"? It's just another way to justify denying people their voting rights.

Excellent! Amazon should be taxed so California can fund our schools and much needed services. All big business need to pay their fair share.

shrekgrinch says

Economically, fascism’s main difference between socialism and capitalism via the vehicle of corporatism is thus: Ownership remains in private hands but is so heavily regulated & controlled by the State so that said ‘ownership’ could even be considered meaningless in the extreme.

That's incorrect. In a fascist state, the government does not regulate corporations. Instead, the government gives corporations the right to do whatever they please. Corporations have all the rights and the people are subservient to the corporations and function literally as a mere item on the income statement; that is, an expense that is to be minimized or eliminated altogether. In a fascist state, people have no rights and exist to obey orders from the corporation they work in. if you do not work, then you should be dead as you are not producing.

Since the corporations have all the rights, people are also subject to the whims and racism of the "management"/dictators. The "corporate culture" is extended out towards society.

It was Mussolini that coined the term "fascism". When reporters asked him what that word meant, he just said, "the corporate state".

IG Farbin, in Nazi Germany, was the largest corporation at the time. They produced the Zyklon B gas that was used in concentration camps.

shrekgrinch says

Fascists also are big on practicing autarky (or autarchy).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autarky

I think that North Korea is the only surviving modern example of an autarkic economy. The Japanese practiced it prior to the Meiji Restoration, I believe.

That's false. It merely reinforces the right-wing lie that fascism and socialism/communism are 2 sides of the same coin. Fascism and socialism/communism are separate and distinct and are polar opposites.

It's yet another stupid move by our legislature. If Amazon follows through with their threat (which I'd expect and hope any internet company should do to any org trying to regulate the interwebs) about 10,000 small business owners in our state will be screwed.

After that folks like myself will find another way around it.

We are like a boiling frog (although I guess maybe it's not true about the frogs).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog

For many right wingers, since 2000 or so, it's been starting to feel like a nice tranquil hot tub. Ahhhhhhh.

state says

maybe you should drive less???

It isn't joy rides. Office is 50 miles away.

I'm not in any position to move either. Downside of being stuck to to area.