Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
i only care till i have money.
Well..
I'm sorta "upper" middle class..but it bodes badly for a society to concentrate wealth.
It's kinda like concentrating all your blood into your pinky. Your pinky might be fine and dandy..but the body will die.
Teachers work very hard for years and years to become teachers. They spend considerable money on their educations to become teachers...and yet the Republicans are making them out to be evil and are punishing them for a financial crisis not of their making.
We are lowering pay and raising benefit cost shares on working people, but it is sacrilegious to ask the richest people in the country to pay a little more in taxes? They are SITTING on trillions and trillions and TRILLIONS of dollars and the country is HURTING, but we can't ask them to pay a little more...
Sorry, but that's fucked up.
Teachers work very hard for years and years to become teachers. They spend considerable money on their educations to become teachers...and yet the Republicans are making them out to be evil and are punishing them for a financial crisis not of their making.
We are lowering pay and raising benefit cost shares on working people, but it is sacrilegious to ask the richest people in the country to pay a little more in taxes? They are SITTING on trillions and trillions and TRILLIONS of dollars and the country is HURTING, but we can't ask them to pay a little more...
Sorry, but that's fucked up.
Rich is a relative term. And whether people getting rich is a good thing or a bad thing depends entirely on the overall state of the economy.Wait a minute.
I thought people getting rich was a bad thing.
Rich is a relative term. And whether people getting rich is a good thing or a bad thing depends entirely on the overall state of the economy.Wait a minute.
I thought people getting rich was a bad thing.
Throughout the most prosperous years in our history, which were the decades between the 1940s and 1980s, many millionaires were made but no one paid attention because the middle class was rising in proportion. Very few Americans were considered poor and those who did inhabit that category were relieved by a growing number of federal assistance programs. All of America was proportionately enriched during that period.
Owing to the incremental deregulation of those economic controls put in place to prevent systematic erosion of the middle class America is no longer a rich nation but is rapidly reverting to the status it held during the so-called Gilded Age, the era of "robber barons," a two-class society consisting of the rich, the poor, and a moderately privileged class of civil servants positioned to keep the wheels turning. And at this stage of the backward progression attention is being focused on even that civil service category with the objective of terminating its lingering economic growth.
Rich is a relative term. And whether people getting rich is a good thing or a bad thing depends entirely on the overall state of the economy.
Throughout the most prosperous years in our history, which were the decades between the 1940s and 1980s, many millionaires were made but no one paid attention because the middle class was rising in proportion. Very few Americans were considered poor and those who did inhabit that category were relieved by a growing number of federal assistance programs. All of America was proportionately enriched during that period.
Owing to the incremental deregulation of those economic controls put in place to prevent systematic erosion of the middle class America is no longer a rich nation but is rapidly reverting to the status it held during the so-called Gilded Age, the era of "robber barons," a two-class society consisting of the rich, the poor, and a moderately privileged class of civil servants positioned to keep the wheels turning. And at this stage of the backward progression attention is being focused on even that civil service category with the objective of terminating its lingering economic growth.
How does a nation get "poorer"?
Rewarding those that refuse to educate themselves, have children out of wedlock and have a bad attitude with government "assistance" which, when totaled, is a middle class wage in the most other countries in the world. Tax the hell out of productive citizens and create a tax system where over half of the citizens pay NO taxes
or:
Lower taxes on productive citizens, businesses and corporations to spend, invest and create capital for expansion?
babies out of wedlock. Oh please, Babies at a young age before you can educate yourself i can understand and even agree on, But Marriage does not make or break a society.
i only care till i have money.
Well..
I'm sorta "upper" middle class..but it bodes badly for a society to concentrate wealth.
It's kinda like concentrating all your blood into your pinky. Your pinky might be fine and dandy..but the body will die.
so how does wealth get concentrated, can you explain that to me, exactly?
your pinky analogy is, well, not good.
The flaw in that reasoning is the fact that wealth distributed into the hands of the poor is instantly re-circulated, which is what keeps the economy vibrant. If a poor person receives $100 he or she immediately spends that $100, which creates demand, which creates jobs -- and the wheels keep turning. That vibrancy is what drove the economy throughout the late 40s, the 50s, 60s, 70s and early 80s. Regulations that prevailed during those golden years prevented the accumulation of the bulk of the nation's resources by a small group of high-level manipulators.How does a nation get "poorer"?
Rewarding those that refuse to educate themselves, have children out of wedlock and have a bad attitude with government "assistance" which, when totaled, is a middle class wage in the most other countries in the world. Tax the hell out of productive citizens and create a tax system where over half of the citizens pay NO taxes
or:
Lower taxes on productive citizens, businesses and corporations to spend, invest and create capital for expansion?
These libs.
No amount of domestic drilling is going to have any discernible effect on our gas prices
From the US Department of Energy:
"The projections indicate that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030. Leasing would begin no sooner than 2012, and production would not be expected to start before 2017."
Furthermore:
"Because oil prices are determined on the international market, however, any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant. "
And:
"In addition, the average field size in the Pacific and Atlantic regions tends to be smaller than the average in the Gulf of Mexico, implying that a significant portion of the additional resource would not be economically attractive to develop"
The United States contains 2.5 % of the world's oil resources and 3% of world natural gas resources and yet we are responsible for 24% of total world consumption of oil and 22% of natural gas consumption. The U.S. could drill every national park, wildlife refuge, and coastline and still be importing 60 percent of the oil we use.
Oil and petroleum products are traded globally so there is no guarantee that oil drilled in the U.S. will stay in the U.S...it ain't Vegas baby!
Reducing consumption is the key.
These libs.
No amount of domestic drilling is going to have any discernible effect on our gas prices
From the US Department of Energy:
"The projections indicate that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030. Leasing would begin no sooner than 2012, and production would not be expected to start before 2017."
Furthermore:
"Because oil prices are determined on the international market, however, any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant. "
And:
"In addition, the average field size in the Pacific and Atlantic regions tends to be smaller than the average in the Gulf of Mexico, implying that a significant portion of the additional resource would not be economically attractive to develop"
The United States contains 2.5 % of the world's oil resources and 3% of world natural gas resources and yet we are responsible for 24% of total world consumption of oil and 22% of natural gas consumption. The U.S. could drill every national park, wildlife refuge, and coastline and still be importing 60 percent of the oil we use.
Oil and petroleum products are traded globally so there is no guarantee that oil drilled in the U.S. will stay in the U.S...it ain't Vegas baby!
Reducing consumption is the key.
Really? Talking points...which are all the libs have. Who said only oil? We have huge natural gas reserves, thats the energy of our near future, also we have tons of coal and You just ignored the Cap & trade issue which Obama is implementing through the EPA. As I said energy prices, food, everything will skyrocket hurting the poor and middle class. Now break out of your talking points and use your head. Thanks
We have been hearing the virtues of "conservation" since the 1970s at least. No nation ever became great by conservation.
Teachers work very hard for years and years to become teachers. They spend considerable money on their educations to become teachers...and yet the Republicans are making them out to be evil and are punishing them for a financial crisis not of their making.
We are lowering pay and raising benefit cost shares on working people, but it is sacrilegious to ask the richest people in the country to pay a little more in taxes? They are SITTING on trillions and trillions and TRILLIONS of dollars and the country is HURTING, but we can't ask them to pay a little more...
Sorry, but that's fucked up.
Really? They hoard it? And where might they be hoarding that money that is not in the economy? What mattress does the rich person put it in that is completely separate?What we've seen increasingly since the inception of Reaganomics and the attendant deregulation of safeguards is the concentration of wealth into the hands of an extremely small number of pathologically greedy super-rich who hoard it, thereby starving the vitality out of the economy.
That is the main problem. Blaming the poor simply diverts attention from it. So I respectfully suggest that you not be lulled by it. You're much too intelligent for that.
It looks like President Obama's economic policies are finally kicking in!!!!
The millionaire population jumped in the U.S. by 8% last year
The number of U.S. households worth at least $1 million rose to 8.4 million in 2010, compared to 7.8 million the prior year, according to a report by Spectrem Group.
Households worth at least $100,000 also grew last year, to 36.2 million from 34.6 million. But the report showed that Americans, even those with money, are more cautious than they used to be.
In the prior year of 2008, the millionaire population plunged 27%
U.S. millionaires population expanded by 8% in 2010 - Yahoo! Finance
.
It looks like President Obama's economic policies are finally kicking in!!!!
The millionaire population jumped in the U.S. by 8% last year
In the prior year of 2008, the millionaire population plunged 27%
U.S. millionaires population expanded by 8% in 2010 - Yahoo! Finance
.
What policy exactly of Obama's caused this increase in wealth. Is this another socialism is a magic elixir argument?
Oil isn't the answer. Coal isn't the answer. Natural gas is a potential "transition" fuel, but there isn't enough of that for our energy needs in the long run and fracking isn't sounding like a really good thing to do what with all the earthquakes and such.
We can do far more by simply reducing consumption than what drilling for ANYTHING can provide.
Japan and India would take up the slack anyway. We have plenty of cheap energy to get us through as we develope the next generation of energy sources.
Especially if you make more than $10 million. Audits of these folks surged 73% last year, hitting more than 18% of taxpayers in the highest income bracket, according to recently released statistics from the IRS. "There's always been this public perception that the rich are getting away with murder and the poor guy is left footing the bill," said Thomas Cooke, professor of accounting and business law at Georgetown University. "It's true that historically the low income earner was more likely to be subject to an examination than a high income earner, but now the higher income taxpayer is getting the greater focus."
Taxpayers making between $5 million and $10 million were also under more scrutiny last year. The IRS examined nearly 12% of the returns it received from people in this tax bracket -- a 54% jump from the previous year. Regular millionaires were in the crosshairs as well. Audits of taxpayers with income over $1 million increased 15% last year. The move to crack down on millionaires comes as the IRS looks to boost revenue and to improve its image among average taxpayers who think the IRS favors the wealthy, said Cooke.
Because rich taxpayers can often afford to spend more money on tax preparers and accountants, the perception has been that they can cheat the system more easily than the average Joe who is doing his taxes with a company like TurboTax or on his own. And of course more audits of the wealthy mean more revenue for the tax agency; funds collected from auditing jumped 18% to $57.6 billion last year. "The IRS is looking for additional sources of revenue, and the higher the income, the greater the potential reward when the IRS finds mistakes," Cooke said.
In fact, the IRS has even launched a unit to specifically monitor high income individuals, called the Global High Wealth Industry unit, which took effect last year. But a jump in audits doesn't necessarily mean that the IRS will hit the jackpot immediately. Many audits aren't resolved for several years, so the IRS will need to gauge how much money the new enforcement efforts bring in over the next few years. And the agency is only likely to continue ramping up audits of the wealthy if a significant amount of money is collected as a result.
MORE
IRS goin' after the rich...
IRS cracks down on millionaires
March 29, 2011 -- Watch out millionaires: The IRS is coming for you.
Especially if you make more than $10 million. Audits of these folks surged 73% last year, hitting more than 18% of taxpayers in the highest income bracket, according to recently released statistics from the IRS. "There's always been this public perception that the rich are getting away with murder and the poor guy is left footing the bill," said Thomas Cooke, professor of accounting and business law at Georgetown University. "It's true that historically the low income earner was more likely to be subject to an examination than a high income earner, but now the higher income taxpayer is getting the greater focus."
Taxpayers making between $5 million and $10 million were also under more scrutiny last year. The IRS examined nearly 12% of the returns it received from people in this tax bracket -- a 54% jump from the previous year. Regular millionaires were in the crosshairs as well. Audits of taxpayers with income over $1 million increased 15% last year. The move to crack down on millionaires comes as the IRS looks to boost revenue and to improve its image among average taxpayers who think the IRS favors the wealthy, said Cooke.
Because rich taxpayers can often afford to spend more money on tax preparers and accountants, the perception has been that they can cheat the system more easily than the average Joe who is doing his taxes with a company like TurboTax or on his own. And of course more audits of the wealthy mean more revenue for the tax agency; funds collected from auditing jumped 18% to $57.6 billion last year. "The IRS is looking for additional sources of revenue, and the higher the income, the greater the potential reward when the IRS finds mistakes," Cooke said.
In fact, the IRS has even launched a unit to specifically monitor high income individuals, called the Global High Wealth Industry unit, which took effect last year. But a jump in audits doesn't necessarily mean that the IRS will hit the jackpot immediately. Many audits aren't resolved for several years, so the IRS will need to gauge how much money the new enforcement efforts bring in over the next few years. And the agency is only likely to continue ramping up audits of the wealthy if a significant amount of money is collected as a result.
MORE
