Health care

Tull,the girls or the hemp,
Bk, good ole boy from alabama...nothing against him but he has no conception what a 401k is. he is slowly coming around to ericnomics...dont have a great month and blow it on stupid sht, set it aside for the bad months, if it was salery thats one thing...flat rate is too unpredictible..and i do remember him bragging and showing his pay stubs to my guy...and my favorite saying....how ya like me now?

I am still confused. Why do people seem to think they deserve to live like the wealthy, whether they are wealthy or not.

The guy who made 120K and chose to spend his money on two new cars. This was his choice. Why wasn't he instead spending the money to ensure that his kids did better than he did?

In my opinion, America offers the opportunity for generations to move forward leaps and bounds over the previous generation. But this only works if the previous generation is content with their own lives, and only if we set an expectation with our kids that they will do better than we do. That's not on the government. That is on every parent of every child. If instead of worrying about their kids, they are instead worried about jewelry, flashy cars, expensive boats, houses that are bigger than they need, etc. then there is a good chance the kids end up in the same spot as the parents.

In my family, neither of my grandfathers graduated high school. One was orphaned at 5, ran away from the orphanage at 15 and lied about his age to join the Navy. He did 30 years in the Navy, and another 20 in Naval shipyards. Retired with 2 pensions and lived another 30 years. He was able to ensure that niether of his kids bore financial burden for him, and left behind a modest home, fully paid, as inheritance.

The other grandfather came to California in the Oklahoma dustbowl. Straight out of the Grapes of Wrath. He worked at whatever it took. Driving Trucks, Auto Mechanic, whatever.    My Father graduated at the top of his high school and was accepted to Berkeley. No money so he went to work. His only sister was 17 years younger. By the time she graduated from High School, there was some money, and she was able to go to college.

On to my generation. When I went to college, there were 4 kids, and my Dad made a wopping 28K per year as a Service Manager at auto dealerships. I paid for college myself. I did take 20K in loans which I paid off-on time. I worked for 5 years and went back to law school. Our benevolent government made me spend my 401K retirement savings before I could qualifiy for loans. I still borrowed another 50K to get through law school, and worked nights in a grocery store stocking shelves while doing it. Still, I made it through 2 college degrees, paid for them myself, and paid off every penny of debt. There was never any other choice. I had been raised to do better than my Dad.

All three of my siblings went to college. Only one of three graduated, and frankly, she struggles more than the rest. Still, these were their choices. They had the opportunity. No one else should pay for their choices.

I have done well, not great, but well. I fully expect my daughter to do better than me. When I went to college, I went to get a better job than my dad, and that is exactly what I got. I had no guidance, no examples. I have since realized that other students had parents who had already gone to college, had already acquired some wealth. They understood that college was not just about getting a better job. It was about networks and relationships that would make them wealthy. I fully expect my daughter to benefit from my experience.

If people would spend less time worrying about what others have, less time trying to take from others, less time trying to keep up with Joneses when they cannot, and more time trying to take advantage of the opportunities that they have, we'd all be better off.

Free thoughts from the soap box.

BKH

Bruce, Portland got 500K???? what did they did, buy a duct tape factory to tape the mouths shut?

Afro American? in Maine? didnt California just lose 21,000 teachers?

What we all need is more people with their own money, so they can buy boats. The poorer Americans get, the less they have to piss away on boating!

Beautiful day today! Going for a mountain bike ride, maybe ski on Sunday!

I do see the signs all up and down the freeway...but no working... funding provided by: "the recovery program"
when you borrow, you need some type of collateral, and our freedoms are the collateral. We keep borrowing with promises, but little by little, a piece of the pie is dis-appearing....who is doing the laughing?

Stimulus??? Remember the shovel ready jobs BS? With 27% unemployment in the construction business, what happened to the money? How much infrastructure rebuilding is going on in your area? Why not invest in stuff that will help keep our money in the US, like Nuclear plants, oil refineries, etc? I think the stimulus stimulated a bunch of gvt worker jobs, just like the health care bill.....159 NEW gvt agencies! Oh, that is good for the taxpayer. We are on the road to bankruptcy. China is slowing down on buying our debt this week, Moody's is considering lowering our AAA rating. Which means we will have to pay more interest to get folks to fund our debt. Viscous cycle....as more of our GDP goes to debt service. Coupled with more and more gvt work running our economy. Not rocket science!

Nothing will get better until we bring our debt to the surface and deal with it. You cant spend your way out of debt.

one thing I dont like is the 30 billion dollar fee from the bailouts would available to loan to small business, just what i need to borrow more money, turn it into grants, spur the fcin economy, been using that word alot lately, hope no offense is taken...hand me 100k and it will be re-invested out into the community....responsibly, might squeeze in a new Mercedes

I can only use examples, when it was mandated here in Ohio that you had to have car Insurance, 10 companies popped up creating competion, more were insured and the rates went down....maybe a crude annalogy but, its apples to apples,
Tull, on my personals im in a creative tax bracket and recieve almost all of my personal income tax back, i keep asking the accountant are you sure? but on the business I pay out the ass, real estate, unemployment, workers comp, payroll, state, . The tax system is pretty confusing. but the more you make the more you hide, basic instinct is only aggravated by the more part.

Tim, thats when I worked for Great Lakes Power,

the more land you own, the more tax you pay,

Tull, I think im talking a different category than you, lets say the income starts at a million, those are the guys that should be taxed more and i couldnt explain the burden any better than Phil on the above post.
really the only income obtained in those ranges are CEO's, or in some type of sales...unless you have the ability to sing???? thats the ones im talking about.
with the business i pay i pay i pay and wish i didnt have too, but thats whats dealt and i understand it, and in the grand scheme i knew that going into it and i dont let it bother me because at times it doesnt seem worth it, its enough to buy a new CC, but "tis the land we live in"

So what happens to the quality of doctor when the government starts dictating prices they can charge, affecting the money they can make? Have you also noticed that a lot of doctors come to America to practice from countries that already have socialized health care?

I know a fair amount of people making somewhere over $200K and yeah, they aren't hurting for cash. I think that's good and I'm happy for them. I don't think, however, that they should have to pay a higher percentage of their earnings in taxes than those that make less though.

I'm a fair tax / flat tax kind of guy. I like exise type taxes the most. That was really how this country started out and they way it should have kept going. Progressive income tax will ultimately cause more problems than solutions.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/26/smallbusiness/employee_costs/index.htm

phospher wrote: Yeah, that's not right. And I work with a CPA who also verified this with me. http://www.moneychimp.com/features/tax_brackets.htm

Phospher,
You're correct. I did not use the marginal tax bracketing. That's why I'm making concrete.
Eric would be paying $75,092 in federal and state taxes, on taxable income of $250,001. (I think)

Married
Federal
$209,250 - 373,650... 33%
$250,001 x 33% = $82,500

State (Ohio)
$200,001 and above... 5.925%
$250,001 x 5.925% = $14812
$14,812 + $82,500 = $97,312
I'm no accountant, but that's what I calculate.

eric lavine wrote: one funny thing is the owner of the company always insisted on me asking permission to the Captains, may i have permission to enter the boat, FT! im doing him a favor, he should say please enter my boat   lol

Eric-

Don't you and your brother own FFM?

Its not always money...its smart choices.

Tim