Obama proposes cuts to social security and medicare

[solanis]

Hey guys, I just turned down a raise at work because I was going to get taxed more.

Am I doing this right?

your ability to miss the point and veer off into a totally different direction is truly remarkable

Sure, why not. Estate taxes are still effective taxes. Also enact a VAT with low-income redemptions (akin to fairtax) Also if you enact the taxes on a federal level good luck ducking them by moving to east bumblefuck.

Where there is money, there's a way to tax it.

then find a way to do it fairly and bring it to DC. what about people who were once rich, but lost it all in 2008? continue taxing them as if they had wealth? come down like the fist of god on all retired people? after all, they're talented and could certainly still be working, lazy fucking old people.

[Hyan]

If they get all huffy about "government stealin' my money", then let them expatriate. The US is about the 3rd least taxed state in the developed world, by a fair margin too, so unless they want to move to South Africa or something (and pay for personal 24/7 security for themselves and their family), good luck with that.

Yeah. We're probably in the top 10 (top 5 according to your graph) and despite it probably being even easier to expatriate not many do it. But perhaps the popular mindset here is a bit different.

It's not really a problem.

[Day]

If they lost it all in 2008 then there wouldn't be much to tax now would it? You should probably stick to cosplay.

[solanis]

that's the point, you dumb motherfucker. if a person retires, they don't have wage income to tax. retroactively taxing them based on previous wages regardless of their current situation is stupid. that's why you would need to go after their retirement account income, their cap gains, etc, because everything else was already taxed.

[Day]

that's the point, you dumb motherfucker. if a person retires, they don't have wage income to tax. retroactively taxing them based on previous wages regardless of their current situation is stupid. that's why you would need to go after their retirement account income, their cap gains, etc, because everything else was already taxed.

Damn I guess they'll just have to get a minimum wage job and work harder.

[solanis]

Damn I guess they'll just have to get a minimum wage job and work harder.

but that would take minimum wage jobs away from everyone else. I welcome the days in which we transition from "durn mexicanos stealin my job" to "durn rich folks."

[Day]

But unemployment would go down amirite!?

[solanis]

But unemployment would go down amirite!?

only if we lower the minimum wage!

retired people aren't counted as unemployed, if you add all of them to the work force replacing the current minimum wage earners, you increase the labor force and everyone who had a minimum wage job before becomes unemployed. sounds like a disaster, to be honest.

[Day]

Sounds like a retarded hypothetical situation you are taking too far, to be honest.

[solanis]

Sounds like a retarded hypothetical situation you are taking too far, to be honest.

don't bring up retarded hypothetical situations for me to knock down then, retard.

[aurik]

Or, I dunno, you could proactively start charging estate taxes starting at 65 on estates over a certain threshold.

[volcanicweather]

Loving this whole "rich people don't work hard" argument. Regarding the study excerpt solanis posted on the last page about the rich working longer hours than the proletariat, I think the study is biased to an extent thanks to the modern era of mobility and technology. If a grunt worker works for 12 hours a day doing hard labor for low pay honestly that's about how long he or she can physically work before their body gives up on them, not even going into the ridiculous union aspects of mass labor which can limit and impair workplace interaction.

Rich people in general don't work these type of jobs (thus don't have these barriers) but instead log "longer hours" thanks to the always available nature of our modern culture. People are on their laptops, tablets, and phones "working" for hours on end wherever they are and some even work from home to cut out of the overhead of an employee in their company and so they can log even more hours. It's honestly not about poor people not working as much or as hard as rich people, it's that rich people are generally enabled to "work" longer hours due to the infrastructure of their careers.

[Dimmauk]

Put Business in front of any activity and you can log it as work.

Business meeting at the Golf Course.

3 hour Business lunches

even, Team building at the Spa.

etc....

[solanis]

IN MY DAY ALL LABOR WAS MANUAL, AND THEN WE EXECUTED THE FRENCH ROYAL FAMILY. MAN, THOSE WERE THE DAYS.

[Dimmauk]

Companies all over are reducing the workforce so they can maintain their tiny profit margins so their stock doesn't lose a cent. Meanwhile, they are creating larger gaps in the classes resulting in less people to buy their shit. Less people buying shit means more people need to get laid off. Will companies wake up and realize they are cutting off their noses or will they continue to lay people off until they ultimately close down? If only there was someone smart/rich enough to figure out what to do!

[Ksandra]

Companies all over are reducing the workforce so they can maintain their tiny profit margins so their stock doesn't lose a cent. Meanwhile, they are creating larger gaps in the classes resulting in less people to buy their shit. Less people buying shit means more people need to get laid off. Will companies wake up and realize they are cutting off their noses or will they continue to lay people off until they ultimately close down? If only there was someone smart/rich enough to figure out what to do!

I say it a lot, but fuck I want Oprah for president. It's become quite apparent the term politician just means a "rich guy/gal" who usually doesn't know dick. If we're going to crash and burn I want a free car and to feel good about myself when it happens.


OPRAH FOR PRESIDENT.

[*Shinzon*]

If people would stop voting in such out of touch political tools we might not be in as bad a shape as we area. Seems like generally most people vote just to have someone in office. Maybe we don't vote at all as these old fucks terms start to expire we can leave the offices vacant until someone who actually knows what they're doing steps up.

VOTE FOR NOBODY. It couldn't be any worse than it is now anyway since nobody can agree with each other in congress anyway.

[volcanicweather]

Speaking of stocks, the markets are getting absolutely decimated today and it doesn't look like its about to stop anytime soon...

[Kaslo]

Speaking of stocks, the markets are getting absolutely decimated today and it doesn't look like its about to stop anytime soon...

It's what happens when the government cuts spending, it sucks money out of the economy that would have been there.

[volcanicweather]

If people would stop voting in such out of touch political tools we might not be in as bad a shape as we area. Seems like generally most people vote just to have someone in office. Maybe we don't vote at all as these old fucks terms start to expire we can leave the offices vacant until someone who actually knows what they're doing steps up.

VOTE FOR NOBODY. It couldn't be any worse than it is now anyway since nobody can agree with each other in congress anyway.

Too bad this will never work. It's the cattle voting for butchers because the options are "butcher A" and "butcher B" which is a sad state of affairs. The whole "if you don't vote you can't complain" philosophy is broken and hurts this country by sending so many uneducated people to the polls to not only cancel out but overwhelm the votes of the people who actually even somewhat understand the political atmosphere and economics. Voting was once about pride, now it's about looking cool to your peers by wearing your "I Voted" sticker, at least in my age demographic.