To quote from the New York Times (here’s the TruthOut link in case the NYT one dies):
The Census Bureau reported yesterday that median household income rose 0.7 percent last year – it’s second annual increase in a row- to $48,201. The share of households living in poverty fell to 12.3 percent from 12.6 percent in 2005. This seems like welcome news, but a deeper look at the belated improvement in these numbers – more than five years after the end of the last recession – underscores how the gains from economic growth have failed to benefit most of the population.
The median household income last year was still about $1,000 less than in 2000, before the onset of the last recession. In 2006, 36.5 million Americans were living in poverty – 5 million more than six years before, when the poverty rate fell to 11.3 percent.
And what is perhaps most disturbing is that it appears this is as good as it’s going to get.
[...]
The fortunes of middle-class, working Americans also appear less upbeat on closer consideration of the data. Indeed, earnings of men and women working full time actually fell more than 1 percent last year.
This suggests that when household incomes rose, it was because more members of the household went to work, not because anybody got a bigger paycheck. The median income of working-age households, those headed by somebody younger than 65, remained more than 2 percent lower than in 2001, the year of the recession.
[...]
Standard measures of inequality did not increase last year, according to the new census data. But over a longer period, the trend becomes crystal clear: the only group for which earnings in 2006 exceeded those of 2000 were the households in the top five percent of the earnings distribution. For everybody else, they were lower.
Please shove this in the faces of anyone who keeps whining about “the death tax” (aka the estate tax, the one that only affects rich people).
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Roots!
The economy is in shambles.
er…investigations!?!?
Not for me…!!!
cinco?
zed?
Boom shaka laka laka
And, it’s sad to think that it’s likely in another year we’ll be in a depression.
And OK kiddos bread went up nearly 40 percent last year.
There are four individuals whom are the primary beneficiaries, the Waltons…!!! 8-(
but but but even tho i live in a trailer and don’t have any health ins and my kids are being held back in school, and we have fewer teeth than we have wheels on our cars and one of the trucks is up on milk crates i might be rich someday because i vote republican and when i do get rich someday because i vote republican i don’t want any of my taxes going to brown people even tho in sheer numbers there are far more poor whites than brown people
/wingnut paranoia fantasy
The federal estate and gift taxes raise about 2.5% of all federal revenue.
They are not revenue raisers.
They were instituted early in the 20th century for political reasons. Allegedly to break up the fortunes of the robber barons.
But these have always been voluntary taxes.
There are 2 outs:
You can leave an an unlimited amount to your spouse free of estate tax.
You can leave an unlimited amount to charity (e.g., your own private foundation that your spouse and children control) free of federal estate tax.
The neglect and abuse of New Orleanians is abundantly clear. Neglect and abuse of the rest of the country is simply a slower version of the same malignancy.
Why do republics hate America?
Forclosures, bankruptcies, credit card debt, recession, outsourcing, unaffortable health care, crumbling schools and infrastructure, and loss of jobs. 12 billion per month for war. Dead and maimed American soldiers. When will America get angry?
Oklahoma kiddo @ 14
all part of the plan … all part of the plan
Jonathan @ 12
Jon, you do know the Waltons are the largest beneficiaries…!!! ;-)
What I always noticed is that every meager, chintzy raise I ever got–at least in post-Clinton years–was hugely surpassed by the enormous health insurance increases. It was a loss every year.
btw, OT, but i’d just like to say before i check out for the nite:
tucker carlson, not-gay
over and out
Oklahoma kiddo @ 14
The anger is tempered by television and shopping.
Americans will not make a move until the electricity is cut off along with their credit.
I am feeling a bit pessimistic tonight.
This will be a good depression though. Neil Cavuto and Larry Kudlow said so.
Besides Bill Clinton’s p*nis caused it.
-GSD
CTuttle @ 16
I don’t know Sam Walton’s estate plan.
But I bet it involved a private foundation his kids controlled. Just a bet.
GSD @ 20
He must have a really big p*nis then.
Jonathan @ 21
Lowball estimates put it at $20 Bil. each, times 4 at 35%, hmmm… a nice chunk of change…!!!
marymccurnin @ 19
What you say is probably true. Some might say there is a fine line between pessimism and reality these days. ;0)
wtf @ 15
No. It’s part of the ideology. And the ideology says that you don’t have to plan. Hell, you don’t even have to think. In fact, you’d better not, or you’ll be ideologically suspect.
Jonathan @ 12
I’m of two minds about estate tax:
I tend to agree that a person who works hard all of his/her life, and makes a bunch of money, which was fairly taxed along the way, shouldn’t have to worry about that money being taxed again upon loeaving it to descendants.
But, I wonder if there would be a way to limit such an exclusion to only those who actually earned the money.
Let’s say that Paris Hilton’s parents started with nothing, then got filthy rich. I would propose that the money *they* made should pass tax-free. *However*, that money, once passed to a descendant, say Paris Hilton, who cannot prove that *her* money was ever “earned” by her – that she got it for free and accomplished nothing with it by her own toil – *that* money gets taxed.
IOW, if you earned it, you can pass it tax-free. But if the next generation just lives off that money and the interest generated – BOOM – estate tax, at a significant rate.
Do-able?
Dead people don’t pay taxes.
People who hit the genetic lotter should have to pay their fair share.
-GSD
jayt at 26
The argument in favor of the estate tax circa 1915 was that it would keep America from having an idle wealthy class, like Europe.
Well, the same argument plays out today.
But the reality is different.
marymccurnin @ 22
Come on Mary, you know good and well that Bill Clinton and his appendage are responsible for every bad thing that this administration has inflicted on us for the last 6 1/2 years. Fox news says so!
genetic lottery…
-GSD
jayt – money is how you assess a tax, but money isn’t taxed. People are. Once Daddy Warbucks is dead, he ain’t payin’ no more taxes. (And if Junior Warbucks earned that money, he goes to jail for murder, right?)
Czar and Czarina Bush are lucky we are a nations of laws with a system of justice. A system of justice which Mr. Bush himself has tried his best to destroy.
Jonathan @ 28
Given the examples we’ve seen of the Hiltons, of the Walton granddaughter kicked out of college for cheating (after her parents had paid millions to get a building named for her) and all the other overly privileged “trust fund babies” examples, how is today different?
Eureka Springs @ 9
In all seriousness, learning to bake bread and “can” (jar) summer fruits and veggies takes a weekend and a (well-chosen) good cookbook.
The net investment in gear is 20-30 USD max (assuming you have an oven and an oven mitt).
Really good organic flour is under 70 cents per lb. Yeast is $3 – save a bit from the first batch and make a starter…then no more buying yeast for each baking.
A case of Ball jars (for canning) runs around $12 here in SF, but I’ve been lazy on bargains.
Now, at the end of summer-time farmers’ markets, our local farmers sell fruit and veggies for $1-2 per pound -
[and that’s in flippin’ Marin County..one of the most expensive counties in the nation.]
Our “economy” – the abstract zero-based one – is headed for the shitter.
But most of us live in places where we can share these skills and find local foods and producers and make do.
We can share the basic skills our grandmothers and their mother learned..
and we’ll do OK.
[Next homily: skill-shares on how to feed a few hundred people with a few big pots, a few grimy propane burners, $5 of propane, and dumpster-diving.
And how to teach them to do it for themselves.]
So my usual pet peeve: are these numbers constant (”real”) dollars or nominal dollars?
If nominal dollars, they actually signal an outright decline in standard of living, as inflation has been more than 0.7% over the last year.
GordonM @ 31
The thing about the “death tax” that agravates me is that it is couched in terms of mom and pop American getting screwed by the big bad government. The reality is that if you are wealthy, you have a team of accountants and tax people to figure out how to pay as little as possible, finding every loophole and exploiting it. And that team also sets up your estate in such a way as to avoid as much tax as possible. And if you are wealthy and don’t do these things you deserve to get hammered at tax time because you’re just not that bright.
dakine01 @ 33
Americans today not only accept, but relish, TV coverage of Paris Hilton.
Which is why I think, if the repubs are smart about it (which I’m not sure they are), they’ll have the winning argument about it.
Eureka Springs @ 9
And Lahoma doesn’t like it. Which naturally means I don’t either. ;0)
I’m gonna sound like a gooper, but I’m not. I think that whatever money you have leftover when you die, should be able to be passed on according to your will, without being taxed, no matter how rich you are, or whether you personally earned it or not. Sometimes money accumulates over generations, and was already taxed when it was earned, whether you earned it or your grandparent earned it. I don’t see why the government should have a claim on any of it. I think we are being overtaxed as it is. I would accept more tax, only if I was getting something for it, like healthcare and dental care.
madmommy @ 36
Yup, Bush explicitly sold it as a defense of small business – that so many of them are put out of business by having to pay estate tax. Pure BS.
~~Already, one in four renters are paying more than half their income on rent — the highest level in at least two decades — according to a study being released Thursday by the Center for Housing Policy. That’s up from one in five renters in 1997.~~ snip
Turmoil in mortgage market hits renters in the wallet
Al Kader tried killin’ Jesus Camper Sen. James Inhofe.
Lawmakers plane targeted.
See, the surge is working.
-GSD
Yup, Bush explicitly sold it as a defense of small business – that so many of them are put out of business by having to pay estate tax. Pure BS.
The beauty of the GOP-sound bites that have no basis in reality, but if repeated often enough the gullible will believe them every time.
Jonathan @ 37
And back in the early days of the 20th century, Americans relished hearing the stories of the idle rich of those times as well.
Given that they’ve managed to get the estate tax suspended, it’s kinda obvious that they’re currently winning the argument but we truly need far more of the rich to show the attitudes of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates than the attitudes of the Waltons.
GordonM @ 31
jayt – money is how you assess a tax, but money isn’t taxed. People are. Once Daddy Warbucks is dead, he ain’t payin’ no more taxes. (And if Junior Warbucks earned that money, he goes to jail for murder, right?)
I dunno. Some people earn their money – others inherit it. would be nice to see some differentiation in how those different “people” are taxed, is all I’m saying.
Hell, when i was in law school, estate tax kicked in @ around $600K per person, or $1.2M per couple. I lived in rural Indiana, where a single combine can cost $250K, and farms stay in the family, if at all possible. I saw the ugly side of the estate tax around here.
Here in what once was Jeb! country, my county’s median income actually declined, even in unadjusted dollars. Unemployment is up from an absurdly low 3% to 4.7%, existing home sales are off 30%, and new home construction is down 75% The real-e-tards still screech about how “regional job growth” is going to turn around “a market which is already showing strong signs of recovery.” One wonders if they’re 1)insane, 2)willfully delusional, or 3)smoking the upholstery.
and we must STOP calling it “the death tax”
it is the rent a person pays for all the wealth they aquired BECAUSE of the tax code that THEY don’t want to pay
our society was BUILT on the principle that EVERYONE contributes, that a family COULD NOT inherit wealth and live in the country for generations without contributing
THEY MADE THEIR MONEY BECAUSE OF THE TAX BENEFITS that they were given when the people before them payed their rent
THEY DON’T GET A FREE PASS JUST BECAUSE IT IS THEIR TURN
NO WELFARE FOR THE WEALTHY
they have to pay their bills, they CANNOT libe off the back of the people that payed their way, they MUST contribute to the NEXT generation that is on their way up
BING
Valley Girl @ 41
30% of wages is the federal housing norm for rent, 50% or more is not sustainable…!!!
The Democrats want to dig up your grandpappy and make him pay more taxes!
Dam Democrats, leave my dead grandpappy alone. His pockets were empty when he was interred, I know ’cause I picked his pockets clean.
-GSD
LS @ 39
Money is a figment of the collective national imagination. You never “own” money the way you own your shoes. Money doesn’t exist without some kind of collective contract. This lesson is relearned everytime the collective contract falls apart. Which it is doing right now, though Ben is doing his best to make sure the People That Matter keep theirs.
LS says
August 30th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
LS, I left you something downstairs in EPU-land.
Jonathan @ 12
Which is why all the wingnut whining about “the death tax” is so effing ridiculous. They’ve always had ways around it; it’s just that these ways generally compelled them to fake some sort of civic concern.
GSD @ 42
As a twenty-yr-vet, sad, that they missed their mark…!!! :-( (Oops…)
phoenix woman…..that was a scalding post just back there a bit.
just in from the Borg, but how can we spread this around?
it is appalling. what an amazing bit about the blackwater goons clearing public housing.
CTuttle @ 53
You better be nice CT, didn’t you get bounced in a previous thread? ;0)
jayT @ 26
Why should you be able to leave money to your descendants? Why not severely limit inheritances so that the wealth can be redistributed to those who need it?
You don’t leave your fortunate offspring with nothing… they get something for nothing… and the rest can do many others some good?
Why dynasties of property and wealth?
jayt @ 51
Did you see my response to you? That is the guy. Sumabiatch.
PW,
Here’s the reality.
If you’re wealthy, a good tax lawyer can show you various ways to leave assets to your kids, etc., free of estate tax.
The estate tax is a game.
You know how to play it, you win.
You ignore it, you lose.
I’m as well off economically as I was thirty years ago … when I was being paid $4.25 an hour. Factor of five. (It’s depressing in a way.) So why are executives getting more than five times as much now as they were then? (It isn’t because they’re now doing five times more work, or five times better work, than they were, either.) And that argument we get every f*cking time that they ‘have to pay that much to get qualified people’ always makes me wonder why those companies can’t promote from within: can’t they train people or evaluate the ones they have as potential executives?
The Ghost of Richard Jaeckel @ 46
Have a good friend around here with that last name. Goes by “Rick”, though I believe that’s short for Frederick. Nowhere near Jeb country, though.
SanderO @ 56
Didn’t I read somehwere that Warren Buffet has his estate set up that way? He gave some money to his kids but not an obscene amount, the vast portion of his estate is going to trusts or charity. He said something about being concerned that giving that much money to someone who won the genetic lottery would only bring trouble.
hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi and hello and hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi and hello and hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi and hello and hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi and hello
SnarKassandra @ 62
Evening Cassie! How’s the schedule from hell?
Phoenix Woman @ 52
that dear Frank Luntz, whatta guy!
Jonathan @ 21
Actually, Sam Walton, once incorporated, controlled 40% of the stock. When he died, that share between his surviving wife and his four children–8% each.
That means that 40% of WalMart’s profits go to just five people. Now, I imagine that his personal wealth apart from his stock went to his widow and to foundations, but the big dough keeps rolling in… enough so that the four children can have their own corporation to manage their interests, which I believe is called the Walton Corporation, and to afford their own lobbyist in Washington, Patton Boggs, to promote their needs in Congress–repeal of estate tax, privatization of schools, etc.
SnarKassandra @ 62
such rational exuberance!
Cassie,
What’s your favorite class so far?
SnarKassandra @ 62
and Hi!
Call it the opulent gold chandelier tax.
The solid gold bidet tax
madmommy @ 55
I swear, such inflammatory rhetoric! *alas* I’m of the wrong persuasion in these here parts…!!! *g*
School is getting better. Tomorrow is our first day with all 7 classes and no advisory. So far I hate ALG 2 and like world history and probably English.
Good evening, Cassie!
SnarKassandra @ 62
*kiss* Hi!
montag @ 65
And of course, it’s a member of the Walton family who has the distinction of being one of the cheapest owners in Major League Baseball
madmommy @ 70
I like Cassie’s idea but yours is more better.
in 2000 my mom was just starting to use drugs a LOT, and i think we lost our house in 2001. Things are WAY better now. I don’t know if there is more money in my family but we’re using it for food and clothes and stuff we need.
Oh, Cassie.
Don’t hate Algebra II. Embrace it.
GSD @ 20
What? I don’t have cable – can you expand on that a teeny bit?
SnarKassandra @ 72
The best teacher I ever ahd was a world history teacher. Made me want to major in history in college, even though I didin’t go far I am still facinated by it. Always hated the math, especially when they started throwing alphabet letters in with the numbers, what the heck is that about? It’s math, or it’s language, don’t be mixing them up it hurts my head!
My income’s down. And so is my husband’s. Mine is down due to increased employee contribution to health insurance. My hubby’s for similar reasons. Even though 2 of my 3 children are now wage-earners, we are not doing as well. We used to be very comfortable. Now…not so much. Plus, one of our children does not have health ins. so every now and then, we need to help him out. And, it seems that our property tax goes up every year. I actually can’t wait to sell our house so we can live the life we used to live.
dakine01 @ 75
who?
And on planning … when my mother died, her investments were divided. I’m dealing with having to take money out of an annuity in an amount big enough to do really nasty things to my income, on top of the capital gains from the rest of the investments (and the incentive plan from the company I work for!). (We’re talking less money in the account than a congresscritter makes in a year.)
dakine01 @ 75
A member of the Walton family owns the Tampa Bay Devil Rays?
LS @ 39
Uh, huh….
The estate tax was initiated during the Civil War to pay for the war. Since 1947, we have been spending three to four times peacetime levels. That’s war spending, whether at war or not.
Beyond that, it was Jefferson who said that the amassing of great family and personal fortunes was the surest way to create the equivalent of an aristocracy in this country, and if something wasn’t done to prevent it, democracy was lost.
SnarKassandra @ 77
“A Lot”, food served? any response…? *g*
RonD @ 84
SanderO @ 56
jayT @ 26
Why should you be able to leave money to your descendants? Why not severely limit inheritances so that the wealth can be redistributed to those who need it?
You don’t leave your fortunate offspring with nothing… they get something for nothing… and the rest can do many others some good?
Why dynasties of property and wealth?
Probably my background. My family has run a couple of small lumber-yard/hardware stores for what will be 100 years in 2008. My entire family, every single one of us, has worked their asses off keeping that relatively small, independent business alive for all of those years (as it happened, I sucked at it, and am doing something else now). My parents, ages 78 and 75, still work 7 days a week. I honestly don’t know whether their net worth brings an estate tax question into play or not – but either way, they damn sure earned every single penny they have. I’m not talking about, or arguing about, “dynasties”. I’m saying that those who work their asses off should have the final luxury of directing their money to go where they want it to go.
SnarKassandra @ 72
Hi, Cassie! I know what ALG 2 and World History and English are *g*–but what’s “advisory” in the context of high school?
Jonathan @ 78
yes, there’s a great satisfaction in solving the puzzles!
CTuttle @ 86
Just my experience and feeling: don’t use drugs.
CTuttle @ 86
I don’t understand your question. There was less food and sometimes no food when mom was seriously into drugs. Now I have everything I need except real bling.
montag @ 85
Uh-oh!
Jonathan @ 91
Excellent Advice…!!! *G*
SnarKassandra @ 72
The teaching of math is frequently horrid. Look at it this way: you are learning a new vocabulary (a strict one, but it’s just a vocabulary). After that, it’s just thinking. It is not hard. They just want you to believe that, because then they can pretend they’re good teachers.
madmommy @ 87
I was going to say THE cheapest then remembered the D’Rays. Madmommy is correct, it is David Glass, owner of the Royals.
jayt, you do know that the current estate tax set-up allows you to hand off $2 million to your heirs tax-free, $4 million per couple?
(How the heck does a farmer afford to keep a combine anyway? Where I was, they did harvesting with contract equipment and crews. Combines and cotton-strippers are so specialized that they’d mostly be taking up space that the farmers would rather use for more useful (and less expensive) stuff.)
SnarKassandra @ 92
*Bling* Aargh! Ohana is the course, however humble a path, M’dear!!! *g*
“We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great concentrated wealth in the hands of a few. We cannot have both.”
-Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, 1856-1941
GordonM @ 95
I agree. Sometimes the teaching is so boring it seems hard. My daughter had less difficulty learning advanced math classes. She said it was because it was not boring like the first classes.
LS @ 39
I would agree with you if this were all earned income. If I inherit 100 million, the interest on that money adds up pretty quickly. No reason I shouldn’t be taxed on it. Just because my (I wish) rich uncle left me a fortune should not excuse me from paying taxes on it.
Where do you disagree, LS?
CTuttle @ 98
Dude, you’re nothing if not oblique tonight. Please define “Ohana”.
Jonathan @ 12
Democrats have to close these two loopholes. Forget the charity argument for keeping these loopholes back in the Renaissance the rulers had the wealth, supported the arts and the army, why because they had the money. They also controled government although they worried about “mob rule ” when they messed up.
Now what has changed? The rich control government indirectly and the Mob is on blogs angry about the latest government mess up.
Oh wait because the general population is better off now than during the Renaissance we are being taxed more.
Bush and his base the economic elites decided to pay for this war with debt. Debt is a tax paid in the future with interest.
I think those responsible should pay.
dakine01 @ 96
That was just a shot in the dark. Do I get a prize?
Advisory is like homeroom, but also has study skills and getting prepared for college and stuff like that. It’s smaller than our regular classes and has kids from honors and regular and special ed all together.
RonD @ 99
Our elders have warned us numerous times, I think Ike’s ‘Farewell Speech’ was the most ominous!!! 8-(
jayt @ 88
There is a tax attorney hereabouts, but the limit has already been raised to where I doubt it’s a problem.
For 10 years I was a Schedule C Corporation (as a software developer). It cost me all of a couple hundred a year and a bit of extra paperwork, but it completely insulates you from any of that crap.
(I closed it a few years ago when all the work went overseas.)
newtonusr @ 102
Ohana means family. If you had little kids around who watch Lilo and Stitch on the Disney channel religously, you would know these things. I’v got lots of other bits of useless info floating around in my head, just trying to find a way to profit from them.
RonD @ 99
Brandeis puts to shame most, not all, Supreme Court Justices since him.
The great ones since him: Hugo Black, Felix Frankfurter, Harlan, Brennan.
No one recently.
RonD @ 99
wise at the time and prescient!
CTuttle I love my family. They’re important and I value them. But I can want some bling too.
newtonusr @ 102
Family, I’ve been adopted by sooo many here, and, adopted so many…!!! *g*
madmommy @ 104
No, other than the awarenenss that you know probably more about certain baseball teams than you really care to know.
But the real obscenity is way out in the tail.
The top 1% are doing much better than the top 5%.
The top 0.1% are doing much better than the top 1%.
The top 0.01% are doing much better than the top 0.1%.
And the top 0.001% are doing much better than the top 0.01%.
dakine01 @ 96
Ah.I don’t follow baseball closely-lost the urge during the last strike-but I didn’t think ANYBODY could be cheaper than the D-Rays…
SnarKassandra @ 111
Bling is highly over-rated. Get some fake CZ, it looks good and no one can tell the difference. Except, of course, if a high school girl suddenly started sporting 2 carat studs in each ear. Moderation, my dear.
SnarKassandra @ 111
Bling is fun.
And it doesn’t have to be expensive.
P J Evans @ 97
I don’t know squat about estate-planning. I’m just a little ole crim lawyer, trying to re-establish a practice after taking 6 years off – working at that same damn lumber yard.
Got a Gooper brother-in-law, though, I’m sure he knows all of that stuff – it’s his business.
SnarKassandra @ 111
Yes’m…!!! (Don’t Ya’ll???) *g*
RonD @ 115
The Royals do give the D’Rays a run for the bottom.
Loo Hoo. @ 101
Well, I guess “No reason I shouldn’t be taxed on it”. Why should you be taxed because you earned interest on money? Why should the government have a right to it? If you have $100 in a savings account, why should the government have a right to it? If investing is legal, why should the government a right to a portion of the profit? Outlaw investing? What I am against is multiple taxation. Taxing money that has already been taxed when it was earned.
dakine01 @ 113
Oh well, I am cursed with the ability to remember tiny useless tidbits of info forever. My phone number, not so much.
SnarKassandra @ 105
Thanks for the explanation.
From your 2nd sentence, I gather “tracking” still survives in school. Is this the only place that everybody is together, outside of their track?
RON D go look.
I like my job. I teach math in a public high school. Also one middle-school math class. ‘My kids’ seem to like the way I do my job. The principal doesn’t always like the way I do things. But I don’t care. And he knows it. ;0)
tejanarusa @ 123
PE, art, music, band, journalism, dance, sports teams, clubs and maybe a few others.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 125
I like you. I like the way you work.
AND I wrote about spying and MLK’s wife today.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 125
*smack* I love ya, and Lahoma, particularly after a dip…!!! *g*
jayt,
Good luck re-establishing your criminal law
practice.
In the early 1970s, I found Illinois circuit court judges ignorant of the law. They tended to dispense equity as they saw it.
marymccurnin @ 127
Me too.
Can you tell me if anyone ever uses an equation to the fourth power outside of school?
marymccurnin @ 127
That’s nice. ;0)
SnarKassandra @ 124
I am honored to be but a humble conduit of information. :)
Oklahoma kiddo @ 125
It seems like you’d be the kind of teacher that would make the topic interesting for the kids. That makes a big difference. I cold take facts and write a history or english paper to die for. But the math thing eluded me one it got past the basics.
SnarKassandra @ 72
Those who don’t know history …take it again in summer school. Those who don’t know history get taken by the same divide the poor and conquer tactics the rich have used forever. (black vs white here) (Catholic vs Protestant in Ireland) the English brought some over.
Countries without racial divdes and high education like the Scandanvian countries have gone soc*alist and redistrubted a lot of wealth plus they have healthcare for everybody. Why because the poor are not divided, but how did that happen? ( I really need to read some scandanivian.)
Knowledge of facts lets one see patterns once you feel the curve of a pattern you can project where it will likely go next.
~~~ModNote: Edited for content to clear filters.~~~
SnarKassandra @ 131
The equation satisfied by a clamped plate is fourth order.
madmommy @ 134
I loved geometry but this year we are back to algebra and my brain is still on summer and swimming and politics and mystery novels.
CTuttle @ 98
babelfish got your keyboard, my friend? ;)
madmommy @ 134
I understood math only after I had experienced practical application. When I took drafting I immediately got geometry. Teaching by doing is the best.
OKK,
I wish I could be a HS math teacher.
I love math (have an electrical engineering degree) and love to teach.
But don’t have a teaching certificate.
LS @ 121
1) It’s not money that is taxed. It is people.
2) Money doesn’t exist without a social contract. You don’t want to be part of that contract? Fine. Your money is no good without it.
3) You going to pull the “property is property” line? Do you let your kids in your underwear drawer the same way you let them in your kitchen? Do you let your neighbors in your closet the way you let them walk up your driveway? Gee – maybe all property isn’t the same. Maybe the money you or your ancestors made exists because society provided roads, and a judicial system and a police force and a military. That is the only reason money exists. Because of all those things. And the only reason it’s worth anything at all.
Jonathan @ 139
Want to occasionally answer questions on email? And teach from far away?
Doesn’t pay very well.
Off on the business of the Queen. See everyone later.
Jonathan @ 139
Lots of places are looking for professionals to become teachers. Check with your local school board, they might be very interested.
GordonM @ 140
Imagine how differently things would be if we bartered. Then we would really understand value and how things work.
SnarKassandra @ 141
Cassie,
Any time.
Post your questions here. I’m here pretty much each night.
marymccurnin @ 144
My brother does a lot of bartering with his car mechanic stuff. And Aunt Betsy has a student that pays in home cooked kosher meals from his foster mom, all wrapped in tin foil and ready for the oven.
madmommy @ 134
My Calculus teacher couldn’t believe I scored a mere 530 in Math, I scored a 780 Verbal, some are non-cognizant in certain areas…!!! *g*
Jonathan will you email me at FRECKLES at you think left DOT com and i will have your email?
GSD @ 42
When Michele Bachmann’s entourage was in Iraq a few weeks ago, they didn’t let stay overnight in the country, not even in the Green Zone. And even in the “safe” Green Zone, she and her people had to wear flak vests and helmets at all times.
Jonathan @ 140
they’re wanting you!
It shouldn’t be too many courses to get one, if you wanted one.
CTuttle @ 147
Yep, that’s me-non cognizant. And judging by that post I should use spell-check too!
SnarKassandra @ 148
Cassie,
Send your queations to me at jgtidd at aol. com.
SnarKassandra @ 131
If you know this stuff cold, it will help you when you get to calc w/analytic geo., diff. eq’s and topology etc. And when you become an astronaut you will be glad you know things to the 4th. pwr. And if you become a chemical engineer you will need to balance equations no matter the degree. These things exercise the mind. And it’s nice just to know you know these things.
madmommy @ 152
Heh, It does work…!!! ;-)
madmommy @ 152
Sorry, that would’ve gotten past spell check. “One” is a word, even if you meant “once”. *g*
Once you die, your money does not belong to you. You’re dead. It belongs to your estate, which dispenses it according to the rules you set up. If you failed to make a will, the judge will distribute it according to the rules the state set up.
But for those still alive who receive the distributions from the estate, this is income. From the recipent’s point of view, it has not been taxed at all — it’s just fresh money coming in the door.
Recognizing that this is a different kind of income, Congress set up different rules for taxing it (the first XX is free, and after that it gets taxed at Y%). But it’s still income, and the recipient hasn’t been taxed on it until now.
The bottom line is this: if you die, you’re dead and it doesn’t belong to you any more. You can’t take it with you. It belongs to your estate, and through your estate, to those named in your will (or to whom the court delivers it in the absence of a will), and THEY are taxed on this new income.
GSD @ 42
When Michele Bachmann toured Iraq a few weeks ago, she wasn’t allowed to stay overnight in the country, not even in the Green Zone. And even in the “safe” Green Zone, she and her entourage wore flak jackets and helmets at all times, as did everyone else there (including the US Embassy staff) — which came in handy as a few of the insurgent mortars hit Green Zone targets.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 153
I’m such a dummy!!
Phoenix Woman @ 158
But, but, everything is going so well there!
Peterr @ 157
Amen, Father! It doesn’t pass-over…!!!
LoudounLib @ 159
Don’t feel bad, LL, it’s all Greek to me too!
LoudounLib @ 159
Hi LL!
Hi LL!
lol madmommy — let’s go talk some history or English or something ;-)
hey Elliott and Kirk!
LoudounLib @ 165
Sounds good to me, girlfriend!
So, accumulation of wealth is only okay if the government gets to raid it according to what they deem is appropriate and according to how they intend to spend it?
madmommy @ 162
…half of it is!!! 707!
LS @ 168
Get more basic. What is wealth?
CTuttle @ 169
math geek ;0)
LS @ 168
Ooh, Yes…!!!
new post upstairs
Get your ZED on.
Totally OT question -
Do any of you dry fruits/veggies at the end of the summer?
If so, do you use your oven or a dehydrator?
Inquiring pantries want to know…
Or can one buy big ‘ol screen “tops” to put over trays ‘o fruit/veggies while sun-drying?
Are the above questions prodromal symptoms of seasonal affective disorder?
Oklahoma kiddo @ 154
Cassie – you are right – math is much easier for most people if the have a clue about how the concepts are applied.
When I was teaching math (adult literacy, essential skills upgrading for apprentices and such) I found that students couldn’t make the link between the math they used every day and math the way it is often taught in schools. So they found it hard to problem solve in a academic setting – even the carpenters and electricians who could do their jobs just find but couldn’t pass the fraking qualification exams.
kirk murphy @ 175
Heh. This is my first year of actually planting the garden – normally I just do the heavy work. It was a failure. But the days of having someone else do the sissy work are gone.
I was planning on doing a solar drier for the (non-existant) tomatoes, but that’ll have to wait for next year :-).
kirk murphy @ 175
Ha! Every year at this time I am overtaken by the spirits of my long-deceased grandmothers – and have to buy a large bag of flour and a large bag of onions and also to make a teeny batch of jam or something. Stocking up for winter whether I need to or not.
Good evening everyone! Here it is. Another 100 plus temperature day and I had to have the great misfortune of being born with a conscience, so, I keep the A/C off until bed time. That’s dumb.
My take on the Feds, economy, inflation, complicated taxes is if you don’t understand something that’s because it’s been manipulated to be very very confusing, deliberately. That makes it harder to see the scams.
I’m heading to the mountains tomorrow to cool off and breathe fresh air. When I look out from atop the mountain I see no poverty. There is no commute congestion. It’s amazing. Then I come off the mountain and OMG. I don’t even spend any money up there – nothing to spend it on.
LS @ 39
And there are libertarians who believe in a confiscatory estate tax. Capital accumulation interferes with free market competition, in their view. And since a lot of (most) people who get wealthy in the first generation are lucky, there’s an argument for not letting such luck get locked in across generations.
By “luck” here, I mean having talent at the right time. Bill Gates, to pick one person, would not have had the same success in 1942.
Also, you know, museums like the Frick wouldn’t exist without the estate tax. I did some work for a billionaire once, creating inventory software for his art and wine, and you know, there is something that’s just not right about private individuals owning Manets. There’s some point in time when great works of art belong to everyone–although I don’t think I can make a rational argument to support that view.
GordonM @ 177
air dry window box herbs.
Jonathan @ 12
Admittedly the spousal exemption is a way of “deferring” the tax…and I suppose remarriage could defer that indefinitely. But the charitable foundation exemption does not allow directors unlimited access to the funds allocated to it. In fact, Directors are often constrained to salaries (which, admittedly may amount to hundreds of thousands o dollars) and the fund must have a truly meritorious charitable purpose. The Rockefeller, Ford and MacArthur Foundations are not simply conduits for their kids to get their inheritance moneys.
The biggest way that these inheritance funds avoid the taxman is to parcel them out to units of under $1 million to a large number of recipients. The General complaint on this by those who want to eliminate the death tax is that it requires families and others to actually “work together” in the governance of a company or other assets valued over $1 million. Otherwise the asset/company will be sold off to some other entrepreneur.
But I’ve never understood why people should receive such massive windfalls simply by dint of their birthright rather than their “sweat labor” (which WOULD have been taxed as income). Why is it that if you don’t work you should avoid taxes…while if you DO WORK you get taxed on INCOME. Inheritances are GIFTS…and really get off very easy when it comes to the tax rates compared to other such “gift” forms of income. The rates are MUCH lower.
jayt @ 26
But that would effectively do away with any exclusion! Because a real employee gets a slary or other returns for their activities and…tada…THAT is taxed as INCOME! Plus one has to pay Social Security and other disbursements on it.
And it’s a little hard to say what a person contributed to the original company. Just as Bush receives advice from “God” and “dog”, Leona Helmsley’s Maltese Terrier and “Tinker” the cat certainly “earned” that money with their devoted affection and whispered advice to their owners!
http://www.courttv.com/people/…..ts_ap.html
RonD @ 84
That’s actually Malcolm Glazer, who also owns Manchester United.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Glazer
Seems that when he inherited his fathers jewelry fortune he had $300 to his name. DESPITE the inheritance tax, Glazer seems to have done pretty well for himself…even putting some businesses formerly run into near-bankruptcy by our current nincompoop in chief back into solvency.
LS @ 121
But everytime someone passes on taxed income to another person as salary it is taxed again. And then if that person hires someone (legally) to do some yardwork or build an extension on their garage it’s taxed again, and then if those people spend it on groceries or gasoline it’s taxed yet again.
I don’t see any reason that the wealthy are able to somehow evade a taxation on an income transfer. They’d be taxed if it was salary or an out-and-out gift.
One last point…I never here the Goopers who oppose the “death tax” also support the passing along of DEBTS to the children of these wealthy individuals.
Yes, I know that failed businesses are divided up amongst the creditors…but this rarely fulfills the entire indebtedness. So if an individual is able to accrue PROFITS in their firm to leave behind a plump estate to their heirs…then perhaps the same should hold with DEBT ;-)
Only seems fair, after all.
LS @ 121
You question why ROI should be taxable. Why should a working man’s wages be taxable?
To pay it’s bills government can either print it’s own money or tax the public (somehow). There are various ways. Taxing is just a way of selecting what part of our nation’s wealth to take and how to do it in a mostly acceptable way.
Should only the super rich, who have much more money than they’ll ever need or use, be taxed, since it won’t really harm them?
Should we only tax when we consume, so as to leave people free to invest as much as they like?
Should we tax a person’s labors by taking from their pay packet?
Should we charge fees for all kinds of government services, so only those who use the government service will pay?
Pick a policy and use modeling to see if it would raise enough money to pay for the government’s purposes. It takes a lot to pay the bills and that requires taxing a lot of sources and at a fairly significant rate.
Maybe you’d want to start by asking what percent of GDP it is appropriate to tax. But, actually, as a society grows the size of government doesn’t absolutely have to grow with it. So, GDP might be a rough look at “size of government”, but it’s not as good as “does this size serve the nation’s purposes”?
We currently tax several activities: labor (through wages), consumption (sales taxes, including on gasoline), investment return, corporate profits and many fees.
Maybe all taxes are immoral in that you’re taking from someone, but if it is “we the people” who decides the rates and what to tax, then whether it’s immoral or not is only going to be as good and moral as the people.
It’s a tough subject, but if you’re interested there’s certainly plenty written about it.
Don’t tax you.
Don’t tax me.
Tax the man behind that tree.
LS @ 168
Government, to some extent, is always restrained by the people. Most people would like to believe it is entirely powerless except to the extent we hand it duties and powers, but in practice that’s an extreme. So, government taxes, with great input from the public on how and when. Whether it’s entirely fair or good for the economy is debated constantly.
Perhaps ideally we would have an economy so large and well-organized that we could have a tiny government which simply printed it’s own money to pay it’s own bills and that small amount of money would be so trivial that it wouldn’t affect the larger economy in any negative way. That way the economy could more or less stand alone and work without confusing taxes or other government interferences.
But, we aren’t quite there yet and the government we require is pretty big.
So, what part of our economic activity (the only thing in our society money relates to) should we tax, so as to not mess up the economy or to harm people and yet to raise enough for government?
We mostly say that once wealth is accumulated it’s not to be taxed. We like the stability that provides. There are a few exceptions like property taxes which go to pay for schools. But, by and large accumulated wealth isn’t taxed.
Whether an inheritance is simply accumulated wealth being passed on to the next generation or new income is only a political matter to be decided by people. There is generally no technical objective definition of what it is good to tax.
Levels of taxation might be more amenable to analysis, so we can know what levels are good or bad for the economy or for people’s comfort.
We could tax all blondes or all cigarette smokers or all who only labor with their hands or only the rich or any other category we choose. But, in the political process we simply decide how to do it. Estate taxes are seen as a good way to redistribute wealth or as a criminal double taxation, depending upon your personal view. Which is right? Who knows. But, the majority won’t be paying it, so they will probably not feel especially sensitive to those who do.
cinnamonape @ 186
Fascinating point. Why should the economic activity be disrupted by having the debts absolved, but not the profits? And, why should someone be allowed to accumulate great wealth AND debts and then die to pass along ONLY the wealth part when there are other people who might have neither great wealth (to pass on) nor great debts?
What human activity would YOU want to tax and how would extracting that money effect the economy?
The fortunes of middle-class, working Americans also appear less upbeat on closer consideration of the data. Indeed, earnings of men and women working full time actually fell more than 1 percent last year.
This suggests that when household incomes rose, it was because more members of the household went to work, not because anybody got a bigger paycheck.
“This suggests”?? Dave Johnson of the Census Bureau said flat out that that was the case. It’s not an inference; it’s fact.
(Just in case you’re wondering, every such assertion in a Census Bureau report, paper, or presentation is checked for statistical validity by Census Bureau statisticians.)