I'm in the process of setting up an online Radio Station and, after watching Good Morning Vietnam, I have myself convinced to say that....once. Okay, maybe not, might not be the best idea.
First off, let me apologize. My last post I referred to President Obama as a monkey. Some people took that as a racial statement. I no way meant that to be a racial comment. In fact, truth be told, I would refer to anyone that has so carelessly ran our country a monkey. So, they could be white, black, brown, red, green, yellow, it doesn't matter. So, to those of you who thought that to be a racial slur, I'm sorry.
I've been doing a lot of reading on Debt. Lets start off this post by defining Debt.
Debt: Something, typically money, that is owed or due
Public Debt: the total of the nation's debts: debts of local and state and national
governments
Private Debt: Money owed by individuals and businesses within a given country.
Now all of these definitions are easily found on google, I didn't pull these out of a hat. So, now that we have the basis down on what the definition of Debt is, lets get into a little more detail. How is debt accrued? By taking loans because the money isn't readily available, or by spending more money than is available, therefore requiring you to take a loan to cover the difference.
So with that being said, lets take a look at our nations debt, $14,242,221,600,000. Umph, thats a kick in the chest right there. But, can we really swallow that number? No, not really. For most Americans, anything over $1,000,000, seems like a large number. So, to put it into a little bit of perspective, i'm going to remove $1,000,000 from the number up there, $14,242,220,600,000. Heh, it didn't change hardly at all. Not enough to count, anyways. This guy does an awesome job at explaining it. Click Here and Here
Now, with the current budget cut proposals how much is it really effecting the overall number? President Obama said his proposal would cut Three(3) trillion dollars a year off the current amount they spend. If you get the chance check out The Debt Clock and watch how fast that number is climbing. The reality is, 3 trillion dollars isn't going to do it. The government is in debt right around Four(4) Billion dollars a day.
As of 2007, there were 138,893,908 tax returns filed in the United States. So if each one of those returns were to pay off the debt, they would owe $107,982.41. No real reason for me sharing this, i just thought it was interesting to think about.
So, anyways, on the White House's web-site they have President Obama's current budget proposal. Here, we see what a lot of the spending is....Medicare, Social Security. If I remember right, there was a stunning, attractive young man who wrote about social security....Oh, it was me. Now, wait a minute here, I'm paying into Social Security, so why is the Government?? On a side note, if you look at the right hand bottom, you see Immigration and other Law Enforcement. Immigration doesn't even deserve a percent? And we wonder why Immigration is a problem. The truth is, I really don't know, just seems a little weak.
So, President Obama said he wants to tax the rich. This seems like a great idea, Except what defines "Rich" in the United States? Well According to the U.S. Census Bureau it is this.
Bottom 20%:
$0 - 17,984
(3.4% of the income)
Lower Middle 20%:
$17,985 - 34,000
(8.7% of the income)
Middle 20%
$34,001 - 54,453
(14.8% of the income)
Upper Middle 20%
$54,454 - 86,867
(23.4% of the income)
Top 20%
$86,867 - No limit
(49.8% of the income)
Also interesting is the following statistic:
Top 5%
$154,120 - No limit
(21.4% of the income)
$0 - 17,984
(3.4% of the income)
Lower Middle 20%:
$17,985 - 34,000
(8.7% of the income)
Middle 20%
$34,001 - 54,453
(14.8% of the income)
Upper Middle 20%
$54,454 - 86,867
(23.4% of the income)
Top 20%
$86,867 - No limit
(49.8% of the income)
Also interesting is the following statistic:
Top 5%
$154,120 - No limit
(21.4% of the income)
Obviously, it doesn't take much to be 'rich'. An awesome video explains this a little differently to college students. Click Here.
Why I went on this tangent is because taxing the 'Rich' is not going to raise income enough to counter act the spending. What needs to happen is there needs to be less spending...all around. Starting at Social Security, which includes welfare. The cost of labor. The Government has way too much labor for what they do. Need an example? Look at the DMV. One person to write down your name, one person to take your picture and one to laminate. Insane.
That video was wildly inaccurate. GPA and income cannot possibly be compared in such a way. Money is a finite asset. It's a zero-sum game on a grand scale. Think of income this way: US currency is a huge cake. There's only a finite amount of cake. If one person takes a big piece of cake, there is less cake for another person. Some people have a LOT of cake, and some people get no cake. GPA isn't tangible or finite. In virtually every university, any student who meets the requirement of the class can receive an A or a 4.0, regardless of what the other students earn. It's not like there are 100 GPA points to share among 50 students, so one person gets a 4 but not everyone can earn the same grade.
ReplyDeleteYour statistics show very plainly that we have economic inequality on a grand scale in this country. Taxing the rich might not raise enough to counteract the spending, but it will help. Just because it won't solve all of the problems doesn't mean it won't solve some of them. The wealthiest 5 (or even 20) percent aren't the people who need the tax breaks. Also, not all of the people who receive Welfare, SSI or income assistance are lazy drug addicts who choose not to work. If you think the single mother who came from nothing and works two jobs to make ends meet, yet relies on WIC for food and SSI for child care assistance is lazy, you're fooling yourself. There are very hard-working people in bad situations, and very lazy people in powerful, high-earning situations. Capitalism isn't as fair or as righteous as theory would have you believe.
As far as the DMV goes, are you suggesting we staff one person to do the entire licensing procedure? Some people milk the system, for sure, but not ALL people do, and I don't even think the MAJORITY of people are taking advantage of things like government jobs or income assistance programs.
Just something to consider. :)
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