rushmc 23 #1 August 8, 2011 I am putting this in its own thread since dreamcrusher decided just to ignore it http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/39534 QuoteFrom Reuters: “Total adjusted gross income reported on tax returns, measured in 2009 dollars, was $7.626 trillion, down from $8.233 trillion in 2008 and $8.989 trillion in 2007. Total adjusted gross income was up only slightly from the $7.475 trillion reported in 2001, when there were 10 million fewer taxpayers. Adjusted gross income is the amount on the last line of the front page of a Form 1040 tax return.” and this QuoteDoubling federal income taxes for everyone would still leave us $400 billion or so shy of balancing the budget. Again We have a spending problem, along with a jealousy problem of those who think government should be equal outcome based instead of being equal opportunity based"America will never be destroyed from the outside, if we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." Abraham Lincoln Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CanuckInUSA 0 #2 August 8, 2011 The US (and other nations) need to stop spending money it does not have. This includes their military. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
michalm21 2 #3 August 8, 2011 QuoteThe US (and other nations) need to stop spending money it does not have. This includes their military. If we cut military spending by 70% we will still spend twice as much as second China, and 4 times as much as next few countries on the list. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
riddler 0 #4 August 8, 2011 No single action will resolve the American economic situation. This is why, in the past week, when President Obama and leaders of Congress said that they would fix the debt problem without raising taxes ... no one believed them. It's also why Obama forestalled the next such venue until after the 2012 election. He doesn't want to be President. The next presidency is going to be dubbed the "Poison Presidency", because no one in their right mind will want to take the job. If we continue to follow Roman history, it's nearly time for the dictatorship in this country. I'm not saying it's a good thing, but it's happened before.Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rushmc 23 #5 August 8, 2011 QuoteNo single action will resolve the American economic situation. This is why, in the past week, when President Obama and leaders of Congress said that they would fix the debt problem without raising taxes ... no one believed them. It's also why Obama forestalled the next such venue until after the 2012 election. He doesn't want to be President. The next presidency is going to be dubbed the "Poison Presidency", because no one in their right mind will want to take the job. If we continue to follow Roman history, it's nearly time for the dictatorship in this country. I'm not saying it's a good thing, but it's happened before. We do NOT have a revenue problem We have a spending problem"America will never be destroyed from the outside, if we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." Abraham Lincoln Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
StreetScooby 5 #6 August 8, 2011 Quote We have a spending problem This has been reasonably well shown in this thread: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4163833;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unreadWe are all engines of karma Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rushmc 23 #7 August 8, 2011 QuoteQuote We have a spending problem This has been reasonably well shown in this thread: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4163833;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread Yes it has And it keeps getting ignored"America will never be destroyed from the outside, if we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." Abraham Lincoln Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
StreetScooby 5 #8 August 8, 2011 Quote And it keeps getting ignored Too many facts for the liberals. That it's being ignored suggests the argument has been resolved.We are all engines of karma Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rushmc 23 #9 August 8, 2011 QuoteQuote And it keeps getting ignored Too many facts for the liberals. That it's being ignored suggests the argument has been resolved. Yes, in cases like this things stay very quite Same as when DanG asked me to post a link that says health care costs will rise faster since Obamacare has passed than if nothing had been passed We want to get out of this mess Obama care needs to be killed and gov regs need to be cut back and simplified"America will never be destroyed from the outside, if we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." Abraham Lincoln Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lurch 0 #10 August 8, 2011 I don't think there are enough of -anybody- to tax enough to make this stupid pyramid-scheme system work much longer. Theres no money left. They took it all. And spent it. I've watched the prices of everything quadruple since I was a kid. When I got my first real apartment at age 18, a simple 1-bedroom cost $400/mo. My rent here in an identical apartment has been stable for years at $800. When I considered moving and searched I could not replace this apartment for less than $1100/mo or so. Its gone up another $300 just while I've been living here. Startup costs, utilities, associated fees, first/last and security deposit would bring the base price of just getting an apartment to $3-4k and I'd take a permanent hit to the tune of another $300 a month for the same damn apartment. I'd be back to living paycheck to paycheck again the next time the car breaks and unexpectedly eats another $1200. I make what once would have been a pretty good blue collar middle class wage and I can't even afford to move. Or replace my car. Or pay even just the deductible on one single significant medical procedure. I have no idea how people on minimum wage are surviving now. In another 10 years at this rate I could be making $75,000/yr... and living in abject poverty paying $14.00/gallon for gas, $10/gallon of which will be taxes intended to force me to make "healthy" choices about my driving habits or buy the nice little Ecomobile I can't afford which won't get me to work in a blizzard anyway, living in the cheapest possible lodgings which will cost $2500/mo not counting phone gas and electric. I just finally quit worrying about all of this. I expect scrimping scrambling and gray-market barter to be a way of life for the foreseeable future. I already do a lot of technical work in exchange for favors, services or equivalent trade in value. Some things are predictable in chaos. Those responsible for the mess will continue the behavior. By now its too late to fix it. Irrevocable dependencies have been established. Revoke ALL taxes and fees and permits and the billion and one ways the government picks our pockets, and it'd fix half the problem... suddenly a $50,000/year job would actually BE middle class again... and the other half of the system dependent on taxes would disintegrate. Starving millions. No roads. Back to the middle ages. Government has become rather open about its view of the citizenry... the fact that people are mostly referred to as "the taxpayers" or "votes". To a politician we exist only to put them in power and produce wealth for them to confiscate and spend. Want change? Kick back and wait awhile longer. The people responsible absolutely will NOT surrender their grip on the world until and unless it disintegrates around them. Until we actually see starvation in what used to be middle class America. Revoke a few taxes? Stop the wars? Make government actually earn its keep? Not gonna happen. So we're just going to have to wait till it breaks. Take a good long look at Detroit. Get used to the view. Detroit is coming to you. After it all falls apart, maybe, just maybe, people with hammers and saws and actual useful real world skills will be able to rebuild after. Maybe. Assuming they haven't starved before the mechanisms for tax collection have failed. Those mechanisms will be among the last to go. Meanwhile, if and when the system falls, millions dependent on government goodies will be very hungry. No matter what happens, it won't be pretty. I think we're headed for The Big Reset... may take another decade or two to play out, but it seems pretty obvious the whole megatrillion dollar shell game isn't going to last in its present form much longer. They're ripping out props just to use the pieces to hold up other collapsing parts in a wholesale lootingfest that will continue until the entire thing is ashes and theres a small wealthy class who got out with the cash living in Barbados enjoying sweet, sweet success, the apotheosis of the American Dream. We live in interesting times. I'll be very interested to see how America handles being self-demoted to 3rd world. China will be SO disappointed... we won't be able to buy all the suburban consumer culture goodies they industrialized to make. Hopefully they'll be able to just consume it all themselves... -BLive and learn... or die, and teach by example. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
StreetScooby 5 #11 August 8, 2011 Quote Take a good long look at Detroit. Get used to the view. Detroit is coming to you. Detroit is a good example of what liberals can do to a society, IMO. It doesn't have to get there, but the government needs to emphasize personal responsibility and stop punishing those that exhibit it.We are all engines of karma Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rushmc 23 #12 August 8, 2011 QuoteQuote Take a good long look at Detroit. Get used to the view. Detroit is coming to you. Detroit is a good example of what liberals can do to a society, IMO. It doesn't have to get there, but the government needs to emphasize personal responsibility and stop punishing those that exhibit it. CA is an example of this at the state level"America will never be destroyed from the outside, if we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." Abraham Lincoln Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Channman 2 #13 August 8, 2011 > CA is an example of this at the state level Your ONE warning...Cut it out!!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rushmc 23 #14 August 8, 2011 Quote > CA is an example of this at the state level Your ONE warning...Cut it out!!!! "America will never be destroyed from the outside, if we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." Abraham Lincoln Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
charlie5 0 #15 August 8, 2011 QuoteThe US (and other nations) need to stop spending money it does not have. This includes their military. YOU F*CKING EXTREMIST!The feather butts bounce off ya like raindrops hitting a battle-star when they come in too fast...kinda funny to watch. - airtwardo Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
StreetScooby 5 #16 August 8, 2011 Quote YOU F*CKING EXTREMIST! Maybe he's afraid we're going to invade Canada, now that they have oil? We are all engines of karma Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lurch 0 #17 August 8, 2011 This is I think a bit more than "liberals". People still buy into the idea that if we just vote liberal or conservative, repub or dem it will somehow fix this. They're both on the same side. How many times do we have to swap one for the other and back again before people get the idea? Go ahead, vote. Good luck with that. Vote the bums out... you just voted in a set of bums who do the exact same thing. We got sick of old rich white guys for president. What did America do? It tried electing a young rich black man instead. Who, amazingly enough, acts exactly the same as the old rich white guys. Fucking brilliant. Got any better ideas? Captain Hopey Mcchange just declared every American to be effectively the property of insurance companies. Simply being alive obligates you to pay them. Regardless of whether Obamacare actually comes into effect, it has served its purpose already... conditioning the public to think the government is well within its rights to mandate that you purchase a service of its choice, pay an equivalent fine anyway or go to jail. This taxpayer unit is not generating or surrendering enough wealth for us. Put em in a box and make them. I'm actually going to get to see the return of slavery within my lifetime. I can't wait. Their vision lasts no further than the next election cycle and whatever they have to do to fool people into buying into the goddamn system long enough for them to get another term and all the goodies you get when you have a lot of pull. I'm sick of this. Let it fall. -BLive and learn... or die, and teach by example. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dreamdancer 0 #18 August 8, 2011 QuoteWhat did America do? It tried electing a young rich black man instead. obama is white...stay away from moving propellers - they bite blue skies from thai sky adventures good solid response-provoking keyboarding Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lurch 0 #19 August 8, 2011 Is he? Tell HIM that. Then he's the first white man in history with characteristic negro kinked hair. Race is completely, utterly irrelevant. It'd be the same if we gave the job to Arnold, a Japanese or a 2nd gen American Armenian. The birther debate is a ridiculous sideshow which serves to distract from the fact that right or wrong he is at the helm now and happily steering the ship straight into the same iceberg GW and those before him set course for. Doesn't matter whos running the machine. The machine's function remains the same. GW happily mowed down freedoms left and right. Obama has done the same except he's after different freedoms. Between em both they're cleaning house. Repubs and dems aren't really fighting its all for show... the repubs are just patiently waiting for their turn again. -BLive and learn... or die, and teach by example. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dreamdancer 0 #20 August 8, 2011 QuoteIs he? Tell HIM that. i'm telling you as you're the one calling him black...stay away from moving propellers - they bite blue skies from thai sky adventures good solid response-provoking keyboarding Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
StreetScooby 5 #21 August 8, 2011 Quote How many times do we have to swap one for the other and back again before people get the idea? Go ahead, vote. Good luck with that. Vote the bums out... In the interest of full disclosure here, I'm neither Republican nor Democrat, and I've been that way for 20+ years. I agree with your statement. Quote Captain Hopey Mcchange just declared every American to be effectively the property of insurance companies. Simply being alive obligates you to pay them. Regardless of whether Obamacare actually comes into effect, it has served its purpose already... conditioning the public to think the government is well within its rights to mandate that you purchase a service of its choice, pay an equivalent fine anyway or go to jail. I expect SCOTUS to gut Obamacare, unless one of the conservative judges dies shortly and Obama gets to put another liberal on board. Quote I'm sick of this. Let it fall. That's one way to "fix" it... I truly hope it doesn't get there, but I see it as a distinct possibility.We are all engines of karma Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bolas 5 #22 August 8, 2011 Not enough rich to tax? That's easy. Print a whole bunch of money and give it to everyone so more are rich or just make everyone rich. Then tax them. Easy peasy. Stupidity if left untreated is self-correcting If ya can't be good, look good, if that fails, make 'em laugh. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
StreetScooby 5 #23 August 8, 2011 Quote Print a whole bunch of money and give it to everyone so more are rich or just make everyone rich. I'm still waiting for Bernanke's helicopter to fly over my house and drop some printed money. Hope I'm not at work that day. We are all engines of karma Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lurch 0 #24 August 8, 2011 Yeah. You're right. His skin color and hair texture are carefully crafted fakes to just look black. Or he played with too much nanothermite as a kid. His african name doesn't mean shit about his ancestry and his family is in fact from northeastern Europe. After all, there are lots and lots of white guys named Obama... right? Or, wait, I know! He was adopted into a family of Kenyan descent and his appearance self-altered to match a guy of african ancestry like a chameleon, hair and all! I didn't know us white guys could even DO that! I repeat: Black or white it does not matter. If he did the job and, like, gave us back our money and freedoms and stuff I'd be all for him. What matters is his quality... which is just as deficient as everyone else who gets the job. -BLive and learn... or die, and teach by example. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
winsor 236 #25 August 8, 2011 QuoteIs he? Tell HIM that. i'm telling you as you're the one calling him black... He's a mulatto, so he is both and neither. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
