nanook

Just found it stored in my "good_text" directory, the author is unknown: This is a simple way to understand the tax laws. Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand - suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this: The first four men — the poorest — would pay nothing; The fifth would pay $1 The sixth would pay $3 The seventh $7 The eighth $12 The ninth $18 and the tenth man — the richest — would pay $59. That's what they decided to do. The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement — until one day, the owner threw them a curve (in tax language a tax cut). "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20." So now dinner for the ten only cost $80.00. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other six — the paying customers? How could they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his "fair share?" The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would end up being PAID to eat their meal. So the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so the fifth man paid nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the tenth man with a bill of $52 instead of his earlier $59. Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to eat for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man who pointed to the tenth. "But he got $7!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man, "I only saved a dollar, too . . . It's unfair that he got seven times more than me!". "That's true!" shouted the seventh man, "why should he get $7 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!" "Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!" The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night he didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered, a little late what was very important. They were 52 DOLLARS short of paying the bill. And that, boys and girls, journalists and college instructors, is how the tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore. Where would that leave the rest? They got mad because they did very faulty math. first, they started with a percentage of the original 100%. Then they took 20% off. Instead of using the same percentages to reflect how much each would pay after the cut, they divied up the 20% cut equally and messed up the math. (unless the punchline is that you can misuse math intentionally to fool people into anger) _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

Well, At least you can be comfortable with the fact that you OUSTED me!!! _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

Well, that's what most of the U. S. population believes with an exception of a very small collection of believers who forgets that everyone has the same exact access to his public websites. His one blimp, one balloon off the I5, his two lawn signs, and crudely-made white paper banners posted over overpasses tells all the general public who can read to "google" him. Everybody googles him. I promise you his unpopularity has nothing to do with peoples' "fear of change" or "you don't understand his platform" or even Fox News. Everybody has Google. People generally know how to read between the lines. You do not need an education to have Street Smarts. This is not Mathematics, Science, Physics, Economics, Medicine, English; This is Socially Adept conceptualization. (We don't believe in McCain Clinton or Obama either.) People think this guy is off his rocker. _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

Gold was grossly overpriced in 1980. That is why the price subsequently fell and did not return to that level for more than twenty five years. It still hasn't returned to that value. Numerically it surpassed the dollar amount but not its worth. _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

Why is this a shot in the arm? This is his best showing so far. Conspiracy theory doesn't help his cause I don't get his thought process. He wants classical economics and Austrian School but wants standard put to money by pegging it to precious metals versus letting it represent true value? didn't he remember the crash of the Gold standard in the early seventies? Doesnt he understand that it's impossible in today's society and speed of exchange to do this? I'm starting to believe he only read one book on economics and didn't read other ideas. Von Mises written and lived during a different era with obsolete economic practices and theories. It looks like he is not taking the writings with a grain of salt _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

Their 19th century way of life doesn't allow for appropriate arament as a protection of thier borders and way of life. Even a third world country would be able to flatten them. Or, coerce them against their ideals. What he said. (damn slow fingers!) _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

This isn't the University anymore. You cannot fix a complex problem with a simple phrase-worthy answer. It's time to put all those college theories to practice and discard those ideas that at best merit an emotional response. Ayn Rand definitely did not believe in "free lunches." A lot of her stories prescribe a utopia of sorts. Those type of bubbles cannot exist without an outside enabler. The Amish require a developed society surrounding them to allow them to exist. The homeless street corner begger needs a major society to be able to exist. I don't think he will do well in djoubuti. (i'm not saying the Amish are a bad idea). Hippies need to be able to have rights of their land in New Mexico to have thier communes. Those rights do not pop out of nowhere. They all may need to work a little in their own utopia to keep it up, but the one thing they all have in common is that they are allowed to be there. Their utopia is fed by outside forces. She never acknowledges (or understands) this. Utopias cannot exist as a naked singularity. That is as "free lunch" as you can get. _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

Thanks!! _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

LMAO!!! I guess he'd just have to start over then, now wouldn't he? I'm sure he can post 14,300 different animal pictures! I don't have *THAT* many saved!!!! maybe 25-30 or so.... Any chance you have the larger version I have in my Avatar? I lost the original picture when my computer crashed!! _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

I've used CCCS years back. If it damages your score, it more than likely will be during the times you under the program. At this point, why would one need a good credit score anyways? You shouldn't be financing something new at that time. I still have in my credit report an old credit card that shows that it was paid off utilizing CCCS; my fico scores are still low 800's (high 800's in Trans Union). _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

Yeah, I was thinking the same _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

I'm pretty sure its an unattainable idealism. I'm interested in reading it though. I've always liked her works. Kind of a type of escapism for me. I believe the real reason a lot of these good idealistic philosophies can never work in real life, is not a negative attribute as it is a lack of understanding other variables. Ayn Rand has blinders on when she's philosophical. It's as if she believes in "free Lunches". Any philosophy in its purity will never work cleanly. That's, as you have alluded to earlier, human condition in action. In the end, it's all about compromise of different philosophies. _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

companies are usually already "costs passed on to customers " to their max as the nature of competition. The increase of taxes usually has them scrambling to make production cuts within. _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

I wish it was that easy. If that was the truth, then you never as a business owner have to worry about taxes as all you have to do in increase the price. But the consumer has more of a say in how much they want to pay for a product or service. If taxed too much, a company usually looks elsewhere (usually in it's own process) to be able to cut costs rather than raise prices. Or they may move their business to another country so they can stay competitive. Yup. Same thing. _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

I wish it was that easy. If that was the truth, then you never as a business owner have to worry about taxes as all you have to do in increase the price. But the consumer has more of a say in how much they want to pay for a product or service. If taxed too much, a company usually looks elsewhere (usually in it's own process) to be able to cut costs rather than raise prices. _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

Probably not. It would probably be a conflict of interest in most eyes anyways as I can see that the Subject Matter Experts here would be the Tax People themselves. One thing is factual about U. S. taxes. It favors Buisness. I think that's more true than saying it favors the Rich. Almost all the Rich are Buisness men anyways. _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

Whoops. I guess i'm just too used to this place. In a very mild form the aforementioned subject(and one of the major reasons I favor SC over other forums), you have a lot of different backgrounds, professions and expierences arguing about a subject in various threads here. Though it is mainly useful for entertainment value only, you see a lot of different minds tackling the same problems; on both sides of the ensuing arguments.

I didn't have to click those at all to know they were Lewis Grizzard!! I miss his work. edit: Whoops!! Wrong emoticon! _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

It's important in all facets of life, i believe. Now when you wonder of it's importance regarding foreign policy, are you agreeing the near impossible mission of getting the average citizen to understand the smorgasborg of concerns that come with implementing one, or are you stating our policy as being very singular and narrow? Or something else? _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

(sigh) Well. . . We hoped that when Amway/Quixtar moved in, they would crush the economy with their "business model" and cause pan-asian dissonance, and annoy their family and neighbors to a chaotic loss of community. But they banned the Pyramid model and forced them to conform to a normative business design. _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

Not really. that all is based on manufacture; which is part of, but not all of, today's economical need. that is evident in the way production vs. service changed throughout the 20th century and of this recent decade. Since only a developing economy can make money by chiefly manuacturing, there's been a trend of the U. S. sending products to be assembled overseas or in Mexico. Marxism of mechanized industry would be too fragmented and weak to be anything worthwhile. _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

(song) Stupid Spoiled Whore. . .Video Playset(song) "It even has a cellphone you can lose!" Sorry. Southpark flashback _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

The period of time while my Dad was stationed in Germany. Now that's a country to be in during the Holidays. Very beautiful. _____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln