That’s a completely disingenuous article from <gasp> Fox news.
Freedom?
So, it is immaterial to you how many people taxpayers end up fully supporting?
You’ll have to be more specific, since I cannot remember which Broomstick rant you are talking about.
You shouldn’t make assumptions about things you know nothing about. I pay income tax on that SSDI. As for the rest of that, already answered, many times.
That is what is known as a typo - you know, imperfect humans making mistakes?
From the Duggars’ own site - “After we both heard the testimonies of God’s methods for finances, Michelle & I purposed to become debt-free. As we have chosen to trust Him, I have seen God provide for our family in ways that are supernatural.” A couple of those “supernatural” ways are the TV show and a book they wrote. The site said that they are licensed real estate agents, but between the TV show, the family and all the Bible thumping, how much time do they have to sell real estate? Especially since the kids are apparently home schooled. Could they possibly sell enough to support that many people?
Wiki says that their income “is mostly derived from the commercial properties they own” but no indication as to when they got these properties or how. This article says that Jim Bob “has had various jobs through the years. Michelle jokes that she read a list of the Top 10 worst jobs, and her husband has had seven of them, including insurance salesman and used car salesman.” It then goes on to say a seminar changed their lives to debt free, but is vague as to how they managed to pay off their debt if Jim Bob has had so many bad jobs. Since he doesn’t appear to have a job now, it is doubtful they have group insurance. They might have enough in investments to raise all those kids to adulthood, but since everything about that is so vague, who knows? It could be that if their fame died tomorrow and with it the TV show and book sales, they’d be hard up to feed all those mouths.
The thing is, people are not starting out that way, far too many of them. Reports of how many are all over the place, here is one that is in the middle.
OK, two. And in 2008, that was my husband and I - both of us not working. He got a job after seven months, when I was just starting to go into savings.
Which, of course, are not the people I am talking about, but you keep coming back to them. Why?
And if they are irresponsible, they will continue to sit back, take the handouts and eventually start demanding more. This section of our society keeps getting more and more from the government - do you think we can afford it?
And we already have that. Everyone has access to subsistence level of housing, food, transportation and medical care if they haven’t had the ability to work and have an income. So apparently what you want everyone to have is more than that, eh? We are already paying to cover all of that subsistence stuff for quite a few folks - how much more, for how many more, do you think we can afford to pay for?
Because I think it’s bizarre that you say on one hand that it’s ok for us to work for what we want, and then on the other that the rich are evil simply because they ended up with the fruits of their labors.
Aaand, that’s the end of page 26 - good night!
What about people who desperately want to find a job that offers health insurance, but they live in an area that has 14% unemployment and can’t find one? Because I’m in that situation. Am I lazy and irresponsible? Do I deserve to go into massive debt?
What typo? What did you intend to write, and why didn’t you correct it instantly? Or within a day of my post? Did you mean a higher number or a lower number? If the former (i.e. a more reasonable figure) then what you let stand was a figure that just happened to advance your tendentious argument, right? So why should anyone take what you say seriously ever again? (Answer: don’t worry, they won’t.)
I do know what “imperfect humans making mistakes” means. If I didn’t, your every post, and entire life, are here to remind me. Since your father, in failing to pull out in time, committed a huge mistake, now you are here, and you exist on the SD at this point just so people can poke you with sticks and throw random objects in your directions–there is meaning there for you, in that acquiring such status on the SD is historically limited to only the worst of scumbags, tards, and losers, but unfortunately for you, you are also too clueless to make use of such hints to make meaning out of anything, so you will spend the rest of your time of the SD being mocked and derided and never for a second being taken seriously by anyone. How does that make you feel? Wait–don’t answer, I know how that makes you feel: proud, and defiant, and pleased with yourself. New question: what does that make you? New answer: a troll.
I also love the way after 32 pages you feel okay reserving for yourself the main reason people want health care for others and you dismiss that reason: “imperfect humans making mistakes.” You want a free pass for your mistakes, but want others to suffer for THEIR mistakes their entire lives. Mistakes like underestimating the amount of money that a severely disabled child will cost to care for is, to you, inexcusable, but writing down any sort of shit that comes to mind is fine when you do it. Your response isn’t even “I apologize for misleading you for a day and a half,” but “Hey–shit happens–what are you going to do? I’m human.”
Which is only technically true. To be human, apart from having the right DNA, you need to demonstrate humanity.
You got memory problems as well as arthritis and Raynaud’s?
It was tornado + flood and I didn’t “make it up” - here are some links:
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/article_e5b30a31-93a0-5a91-b131-2cef3ff88516.html
http://www.nwitimes.com/special-section/now/lake/article_4a7368d8-889f-58e5-9c57-c659fa6fe9c1.html
Do you think the people affected by this, whose homes were damaged or destroyed and their their property flooded, are going to have the resources to deal with a THIRD emergency in a short period of time? If YOUR home was destroyed by disaster (perhaps fire or earthquake, given where you live) and then your area was hit again by a disaster in less than a month that YOU would have the resources left to deal with a high-dollar medical emergency?
Listen up, you stupid fucking bitch. I’ve said this twenty times in this thread, and I’ll say it again, just for your benefit.
All I am saying is that when I do the things that other people characterize as only looking out for myself, or being greedy or selfish, I am really providing value to other peope (no need to use the term “society” here, all that matters is I am providing something to other people that they find valuable). That is the only fucking point I am making, you ignorant ass. I never said that my value to society is measured by my salary.
You were correct on your previous point of “tax avoidance” because that is perfectly legal. Tax Evasion is illegal, but Tax Avoidance is not.
This shit you’re pulling out of your ass.
When you say “Half of Americans don’t pay taxes at all,” you know you are a liar. When you add the “(or get the EITC)”, you know you are just compounding your lie.
I’ve worked as a Tax Preparer for 25 years. My clients have included a small business that I gladly gave up a couple of years before they went Public, a Privately Owned Family business who’s expansion plans were jeoperdized by the elimination of ITC with the passage of TRA’86, very intelligent folks that, due to reasons I don’t know, have worked at the same job for the past 10 years, earning less than their worth, but happy, and fuckers that work the system.
EVERY FUCKING ONE OF THEM PAY TAXES.
They may not pay FIT, but most of them bring me a W-2 that reflects them having both Social Security and Medicare taxes withheld.
Some bring me a 1099-MISC, and they’re shocked at how much their Self-Employment Taxes are if they net more than $400 (and, trust me, all of them do have a net >$400. After all these years, employers still pretend to not know who is an employee and who is an Independent Contractor. Maybe you could try a little harder to educate your clients.)
Every time my clients buy gas to get work, they pay taxes. Every time they buy groceries (at least here in Arkansas), they pay some sales taxes. When they buy toilet paper to wipe their ass, they pay sales taxes. If they got a sub-prime loan and haven’t defaulted yet, they’re paying Real Estate taxes. If they’re renting, a portion of their rent is going towards Real Estate taxes. If they have a licensed vehicle, they’ve paid Personal Property taxes. Etc, etc, etc.
Now back to your OP, I need my shirt ironed, bitch.
Earlier, you said that you’d paid in $90,000 of SS over the past 35 years. Assuming you paid today’s rate of 6.2% for the past 35 years (which you didn’t), you would have earned more than $41,000 each and every one of those 35 years to pay in that $90,000.
Now, I’m also gonna guess that you’re getting something like $1,300 a month ($15,600 a year). With my wife and I both working two jobs, that’s just about how much we paid in last year. Since what you’ve already paid in is gone, You’re sponging off us.
You’re welcome.
Nitpick:
That is 47% of tax units. A tax unit could be a ‘head of household’, a married couple, or a single person. That kind of muddies the water as far as the statistic goes. The percentage of citizens of working age who actually pay income tax may be higher than that, or it may be lower than that. Also, that number is estimated for the year 2009, according to the cite.
Pssst … that was curlcoat, not Carol Stream.
How come some idiot does this every time the discussion turns to the 50% of people that don’t pay US federal income tax? Every time, some idiot says “oh but they pay other taxes!@#!@!@” Well, the 53% that do pay US federal income taxes also pay other taxes, and the only thing we are discussing is US federal income taxes, so it doesn’t matter at all that they pay other taxes. Sheesh.
Well, no. You’ve provided no evidence that SDMB membership is substantially different from the general population. Your assumptions, based on your opinion of the people whose posts you’ve bothered to read, are not data.
From where I am right not, it’s obvious that the world has beige walls and white shades, but that doesn’t make it true.
Yes.
Excuse me Mr. Rover - although I do not, personally, like you I DO acknowledge that you are a well educated and intelligent person. YOU understand that what we are referring to is the Federal INCOME tax and not other taxes. There is no question in my mind that you understand the distinction.
Certain other posters, however, do NOT, because they are stupid and/or ignorant and these idiots continue to assert that 47% or some such people by no taxes whatsoever which you, I, and the doorstop over there know is not in fact the case. YOU, I have noted, have been cared to say “federal income tax” when you mean “federal income tax” - the other referenced posters are morons who just don’t comprehend that there are more taxes than just the FIT.
Perhaps it would add some value to the discussion (as if there is ever going to be any value here, other than amusement) if you could help us whack said morons with a clue by four and inform them that
- FIT is not the only tax in existence
- Even if a poor person does not pay FIT (for whatever reason) they most certainly continue to pay other taxes either directly (such as sales tax) or indirectly (property tax via their rent, for example)
- And that it is possible for someone to be poor AND still have a FIT to pay - this would, of course, be a smaller absolute dollar amount than someone such as yourself pays, but I did not imagine the FIT I had to pay last year despite earning just under 20K for a two-person household. It was a small amount, nonetheless, it was there.
If I am in error on any of the three points above please rectify my error (though I don’t expect you will have to, as one does not need to be a highly educated tax lawyer to grasp such fundamentals)
I stand corrected.
Excuse the fuck out of me. I guess all that discussion about SSDI and Social Security and “Half of Americans don’t pay taxes at all (or get the EITC)” kinda threw me off. I’ve read the whole fucking thread and, just like your daughter that’s not quite yet pulling her own weight, it’s wondered all over the fucking place.
Now, where’s my shirt?
And those other taxes have jack shit to do with paying for UHC. The plan is to raise FIT on the rich. Not to raise sales tax, or property tax, Social Security taxes, auto license fees, or campsite rentals at Yosemite, which have, again, jack shit to do with the subject. You don’t seem to understand that.
OK, Broomstick, while we’re helping each other out here, why not respond to my post above that points out the difference between what curlcoat said re: “African-Americans” as descendants of slaves and what you said she said. Thanks.
Hey, MY proposal was a dedicated “health insurance tax” set aside specifically for UHC so that all but the very poorest are paying something towards it (comparable to FICA), but it’s not MY fault I’m not Supreme Dictator and Congress doesn’t follow my every whim.
What jumped out at me was this:
While there are a few (relative to the rest of the population) immigrants from Africa whose ancestors were not slaves (The current president’s father being an example for the time he was in the US) they are minuscule compared to the numbers of people of African descent in North America who did have slave ancestors. Most such recent African immigrants do not, in my experience, call themselves “African Americans” but rather something like “Nigerian Americans” or “South African Americans” or “Ethiopian Americans” because they can identify the specific country of origin of their family/ancestors. The more general *African-*American label was adopted precisely because slavery had muddled the origins of so many that they no longer knew what part of Africa their ancestors came from. So yes, nearly all black people who self-identify as “African-American” are, indeed, descendants of slaves. Ignorance of this IS ignorance of a significant factor in both US history and the present-day concerns and culture of approximately 15-20% of the US population. That curlcoat can not imagine this is a reality just shows how far she has her head up her ass.
As for “need to throw that in everyone’s face” - sounds to me more like a little “let’s not discuss unpleasant things, just sweep them under the rug” than anything else. Maybe we shouldn’t let Jewish people mention the Holocaust or the Plains Tribes to mention the battle of Wounded Knee, either.
Have you called your Senators and Congressman to tell them to vote “No” on the current plan, then?