Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Any money token that is NOT created by the folks making and trading goods and services is a SCAM.
Pursuant to 12 USC Sec 411, all federal reserve notes are BORROWED INTO EXISTENCE AT USURY.
Curious thing - they don't create the new bills needed to pay the usury.
That's what the next year's deficit is used for.
D'Oh.
And this insanity cannot be challenged pursuant to clause 4, 14th amendment, USCON.
Well I think we can all agree that it isn't fair that buffet paid 17% effective tax while his secretary paid 35%. Right?
I'm curious what your gripe about the fractional reserve system is. Is it the concept that money makes money essentially? I would agree that you'd be exposing a much larger issue trying to do anything about it, nor would I know how or what to replace that with.
Honestly, I don't know what I think about tax policy anymore. It seems like no matter what they do with tax rates, the Warren Buffets of the world find a way to game the system, anyway. And then there's the runaway spending and debt by the government on both the military and entitlement programs (the 2 primary drivers of spending).
I don't know what I would replace the existing money system with, either. But I do know that the fact that our currency isn't backed by anything and that banks essentially create money by creating debt means that someone is always indebted (i.e. enslaved). It's a slave system by design.
I'm going to reopen this thread for now. Please refrain from personal attacks and rude comments directed at other posters. If these sorts of comments continue, I will have to close this thread.
That Buffet article comparing his secretary's tax rate was from 2012. Looking back at my forms since it's near tax season, my effective tax rate in 2012 was 16.7% as a single guy and not as well paid as the secretary in question. In 2022 it was 6.33% MFJ with a few adorable tax credits and still making less than said secretary.
Buffet's secretary should have employed someone to help in better tax planning...
That Buffet article comparing his secretary's tax rate was from 2012. Looking back at my forms since it's near tax season, my effective tax rate in 2012 was 16.7% as a single guy and not as well paid as the secretary in question. In 2022 it was 6.33% MFJ with a few adorable tax credits and still making less than said secretary.
Buffet's secretary should have employed someone to help in better tax planning...
I agree. I read 2 opinion articles about this. One of them assumed she was making $60,000 a year, about what I was making at that time. However, her effective income tax rate was much higher than mine. Warren Buffett should have set aside some of his time to talk to her about better tax strategies. Another article estimated she made well into 6 figures, based upon her lifestyle. If that was true, then we are comparing the taxes of one very high income person to that of an extremely high income person. Sort of defeats Warren's argument.
However, Warren Buffett was conflating Medicare & Social Security taxes with income taxes. In 2012 Medicare taxes were 1.45%. Starting in 2013, People who earned over $200,000 paid an additional 0.9% on the excess: https://www.milefoot.com/math/busine...taxes/fica.htm
Note that these high income people pay a higher percentage for the same services as everyone else.
In 2012 the Social Security Maximum Taxable Earnings was $110,100: https://financialducksinarow.com/soc...able-earnings/
This also limits the maximum amount of Social Security earnings; you neither pay for nor receive credit for excess earnings.
In summary, Warren Buffett was being disingenuous at best in his tax argument. What Warren Buffet really wanted was to raise your income tax rates, not his own. Nothing was ever stopping him from donating extra money to the U.S. treasury: https://fiscal.treasury.gov/public/g...overnment.html
Talking about inequalities...
Pandemic made some people really rich.
The fortunes of the five richest men — Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault and his family of luxury company LVMH, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and investment guru Warren Buffett — have spiked by 114% in real terms since 2020, when the world was reeling from the pandemic.
While they made fortune doubling their wealth, almost 5 billion people have become poorer.
So, it's predicted that they might need only 10 years to become trillionaires (whereas to fight poverty, we need more than 200 years)
If someone does reach that trillion-dollar milestone — and it could be someone not even on any list of richest people right now — he or she would have the same value as oil-rich Saudi Arabia.
I'm not envious of these people. I admire them. I want to be like them. When I first saw a picture of Hetty Green, "The Witch of Wall Street" in my 8th grade history textbook, I was fascinated by her. What does concern me is the size and scope of the US federal government. We have a national debt of $34 Trillion. At the start of our great country, a US dollar was worth 1 ounce of silver. 20 dollars was worth 1 ounce of gold. Now silver is worth nearly $25 dollars an ounce, while gold is worth $2000 an ounce. That is a staggering amount of inflation devaluing our currency.
It took us nearly 250 years to reach this sad state of affairs. We need to spend the next 250 years paying off the national debt in full, not through higher taxes and inflation, but by going on a Dave Ramsey "Bread & Beans" diet.
I'm not envious of these people. I admire them. I want to be like them. When I first saw a picture of Hetty Green, "The Witch of Wall Street" in my 8th grade history textbook, I was fascinated by her. What does concern me is the size and scope of the US federal government. We have a national debt of $34 Trillion. At the start of our great country, a US dollar was worth 1 ounce of silver. 20 dollars was worth 1 ounce of gold. Now silver is worth nearly $25 dollars an ounce, while gold is worth $2000 an ounce. That is a staggering amount of inflation devaluing our currency.
It took us nearly 250 years to reach this sad state of affairs. We need to spend the next 250 years paying off the national debt in full, not through higher taxes and inflation, but by going on a Dave Ramsey "Bread & Beans" diet.
But how is your standard of living compared to 1913?
But how is your standard of living compared to 1913?
Much better. I have air conditioning. But that doesn't change the fact that what $1 could buy in 1913 would now cost $30.78: https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
Much better. I have air conditioning. But that doesn't change the fact that what $1 could buy in 1913 would now cost $30.78: https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
Maybe true. But I'd bet your income is also a much larger number than it would have been 100 years ago.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
