In article ,
"Robert Green" wrote:
WS.
You mean when the Dems were in charge of Congress?
You'll note that I didn't say the Republicans did it. At least in that
paragraph.
(That's a pre-emptive strike (g).
(-: But you'd have to be living in a deep, dark cave not to
know that they generally support less regulation and believe that the free
market is the perfect solution to all our woes. And yet their hands were
out to Uncle Sam when the free market threatened to collapse the entire
system. Still, they are pushing to roll back or neutralize every attempt at
reform. Why? Because an unreformed market lets them get away with robbery
of the middle class with almost nothing to stop them. People are realizing
this all over the globe.
As do the Dems until it comes out to bite their asses and then they
Take Great Amounts Of Umbrage and blame the GOP. The ONLY Dem to my
mind who has any credibility in this is Barney Frank who was the only
currently serving Dem in either House that voted against ALL the
changes. The Dems voted in overwhelming numbers for all of the bills
that made this possible.
"We don't have a crisis at Freddie Mac and especially at Fannie
Mae", Maxine Waters in 2004.
Gregory Meeks is actually ****ed off (his words) at the GOP for
bringing this up since he sees no problems with the GSEs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs
Never have been able to figure out if this is plain old selective
perception or Soviet-style rewriting of history.
And they pay for them. The top 20% (actually) pay a greater %age of
the income taxes than their %age of income.
I'm not sure what you're trying to say, Kurt. Much more of the wealthy's
income derives not from paychecks, but from investments so fair comparisons
are hard to make. But just like HeyBub claiming our corporate tax rate is
among the highest in the world, the truth is that it's only on paper. GE
pays NO taxes along with a boatload of companies, some of whom even get
money back from the government.
Nonsense this the amount of taxes paid. The amount of income they
get and the amount of taxes they pay. The top 1% get 16% of the income
yet pay 34.3% of income taxes. This is income on their income taxes. The
top 1% pay an effective rate of 20.4% while the two lowest quintiles
have a negative rate because they get more back than they put in
(credits over and above whatever they get back in withholding). If you
do the total effective rate (including SS and excise taxes (the rate
runs around 31% and 4.5% respectively.
Those in the top 1% who pay no taxes at all ran to much less than
1/10 of a percent of the total. IRS records show over the last few years
the middle class is the group that has seen the highest growth (in
numbers anyway) of those paying no income taxes. (All of these are from
readily available IRS tables if you want to look around.)
It's a complicated picture, but the bottom line is that people at the bottom
are doing a hell of a lot worse, percentage-wise in nearly every economic
measure while the wealthy get even richer. They pay a greater proportion of
their income in taxes, payroll taxes and sales taxes than the rich. That's
why Cain's 9-9-9 proposal is going to fall flat on its face. It gives the
rich an even GREATER break than they've been getting. That's a recipe for
disaster and widespread social unrest. Ironically, his campaign will
probably fail because he can't raise enough money to be an actual player.
But they don't pay a greater percentage of their income in taxes, as
the effective rates show. The Total shows that doesn't even occur when
you fold in SS and excise taxes.
The money came out of the stock market in 2008 because a lot of people (like
me) think it's no longer an investment in America but a way for the
uber-rich to amass even more wealth through means that do not help the
country's economy grow in a productive way. With their access to high speed
trading and other "unfair" maneuvers, they can exit a bear market with far
more skin than the mom and pop investors of the country, who get stuck with
the largest percentage of the loss. Until there's some serious reform on
Wall St. our economy is going to stay flat - or worse.
Too bad. I started buying and am WAY up since then, even with the
pullbacks. There has never been a 10-year period (including this one)
where the S&P has returned less than 8% on an annualized basis. Not my
fault (or the bankers for that matter) that most people pull their money
out at exactly the wrong time.
You don't get out of bear markets by high speed trading, or other
unfair methods. Bear markets are by definition falls of 10% or more. You
get out of them by paying attention, and selling for cash when you think
it is time. This is psychology (one of the things I am fighting is the
fact that people often wed their ideas more strongly than their spouses.
I hate to sell my children and when that happens I hold on longer than I
KNOW I should. THat is what messes people up.
--
People thought cybersex was a safe alternative,
until patients started presenting with sexually
acquired carpal tunnel syndrome.-Howard Berkowitz