POLITICAL: Only real people pay taxes

Saturday, October 9, 2010

http://www.lewrockwell.com/williams-w/w-williams53.1.html

Politicians Exploit Economic Ignorance by Walter E. Williams

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What about the politician who tells us that he’s not going to raise taxes on the middle class; instead, he’s going to raise corporate income taxes as means to get rich corporations to pay their rightful share of government? If a tax is levied on a corporation, and if it is to survive, it will have one of three responses, or some combination thereof. One response is to raise the price of its product, so who bears the burden? Another response is to lower dividends; again, who bears the burden? Yet another response is to lay off workers. In each case, it is people, not some legal fiction called a corporation, who bear the burden of the tax.

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So the corporate tax rate should ALWAYS be zero. Anything higher and it’s the politicians trying to sheer the sheeple!

Corporations don’t “pay” taxes; only real flesh and blood people do. Corporations provide politicians “cover” because the Sheeple don’t recognize the tax is buried in the price.

When the tax is put on a capital asset used in the production of other goods (like gasoline) the impact is magnified. So every UPS package that’s delivered has that gas “tax” factored in.

When UPS buys the trucks that GM paid tax on, that’s buried in the cost of every package delivered.

They taught us this in injineering school. No one can really know how much tax they are paying and the politicians and bureaucrats like that just fine. Argh!

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GOLDBUG: 5% is a modest amount

Saturday, October 9, 2010

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/johnsson8.1.1.html

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Gold is probably the only asset that could eliminate the mountains of debt we see today. And the folks in the governments of China, Russia, Nepal, etc., have already realized this. Hundreds of millions of people around the planet has also already realized this. Or rather, they haven’t forgotten, or they haven’t been brainwashed into believing gold is simply a “barbarous relic.” They are accumulating gold. For example, in China the government is running TV ads (available at YouTube) encouraging people to have at least 5% of their assets in physical gold and you can get gold coins and bars at any decent shopping mall, at banks and at airports. I know it’s the same in Russia, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the same in India.

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5% is a modest amount. But, most folks in the US have zero. They may have etfs, or such paper. That’s not gold!

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GOLD: $10,000 Gold?

Friday, October 8, 2010

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/thinktank/2010-10/02/content_11374685.htm

$10,000 Gold?

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Indeed, another critical fundamental factor that has been sustaining high gold prices might prove far more ephemeral than globalization. Gold prices are extremely sensitive to global interest-rate movements. After all, gold pays no interest and even costs something to store. Today, with interest rates near or at record lows in many countries, it is relatively cheap to speculate in gold instead of investing in bonds. But if real interest rates rise significantly, as well they might someday, gold prices could plummet.

Most economic research suggests that gold prices are very difficult to predict over the short to medium term, with the odds of gains and losses being roughly in balance. It is therefore dangerous to extrapolate from short-term trends. Yes, gold has had a great run, but so, too, did worldwide housing prices until a couple of years ago.

If you are a high-net-worth investor, a sovereign wealth fund, or a central bank, it makes perfect sense to hold a modest proportion of your portfolio in gold as a hedge against extreme events. But, despite gold’s heightened allure in the wake of an extraordinary run-up in its price, it remains a very risky bet for most of us.

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A gold price of 10k$/oz has terrible implications for the American economy and the average American. It’ll freeze global commerce as the price of oil gets denominated in gold. Hope they’re wrong.

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: The fat blue line

Friday, October 8, 2010

Please read this one. Priceless!!!

http://www.lewrockwell.com/crovelli/crovelli50.1.html

Anarchy vs. Barney Fife by Mark R. Crovelli

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If our lives and fortunes were indeed dependent upon protection from a handful of people swaddled in hideous blue polyester, mankind would have long ago lost them. If human nature were truly as depraved as these arguments would have us believe, then the chubby blue line would long ago have been annihilated by its vastly numerically superior criminal adversaries. No “criminal” worth the name would be deterred from committing his favored atrocities by a small group of lightly-armed fat people, whose national reputation is tied inextricably to the donut. To even suggest that this 300 million-strong horde of savage, would-be criminals are kept at bay only by some irrational fear of blue polyester is so asinine that it makes the flat-Earthers look like geniuses by comparison.

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Emphasis mine; think it’s a great zinger.

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MONEY: New plan — Rob Peter to pay, well, Peter

Thursday, October 7, 2010

http://www.ricedelman.com/cs/pressroom/pressroom_detail?pressrelease.id=1629

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Lawmakers are creating solutions for their pension shortfalls. New York is considering a plan that would let it borrow money from the state’s pension plan and use that money to pay its annual obligations to the pension plan. (No, that’s not a typo — they’re essentially planning to rob Peter to pay, well, Peter.)

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Worth reading. The insanity of unfunded liabilities is only going to get worse.

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Gooferment firemen act dumb!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

http://reason.com/blog/2010/10/04/limits-of-libertarianism-hypot

Limits-of-Libertarianism Hypothetical Brought to Life in Tennessee
Katherine Mangu-Ward | October 4, 2010

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Obion County resident Gene Cranick decided not to pay the $75 fee, and then he set a fire in his backyard in two large barrels. The fire began to spread, and he called 911. The 911 operator told him that because he hadn’t paid the fee, the fire department would not respond. Cranick’s wife told the 911 operator that she would be willing to pay “whatever the cost” to hire the Fire Department to put out the fire, but was told that this was not an option. The Fire Department did not come out until the fire spread to a neighbor’s yard — the neighbor had paid the fee — and the firemen put out the neighbor’s fire but not Cranick’s.

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Did he have fire insurance on his house? If he did, I bet his insurance company lawyers are hard at work reviewing their policy language.

Note Gooferment fire department; does Sears refuse to service folks who don’t buy their service plans? Of course not!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Insuring Old Age?

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=210789

Social Security example of government rigor mortis
Posted: October 02, 2010
Star Parker

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Social Security passed in 1935. Although there have been changes in the way of tax increases and expansions of the program, Social Security is essentially the same system as was passed 75 years ago.

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Americans are retiring earlier and living longer. In 1950, the median male retirement age and male life expectancy were about the same – 66. By 2005, the median retirement age for men was under 62 and the median male life expectancy was over 75.

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And the promise we get from our leaders is that they will save and preserve a system that was conceived 120 years ago and enacted here 75 years ago. This is leadership?

Not only is our Social Security system unsuited to our times, it is bankrupt. It went into a deficit situation this year and its overall unfunded liabilities – the total amount promised less the total amount for which there is funding – is almost $20 trillion.

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Clearly “Social Security Insurance”, which is NOT Social, NOT Security, NOT insurance, is an meme that no longer fits. If it ever did! The stated public purpose was “welfare” when the public was scared by the Great Depression; the unstated private purpose was to amass political power. It basically setup many if, not all, of the problems that we are facing today. Bu allowing the Gooferment to raid the “mythical lockbox”.

Argh!

How can you “insure” against old age?

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MONEY: Poor man’s bullion a roll of nickles

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100906192154AAN9byy

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In addition to the penny, the nickel also has a physical value which is higher than its face value; nickels cost around 7.7¢ US to make.

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http://www.metalprices.com/FreeSite/metals/nickelalloy/nickelalloy.asp

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OK, you can afford a truckload of gold or silver.

How about a couple hundred buck in nickles?

The Gooferment is paying 7¢ each. And, it still has an intrinsic worth.

When the crunch happens, it’ll have some value over and above the paper value.

When the hyperinflation hits, we all know what the paper will be useful for!

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POLITICAL: Abuse of “We, The People”!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

http://dumpdc.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/what-in-the-hell-is-wrong-with-you

What In The Hell Is Wrong With You?
by dumpdc on 9/30/10
by Daniel Miller, Texas Nationalist Movement

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For the 14 years since I arrived at that conclusion I have watched the people of Texas shoved around by a Federal Government drunk on power. They go through a succession of governmental functionaries from one of the two major parties only to wind up with more government, less freedom and more abuse. Unfortunately for me, although I know the truth and what the solution is, the rest of the people of Texas have not reached the mental and emotional place of safety where I reside.

This leaves me to watch the abuses pile up without the proper response. To get an idea of my daily anguish, let’s paint a mental picture together. Imagine for a moment that you are part of a large family. You and your siblings are sitting in the living room of the house and your Mother’s current husband, someone who is not your Father, comes in and begins to beat the crap out of your Mother. Your sister starts to cry so he turns his attention to her and starts beating her. Your brother tries to shield your sister and he gets smacked a few times. You speak up and try to shield them all and get pummeled more than all of them put together. After he beats you, thankfully, he takes the money that you all have been saving from the cookie jar, jumps in his car and heads off to the local watering hole to blow all of the money on booze and other women. Imagine that this happens every day.

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Abused spouses go through four phases while in an abusive relationship. They are: denial, guilt, enlightenment and responsibility.

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I plead one more time with my Mother, my brothers and sister. We are abused. It is not our fault. The Federal Government will not change. It will make promises that it will not keep. If it ever stops abusing us, the break will be brief and it will not last. While we have been faithful to the Constitutional marriage of which we are part, it has not. Mother, your children in the Texas Nationalist Movement have stood up for you. Brothers and sisters of Texas, the Texas Nationalist Movement, your blood, your siblings have stood up for you. We have told you that it is time to make a new life. We will survive this but only if we leave.

Mother, brothers, sisters, let us start this new life now. One free of abuse. We can make it together but first we have to make the decision. If not, then I will continue to ask you “what in the hell is wrong with you?”

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An excellent analogy!

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TECHNOLOGY: Cloud control?

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

You can’t count on software you don’t control!

http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2010/09/turning-off-track-changes-feature.html

Turning off the track changes feature
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 by Brian Shih

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As of September 30th, we’ll be turning off track changes in Reader. While this isn’t a widely used feature, we wanted to let you know in advance so you can set up a suitable alternative (such as http://page2rss.com). Your previous updates will not go away, but you will stop receiving new updates from any custom feeds you have set up.

We apologize for any inconvenience this causes — and as always, please feel free to visit ourhelp forum if you have any questions.

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