MONEY: The Gooferment maintains a playing filed that tilts in favor of employers over workers

Monday, October 11, 2021

https://www.cato.org/blog/new-cato/yougov-survey-health-savings-accounts

OCTOBER 6, 2021 9:11AM
New Cato/​YouGov Survey on Health Savings Accounts
By Michael F. Cannon

*** begin quote ***

Many call the “tax exclusion” for employer‐​paid health insurance premiums a tax “break.” In fact, it denies workers control over an enormous share of their earnings. It coerces workers into letting employers control roughly $1 trillion of their earnings each year as well as their health insurance. Along the way, it leaves workers vulnerable to losing coverage when they change jobs, divorce, or retire. 

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Thanks to the market distortion introduced by FDR’s WW2 wage and price controls, “benefits” for employees were a way that employers could “pay” employees more without running afoul of the “law”.  

Back in the Seventies, leave at night in an AT&T datacenter watching accounting programs run, a wise old AT&T Treasury executive opened my eyes to how unfair that “benefits” were to me.  I didn’t realize that the “benefits” were more valuable to AT&T than to me.  Every benefits “expense” was a tax deduction to AT&T.  As well, all those “expenses” were added into the “rate base” used in front of the FCC and various PUCs to justify higher regulated rates.  The old exec pointed out that I was “paying” for the benefits in salary reductions.  And, the wicked kicker was that if I left my “servitude” I’d lose most and in some cases all of those “benefits”. Argh!

Now decades later, the USA has evolved to realize that while you don’t lose your car insurance if you change jobs, you do lose your “health insurance”.  (Don’t make me laugh about COBRA; who can afford those rates?)

OK, so you decide to get your own “health insurance”, and you find that expense is not tax deductible to you as an employee that has “benefits” with your master.  I meant employer.

If you have a niche that permits you, then you can become a “corporation” and the premiums for all your employees is deductible.  Just don’t have any other “employees” and you have found a loophole.  Of course, there are setup and ongoing expense to “being a corporation” but it’s no where near as much as you think.

Bottom line: The tax code needs to change to allow you to deduct your private health care insurance.  What’s good for the employer should be good for the worker!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Zero the corporate tax rate

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

https://secure.downsizedc.org/blog/your-penny-toward-a-whopper

September 11, 2014
Your Penny Toward a Whopper
By James Wilson

*** begin quote ***

I’m angered that Burger King has fled to Canada as a tax shelter. But I’m not angered at Burger King, which has only done what it thinks is best for its shareholders. I am, rather, angered at YOU. It isn’t Burger King that created the HIGHEST CORPORATE INCOME TAX in the world. YOU did that. And I DO NOT CONSENT!

*** end quote ***

 

“Corporations are merely tax collectors; not taxpayers. They merely pass their costs along.” Lawrence Alan “Larry” Kudlow is an American economist, television personality, and newspaper columnist. August 26, 2014 0830 on WMAL Mornings on the Mall Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Essentially, taxing corporations hides the tax load on individuals. That’s one of the purposes of Big Gooferment is conceal how much tax we individuals are really paying. IF we knew, then the tax revolts would really start.

Add to that, the OTHER taxes that corporations pay (e.g., gas; utility; FICA for employees; “real estate”) also get passed along in their products. So when I go to the supermarket and buy a can of beans, I can’t tell how much of the price is cost of the beans, the cost to put the beans in the can, the cost of getting the can on the shelf, and the taxes paid along the way. It’s incalculable. And you politicians just love it that way.

Also, there is a another hidden layer of taxes buried in that can of beans, all of the costs of capital investment have taxes hidden in. Campbells buys a new machine to put beans in the can; how much in taxes is buried in that cost? Don’t forget the gas tax for the truck that delivered it. All buried.

Even worse is that the result of corporate taxes fall on the poor because they have spend to survive, those on fixed income who should be getting a break, families who have to spend, and the illegals who don’t get the full benefit of the taxes they are paying.

Bottom line: Only “real people” pay taxes.

My bottom line: I believe folks would be in revolt if they really knew how much in taxes they are paying.

Zero the corporate taxes. Cut the size of government.

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SECESSION: Laugh, ridicule, and shun

Thursday, March 21, 2013

http://ericpetersautos.com/2013/03/15/fixing-their-wagon/

Fixing Their Wagon
March 15, 2013

*** begin quote ***

Shun them.

The model for this is easy enough to understand. If the person who owned the house down the road from you was known to be a child sex offender, would you invite him to your summer barbecues? Would you contract with his business to perform work? Would you shake his hand when you bumped into him at the store? You probably – hopefully – would not.

Apply the same treatment to the people who insist on living by doing violence to others. For they are exactly like child molesters in the sense that matters: They victimize people. They manipulate and coerce and threaten. They leverage power – force and its threat – to get what they want. It is only because we’ve been conditioned to accept the unacceptable via euphemism and evasion that we tolerate such people among us. Those reading this column no doubt do not accept it. Hence, they ought not to tolerate it. There may be occasions when we are forced to deal with them. But wherever possible, wherever we have the choice, we ought to elect not to deal with them. And we ought to tell them exactly why we want nothing to do with them. Call them on it. Do not let it – their reliance on violence – go unmentioned. Mention it. Bring it into the open. Make them squirm – those that still have the vestigial capacity to squirm when confronted with their own ethical atrocities. But never, ever, accept them as members of civilized society. Because civilization is dying on account of them.

*** end quote ***

Sounds like a great strategy.

Laugh at them, make them absurd, and then turn the other cheek.

Secession takes many forms!

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MONEY: Financial planning with old memes

Sunday, October 21, 2012

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-coming-retiree-crisis-2012-10

Take Action Now To Prepare For The Great Retiree Crisis

Jeff Voudrie, See It Market | Oct. 10, 2012, 8:30 AM

***** begin quote *****

The financial planning community has largely relied on assumptions regarding equity, debt and inflation percentages that have been experienced over the last 30 years.

There are 3 problems with these assumptions:

Equity returns the last 30 years have been extraordinarily high as a result of the longest and greatest Bull market in the history of U.S. stock markets. Accordingly, many financial plans used projections that assumed equity returns of 8-10% a year.

Debt returns over the same period are equally skewed. Remember the double-digit interest rates of the 1980’s? In 1989, as a young broker, I was selling 30-year TVA bonds yielding 10%! Financial plans the last 5-10 years have used interest rate assumptions around 5-6% a year.

The scenarios that led to the historic markets the last 30 years are very unlikely to EVER be repeated in today’s retiree’s lifetime. And those who are taking distributions based on these outdated assumptions may soon run out of money.

For instance, let’s assume that someone retired 5 years ago at age 60 with a $500,000 investment portfolio. Based on financial plans popular at that time, the retiree is taking $2500 a month in distributions—money they need to maintain their current standard of living. Since the plan anticipated the ability to average a 7% return on a portfolio with close to 50% in equities, the retiree expects to be able to take those distributions and never run out of money.

Adjusting those assumptions based on what many believe resembles more reasonable assumptions going forward requires decreasing the rate of return assumption for a similar-risk portfolio to around 4% and increasing the inflation assumption from 1-2% a year to 3-4% a year (which may still be too conservative). Suddenly, the portfolio that should last forever is now projected to be exhausted in only 16.8 years! That means that the entire nest egg and what it earns cannot sustain the current withdrawal rate. Since the retiree started the withdrawals five years ago, now they are down to 11.8 years—running out of money around age 76!

***** end quote *****

Clearly, the political class has screwed up the American economy.

Pity the poor, the elderly, the middle class, those on fixed income.

Inflation is grossly understated by the “official” stats.

Are we headed to be like Europe or pre-WW2 Germany?

Clearly, everyone needs to update their financial plans.

I’ve recommended to my turkeys that they adjust their “money reserve requirements”.

Everyone better plan to work for a longer time.

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RANT: “Default”? No way, not needed

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

As a political junkie, I’m enraged when some bozo (i.e., politician and /or bureaucrat) is allowed by some talking head to say “default” without opposition.

IMHO any reasonable person would pay the interest on the debt first, then the social security and other mandatory welfare payments, and come up with a “total must pay”. Subtract that total from the budget to come up with “what’s left to pay”. Subtract “total must pay” from current receipts for “what’s left”.

Divide “what’s left” by “what’s left to pay” and that’s the haircut that the budget must be slashed by.

No one is going to be happy, but no default. It’ll set off a lot of wailing and gnashing but that’s what fiscal discipline is all about.

That’s why I say don’t raise the debt ceiling. And, don’t let politicians and bureaucrats scare old people by saying no soc sec or the markets by saying default.

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RANT: BHO44 and D’s targeting the home mortgage deduction

Friday, June 3, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul2C8Gfj3Io

Dick Morris TV in the Morning! Goodbye Mortgage Interest Deductions

*** begin quote ***

Dick Morris explains the reasons behind the double dip in real estate and housing prices. He blames Obama’s plans to raise taxes and his efforts to repeal the mortgage interest deduction.

*** end quote ***

While I don’t care for him based on his personal flaws, when he talks politics, he’s a genius.

This “spending / borrowing / inflating” President is a snake!

How can the housing market recover if they do this?

“We” have to cut — cut spending, cut taxes, cut bureaucrats — but most of all cut the “barbara streisand”!

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INTERESTING: Why would some one give the DNC $143,200 for a rubber chicken dinner?

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

http://nationaljournal.com/whitehouse/obama-expects-modest-fundraising-quarter-20110517

WHITE HOUSE
Obama Expects Modest Fundraising Quarter
The Democratic National Committee comes first–for now.
By Marc Ambinder
Updated: May 17, 2011 | 11:04 p.m.
May 17, 2011 | 4:22 p.m.

*** begin quote ***

So far the president has attended a dozen fundraisers in six cities since announcing on April 14 his decision to seek reelection. Half have been events where tickets cost $35,800. DNC takes $30,800 of that; Obama’s campaign gets only $5,000.

Donors, generally, have been asked to purchase at least four tickets to high-dollar events such as these. Obama has also attended a number of fundraisers where tickets run $1,000. The president attended a two-tier event in Washington on Monday night, and he will be in Boston on Wednesday.

*** end quote ***

Ignore the headline story. Who cares. Dig deeper.

Simple question.

Why would some one give the DNC $143,200 for a rubber chicken dinner?

It’s corrupt quid pro quo.

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QUOTE: What about tarriffs, dumping, and “protecting domestic industries”?

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

http://cafehayek.com/2011/01/an-open-letter-to-erin-ennis.html

“I am bound to say that it is our interest to buy cheap, whether other countries will buy cheap or no.”

— British Prime Minister Robert Peel’s 1843 statement to the House of Commons explaining his decision to support a repeal of the British tariffs known as “corn laws”:   

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Like the correct rate for corporate taxes which is zero, so to the correct rate for tariffs is zero as well.

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POLITICAL: Gooferment taxation; Comply or die!

Thursday, December 30, 2010

http://libertyslifeline.com/2010/12/28/greed-america%E2%80%99s-top-1-and-government/

Greed, America’s Top 1%, and Government
December 28, 2010

*** begin quote ***

It’s time for Bernie Sanders to sharpen his pencil and see what programs should be cut so that he and his fellow greedy politicians can live within the means they are provided by a generous citizenry, instead of grandstanding for more and more.

*** end quote ***

I was with you right up until the phrase “the means they are provided by a generous citizenry”. Sorry, but the characterization is all wrong.

There’s no “generosity” in the equation.

The gang in power will send men with guns to take you to jail or kill you. There’s no “voluntary compliance” with the will of “The Master”. It’s the 800# gorilla in the room. Comply or die!

So we are robbed a slice at a time. The Gang In Power are nobody’s fool. There’s no way they can control 300 Million pissed off Americans. About a third of whom are armed. And, about a tenth can give as good as the get.

(The drug gangs are the finest “light infantry”. Who like indigenous rebels can blend into the population seamlessly. The Totalitarians can’t keep “contraband” out of their prisons; so how can they keep the people unarmed if they are in revolt. Note how well MayorForLife Bloomberg does keeping guns off the streets in New York.)

So, the DUTY of every American is to piss off the “sleeping” “We, The Sheeple” at every opportunity. I like that movie quote.

“I fear all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant.” — apocryphal quote attributed to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto played by Mako in the movie ‘Pearl Harbor’

I want the sleeping Tiger — the American patriots — to wake up. The Tea Parties are the first vestige. Note how fast the TSA backed off when the “holiday revolt” was announced.

The LAST thing the ruling class wants is an enraged citizenry!

Get mad! Get loud! And, refuse to cooperate with theft!

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RANT: Why do we permit “lame ducks”?

Thursday, December 16, 2010

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/dc_feeding_frenzy_OmaWYPKGV2YtrTaFqHowYM#ixzz18IKpaIqj

DC feeding frenzy
Lame-duck Congress gorges
By DANIEL J. MITCHELL
Last Updated: 4:18 AM, December 16, 2010
Posted: 10:35 PM, December 15, 2010

*** begin quote ***

The biggest extender is the ethanol credit, a boondoggle that distorts agriculture markets and causes considerable economic and environmental damage, but is popular with politicians because big agribusinesses recycle some of their undeserved profits back to Washington in the form of contributions.

The dozens of other extenders include special loopholes for solar and wind power, education spending, bonds for Louisiana and NASCAR racing.

There are strong policy arguments against these kinds of special tax breaks, especially since we could use the revenue to finance lower tax rates — but most people are even more upset by the dead-of-night process used to put these goodies into the tax bill.

The behavior on Capitol Hill reminds me of the movie classic, “Animal House”: After their fraternity has been placed on “double-secret probation,” John Belushi and the rest of guys at the Delta House decide to go out in a blaze of glory with a toga party.

Likewise, the politicians on Capitol Hill just got placed on the equivalent of probation by a Tea Party uprising. Yet rather than mend their crooked ways, they’re throwing a massive party with our money.

*** end quote ***

Pitchfork and torches time!

Why do we permit “lame ducks”?

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