Taxes
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Joined: Dec 2003
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From: Mount Airy,MD
You are correct in that the Presidents statement was misleading. The fact of the matter is that yes EVERYONE'S taxes have increased, largely in part due to the expiration of the payroll tax cut which was 4.2% in 2010 and has now been raised back to 6.2% Rises in the medicare and social security rate are also biting in to your take home pay. This in combination with the reduction of certain child tax credits, including the lowering of dependent care "pre-tax" contributions makes for less take home pay.
The limitation and phasing out of certain personal exemptions has also increased your effective tax rate by 2%. Between payroll and personal exemptions you are already 4% higher than last year. If you made $250,000 as an individual or $300,000 married, you will have an additional 3% increase in taxes effectively reducing your take home pay by 7% vs. the 4% of lower income wage earners.
We have to raise taxes, but spending has to be limited. I would first eliminate much of the foreign aid to non democratic countries. This would return billions of dollars into the economy.
I would discontinue you many "social" programs including free cell phones and healthcare for immigrant workers. This would bring another billion or so dollars back into the budget.
There is a laundry list of other expenditures which I find frivolous but will save for another rant. However, as the population grows, taxes must increase and with a balanced budget we can minimize the impacts of these increases.
I would rather have a public hanging and march the members of house and congress out onto the white house lawn and deal with them as the French dealt with their elite a few centuries ago. I don't want to eat cake, I want to chew some ***!
The limitation and phasing out of certain personal exemptions has also increased your effective tax rate by 2%. Between payroll and personal exemptions you are already 4% higher than last year. If you made $250,000 as an individual or $300,000 married, you will have an additional 3% increase in taxes effectively reducing your take home pay by 7% vs. the 4% of lower income wage earners.
We have to raise taxes, but spending has to be limited. I would first eliminate much of the foreign aid to non democratic countries. This would return billions of dollars into the economy.
I would discontinue you many "social" programs including free cell phones and healthcare for immigrant workers. This would bring another billion or so dollars back into the budget.
There is a laundry list of other expenditures which I find frivolous but will save for another rant. However, as the population grows, taxes must increase and with a balanced budget we can minimize the impacts of these increases.
I would rather have a public hanging and march the members of house and congress out onto the white house lawn and deal with them as the French dealt with their elite a few centuries ago. I don't want to eat cake, I want to chew some ***!
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From: Gulf Coast
It would depend upon the reasons you got the scholarship and interest free loans. If you got them strictly due to grades, I have a problem with the 0 interest loan. If grades and low income, no problem. If strictly for income and/or race, I have a problem. If your parents are high income, I have a problem, let them pay for it.
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Joined: Jun 2002
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From: Under the flightpath of old ORD 22R
Unless the programs were seriously changed in the last few years, the only time you can get a government interest free school loan is if you meet the low income requirements. I used a Stafford government loan for my last semester in college. I did not meet teh loe income requirements. I paid the full interest and the only break I received, that I wouldn't have had if I had received a private loan, was no payments until six months after I graduated or dropped out. The only thing the government did was guarantee the loan would be paid.
It is just not accruing interest while you are attending school, which is how most student loans were ( could have changed now that the govt runs all of this ).
Last I read, the interest on them is outrageous now, seems the rate has not changed that much since the 80s when I had mine. At that time it was a bargain, my 1st new car loan was an unheard of stupid low rate of 9.75% APR.
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From: Gulf Coast
The loan I had accrued interest the entire time I had it. They did have a version that did not accrue any interest, but it was based on your income. I made too much money to have it at 0%. the loan with 0% interest was a government subsidized loan. The subsidy was the interest. Mine was an unsubsidized loan, so I paid interest for the entire term of the loan.
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From: The Deep Back Woods of The Great White North
Well just got done doing my taxes, and they went WAY up. I will admit I took a pay raise this year of approximately 9%, but my taxes went up approximately 19%. So this year instead of paying roughly 10% of my income in taxes it is more like 12-14%. Yay Obamacare. So Obama's campaign ads saying Romney paid less in taxes than I do was relatively correct, unfortunately it is because the Jackass in Chief raised my taxes and I am in no way wealthy. What makes it worse is I have had the same withholdings on my W-2 since Bush senior was in office and this is the first year I have had to pay a substantial amount.
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From: Bakersfield, CA, USA
Pretty low interest rate considering that the loans are made with no collateral and (last I checked) 12% or so of all the government backed student loans go into default within the first 3 years. At some colleges, the rate of student loan default is 25% or so.
In reality, lots of people 'going to college' are just there to take out a loan so they can get by.
Cheap, government backed student loans are a real gift to the universities, and easily abused by many. The loans artifically inflate demand, which increases the cost of a college education.
Sure, there are some societal benefits to having people go to college, but that benefit comes with a cost, too.
I've got no problem with student loans, overall. My deal is the risk needs to be reflected by the interest rate. If the government is backing high risk loans and not getting the right level of interest, the taxpayers lose.
In reality, lots of people 'going to college' are just there to take out a loan so they can get by.
Cheap, government backed student loans are a real gift to the universities, and easily abused by many. The loans artifically inflate demand, which increases the cost of a college education.
Sure, there are some societal benefits to having people go to college, but that benefit comes with a cost, too.
I've got no problem with student loans, overall. My deal is the risk needs to be reflected by the interest rate. If the government is backing high risk loans and not getting the right level of interest, the taxpayers lose.
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From: Gulf Coast
Believe me there's not many deduction in my taxes. I get a little bit for mortgage interest and taxes (that is only a couple thousand above my basic deductions), but other than that it is a straight 14% on just about all of my income. If I could get it up to 28% I'd be laughing to. That means I took a hell-a pay raise. No I'm not including Social Security or the Medicare taxes.
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From: Gulf Coast
Pretty low interest rate considering that the loans are made with no collateral and (last I checked) 12% or so of all the government backed student loans go into default within the first 3 years. At some colleges, the rate of student loan default is 25% or so.
In reality, lots of people 'going to college' are just there to take out a loan so they can get by.
Cheap, government backed student loans are a real gift to the universities, and easily abused by many. The loans artifically inflate demand, which increases the cost of a college education.
Sure, there are some societal benefits to having people go to college, but that benefit comes with a cost, too.
I've got no problem with student loans, overall. My deal is the risk needs to be reflected by the interest rate. If the government is backing high risk loans and not getting the right level of interest, the taxpayers lose.
In reality, lots of people 'going to college' are just there to take out a loan so they can get by.
Cheap, government backed student loans are a real gift to the universities, and easily abused by many. The loans artifically inflate demand, which increases the cost of a college education.
Sure, there are some societal benefits to having people go to college, but that benefit comes with a cost, too.
I've got no problem with student loans, overall. My deal is the risk needs to be reflected by the interest rate. If the government is backing high risk loans and not getting the right level of interest, the taxpayers lose.
Edited to add: I did get a student loan for my last two classes before I graduated. At that point, once I had graduated I would immediately receive a slight pay raise, which happened to completely cover my student loan payments plus a couple dollars.
Last edited by 1depd; Jan 29, 2013 at 07:30 AM.
I think I've talked about the college fallacy on here before, but if not here it goes in a nut shell. A college education used to be worth something. At that time, though only the wealthy were able to send their kids to college. At some point it came to the attention of the masses that the rich are going to college so that must be how they become rich. As a result the masses demanded to be let into college. Up sprung the community college movement and cheap four year institution. As it became more widespread the need to help finance college became more dire. When I first started college I could get no assistance to go. I could get loans, but it didn't make any sense to me to take out approximately 40-50k in student loans to get a job that only paid in the neighborhood of 15-20k. So for me there was no help. Now it seems many students take meaningless classes, and major in liberal arts or some other worthless major that have very low job possibilities and take out loans to pay for it. They lack to foresight to understand that with few job prospects their loans will become very burdensome. Colleges have become overwhelmed with stupid majors and worthless education. Not too mention, with the rapidly expanding student population they now are having troubles teaching all of these young people.
Edited to add: I did get a student loan for my last two classes before I graduated. At that point, once I had graduated I would immediately receive a slight pay raise, which happened to completely cover my student loan payments plus a couple dollars.
Edited to add: I did get a student loan for my last two classes before I graduated. At that point, once I had graduated I would immediately receive a slight pay raise, which happened to completely cover my student loan payments plus a couple dollars.
It really is a problem with the public school systems in the majority of the country. All they focus on is graduation and drop-out rates, and there is not enough emphasis on what needs to be done after they receive a diploma. Higher test scores and statistics will net them more funding, so there is no incentive to ensure their students do better once they walk out the door... If the system is working properly, it's a powerful economic driver for the future. Everyone is just too short-sighted to see past all the garbage that they read or see on TV.
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From: Gulf Coast
You covered quite a bit there, but there are a few things I think should be said. Education is important no matter how you spin it. An educated population is fairly important to a strong nation. But I think college is being vilified for the wrong reasons. Yes, it is expensive, and yes the money can be abused, and it's true, some people don't come out of it successful, but it is the foundation for anyone who wants to make some money anywhere. What people forget is that just because a regular 4 year university isn't the right fit, it doesn't mean that the institution as a whole is just a money pit. If someone doesn't want to pursue a degree, then they should at least pursue a trade at a vocational school. Something has happened in this country where people don't look at "regular" jobs with any respect anymore. There are still things that need to be welded, fabricated, repaired, etc. These are respectable trades, and can be lucrative as well, but the public perception just isn't there anymore.
It really is a problem with the public school systems in the majority of the country. All they focus on is graduation and drop-out rates, and there is not enough emphasis on what needs to be done after they receive a diploma. Higher test scores and statistics will net them more funding, so there is no incentive to ensure their students do better once they walk out the door... If the system is working properly, it's a powerful economic driver for the future. Everyone is just too short-sighted to see past all the garbage that they read or see on TV.
It really is a problem with the public school systems in the majority of the country. All they focus on is graduation and drop-out rates, and there is not enough emphasis on what needs to be done after they receive a diploma. Higher test scores and statistics will net them more funding, so there is no incentive to ensure their students do better once they walk out the door... If the system is working properly, it's a powerful economic driver for the future. Everyone is just too short-sighted to see past all the garbage that they read or see on TV.
I agree with pretty much everything you said. I think I should not have abbreviated my comments. Colleges still produce some good graduates and there are still jobs that require the degree t enter (rocket scientist, doctors, etc), but to think that you have to go a four year institute to be successful is not accurate. Look at Bill Gates. He dropped out of college. There are many people working in the US who had little formal education after high school yet somehow have made a very good living. I do agree that the trades are a very viable route for many people, who just can't stand another 4 years of straight school. At least with a trade there is a lot of hands on experience mixed in with the book learning. I know of few house builders who haven't spent time as a carpenter, brick layer, plumber, or some other small aspect of building a house.
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From: Gulf Coast
Some other quick examples: My father-in-law only has a high school diploma. The most I've heard him making is about 20k per month. He loves to brag on his money. His line of work is low tech and hard labor. When he was making that money he was working 7 days a week as a "maintenance man". He has since taken a bit of a pay cut, but he still makes a very good living earning in the high five figures. My wife is another. She finished high school and that was it. She had a job offer a few years ago as a VP in a large regional bank. The pay at that time would have been around 80k, not including bonuses. She decided not to pursue it since we would have had to move and I loved my job. I told her to take the job. I'll find another, especially since her pay raise would have been more than my pay. Granted if she had a degree she would have been in the position to get that VP job much sooner in her working career, but the point is she was still offered the job.
Their secret was very simple. Don't bitch, gripe, or complain about anything and do what the boss tells you plus a little.
You are correct making millions of dollars a year is tough, but I'm not really talking about that I'm saying a very good living. In my estimation a very good living is having what you need and most of what you want while living in a safe house and neighborhood and driving relatively new cars/trucks.
Their secret was very simple. Don't bitch, gripe, or complain about anything and do what the boss tells you plus a little.
You are correct making millions of dollars a year is tough, but I'm not really talking about that I'm saying a very good living. In my estimation a very good living is having what you need and most of what you want while living in a safe house and neighborhood and driving relatively new cars/trucks.
Last edited by 1depd; Jan 31, 2013 at 07:05 AM.
