Thursday, May 01, 2008
How Should Tax Burden be defined?
Depending on whether one is talking with a liberal or a conservative, we are taxed unequally with the liberal arguing the rich don't pay enough and the conservative arguing the rich pay too much and the middle class and poor not enough. Both use a different way of describing the tax burden.
Well, here's my simple definition of tax burden. My tax burden is the tax I pay to any and all levels of government on every dollar that I earn and spend. In other words, the total amount of income taxes, FICA, Medicare, gas tax, property tax, car registration, sales taxes, etc. that I pay as a proportion of my total income. I figure it's about 40 cents of every dollar I make. I'm guessing that people like Warren Buffet pay less, proportionately, since most of the money they make is treated as capital gains and is taxed at 15% vs. the 25% Federal tax bracket I'm in. Anyway it leaves me with two questions.
For conservatives, why should rich folks get a discount on their taxes - i.e. why should I pay more of every dollar I make than Warren Buffet does?
For liberals, just what justification is there for government to cost forty cents of every dollar I make? How does one keep up with the mortgage, pay rapidly increasing fuel costs, etc. when government takes almost half of what I make?
Lastly for both: what's wrong with adopting these parts of the Megan McArdle tax plan shown below?
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Well, here's my simple definition of tax burden. My tax burden is the tax I pay to any and all levels of government on every dollar that I earn and spend. In other words, the total amount of income taxes, FICA, Medicare, gas tax, property tax, car registration, sales taxes, etc. that I pay as a proportion of my total income. I figure it's about 40 cents of every dollar I make. I'm guessing that people like Warren Buffet pay less, proportionately, since most of the money they make is treated as capital gains and is taxed at 15% vs. the 25% Federal tax bracket I'm in. Anyway it leaves me with two questions.
For conservatives, why should rich folks get a discount on their taxes - i.e. why should I pay more of every dollar I make than Warren Buffet does?
For liberals, just what justification is there for government to cost forty cents of every dollar I make? How does one keep up with the mortgage, pay rapidly increasing fuel costs, etc. when government takes almost half of what I make?
Lastly for both: what's wrong with adopting these parts of the Megan McArdle tax plan shown below?
3) Eliminate the corporate income tax
4) Eliminate the special treatment for capital gains. All income should be taxed at the same level, regardless of its source.
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Sunday, April 27, 2008
On Bill Maher
In keeping with this blog's tradition of being far behind the bleeding edge, I just wanted to write a bit about Bill Maher. He stirred up the blogosphere during Pope Benedict's visit to Washington and New York. He called the Pope a Nazi and accused him of being an apologist for pedophilia.
This generated a modest furor of course. Did conservatives get Maher fired? Nope. Did they Maher to apologize to Catholics or the Pope? Nope. Did it change anything? Not really. Personally I don't think it ever will. Bill Maher is a seldom funny, arrogant, smug comic who has found a market niche entertaining people who share a world view similar to his. They're the people who don't respect religious folk, and people who know that conservatives are stupid and/or evil. Conservatives and conservative Christians are not part of his audience, just people for Maher to mock and be contemptuous of. He doesn't care if he offends them. HBO doesn't care as long as he makes HBO money.
Perhaps it would be better if we ignored the jerk instead of giving him free publicity.
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This generated a modest furor of course. Did conservatives get Maher fired? Nope. Did they Maher to apologize to Catholics or the Pope? Nope. Did it change anything? Not really. Personally I don't think it ever will. Bill Maher is a seldom funny, arrogant, smug comic who has found a market niche entertaining people who share a world view similar to his. They're the people who don't respect religious folk, and people who know that conservatives are stupid and/or evil. Conservatives and conservative Christians are not part of his audience, just people for Maher to mock and be contemptuous of. He doesn't care if he offends them. HBO doesn't care as long as he makes HBO money.
Perhaps it would be better if we ignored the jerk instead of giving him free publicity.
Labels: Maher, outrage, Politics
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Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Lest one thinks
that Democrats have cornered the market on stupidity and intolerance, witness the campaign of Tony Zinkle ... . (via Little Green Footballs)
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Tuesday, April 22, 2008
It's stuff like
this that makes me feel unwelcome in the Democratic Party. What a demonstration of the virtues of embracing diversity and tolerance.
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Sunday, April 20, 2008
Today at the MIA
Today is what is called a 'fine spring day' up here, so a break was taken from politics today to visit the Minneapolis Institute of Art to see the John C. Weber collection of Japanese art. Since photography isn't allowed in the exhibit, I had to settle for a photo of the replica teahouse and garden that's part of the permanent collection.
I admit to being an ignoramus about art, but there is just something about the look of the Japanese screens, fans, the tea house that I just find greatly appealing. It's sort of a combination of simplicity with meticulous fine detail that just fits my sense of what's right.
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Saturday, April 19, 2008
A livelier Star Wars
Just some nostalgia from years ago... . Not better, just different. James Last's version of the MECO Star Wars theme.
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Labels: movies, music, Nostalgia
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A little self-exmination blogging..
This post over at Althouse prompted me to take a look at the posts on this little blog to see what kind of blog it is. It seems that I've become a male political blogger of sorts. Funny thing is, I'm not a very political person. This blog started as a place to vent after the Wellstone "memorial" and as a place to express myself on whatever caught my fancy. This included stuff like Project Runway, astronomy pictures, weather, occasionally sports, and lots of politics.
Why politics? It may be my inner curmudgeon prompts me to write about stuff that annoys me. Politics as a subject has a pretty high annoyance factor with me. Since I live in St. Paul and DFL elected officials are thick on the ground, I find lots of things about the DFL to be annoyed about. I get the chance to see the Minnesota DFL and their friends in the press work up close and they are a constant source of disappointment. The GOP isn't much of a power here, but I suspect that if they were, I'd be annoyed with them too. Certainly Jason Lewis wouldn't think much of this place, if it was worth noticing... .
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Why politics? It may be my inner curmudgeon prompts me to write about stuff that annoys me. Politics as a subject has a pretty high annoyance factor with me. Since I live in St. Paul and DFL elected officials are thick on the ground, I find lots of things about the DFL to be annoyed about. I get the chance to see the Minnesota DFL and their friends in the press work up close and they are a constant source of disappointment. The GOP isn't much of a power here, but I suspect that if they were, I'd be annoyed with them too. Certainly Jason Lewis wouldn't think much of this place, if it was worth noticing... .
Labels: blogging, Politics, self-absorption
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Sunday, April 13, 2008
This development looks like something from the movie "Enemy of the State" . I don't believe that fighting jihadis justifies this kind of domestic surveillance. I think I agree with the Democrats' view on this one.
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Democrat Bigotry on Display
Via Tom Maguire, (who has much more to say about it) this post from the "Big Tent Democrat" at TalkLeft just reinforces my dislike of the way Dems are unable to listen to a Republican without labeling them as a racist or bigot or some other derogatory term. Apparently, if one disagrees with a liberal Democrat that person must be evil in some way. Republicans of course are racist by default. I'd call them jackasses, but that would insult the good name of donkeys worldwide.
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Labels: bigotry, Democrats, McCain, Politics
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Spring in Minnesota
