Randomness

[interest1]

It's uncertain what you are joking about, Patroklus.
Are you suggesting that we do away with my disabled mother's Medicare income?
Am I interpreting your post correctly?

If so, fuck off.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go help her count a bunch of Monopoly money . . .

[Patroklus]

It's uncertain what you are joking about, Patroklus.
Are you suggesting that we do away with my disabled mother's Medicare income?
Am I interpreting your post correctly?

Close. I am in favor of socialized emergency and medical services; the problem with Medicare is the way it functions, not its intent.

[interest1]

Ah, got it.
I'm totally with you on the socialization of healthcare.
Thank you for clarifying.
I completely unfuck my earlier directive to fuck off. .
.

[0JSIMPS0N]

If we fall off the fiscal cliff, I'm prepared to start buying H&M.

Clinching my ass in 2013 for:

• payroll taxes back to 6.2%
• raise in income tax (20%-tile looking at 5-figure increases)
• raise in capital gains tax to 20%
• raise in dividend tax (to match new income tax rate?)
• raise in estate taxes to whopping 55% (1 mil.+ estates; plan to die before the year is over)
• AMT (not sure if it will affect me yet)
• no more federal unemployment

your ass is fighting for a playoff spot?

[endersgame]

your ass is fighting for a playoff spot?

huh?

well, if we continue bush tax cuts, there won't be enough tax revenue for an effective government. since we leverage everything, do we just keep living the fantasy?

now if we jump the cliff and face the music, there's the very high risk of recession, which is contagious. they are talking about needing 21% of GDP in tax revenues to break even. this is not a realistic number if the government keeps raising the debt ceiling, the minimum to break even will never be constant so cliff jumping will only give temporary fiscal relief, not long term - plus the added repercussions of greece-like austerity.

i think we need to work on improving GDP significantly so that we can afford to pay more taxes without compromising government subsidized programs for the poor and sick. politicians also need to look at other revenue sources other than our own pocket books. save money by reforming our prisons, stop off-shore tax haven abuse. tax the shit out of carbon emissions, tobacco, bullets, donuts...

in the meantime, i might consider moving to belgium and bunk beds with this guy...



wait, i'll pay even more taxes in belgium.
fuck it, i'm moving to the moon.

[endorphinz]

why is tomorrow morning new year's eve?

[zamb]

because new years is masculine and they say Ladies first.............

why is tomorrow morning new year's eve?

[endorphinz]

oh, ok thanks for the explanation...

[Patroklus]

taxes

... aren't the answer at all, considering that we have 1.5ish trillion to make up before we break even, let alone begin paying down debt. The solution is in cutting spending to the programs that no one brings up on the floor because they're all benefiting from them.

work on improving GDP significantly

more meaningful tax restructuring (which the Bush cuts were not, really) would be the best way to do this, but simply increasing taxes and expecting the GDP to rise is definitely not a great idea.

[lowrey]

maybe not the answer, but they are an alleviation.

tax the shit out of gasoline as well, please.

[Patroklus]

no, taxing gasoline is too painful for people who can least afford it; besides, taxes that are meant to affect demand on a good are poisonous to the marketplace. a more straightforward tax code, with fewer breaks and no instances of double taxation, which are inevitably used by the very rich as a way of decreasing their tax burden as far as possible - "I paid payroll on my employees and capital gains, so I can write of all my income that I didn't already hide".

[avout]

It's weird to see Patroklus not write like a teenager on myspace. Good points though, except about the time currency. For a small community it might be fine, but it simply isn't efficient and doesn't scale up well for societies or nations. Plus how do you buy dick in Freedom Dollars?

[Patroklus]

l
e
l
I'm not enthused by time-based currencies, but I wholly support divestment from banker dollars, especially if we then subject the bankers to the same bullshit they've been feeding us; "we're sorry, we realize that we have a debt to you but we just don't care because it's in imaginary banker dollars. oh, would you like to buy that? we accept payment in gold, silver, and Icelandic kronas only."

[HWith]

Seeing how things are going in the US almost makes me happy about the way these things work here in Scandinavia. (Don't tell any of my friends at business school that I said that)

[Patroklus]

here's a video of Icelanders pelting the people that tried to sell them out with eggs and telling them to fuck off outta parliament.

occupy tried to do this, but middle america hates hippies way too much to listen to reason, and that's why all our banker money was stolen back by the people that let us hold on to it for them.