Header Image (book)

aowheader.3.2.gif

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Entitlements — Or Not

One of my Facebook finds (Click directly on the graphic to enlarge it):

69 comments:

  1. What can someone say that isn't said by that meme?
    All that remains is to argue against those who would disagree with it.
    They'll show up soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Ed,

      Here's one you'll appreciate:

      Q: How are Christmas lights like Jeffrey Epstein?

      A: They don't hang themselves.

      Delete
  2. I second Ed. There’s nothing that can really be added to the OP as it stands.

    ReplyDelete
  3. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Those who seek a free lunch are mentally deficient to think that it can be done, and morally corrupt to even wish for it.

    San Diego is once again raising the "initiative" to increase the hotel tax so that visitors to this city wall pay to repave our streets. That concept disgusts me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. There seems to be a 'free lunch' for the 1% while the rest of us gets duped and screwed. Don’t believe the socialist media hype. Stop the tax breaks, subsidies, loopholes and off shore tax havens of the of the mega corporations and have them pay their fair share. 1% of the wealthiest Americans own more then the rest of us COMBINED! The is no FREE stuff, but we’re being taxed to make up the difference while our roads and schools are crumbling. Exxon made record profits last year. Not only did they not pay a dime in taxes, they got $3 BILLION is subsidies from the government. Stop the hundreds of billions of dollars going to off shore tax havens. You pay less than $100 in your annual taxes for social programs. You pay a few thousand to the feds for the money they have to make up because of corporate loopholes, subsidies and money sent to off shore tax havens. Stop that and things like free College and Health Care is very possible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If we had a just system of taxation (not punishing success), we wouldn’t need most of the tax breaks and loopholes.

      Delete
    2. I see that Goose is waiting for unicorns to come over the rise.

      Delete
    3. In 1980, the bottom 90% of taxpayers paid about half of the taxes. The top 1% about 20%. NOW the top 1% pay more in taxes than all of the tax-payers in the bottom 90% combined!

      As for Exxon, a couple of years ago a meme went around that they paid no taxes when their own books showed $4.2B paid in income taxes. Imagine the property and other taxes that are also paid by this enterprise! Even IF they paid none, the fact that they set the table for a good living for 71,000 people, not to mention thousands of suppliers, vendors, and consultants makes congress pale in comparison. Not to mention the local jurisdictions getting $$$$$$ from them in property taxes.

      Delete
    4. I actually agree with some of the sentiments expressed by Mother Good about our convoluted tax system, but Baysider makes an excellent point grounded in Econ 101.

      Also, corporations don't pay taxes. They pass them on to consumers in the form of higher prices. No business stays in business without making a profit (or making no profit but generating a positive cash flow--thank our convoluted tax system for such absurdities).

      Delete
    5. Doesn't that mostly reflect the way income distribution changed over that time? Top 1%'s share of the income doubled from roughly 10% to 20%, why wouldn't we expect their tax burden today to be over 40%, and the reduced tax burden on the bottom 90% (who now earn less of the total share) be less than 50%?

      There are good reasons to tax corporations, for example: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/mar/15/tax-corporations-treasury-large-companies

      Delete
    6. In 2018, the total tax rate for the 400 wealthiest families in America was 23 percent, while the tax rate for bottom half of American families was over a percentage point higher, at 24.2 percent.

      The tax rate for the wealthiest is lower today than in 1950.

      The gap between the richest and the poorest U.S. households is now the largest it's been in the past 50 years.

      CEO compensation has grown 940% since 1978.

      There are any companies who pay little or no taxes, take away benefits from their employees, get subsidies from the Fed and use loop holes to shelter money.

      'Not just Amazon: 60 big companies paid $0 in taxes under Trump law' https://finance.yahoo.com/news/companies-paying-zero-taxes-trump-law-155944124.html

      Delete
    7. MUST we put up with this reeking LEFTIST POOPAGANDA?

      Who NEEDS it?

      Delete
    8. I point the conversation back to Baysider's original comment. The top 1% makes most of the money, and they pay over half the taxes.

      There are many inequalities and dysfunction in the system, but unfortunately, all we get from the left is economically-ignorant blather and rabblerousing propaganda.

      Delete
    9. There are many ways to approach taxation. Governments need money and somebody's gotta pay.

      I would prefer a system where government taxes businesses and corporations and leaves the rest of us the hell alone. The fact that I have to spend 10-40 hours per year doing tax paperwork for the government, according to rules nobody understands, burns me up.

      Tax the businesses and let them pass it along to the consumers. Those who consume more (the rich) will end up paying more than the rest of us.

      Delete
    10. "Tax the businesses and let them pass it along to the consumers"

      Interesting idea. The obvious problem is that it's a bit regressive, insofar as poor people by necessity spend a greater proportion of their income, but it's worth pondering nevertheless.

      Delete
    11. Jez, Poor people spend a greater proportion of their income on literally EVERYTHING they buy, by definition.

      In my plan, like a flat tax I favor, basic staples could be excluded.

      Delete
    12. Flat tax for certain.Can't be any worse than the current regressive system.

      I've often said that the first step needs to be to halt withholding. Perhaps I'm optimistic, but make every tax paying American write a check to the several layers of government, and we might actually see change.

      Delete
    13. CI,
      the first step needs to be to halt withholding

      Yes, indeed! Then people realize just how much tax they are paying!

      All my life I've had to make those quarterly payments as I've been self-employed to one extent or another from the day I began to work (teaching piano lessons, then on to private tutoring and teaching homeschool classes).

      Delete
    14. As I said earlier: "They'll show up soon."
      They did.

      Delete
  6. Wise words clearly and succinctly stated.

    Pithy, truthful, and completely sufficient to use as a guide.

    Every school in the land should be required to post this remarkably sound nequivocaly stated piece of advice prominently in every classroom.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No one is advocating anything for 'free.' Is social security, medicare, polio vaccines (medical advancements), police fire department, public education, NASA (and their developments in technology) public prisons, the VA, the military, swine flu vaccine, disability insurance, unemployment insurance,public transportation, roads, bridges, FREE? NO. But I don't mind paying taxes for these items.

      What I don't like paying for is:

      Corporate/Business Subsidies - This is the type of socialism that is acceptable in the Republican party. You tax dollars are given to big corporations to do things they should be doing anyway out of morals and ethics. Like not sending jobs overseas and hiring people. Wouldn't you like a nice big check just for not breaking the law? To be fair though, many businesses do earn their subsidies by advancing green technology and practice, donating to charity, helping communities, etc. They aren't all bad. People just get mad when big billionaire oil companies get billions of their taxpayer dollars while they're paying $4 at the pump. For the corporations that don't earn their subsidies other than donating to their very own political party, it's merely welfare. Though however you look at it, it is socialism.

      Corporate Bailouts/Welfare - The whole point of this post is to prove that we ALL use, benefit from, and like socialism. This example is a form of socialism that the republicans not only like, but fight tooth and nail for. They don't like it when socialism is used for working/poor people, but when it's for millionaires and their corporate donors, socialism becomes as American as apple pie. The middle/working class who are the majority of taxpayers pay for welfare for corporations and people who have more money than all of us combined. When our government bails out a bank or gives a subsidy to a billion dollar corporation, you are paying for it.

      Especially when corporations are screwing us all.

      Delete
  7. Replies
    1. It is a sign of simple-minded times that a snarky one-off that would have lived a life of five minutes now becomes a never-ending meme with its own line of t-shirts.

      My mom and dad are boomers, and contrary to popular culture depictions, I think the data shows most were not dope smoking hippies or selfish, self-absorbed narcissists.

      I also don't believe most Millennials are whiners. The Millennials and post-millennials who are whiny crybabies are angry because they're not the CEO pulling down ten million after being in the job market all day.

      When life hand you a pile of dung, climb to the top and look for opportunities over the horizon.

      Delete
    2. I don't disagree, but I'm also an advocate of ending all forms of government welfare and entitlement spending. I'm approaching 50 years old (Gen X). My generation is the last one that won't put people in death camps to save money. Bank on it.

      Delete
    3. TC: Fellow Gen X'er here.

      I agree the progressive entitlements structures are unsustainable, at the national, state and local levels. It will crash eventually, and the irony that may emerge is that the Millennials and post-Millennials will be resilient enough to survive it, especially given few of them expect to receive the benefits the boomers retired on.

      Given all that, I don't blame boomers. This was set up by FDR progressives in both parties, and they probably meant well. We are a something for nothing culture, and we were all complicit, voting for politicians who kept building the sand castles higher and higher, promising us rainbows and unicorns forever...

      Aiming venom at the boomers is just a nasty expression of resentment and misplaced anger at not getting what somebody else got.

      Delete
    4. My father recently passed away after the insurance company ordered an unnecessary and dangerous test on his heart to justify their continued payment for a medication that was keeping him alive. The medication costed them 25 cents a day. So forgive me if I'm a bit salty about government welfare programs.

      Delete
    5. TC,
      Damn and double damn.

      Was there no appeals process?

      Delete
    6. In my own case, I'm about to do battle with Medicare regarding my absolute need for a Dexa scan ordered by my OB/GYN. With all my recent bone-loss problems of the jawbones, I really shouldn't be taking Fosamax unless needed. It's cheaper for Medicare to pay for the Fosamax than for the Dexa.

      To be fair, I've run into exactly the same kind of problem with private health insurance.

      Delete
    7. TC, I am very sorry to hear that. Your anger is righteous.

      Delete
    8. Not really an appeals process It was fight between doctors and Medicare. Doctors with medical degrees vs. pencil pushing bean counters with no medical training. Basically the docs had to prove taking dad off his medication would kill him. They were right.

      Delete
    9. TC,
      I'm sorry.

      I'm sure that you are outraged -- and justly so.

      Delete
    10. Dad's health deteriorated horribly in the year after my mother passed away (she had sustained a massive traumatic brain injury in a car accident, she died roughly 2 years later). My dad's heart, liver, kidneys, and lungs all developed chronic diseases... he was ready to see my mom again. There was some hope, a sliver of hope, but insurance dickering caused a critically short treatment window to slam shut so really it was my Dad's choice of which affliction he wanted to kill him. He did not fear death (probably the most faith-filled Christian I ever knew) so he decided the fight with insurance to wind up bedridden for a few miserable weeks of delaying the inevitable was not worth the hassle. We put him in hospice care and he passed peacefully with his dignity 3 days later, and a year and a day after my mom passed. He could not bear being apart from her.

      But I'm still pissed. They took my dad off a heart med to gather data the pencil pushers at Medicare wanted to continue paying for said med and he died on the table during the test (revived by CPR) and spent his last remaining days battered and bruised from the CPR that revived him when the doctors protested to Medicare that said test would likely kill him. That was the day I decided humanity would be a lot better off if all governments were abolished as a bad idea. The government literally would not let the doctors give my Dad his medication until their bullshit paperwork was filed. Imagine how pissed I was when I found out they basically murdered my dad for 75 fucking cents.

      Delete
    11. TC,
      That was the day I decided humanity would be a lot better off if all governments were abolished as a bad idea.

      I understand. Your dad was murdered "by the system" for a lousy 75 cents.

      I feel the same way about civil court. My accident case went basically nowhere -- never mind the lifetime of pain I'm having since May 2005 and will always have.

      Delete
    12. We were not even allowed the option to purchase my Dad's meds in bulk (at the inflated non-Medicare price) because... you guessed it, government. It's a trap.

      Delete
    13. My grandfather, my father's father, lived to be 83. Had my Dad's heartache at my mother's passing not wrecked his health, he would have easily lived at least another 10 years. I really am encouraged that Dad passed peacefully and confident he was reuniting with my mom. Makes it a little easier to cope with how powerless we - and his doctors - were when the government interfered with his health care.

      Delete
    14. Grief such as your father experienced with your mother's terrible passing takes a toll. Still, it is the government that killed him.

      Delete
    15. TC,
      We were not even allowed the option to purchase my Dad's meds in bulk (at the inflated non-Medicare price)

      We ran into that problem, too, with one of Mr. AOW's meds. Fortunately, we had a family doc who supplied the meds until all the government hurdles were cleared. That kind of family doc is almost impossible to find now -- thanks to the changes that ObamaCare wrought.

      Delete
    16. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  8. Words wasted on those who need to understand this but won't.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You equivocate understand with agree.

      Delete
    2. Jez, you can't mean "equivocte" in that context, you must have meant "equate," isnt that right?

      Nevertheless, I have to agree with Kid. IF one UNDERSTANDS (comprehends, appreciates, etc.) the meaning of these featured words, one could not HELP but AGREE with them.

      };^)>

      PS: Have you received my recent emails? I know you must be very busy, but I'd like to have an ACKNOWLDGEMENT from you at the very least, if not a "proper" answer. It's only good etiquette in all circumstances to ACKNOWLEDGE letters, at the very least, even if you are not particularly glad to receive them.

      I thought what i sent you was entirely positive, pleasant, and worthwhile. I'm sorry if you disagree.

      FreeThinke

      Delete
    3. Yes, equivocate isn't quite the right word. I think I've been misusing it for a while... ironic, while I'm nit-picking over someone else's use of language! I guess I'm really complaining about the implicit assumption of the logical inference you asserted in your second paragraph, so a type of "begging the question".

      Delete
  9. In other news, yesterday at the SCOTUS:

    Supreme Court will allow Sandy Hook families to move forward in suit against gunmaker Remington.

    Excerpt:

    The Supreme Court said Tuesday that it will not hear a closely watched case against gunmaker Remington, a move the company has warned could potentially increase the liability of firearm manufacturers to suits brought by victims of gun crimes....

    More at the above link.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't read too much into it. Remington was attempting to fast track the case to the Supreme Court. The Supremes merely rejected that so the case could run its normal course through the court system. They reject over 95% of these requests.

      The progressive propaganda press just trumpets the ones they can get propaganda mileage out of.

      Delete
    2. This judicial motion is a travesty of justice that flies in direct contravention of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA); a law that didn’t need to be enacted but for the perfidious attempts by the Left to circumvent the 2nd Amendment.

      Delete
    3. CI: You are way more educated on this than me. I guess I need to start reading the ILA Report in my American Rifleman a little closer...

      The rotten lawyers obviously have some loophole staked out to convince a soft-head jury the company was criminally negligent, or some such nonsense.

      I would like to believe no way in hell this wins, that this is one more exercise to ratchet up the propaganda against guns.

      The biggest danger--in my eyes--is the pathetic number of people who belong to NRA, NSSF, GOA or some other 2nd Amendment organizations. The percentage of gun owners is shrinking, and at some point, the percentage will be small enough that the gun grabbers will have full control.

      Delete
    4. Just a heavily invested observer, dare I usurp a common Leftist term and call myself an “Activist”?

      The danger with the Connecticut case is that certiorari was denied by an allegedly Conservative leaning SCOTUS, which has already denied a stay in the case of this Administration’s unconstitutional taking with regard to bump stocks; a similar case against the PLCAA is also underway from the parents of a Mandalay Bay (Vegas) victim.

      If this SCOTUS can be so cavalier in allowing blame to be assigned to a manufacturer, when an unlawful act is carried out by a 3rd party, there is literally no end to the litigation we can expect to face.

      Delete
    5. CI,
      If this SCOTUS can be so cavalier in allowing blame to be assigned to a manufacturer, when an unlawful act is carried out by a 3rd party, there is literally no end to the litigation we can expect to face.

      What's next? Car manufacturers?

      Delete
    6. Same theory would apply. Guy drives an Explorer into a bus full of school children? Sue Ford.

      Makes perfect leftist sense.

      Delete
    7. At least with Firestone tires they were finding literal garbage (timecards, chicken bones, etc.) pressed into the tires by union "laborers" at the tire manufacturing plant and initiated quality control (i.e. busted the union)

      Delete
  10. Bernie Sanders has promised that New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will play a "very, very important role" in the White House if he is elected president of the United States.
    But I don’t think anyone has anything to worry about, that Crazy Old Lunatic will not EVER be the Democratic nominee or more importantly, the President of the United States of America.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bernie Sanders and ALL the lousy stinking Commie BASTARDS currently bedeviling us deserve nothng but DEATH, since they are in truth Enemies of the United States of America and of Western Civilization in general.

      If we can't find the guts to EXECUTE them, the least we should do is INCARCERATE them, or SILENCE them at the very least, and render whatever "message" tney try to promote both TABOO and ILLEGAL.

      The First Amendment I am CERTAIN was not meant to protect subversive ideas and seditious activities.

      If by any chance it WAS, that was a tragic ERROR that ought to be CORRECTED.

      After all, isn't SUICIDE AGAINST the LAW?


      Preaching and attempting to implement MARXISMi in any of its many hideous guises is certainly promoting our SUICIDE as a NATION and as a CULTURE.

      Delete
    2. Dude, did I just notice your name is not spelled Debonair?
      Or did you change it?

      Delete
  11. OFF TOPIC-BUT-NOT_REALLY:

    If this is dramatically indicative of the degenerate nature of our culture and mores today. WE ARE IN B-I-G- TROUBLE:


    Homeless Man Hurls Bucket of Hot Diarrhea at Woman Near Hollywood Walk of Fame.

    That is a headline at DRUDGE today. I didn't bother to read further, would you?..

    I hope the victim had a GUN, took it out and SHOT the goddam bastard DEAD on the SPOT.

    AGGRESSORS MUST D-I-E-!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She was dragged out of her vehicle!

      By the by, my father-in-law and his new wife, suddenly stricken by Lewy Body Dementia, live a few blocks from the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I know the area very well, and as recently as 2006, felt safe walking that area -- day or night.

      Delete
  12. THen we get more 'corporations are screwing us all'...as if corporations don't purchase our goods, give dividends, HIRE millions, etc etc......Sure, corporations aren't any more perfect than anything else is, but HOW can Americans honestly feel they need to GO (and I've heard that a lot)?

    Nothing in your FB find is incorrect.......it just hurts some people who've been taught in school (we've paid for) that entitlements are deserved...just for being American. Or also for illegally coming into our country, come to think of it..

    ReplyDelete
  13. Know this is OFF TOPIC but I burst out laughing when Schiff said he didn't know the whistleblower...even WaPo is dying laughing!!

    ReplyDelete

We welcome civil dialogue at Always on Watch. Comments that include any of the following are subject to deletion:
1. Any use of profanity or abusive language
2. Off topic comments and spam
3. Use of personal invective

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

!--BLOCKING--