Open Thread For September 11, 2017

Filed in Delaware, Featured, National by on September 11, 2017

Hmmm, 9-11. 911. Coincidence or…conspiracy?

Did DeLuca Try To Pull Another Fast One? I support prevailing wage and recognize the Rethugs’ obsession against it as typical R disdain for allowing anyone but billionaires to make a decent living. However, proposed regulations don’t get posted by accident, especially when Tiny Tony’s pudgy fingerprints are all over them. John, John? Is it time to fire him yet?

Bannon: Firing Comey Worst Decision In Modern Political History.  He may be right…up until the point that he claims that Mueller will find nothing.

Another R Senator Headed For the Exits? Tenn. Senator Bob Corker considering retirement.

What Happens If Trump Decertifies Iran Nuke Deal. Hey, it’s Obama, and it’s working. Why not blow it up?

Will Mueller Have To Give Trump Immunity? Maybe, but it won’t enable Donald to escape Deep Doo-Doo.

It’s Not Just The 1%, It’s The 20%. Hey, we’re in this bracket, and I grudgingly admit that he’s got a point.  Read with an open mind, but read.

What do you want to talk about?

 

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  1. Paul Hayes says:

    “hey, we’re in this bracket.” Speak for yourself. I’m not in this bracket nor have I been.

  2. I WAS speaking for myself. And my wife.

  3. Arthur says:

    i think what the article said mostly was that generation after generation people born into their socio-economic bracket stay in their bracket. from the poor through the wealthy, generations maintain their place.

  4. Dave says:

    “Their tax breaks are one reason why”

    Not a well written article. He spent much of his ink on the 529. Failed to really discuss the range of tax breaks and the net effect on total disposable income.

    The average federal tax per return is 13.5% (50 M returns owed no taxes though, so if you eliminate the 0 tax returns the rate is much higher.

    The average for federal taxes for specific income ranges:
    <100K – 200K 20-25%

    Even with things like a 529 and property taxes exemptions the upper middle is paying more.

    Just for the record (not that there is a record). My average effective tax rate for federal is 15.458%, not including Medicare, Social Security and state/local taxes.

    More important (in my view) is not the advantages of tax breaks at higher income levels (lest we also focus on tax breaks at lower incomes (EITC, child care, et al). It is that there are always going to be advantages to more income. I would think then, that the goal would be to provide the opportunity for upward mobility so that everyone can share in those advantages.

    Deceased Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who lived in California, received a liver transplant in Tennessee, which has a median waiting period of just 48 days, compared to a national median wait of 306 days. Jobs certainly had the financial resources to travel and pay out of pocket for his medical care. He had an advantage that average Americans (including upper middle class) do not have.

    Dicking around with most tax breaks is nibbling at the margins. Upward mobility is what we are missing. It’s not just wages that are stagnant, it’s upward mobility that is stagnant.

  5. alby says:

    “Dicking around with most tax breaks is nibbling at the margins. Upward mobility is what we are missing. It’s not just wages that are stagnant, it’s upward mobility that is stagnant.”

    I think you missed the point of the article, which was that the breaks available to the top 20% tend to perpetuate the offspring of the 20% staying in the 20%. “Upwardly mobile” is a relative term — for someone to move up, everyone else has to stand still. If everyone is upwardly mobile, nobody is. It’s like asking for all the children to be above-average.

    In a capitalist system inequality is built in. That’s not to say we shouldn’t be capitalists — nothing humans have found brings about the same material benefits — but we should understand and work to mitigate that system’s built-in tendency toward monopoly and wealth concentration.

    For all the caterwauling, the fact remains that a modest increase in taxes on both the top 1% and top 20% would solve most of this country’s fiscal problems. All the rest of the chatter about fiscal matters exists mainly to obscure this simple and efficient solution.

  6. Paul Hayes says:

    El Som. You make the case for my objections to indefinate pronoun use or, overuse in blog writing. I didn’t mean to sound harsh. It’s been a bad week.

  7. mouse says:

    The lower middle class used to be a position that one could obtain with most jobs. A small row house, a couple kids, a car, vacations and college. This allowed for upward mobility for the next generation at least from lower middle class to the mid and upper middle class level. Those jobs that afford modest home ownership have mostly been outsourced to child and slave labor over seas and places with no environmental or safety laws.

  8. meatball says:

    In Delaware, one can graduate from DelTech as an RN in two years and make $50-$60k with benefits.

  9. mouse says:

    Yeah, If you can stick needles in people’s arms. I would pass out lol