How to be Poor

Ever wonder why the USA has so many poor people? After all, being poor while a citizen of one of the richest countries in the world requires some explanation. The secret is making the right choices early in life. First, turn your back on the free education offered through 12th grade. Achieve this by refusing to do your schoolwork and quitting at age 16. Avoid the GED diploma as well. It is also important to stay away from vocational programs and apprentice work. Caution...during this time you will have to endure the concern and advice of relatives and counselors but you can shake this off if you are really determined to be poor. Of course, lack of high school will keep you out of University which should definitely be avoided .

In your mid to late teens it will help to have a child out of wedlock. After all, many teens are having multiple children with multiple partners so don’t hold back. Another touch is to develop a criminal record. It is easy to do, stays with you forever and eliminates being hired for many jobs. If, despite all of this, you somehow find yourself employed and earning money there are still things that can be done. Showing up late for work is effective. Another effective technique is to cultivate a hostile attitude toward management.

Finally, in the unlikely event you still find you have some money, make sure to avoid saving or investing. Impulse spending and debt are the way to go here. Even substantial sums can be frittered away quite easily so there should be no excuse for accumulating any assets. In conclusion, the road to poverty is not as difficult as it may seem even in the USA. There are two simple rules which will often get you through when you have to make life choices: 1)Always take the easiest path. 2) If it feels good, do it.

How the U.S. income tax works

How the U.S. income tax works

By Marshall Brain

 
 

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | (MCT) Tax time is upon us once again, and we all heave a collective sigh of resignation. There is nothing we can do about taxes, true. But have you ever wondered where income taxes came from, and why we pay them today? This is actually a fascinating story.

It all started in 1894, when Congress passed the "Revenue Act of 1894." It was a very simple tax. If you made more than $4,000 per year, you paid a 2 percent tax on your income. In 1894, $4,000 per year was a tremendous amount of income - an indication of great wealth. So the income tax of 1894 did not affect very many people, and the amount of tax was small.

Even so, the Supreme Court found the tax to be unconstitutional and struck it down. To get around the Supreme Court, Congress did the only thing it could do - it proposed a constitutional amendment and got it ratified. The 16th amendment reads, "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration." This amendment specifically allows there to be an income tax in the United States. It was ratified in 1913.

Now you might be wondering: why in the world would the citizens of the United States ratify an amendment like that? Why would the citizens give congress the ability to create a new kind of tax? It is because, at the time, people were worried about the wealthy having too much money and power. The income tax was seen as a tax that would only be applied to the wealthy, in order to curb their power. The first income tax laws applied only to the very wealthy. As late as 1940, only about 5 percent of the population paid income tax.

Another feature of today's income tax system is the idea of a payroll withholding. Before your tax is due, the government takes it automatically out of your paycheck and holds your money in escrow until April 15. You get no interest on your money and cannot use it in any way. Where did an idea like this come from, and why would Americans allow it? This idea came in 1943 as a way to fund WWII. By withholding the tax up to a year ahead of its due date, the government got the money faster and used it to pay for the war.

So in 1943, the government has two key things: a constitutionally-approved tax system, and the ability take money out of people's pay checks without them ever holding the money in their own hands. All of the ingredients are in place for a massive expansion of the tax system. And sure enough, the system expanded.

One way to track the expansion is to look at the size of the tax code. In 1945, the federal tax rules fit in about 8,000 pages. By 1965 it took about 20,000 pages. In 2006, the number had grown to 66,000 pages. How many pages is that? A phone book might have 1,000 pages, so imagine 66 phone books lined up on a long shelf. It would be about 20 feet of phone books. That's our tax code.

If you look at the instructions for the basic 1040 form, you see the same kind of thing. The 1040 form is only two pages long. In 1945 it took four pages of instructions to explain it. By 1965 it took 17 pages. Today it takes more than 140 pages.

The complexity of the tax code means that many people can no longer file their own tax returns. So there are now more than one million paid tax preparers in the United States. Many of them are employed by the top three tax preparation companies: H&R Block, Jackson-Hewitt and Liberty. Together these companies handle more than 20 million customers per year.

Somehow, we all manage to muddle through, and we file something like 100 million individual taxable returns in a typical year. Using very round numbers here to keep things simple, these tax returns represent income of about $5 trillion. The total tax collected on that income is about $1 trillion, or roughly $10,000 per 1040 form, on average. That money combines with social security taxes ($900 billion), corporate income taxes ($260 billion) and other things like tariffs to create about $2.4 trillion in total federal revenue in 2007. It takes over 100,000 IRS employees to handle the load.

So, as you are burning the midnight oil to complete you tax returns, scratching your head over some incomprehensible rule or form, you now know a little bit of the history that got us here. We've come a very long way since the first income tax in 1913!

 
 

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A Beauty Contest

They say young people are excited about Obama for President. This very much reminds me of 1960, the year I graduated from BHS. The young people then liked John Kennedy. I’m sure many older folks in Bloomington remember the day a platform (or flat bed truck?) was set up on the south side of the square and some celebrities spoke for Kennedy . The only speaker I can recall was the actor Jeff Chandler…probably because he was heckled and he threatened to come into the crowd and settle the issue. For young people it was the youth, charm and looks of Kennedy versus the older looking, lackluster and much uglier Nixon . It turned out to be a close election. The folks for whom issues mattered (Unions, Corporations, Taxpayers, etc) made it a horse race. Then, as now, the candidates made grand sounding statements and promised things would get better. The reality is that Congress is where the real power is but Congress has 535 members , numerous committees and rules so arcane the public cannot understand them. So we focus on the President. He is one man and we can understand that.
Ltr sent H-T 4Feb08

Update: After this letter was published I got a call from a guy who was at the rally. I believe his name is Jerry Gregory. He reminded me that the actress Angie Dickenson was there and had spoke before Chandler. Chandler opened by saying something like "Angie can even speak while lying down." There was a shocked silence from the crowd then catcalls began which triggered Chandler's outburst.

Population of Selected Countries

(click to enlarge)


 

China	1,321,851,888
India	1,129,866,154
United States	301,139,947
Indonesia	234,693,997
Brazil	190,010,647
Russia	141,377,752
Nigeria	135,031,164
Japan	127,433,494
Mexico	108,700,891
Germany	82,400,996
Iran	65,397,521
France	63,713,926
Spain	40,448,191
Canada	33,390,141
Iraq	27,499,638
Korea, North	23,301,725
Australia	20,434,176
Syria	19,314,747
Netherlands	16,570,613
Chile	16,284,741
Cuba	11,394,043
Greece	10,706,290
Belgium	10,392,226
Hungary	9,956,108
Sweden	9,031,088
Switzerland	7,554,661
Bulgaria	7,322,858
Hong Kong	6,980,412
Israel	6,426,679
Denmark	5,468,120
Norway	4,627,926
Ireland	4,109,086

About one in three persons in the world is either Chinese or Indian. The current world population of 6.6B is expected to grow to 9B by 2050. Almost all of this increase will be in Africa and Asia. Environmentalists say population growth is the largest threat to the environment. My opinion is that some of these countries will not have the needed political stability nor will their environment sustain such growth. China has a "one couple, one child" law and tries to enforce it. As far as I know, it is the only country with this law.

On the other hand, many advanced countries are shrinking because their people are choosing not to have children. They have such low birth rates they face huge social problems in the future such as not enough workers to support the elderly. Oddly enough Italy, the home of the Catholic church, has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe. America currently has a slightly positive popultion growth.

Some other observations: Ireland (4M) about the same size as the Pheonix, Arizona urban area. The Philadelphia urban area(5.9M) is larger than Denmark. The London metro area (8.6M) is larger than Israel. California (36M) has more people than Canada. If you are a small country like Denmark you have to be a little nervous about the future if some of the 9B decide maybe your tiny population does not merit all the your territorial rights.

NFL player sets example for fans

From 6Jan08 Parade magazine:
Tailback Travis Henry of the Denver Broncos has been ordered by judges in several states to pay child support for seven of nine children he fathered by nine women.

The groupie effect for athletes and rock stars is old news but I am curious to know if these were accidental pregnancies or intentional by women wanting the $ from a rich NFL player. Remeber Wilt Chamberlin's book where he claimed to have screwed over 2000 women? I don't know if he paid for any kids but they did not do DNA paternity checks back then.

I saw an episode of 'Cops' where they collared a young black guy who said he had four kids by three girlfriends in the neighborhood. These will be paid for by the taxpayers until age 18 because Dad is in jail...also at taxpayer expense. This will be the next generation of Gangstas.

If I Can Dream-Elvis and Celine Dion

Great use of technology to create an "impossible" duet. I heard recently that to see Celine's show in Las Vegas costs $200 per ticket. That is outrageous. Things have changed since the old days when big name shows were cheap in Vegas in order to draw people to the Casinos.

Money video

This is a weird music video but I like it. The lead singer does a great job of deadpaning the funny lyrics.

The Locomtion- Kylie Minogue

I really wanted the video of Debbie Gibson doing this song. But is nowhere to be found on the web. However this one is similar and pretty good.

ABBA "Dancing Queen"

One of their best songs. ABBA hit it big after winning a TV music talent show (Eurovision?) Saw an interview with a music guru who praised their music as being as intricate and sophisticated as any band out there. After about 10 years they retired and went back back to Sweden.

ABBA "The Winner Takes It All"

ABBA was number one in the world for 10 years despite doing "clean" pop music. This at a time when other top bands were featuring the grunge look along with "sex,drugs and rock-n-roll".