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Dear 22 Year Old: Concerning your economic Future

drurywriting.com

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Re: Dear 22 Year Old: Concerning your economic Future

#41

Post by dagw »

anonymous245 wrote: post #20
SlyShy wrote: post #3

As an 18 year old reading this sort of writing makes me want to leave the country. Except that I'd be taxed for ten years after expatriating, and there isn't any country that I know of as being similarly entrepreneurial. If anyone has suggestions, though, I would love to hear them.

Interesting. Are you sure taxation ends after 10 years?

I think it depends on if you have any financial dealings with the US. As long as you completely leave (no property, no loans, no investments, drawing no salary from the US, not paying into any of retirement benefits etc. etc.) then yea it will end.

On the other hand my mother hasn't lived in the US for close to 35 years now and she still has to file a tax return and pay a few bucks every year, due to still having some financial ties with US.

Re: Dear 22 Year Old: Concerning your economic Future

#42

Post by akl »

anonymous245 wrote: post #19
Locke1689 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh. Yeah I found this. I teach practical ministry courses at Indiana Wesleyan University. I write a weekly Tuesday Column during the school year and am usually backpacking or bicycling in the summer. A real economics guru we've found.

Have the "real" economics gurus like Greenspan (snicker) delivered?

I'm sure some people might argue he has, but ultimately it doesn't matter in this context; failure of 'real' economics gurus to succeed does not mean any random person is equally capable in the subject.

Re: Dear 22 Year Old: Concerning your economic Future

#43

Post by stretchwithme »

shawndrost wrote: post #22
jojopotato wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't quite get why people keep calling Social Security a ponzi scheme. A ponzi scheme is defrauding investors by saying that there has been growth in the assets and it's paying out dividends, SS doesn't make any claim like that. The real problem people are complaining about is the burden that was shared by many (by having lots of kids) is going to be shared by fewer and fewer people.

Wait a second -- to be strictly accurate, Social Security does explicitly state those two things. WRT "growth in assets": they send out letters to all enrollees stating the amount of money that each has coming to them. and the number is higher than the amount the enrollee has paid in (to reflect the interest that "will accumulate"). WRT "paying out dividends": the system is paying out dividends, obviously. I know som…

there was a guy responsible for starting it if I recall. was he the ringleader?

either way, people have the right to the results of their own work and this scheme violates that right.

Re: Dear 22 Year Old: Concerning your economic Future

#44

Post by stretchwithme »

runT1ME wrote: post #21
jojopotato wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't quite get why people keep calling Social Security a ponzi scheme. A ponzi scheme is defrauding investors by saying that there has been growth in the assets and it's paying out dividends, SS doesn't make any claim like that. The real problem people are complaining about is the burden that was shared by many (by having lots of kids) is going to be shared by fewer and fewer people.

Social Security's dividends are paid for by the new investors buying in, and THOSE investors will only be paid out if even more investors enter the scheme.

and if new "investor" don't live much longer than those who paid in before. which, of course, is where this scheme really breaks down.

Re: Dear 22 Year Old: Concerning your economic Future

#45

Post by stretchwithme »

philwelch wrote: post #29
gamble wrote: post #18

Right now, in the wake of the most significant financial crisis in decades and with the country staring down enormous structural deficits, the most contentious issue is whether it's fair to let tax cuts expire for people making more than $250k/year. America isn't remotely close to a serious debate. The problem with articles like this is that they assume the country is still capable of negotiating changes that would r…

* Look at Obama's health care bill. I hope you like it, because no one is going to touch healthcare again in our generation.* Well, no one's going to take on the mantle of vast reform anytime soon, but there isn't an administration in recent history that hasn't tweaked health care a bit one way or the other.

I think it will be touched again. When everybody realizes they can just pay a fine instead of buying expensive insurance, then just load up on it when they get a serious illness, the insurance companies will be clamoring for a redo.

Re: Dear 22 Year Old: Concerning your economic Future

#46

Post by loewenskind »

stretchwithme wrote: post #32
jballanc wrote: post #17

There is a word for this sort of viewpoint: Luddite fallacy ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite_fallacy ) It amazes me how people fail to see their own Luddite-ism. Look, here's the deal: The Luddites protested the mechanization of the textile industry during the industrial revolution. Their reasoning was that if one person maintaining one machine could do the same work as 100 individual laborers, then that would…

I don't think public spending on research is the ultimate determinant of a nation's technological edge. After all, it was not government research that gave us the ability to manufacture Germany into submission. That came from people like Henry Ford. Even the airplane came from a private endeavor, while a government effort failed to get off the ground. And if you look to the decline of the last great empire, Great Bri…

>And if you look to the decline of the last great empire, Great Britain, in came in the wake of an expansion of the public sector

Talk about oversimplifications that fit ones own viewpoint! A lot of things changed in the UK since they were at their peak. Correlation, Causation and all that jazz.

Re: Dear 22 Year Old: Concerning your economic Future

#47

Post by loewenskind »

dagw wrote: post #41
anonymous245 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. Are you sure taxation ends after 10 years?

I think it depends on if you have any financial dealings with the US. As long as you completely leave (no property, no loans, no investments, drawing no salary from the US, not paying into any of retirement benefits etc. etc.) then yea it will end. On the other hand my mother hasn't lived in the US for close to 35 years now and she still has to file a tax return and pay a few bucks every year, due to still having som…

No, this is completely wrong. Filing has nothing to do with "having some financial ties with the US", it has to do with being a US citizen. You are double taxes with some extra write-offs [1]. The 10 year thing comes if you give up your citizenship for tax purposes (if you have over $2million in assets this is automatically assumed). In that case you are taxed at a higher rate for 10 years before finally getting off the hook. If you give up your citizen for other reasons then you only have to file for one additional year.

Oh yea, if you have $10k at any moment in the course of the year you must report all bank accounts where the money was (i.e. 3k in one account, 5k in another, 2k in a third, report all 3). You wont hear about this rule unless you live in a so-called "tax haven". Guess why that is.

[1] This is very complex. For a single earner you can take an exemption on the first ~$80k. In most of the US that's a lot of money. Not necessarily everywhere, so depending on where you live you may hit this pretty fast. Taking the exemption makes you unable to claim certain things so you can also chose not to take the exception and use a more complex form. I have a tax guy do this for me (takes him over 3 hours to go through the paper work) and costs about $1k/year.

Re: Dear 22 Year Old: Concerning your economic Future

#48

Post by loewenskind »

stretchwithme wrote: post #40
anonymous245 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. Are you sure taxation ends after 10 years?

yeah, after you forfeit your citizenship, the US expects you to keep paying income tax for ten years.

Only if you give it up for tax purposes.

Re: Dear 22 Year Old: Concerning your economic Future

#49

Post by tapp »

"You shouldn't expect (student loans) for your own kids... You might have to be your own kids’ bank when they need $40,000 for college like you did (they’ll need more)"

I believe that's exactly backwards - they should need less total money if that happens. If student loans immediately ceased to be available, couldn't we expect the price of college education to drop in response?

Re: Dear 22 Year Old: Concerning your economic Future

#50

Post by loewenskind »

akozak wrote: post #6
SlyShy wrote: post #3

As an 18 year old reading this sort of writing makes me want to leave the country. Except that I'd be taxed for ten years after expatriating, and there isn't any country that I know of as being similarly entrepreneurial. If anyone has suggestions, though, I would love to hear them.

You can't control everything. Stop worrying about things you can't change and start enjoying life.

This doesn't contradict what you said but: you can change what country you live in.
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