Please don't post garden-variety politics to HN. There's too much of it and it mostly isn't intellectually interesting.
House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax
71–80 of 102 posts
Re: House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thousands of Californians left this last year or two and moved to Idaho. This sparked a housing crisis here in Boise, Idaho. I would assume these are left and right of center folks looking for cheaper housing and a better life. At one point last year the median household income was $75k/year. The median house price was $525k or so. Basically this created the situation if you couldn't afford a house before the housing…
People complain of Californians moving here as well, driving up costs but nobody looks at the 385 vacant AirBNB's in a town of 45k (Cedar City, UT). If you had 385 homes open up for student or family housing the rental crisis would plummet and prices would drop to normal. If they go un-filled that means they need homeowners instead of renters and will be back on the market at lesser prices because demand will drop if…
So you're saying the government should regulate how you use your private property? That's an interesting idea coming from a so-called "red" state.
Re: House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
A charitable interpretation of Republican "fundamental ideology", as it were, would be that they prefer more well-functioning social institutions at lower levels of government, closer to the people those institutions are meant to serve. But that's not what this does. This doesn't do anything to transition power away from the federal government. It just makes it impossible for the federal government to do its job. Tha…
> instead of actually governing And what do you suppose should be the priorities for the federal government? What needs actually governing that can't be better done at state and local levels at the moment?
Whether it could, in theory, be done better locally, then at the very least you'd need to plan for that. You can't just turn off the Social Security Administration, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Homeland Security etc and assume that the states will pick up those jobs tomorrow.
We could have a decent argument about which jobs are better handled by a federal government and which aren't. The notion that the federal government isn't actually doing anything and could just vanish tomorrow is absurd and not worth discussing.
Re: House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
A charitable interpretation of Republican "fundamental ideology", as it were, would be that they prefer more well-functioning social institutions at lower levels of government, closer to the people those institutions are meant to serve. But that's not what this does. This doesn't do anything to transition power away from the federal government. It just makes it impossible for the federal government to do its job. Tha…
> It just makes it impossible for the federal government to do its job. Where do I sign up?
Here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia
I'd refer you to their web site, but they don't appear to have one.
Re: House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax
#75Re: House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
If California were particularly terrible, it wouldn't be so damn popular, and most of its problems would go away. California does have some specific policy problems, but most of what it has are popular place problems. It also doesn't pass muster with my own lived experience. I've loved all of the 15 years I've spent in both Northern and Southern metro California, and I'd do it again.
Thousands of Californians left this last year or two and moved to Idaho. This sparked a housing crisis here in Boise, Idaho. I would assume these are left and right of center folks looking for cheaper housing and a better life. At one point last year the median household income was $75k/year. The median house price was $525k or so. Basically this created the situation if you couldn't afford a house before the housing…
At what point is it reasonable for the major Californian cities to stop growing? Aren't there states where the entire state population could fit inside a single Californian city? Aren't there cities whose population could amount to several US states? People are complaining about California's governance, taxes, and pricing, so what's wrong with encouraging movement to other states?
A popular HN perspective would describe SF's problem as NIMBY and that we should allow developers to build without regulations like mandatory parking, but the transportation situation in SF is really bad. I feel that a city cannot just scale linearly once you pass a certain population / density threshold.
When I go to SF I expect to burn 20 minutes solely on parking or to pay very expensive parking fees for private lots. If you use any major highways in California during rush hour then expect a 30-45 min tax on your time. If people want SF to pass 1M then there needs to be a deliberate public works project to revamp the infrastructure in a massive way.
Also, do people think that building more lots would make things cheaper? London's population is ~9M, NYC is ~8.4M, Tokyo is ~14M. If London gets to 10M, is housing going to be finally affordable to UK citizens? When will Tokyo be affordable? SF is approximately 3-4x the population density of London and 3x of Tokyo. The vibe I get when driving around SF residentials is one of claustrophobic density, like the city can't afford any interstitial gaps between lots for things like trees.
Re: House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
The rate seems to be 23%, and given that this is only a sales tax this would mean the federal government is taxing at maybe 10-15% of GDP. If I remember correctly, federal government expenditures are around 30% of GDP.
So 23% consumption tax? Or would you be talking higher? I'm not sure 23% would be enough to offset the loss of the federal income tax.
23% is what is in the bill as the initial starting rate.
Re: House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thousands of Californians left this last year or two and moved to Idaho. This sparked a housing crisis here in Boise, Idaho. I would assume these are left and right of center folks looking for cheaper housing and a better life. At one point last year the median household income was $75k/year. The median house price was $525k or so. Basically this created the situation if you couldn't afford a house before the housing…
At what point is it reasonable for the major Californian cities to stop growing? Aren't there states where the entire state population could fit inside a single Californian city? Aren't there cities whose population could amount to several US states? People are complaining about California's governance, taxes, and pricing, so what's wrong with encouraging movement to other states? A popular HN perspective would descr…
> People are complaining about California's governance, taxes, and pricing, so what's wrong with encouraging movement to other states?
In short, public golf courses -- moreover -- the protection of public golf courses. That's pure NIMBYism right there. California chose golf courses over housing. Think about that.
Re: House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
People complain of Californians moving here as well, driving up costs but nobody looks at the 385 vacant AirBNB's in a town of 45k (Cedar City, UT). If you had 385 homes open up for student or family housing the rental crisis would plummet and prices would drop to normal. If they go un-filled that means they need homeowners instead of renters and will be back on the market at lesser prices because demand will drop if…
So you're saying the government should regulate how you use your private property? That's an interesting idea coming from a so-called "red" state.
If you're not living in it and using it for vacation homes, it seems eminent domain makes sense.
Now this is "homes" I'm talking about, not other dense living situations like apartment buildings and hotels.
Re: House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thousands of Californians left this last year or two and moved to Idaho. This sparked a housing crisis here in Boise, Idaho. I would assume these are left and right of center folks looking for cheaper housing and a better life. At one point last year the median household income was $75k/year. The median house price was $525k or so. Basically this created the situation if you couldn't afford a house before the housing…
> This sparked a housing crisis here in Boise, Idaho. How interesting. Presumably as enlightened examples of the opposite of California governance, they wouldn't have any such thing as a housing crisis caused by popularity. Or... it could be they've had the luxury of not having popular-place problems thus far, and like everyone else are suddenly discovering that actual governance is hard.
They came here to escape California governance, I guess, but in the end just made life worse for everyone else living here.
My property taxes have more than doubled over the last decade.