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No One Goes There Anymore

noonegoesthereanymore.blogspot.com

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Re: No One Goes There Anymore

#81

Post by cortesoft »

ciupicri wrote: post #46
ccktlmazeltov wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If half your paycheck is going to taxes you must have a bunch of $$$, I personally make around 300k/year and I feel like I'm not paying that much taxes. I could be paying much more and still live pretty comfortable, it's pretty outrageous.

You can donate money to the US Government if you feel that you're not giving it enough. See https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/public/gifts-to-government.h...

This doesn't make sense. If I decide to give more money to the government, nothing will change because my money is a drop in the bucket.

If everyone gives more money, we can actually make things better.

I am willing to pay more taxes if it actually helps, which is why I will only give more when we make everyone give more.

Re: No One Goes There Anymore

#82

Post by cecilpl2 »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #63
ccktlmazeltov wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If half your paycheck is going to taxes you must have a bunch of $$$, I personally make around 300k/year and I feel like I'm not paying that much taxes. I could be paying much more and still live pretty comfortable, it's pretty outrageous.

* (Edit: Leaving original for traceability, but note my math was incorrect as per subsequent comment:) * Depends on where and depends how you're counting it. In Ontario, Canada, and I'm not an accountant so very approximately based on GoC website: At ~~$150k CAD you are at 29% federal + 12 % Provincial tax. On anything you buy though you get another 13% VAT So now we are at 54%, plus CPP and EI. Plus any other taxes…

You are confusing marginal and effective tax rate, a very common mistake. At $150k you pay only 29%+12% on each additional dollar, but your earlier dollars were taxed much less.

https://www.taxtips.ca/calculators/basic/basic-tax-calculato... is a good resource - it shows that your effective tax rate in Ontario on $150k gross is 30.3%.

You probably also contribute 18% to your RRSP on that huge salary, which drops your effective tax rate to about 27.4%.

Also, you aren't paying 13% VAT on everything you buy - lots is exempt like food and your mortgage/rent. Even if you spend every dollar of your net income, VAT is probably closer to 8% of your total net income (which is 72.6% of your gross, so 5.8% of your gross going to VAT).

CPP and EI total $3754 in 2020, so that's another 2.5% total.

So that's a total of 35.8% tax on your gross salary. Also note it's much less if you have any common deductions, like children, dependents, education expenses, etc.

Re: No One Goes There Anymore

#83

Post by treeman79 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #44
code_duck wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone else with serious medical problems which have been paid for by public health systems, the financial difficulties of which are compounded by losing your ability to pay once ill, thanks! I would note though, for the purposes of fairness, it's a small percentage of your taxes that go to paying for such programs versus things like the military and interest on debt.

US government healthcare spend is huge, it is not tiny compared to military. $1.1T according to this source in fiscal year 2018: https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-much-does-... This website states in 2018, the federal government spent $582B on Medicare, and $389B on Medicaid, plus all the tax exemption for employer sponsored health insurance and ACA subsidies to individual buyers, etc. https://www.the…

My issues have been insanely expensive to figure out. But treatment has been very cheap now that I know the issues and what pills work.

Main problem was being dismissed for 3 years and doctors not taking to each other.

I can see what people start going to alternative medicine.

One of the treatment options is a specialized diet. So all the crazy diet people are actually circling around valid treatment options.

Health care can be done cheaper. But when a doctor has 5 minutes, there is only so much that can be done.

Re: No One Goes There Anymore

#84

Post by NikolaNovak »

cecilpl2 wrote: post #82
NikolaNovak wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* (Edit: Leaving original for traceability, but note my math was incorrect as per subsequent comment:) * Depends on where and depends how you're counting it. In Ontario, Canada, and I'm not an accountant so very approximately based on GoC website: At ~~$150k CAD you are at 29% federal + 12 % Provincial tax. On anything you buy though you get another 13% VAT So now we are at 54%, plus CPP and EI. Plus any other taxes…

You are confusing marginal and effective tax rate, a very common mistake. At $150k you pay only 29%+12% on each additional dollar, but your earlier dollars were taxed much less. https://www.taxtips.ca/calculators/basic/basic-tax-calculato... is a good resource - it shows that your effective tax rate in Ontario on $150k gross is 30.3%. You probably also contribute 18% to your RRSP on that huge salary, which drops your…

Fair point and I stand corrected :)

Re: No One Goes There Anymore

#85

Post by packetslave »

zolpidem_dream wrote: post #78
ardy42 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> While homeless, my sons and I routinely tried to find out-of-the-way public tables. > Food at restaurants is marked up thousands of percent to cover costs of buildings, rent, power, human capital. The raw materials to make your food are pennies and are available to the average consumer. If you're homeless that's not an option, since you probably lack equipment to cook from scratch.

What about cold cuts, sliced cheese, a loaf of whole grain bread?

and where, exactly, are you going to keep "cold cuts" and sliced cheese from spoiling, when you're HOMELESS?

Re: No One Goes There Anymore

#86

Post by gfxgirl »

cortesoft wrote: post #81
ciupicri wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can donate money to the US Government if you feel that you're not giving it enough. See https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/public/gifts-to-government.h...

This doesn't make sense. If I decide to give more money to the government, nothing will change because my money is a drop in the bucket. If everyone gives more money, we can actually make things better. I am willing to pay more taxes if it actually helps, which is why I will only give more when we make everyone give more.

There's an assumption there that more money to government = make things better but there are plenty of examples where the government makes things worse.

Some people believe that giving less = actually make things better because it will limit the bad things a government can do.

Re: No One Goes There Anymore

#87

Post by amscanne »

drpgq wrote: post #71
NikolaNovak wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* (Edit: Leaving original for traceability, but note my math was incorrect as per subsequent comment:) * Depends on where and depends how you're counting it. In Ontario, Canada, and I'm not an accountant so very approximately based on GoC website: At ~~$150k CAD you are at 29% federal + 12 % Provincial tax. On anything you buy though you get another 13% VAT So now we are at 54%, plus CPP and EI. Plus any other taxes…

As an Ontarian it is frustrating how the marginal tax rate has risen over 50% over the last decade, but ignorant people think things are the same as in the US. Of course capital gains on primary residences is taxed at 0% so it isn't really surprising that real estate and its financialization is Ontario's main industry.

I don’t think it’s just that it has risen over 50%, the increases over the last ~6 years are quite rapid. Consider BC [1]:

Top income tax bracket in BC in 2013: 43.7%

Top income tax bracket in BC in 2014 and 2015: 45.8%

Top income tax bracket in BC in 2016 and 2017: 47.7%

Top income tax bracket in BC in 2018 and 2019: 49.8%

Top income tax bracket in BC starting in 2020: 53.5%.

I believe that there have been similar effects in ON from increases & new brackets, on both the federal and provincial level.

[1] https://twitter.com/cperciva/status/1229900065726054400?s=21

Re: No One Goes There Anymore

#88

Post by rayiner »

newacct583 wrote: post #77
rayiner wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problems in this country also cannot be solved by empty rhetoric about “taxes being too low on the wealthy.” Taxes on the wealthy in the US aren’t dramatically lower than in Europe. The top tax bracket in Germany is 45%, versus 37% + state. So if you live in any of the 9 states with a top state bracket of 8% or higher, including New York and California, the top income tax bracket is actually lower in Germany. Cap…

You're quoting nominal rates and not effective taxation. The very wealthy don't pay their "marginal dollar" in "income tax" at a 37% federal bracket (plus state), they pay it in capital gains tax at 20%. If they pay it at all, given that in fact much income at these levels is sheltered from tax entirely via international tricks. There's plenty of analysis out there showing how the very wealthy in the US pay less effe…

Capital gains is 20% federal plus state (13% in California). Germany’s capital gains rate is 30.5%, lower than California and New York. Regardless, there is just not enough capital gains income for that to matter. For example, Biden’s plan to tax capital gains as ordinary income for taxpayers making over $1 million per year is expected to bring in less than $50 billion a year in revenues. Eliminating the capital gains preference entirely would raise only $130 billion annually.

As to the “very wealthy”—Tim Cook’s tax rate on his $135 million bonus a few years ago was 52%. The people you’re talking about aren’t even ordinary wealthy people: CEOs, movie stars, and the like. What you’re talking about the Warren Buffets of the world that make money through investments. But there’s just not very many of those people. The IMF estimates the global cost of individual tax avoidance at $200 billion per year: https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2019/09/tackling-.... Say half that is attributable to the US. That’s about the same as the cost of the deductions for mortgage interest and local property taxes.

Federal, state, and local governments tax more than $5 trillion annually. One party is proposing new spending amounting to several trillion more annually. In the face of those numbers, talking about $50 billion or $100 billion issues with respect to the taxation of the very wealthy is indeed empty rhetoric. You hear a lot of talk about billionaires this and billionaires that. The total income of all billionaires in the US is $130 billion, or about 1% of all income. It just doesn’t matter very much what the tax rate is on people who comprise only 1% of the tax base. Spending 90% of your time talking about tax issues that could fund at most 10% of your proposed new spending is empty rhetoric. Meanwhile, German levels of taxation on the middle class, and a German-style VAT would raise trillions annually. Guess why nobody talks about that.

Re: No One Goes There Anymore

#89

Post by 411111111111111 »

gfxgirl wrote: post #86
cortesoft wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't make sense. If I decide to give more money to the government, nothing will change because my money is a drop in the bucket. If everyone gives more money, we can actually make things better. I am willing to pay more taxes if it actually helps, which is why I will only give more when we make everyone give more.

There's an assumption there that more money to government = make things better but there are plenty of examples where the government makes things worse. Some people believe that giving less = actually make things better because it will limit the bad things a government can do.

Some people believe that the earth is flat as well.

Re: No One Goes There Anymore

#90

Post by zolpidem_dream »

packetslave wrote: post #85
zolpidem_dream wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about cold cuts, sliced cheese, a loaf of whole grain bread?

and where, exactly, are you going to keep "cold cuts" and sliced cheese from spoiling, when you're HOMELESS?

Split between 3 people, those 3 items can comprise an entire meal, thus no leftovers.
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