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Pity the Poor Couple Who Make $450,000 Per Year

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Re: Pity the Poor Couple Who Make $450,000 Per Year

#91

Post by poppysan »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #81
houseabsolute wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Any other ethnic group would be up in arms That is because the other ethnic groups are not the dominant ones in society, and are typically disadvantaged on the whole because of their race. My personal view as a White person is that I have enough advantages by my White male-ness that I do not need to demand more, or do anything to offset whatever minor inconveniences might arise from the same. Doing so would seem pe…

What are the advantages you receive due to white male-ness? (Note: I'm asking about advantages to an individual, not statistical advantages to a group. )

-No imbred fear of inferiority. -Acceptance all across the nation if not the globe. -Inspirational historical role models that you can relate to taught by default(save for february...lol) -Less chance of long-term jail sentencing for proportional crimes -etc... the list can go on. This is not to say that you should feel bad for having a slight advantage, but not to recognize it can be confusing to those who have lived with the disadvantages.

Re: Pity the Poor Couple Who Make $450,000 Per Year

#93

Post by maigret »

berntb wrote: post #70
loewenskind wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Sweden has the world's highest taxes Pretty sure that's actually Denmark. >For example, it is really hard to get a doctor to put work into diagnosing any problems you have. As opposed to the US where you'll pay substantially more money for it? In my experience doctors tend to check symptoms and form a matrix in their head of possible causes, applicable medication, removing medications that conflict with each other a…

>>Pretty sure that's actually Denmark. It might be Denmark this year. It is/was a hard battle for the "top" position between them. >>As opposed to the US Hrm... I did also write: "That said -- the US health care system seems worse than anywhere else in the western world." Finding health problems is afaik internationally acknowledged as the problem with Swedish health care. Edit: I might add that from what I've heard…

Your edit is so right. Note also that unemployment for computer scientist right now in Germany is at a record-low level currently.

Re: Pity the Poor Couple Who Make $450,000 Per Year

#94

Post by yummyfajitas »

poppysan wrote: post #91
yummyfajitas wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the advantages you receive due to white male-ness? (Note: I'm asking about advantages to an individual, not statistical advantages to a group. )

-No imbred fear of inferiority. -Acceptance all across the nation if not the globe. -Inspirational historical role models that you can relate to taught by default(save for february...lol) -Less chance of long-term jail sentencing for proportional crimes -etc... the list can go on. This is not to say that you should feel bad for having a slight advantage, but not to recognize it can be confusing to those who have live…

Interesting - at least two of the disadvantages are entirely self inflicted (inbred fear of inferiority, unwillingness to be inspired by people of a different race).

I'd be curious to see numbers for the jail sentencing claim. It sounds plausible, but numbers would be nice.

Re: Pity the Poor Couple Who Make $450,000 Per Year

#95

Post by Poiesis »

Is the title here incorrect? From the article:

Our combined income exceeds the $250,000 threshold for the super rich (but not by that much), and the president plans on raising my taxes.

As for the author's premise, it all depends on what you're willing to put up with. I have a rusting 25 year old car and a dead front lawn (no gardeners, scarce water, no time to landscape myself). There are likely people who disdain this, and I posit the author may be one of them. But I have a family of six in an expensive area for well under half of the money he describes.

To the people with plenty of money, gardeners and private school are simply part of the cost of doing business; non-negotiable. But they remain optional, just as my choices of four kids an an expensive area are also up to me. There are others who would call me wealthy with my spending of money on such things. And they are right, in their way.

Re: Pity the Poor Couple Who Make $450,000 Per Year

#96

Post by anigbrowl »

rdl wrote: post #66
guelo wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no "50% tax bracket". Obama's proposed plan would raise the 33% and 35% brackets to 36% and 39.6%.

There is if you count state and local taxes. In California you can be paying 9.3% + 1.0%, and in other places (NYC) it can be even higher. At 39.6 + 9.3 + 1.0, you would be above most countries in the world.

That's funny, because on my federal tax return there's an entry where you deduct your state income tax. Sales tax, of course, is entirely different from income tax.

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p17/ch22.html#en_US_publink1...

Re: Pity the Poor Couple Who Make $450,000 Per Year

#97

Post by houseabsolute »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #94
poppysan wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

-No imbred fear of inferiority. -Acceptance all across the nation if not the globe. -Inspirational historical role models that you can relate to taught by default(save for february...lol) -Less chance of long-term jail sentencing for proportional crimes -etc... the list can go on. This is not to say that you should feel bad for having a slight advantage, but not to recognize it can be confusing to those who have live…

Interesting - at least two of the disadvantages are entirely self inflicted (inbred fear of inferiority, unwillingness to be inspired by people of a different race). I'd be curious to see numbers for the jail sentencing claim. It sounds plausible, but numbers would be nice.

Only in the sense that any psychological issue stemming from abuse is self-inflicted.

Re: Pity the Poor Couple Who Make $450,000 Per Year

#98

Post by OpieCunningham »

davidwparker wrote: post #48
guelo wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you're right that this is racist. But I'm pretty sure that well over 90% of people making the argument that $450k is not enough money are indeed white. If the article was about gangster rap I don't know if it would be racist but it would be accurate to call it a degenerate black culture.

"But I'm pretty sure that well over 90% of people making the argument that $450k is not enough money are indeed white." Citation needed. I'm not sure whether I agree or disagree with your opinion, but stating claims like this without some kind of reference seems questionable.

How do you get a citation for an opinion? If the statement was "It's a fact that well over 90%...", then sure, a citation would be ideal.

Re: Pity the Poor Couple Who Make $450,000 Per Year

#99

Post by berntb »

loewenskind wrote: post #64
berntb wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Consider somewhere like Sweden. Sweden has the world's highest taxes, but lots of the common functionality works badly. For example, it is really hard to get a doctor to put work into diagnosing any problems you have. There is IMHO a business opportunity for a travel agency to organize vacation trips for this... (I had knee problems for half my life -- this did lower my life quality. The private doctor that in the…

>Sweden has the world's highest taxes Pretty sure that's actually Denmark. >For example, it is really hard to get a doctor to put work into diagnosing any problems you have. As opposed to the US where you'll pay substantially more money for it? In my experience doctors tend to check symptoms and form a matrix in their head of possible causes, applicable medication, removing medications that conflict with each other a…

>>In my experience doctors tend to check symptoms and form a matrix in their head of possible causes, applicable medication, removing medications that conflict with each other and just give you the whole remaining set. You'll be paying for all that medication, btw.

(On consideration, I don't think I was clear enough on this point. Another attempt...)

For a Swede, that sounds like heaven.

The problem locally is that you can't get that done in Sweden for money. You go to doctor after doctor that don't care. They tell you something and kicks you out the door. If they don't know, they generally won't send you to a specialist.

I don't know the reason for this. Probably because the administrative burden of the centrally planned system takes up half the time of the doctors.

Right now I know two people with debilitating problems that are hard to find -- and they can't get doctors to try finding the real background.

There is a Swedish saying that you're in real trouble if you're too unhealthy to raise bloody Hell, because without a ruckus doctors aren't motivated to try to find the problem just to get rid of you.

The left wing parties are "married" to the system and makes a principle about it -- "It is wrong to earn money on people's health". They don't care if their principles work or destroy people's lives -- as long as they can sell the message to the Believers among the voters. (Or maybe they like people chronically ill, because those tend to vote to the left.)

I don't know what the rest of the incompetent f-ckups in the other political parties are doing with a perfect opportunity to sell a question to the voters.

There is imho a good lesson here about life and political systems.

Re: Pity the Poor Couple Who Make $450,000 Per Year

#100

Post by rdl »

anigbrowl wrote: post #96
rdl wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is if you count state and local taxes. In California you can be paying 9.3% + 1.0%, and in other places (NYC) it can be even higher. At 39.6 + 9.3 + 1.0, you would be above most countries in the world.

That's funny, because on my federal tax return there's an entry where you deduct your state income tax. Sales tax, of course, is entirely different from income tax. http://www.irs.gov/publications/p17/ch22.html#en_US_publink1...

Something being deductible on federal is nowhere near the same as a tax credit. You don't get a tax credit for state/local taxes. You get a deduction (which doesn't apply under AMT). So, if you're in the 25% bracket, you can deduct your 10% state taxes, which reduces it from 25+10% to 25+10-(0.25*10).

California's 9.3% is the top regular marginal income tax rate. There is also an 8-10% state/local sales tax. There is no way around the analysis that California and New York are relatively high tax states compared to Nevada and Washington.

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