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Old 11-20-2011, 03:03 PM   #49 (permalink)
slowmover
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
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Be glad for a social safety net that works, despite the needs for reform. In the US the number of Americans now at the poverty and near-poverty level is 100-million of 310-million . . a paycheck from destitution. Fully 64% of Americans cannot come up with cash for a $1000 emergency. And fewer are employed now than in decades, plus at faltering wage levels. No family-level wage new jobs have been created since 1999 in the US.

Home ownership will always be more expensive than renting. Note that the burden of "property tax" does not extend to intangible property such as stocks, bonds, etc. A level playing field is long overdue. Otherwise the cost of homeownership -- among other expenses in life -- will continue to rise, inexorably. Expect to be squeezed by utilities, taxes, etc as time goes on.

The point of taxes is fairly simple: what is the outcome on the largest numbers of the citizenry? Northern Europe surpassed the USA quite a while ago on any measure of benefit-to-cost whether it be overall health, longevity, education, personal debt, social class movements, etc. The upper 10% of Americans are essentially exempt from competition, or have special arrangements with government otherwise (prominently, exemption from law enforcement) and thereby appear okay or better (thus the lie of gross data).

I wouldn't expect that layer of society to bulge, but to contract.

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Last edited by slowmover; 11-20-2011 at 03:36 PM..