Reconsidering the wisdom of home ownership

[Frank Lee]

They have stuff for people with no dependents?

[FastPlastic]

I hear ya on this one. I just voted no today on a plan to spend $65million to demolish a couple schools and build new. They didn't even bother to finish the plans before they added it to the ballot. I loved the way they claimed it would only add about $6 a month on to most home owners, but that's because the $53million dollar taj mahal middle school is almost paid off and would be reducing our taxes next year. Did I mention the population is only 50,000, of which 50% are college students?

Don't get me wrong, I love owning my house and I have no problem supporting the K-12 education system even though I have no kids, but someone needs to put these people in their place.

[Frank Lee]

The modus operandi in this state (and probably everywhere) is to knock down all the neighborhood schools, build a Taj Mahal out on the edge of town, and then wonder why there's traffic congestion twice a day by the school when all the parents are there dropping off/picking up (Parents say rides are needed these days because of all the child predators out there. I think the odds of any child predation around here are about the same as that of getting hit by a meteorite). More by-products of this wisdom are: now there's a federal govt program to encourage walking and bicycling to school by spending millions on new sidewalks; but the one I love most is all the bussing, not only around town, but between districts up to about 40 miles away, every day??? I would like to see the statistic on money, time, and fuel spent on bussing today vs 40 years ago. Yeah, when I was in school, when you lived in a school district believe it or not, that's where you went to school!!! Oh, and then there is the sprawl. A period of time elapses from when the little school on the prairie is built, and new housing developments spring up all around it. Classic case of rotting the community from the core as there is lots of housing and business standing empty in the middle of even this small town.

[Arragonis]

Just out of interest what is the average total taxes people pay, e.g. how much on property taxes vs value and how much income goes in taxation and how is it calculated in different places ?

We have 4 types of basic government tax here.

[user removed]

It would take a College degree in Calculus to figure out how many taxes we pay in the US.

Fed income
State income
FICA
Medicare
State taxes on vehicle purchase
Licensing
Vehicle property tax
Home property tax
Sales tax
Meals tax
Taxes on electric usage
Taxes on water usage
Taxes on Internet
Taxes on cable TV
Taxes on vehicle gas
Taxes on home gas
Tolls
Taxes on interest income
Taxes on dividend income
Taxes on inflation hidden as cap gains
Taxes on cap gains

Anyone care to add any more, I am sure there are probably hundreds.

We own our home outright and I built the home. Presently appraised at $320k, cost me 180k to build, plus 16 months of my life without a paycheck.

Now the gubmint (Frank's term) is making my cash savings worthless with inflation and my home ownership worthless because they are subsidizing incompetence by irresponsible banks and borrowers.

WOW, I can hardly believe spell check corrected me on gubmint, I had two Bs in the word!

regards
Mech

[user removed]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

Just out of interest what is the average total taxes people pay, e.g. how much on property taxes vs value and how much income goes in taxation and how is it calculated in different places ?

We have 4 types of basic government tax here.

I think the current total taxes paid takes 100% of US income until late July or early August.

regards
Mech

[jakobnev]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

A local activist group of sorts wants to build a community pool. No doubt I will have to pay for that too.

To get your moneys worth i suppose you could go pee in it every now and then.

[gone-ot]

Originally Posted by jakobnev

To get your moneys worth i suppose you could go pee in it every now and then.

...and, if you get caught, simply tell them you're performing a citizens' "...test of the efficacy..." of their "purple" dye urine-test stuff (wink,wink)!

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

I think the current total taxes paid takes 100% of US income until late July or early August.

regards
Mech

What kind of proportion of income is it though, typically ?

[gone-ot]

...it's varied over the years:



...the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in
Paris said in 2004:

29.7% = U.K.
30.0% = U.S.A.
44.2% = Denmark
48.3% = France
50.7% = Germany

...more info:

• 2009 data: http://www.oecd.org/document/59/0,37..._1_1_1,00.html

• 2001 data: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ta...-single-worker