Who's Rich?
Here's a different perspective, from Thomas Sowell on TownHall.com, on the "hate the rich" stories that have come out since the IRS released stats on the 400 tax returns with the highest incomes.
An interesting fact is that between 1992 and 2000, there were 2000 different people in that top 400. It's not as cut and dried as the stock complaint of the lefties that the same rich get richer and the same poor get poorer. There is more up and down mobility between the wealth levels in this country than anywhere in the world.
A Dog Running For City Council
A dog is running for city council, reported VenFL.com. It's hard to imagine a Canine-American screwing things up any worse than the HomoSapien-Americans who traditionally hold elective office. Maybe it's because of the environment in which they have been raised, but I have never sensed any attraction for tax increases in any of the dozens of dogs we have had here.
I don't think such a mind-set is possible for Canine-Americans; but we may find a different attitude in dogs raised by lefty DemonRats. This isn't unprecedented. Sunol, Calif., near where we used to live, had a dog for a mayor, who did as fine a job as any human.
Why You Waste So Much Money
Research says people don't use services like gyms enough to justify their cost, reports the Wall Street Journal.
It's not hard to come up with dozens of examples of how things that look like bargains up front turn out to be big wastes of money. Buying a gallon jug of mayonnaise may reduce the per ounce price you pay over a standard size bottle; but the actual cost for what is used works out to be much higher when you have to toss three quarters of the contents away.
The other frequent example that comes to mind is timeshares. The promoters sell the concept based on how much you would save over hotel costs. Real life almost always works out the other way. With the annual maintenance fees, missed usage and the terrible resale values, hotels are much cheaper ways to stay in resort areas.
California's Sales Tax Roller Coaster
California's sales tax is the ultimate roller coaster, said Daniel Weintraub of the Sacramento Bee. As I've always said, any revenue projection made by our state or federal rulers is nothing more than a WAG (wild-ass guess). It's not possible to be anything but that because the actual dollar amounts generated by some kinds of taxes are just impossible to predict with any level of accuracy.
It's always been one of my many pet peeves with the media that they just willingly accept any forecasts as gospel and never challenge the underlying assumptions. They're still crediting Bill Clinton with producing a $5 trillion surplus which they then blame Bush for squandering. The Clinton numbers were complete fabrications and were based on the underlying assumption that the stock market would increase by over 20 percent per year forever, with a continuous flow of taxes from those profits.
This may sound like a joke, but is exactly where those projected surpluses came from. Only the biggest mind-numb morons (a.k.a. Clinton worshippers) could swallow that load of crap.
The real problem with government budgets has long been that our rulers construct big expensive government programs based on the assumption of their overly optimistic revenue predictions and are later all confused when there is a shortfall.
The Bible Says To Raise Taxes?
This is a new one on me. The governor of Alabama is claiming that the Bible is telling him to raise everyone's taxes in his state, reports ABC News. There are a few more ironies to this story.
The governor is referred to as a conservative Republican, who just happens to be proposing a huge ($1.2 billion) tax hike.
In typical liberal hypocrisy, the lefties, who normally come unglued and scream bloody murder any time anyone mentions religion, aren't protesting this action, said the American Spectator. For them, separation of church and state takes a back seat to more money for the government.
Flat Tax Fever
In a strange irony, Russia and some other former communist countries are adopting flat income tax rates, reported the Wall Street Journal, while we here in the U.S. continue to use Karl Marx's progressive tax rate scheme to heavily penalize the more productive in our society.
To show how insidious this is in our society, DemonRat presidential wannabe retired general Wesley Clark defended the concept of progressive tax rates as something our nation was founded on during a recent interview with Tim Russert, reported TownHall.com. It's no surprise that Russert didn't challenge Clark on his idiotic claim. It's not NBC policy to make DemonRats look stupid. That's only used for GOP guests.
Kerry Kerstetter, a.k.a. the "Tax Guru," has been helping people win the tax game for more than 27 years. He maintains the Tax Guru Blog and is a consultant for other CPAs on how to best utilize the tax rules for their clients.
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