tax burden lowest since 1958

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Beach girl said:
A minor point, but yeah, they do, actually, IF your health expenditures (including what you pay for insurance) equal more than 7.5% of your Adjusted Gross Income.

It takes a lot of health-related spending to get to that point, obviously, but keep your receipts; you never know. We hit that mark once during a rough year when I had a couple surgeries, and we tossed in all the receipts for new hearing aids, hearing aid batteries, tube changes, etc. as well. It all counts.
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I recall this expenditure working under "Misc" deductions; thereby bypassing the AGI
 
Beach girl said:
That's really bad luck. My sympathies to your brother and his family.
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Thank you. He's not a brother by blood, but after 30 years he passes the brother requirements.

Not looking for sympathy here, just making a point that the fortunate folks with great jobs and wonderful insurance due to their "hard work and making good decisions" might be overlooking. Some day, things might change overnight. Nothing in life is guaranteed except birth and death.
 
souggy said:
Sure, if you guys don't mind relying on Russia for basic bread.
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No need. Just bring back home gardening and the family farm........difficult but not impossible. The reason for the death of the family farm is "subsidies" and goddess who makes "subsidies" possible! Right you are, the two party system in Washington
 
rolling7 said:
A smart person knows not to expand a business beyond the capability of having that business totally covered by insurance.
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That was a nice way of saying that they did something stupid. But anyway, I don't care enough about this to argue. My point was I dont think it's right to think "How do we spend the tax money without spending them on the poor?" I think we should think "How can we spend the tax money to benefit the taxpayers AND to encourage MORE taxpayers?" Benefit the taxpayers (FROM ALL DIFFERENT INCOME) benefits the nation.

More taxpayers = more tax money without raising taxes.
More taxpayers = more jobs.
 
Daredevel7 said:
That was a nice way of saying that they did something stupid. But anyway, I don't care enough about this to argue. My point was I dont think it's right to think "How do we spend the tax money without spending them on the poor?" I think we should think "How can we spend the tax money to benefit the taxpayers AND to encourage MORE taxpayers?" Benefit the taxpayers (FROM ALL DIFFERENT INCOME) benefits the nation.

More taxpayers = more tax money without raising taxes.
More taxpayers = more jobs.
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TOTALLY AGREE!! But would you not also agree to fewer people who pay no income tax? While I'll admit there are those of the super-rich that through fancy tax lawyers pay nothing or very little, and a huge fuss is made about them, there is little said about those who live their life on public assistance. They have no income to report, therefore paying no income tax, yet they cost us all a pretty penny. Ever wonder why a finger is not pointed at these folks?
 
rolling7 said:
No need. Just bring back home gardening and the family farm........difficult but not impossible. The reason for the death of the family farm is "subsidies" and goddess who makes "subsidies" possible! Right you are, the two party system in Washington
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Yeah, there is nothing like regression to keep a society viable.:lol:
 
jillio said:
Yeah, there is nothing like regression to keep a society viable.:lol:
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There's not even enough farmland in British Columbia to support 2 to 3 million people in the Vancouver metro, let alone the population of the ENTIRE province.

And rolling7 wants to be self-sufficient with 300 MILLIONS?
 
souggy said:
There's not even enough farmland in British Columbia to support 2 to 3 million people in the Vancouver metro, let alone the population of the ENTIRE province.

And rolling7 wants to be self-sufficient with 300 MILLIONS?
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No doubt. I want to see how those concrete gardens work out.:giggle:
 
Honestly, better than you might think. Detroit is doing an experiment with urban gardens; there is a huge amount of unused space in the city which has now been turned over to urban gardens. From initial reports, it's doing well.

I grow some of my own veggies, herbs and fruits in the summer. I don't kid myself that it makes much of a dent in either my household grocery budget or my overall carbon footprint, but I like having super-fresh things right in my own backyard. I understand that backyard gardening is making a bit of a come-back in a lot of places.
 
Well, we're bound to hit the Malthusian plateau sooner or later. Perhaps it's better we face the fact now once the libertarians coup a revolt.

Oh wait... Libertarians almost never get together.
 
Beach girl said:
Honestly, better than you might think. Detroit is doing an experiment with urban gardens; there is a huge amount of unused space in the city which has now been turned over to urban gardens. From initial reports, it's doing well.

I grow some of my own veggies, herbs and fruits in the summer. I don't kid myself that it makes much of a dent in either my household grocery budget or my overall carbon footprint, but I like having super-fresh things right in my own backyard. I understand that backyard gardening is making a bit of a come-back in a lot of places.
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Supplementing one's diet is different than depending on it. If you're in a country where population decline exceeds population growth like in northern Europe, yeah, you may have a case there. However for North Americans and Asians, that is not even an option.
 
What do you mean, "not even an option?" Of course it's an option.

My grandmother used to grow nearly all of her own vegetables in a very small backyard garden. She grew corn, tomatoes, green peppers, carrots, onions, garlic, parsley, eggplant, some other things. Pretty much all the basics of Italian cooking.

I am not that ambitious, but I do have memories of seeing how it was done and what a tremendous harvest she got from a fairly small space.

'course she also knew how to preserve things, a skill that is definitely not part of my repertoire. Even my mom's generation still knew how to can and preserve; she "put by" blueberries, strawberries and rhubarb every summer, so we could eat them all winter long, mostly in the form of jams.
 
Beach girl said:
What do you mean, "not even an option?" Of course it's an option.

My grandmother used to grow nearly all of her own vegetables in a very small backyard garden. She grew corn, tomatoes, green peppers, carrots, onions, garlic, parsley, eggplant, some other things. Pretty much all the basics of Italian cooking.

I am not that ambitious, but I do have memories of seeing how it was done and what a tremendous harvest she got from a fairly small space.

'course she also knew how to preserve things, a skill that is definitely not part of my repertoire. Even my mom's generation still knew how to can and preserve; she "put by" blueberries, strawberries and rhubarb every summer, so we could eat them all winter long, mostly in the form of jams.
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So you're advocating for an American Holocaust? How can we even be self-sufficient with our population density? That's why it's not an option: you cannot feed the population we have without relying on imports. To successfully pull off a locavore movement for each and every citizen would means fulfilling the prophecy of Thomas Malthus.
 
jillio said:
No doubt. I want to see how those concrete gardens work out.:giggle:
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Lets see.
Fresh, home-grown products vs. greasy fast food.
Who lives a better and healther life?
Someone like you could not even imagine what a wonderful crop can be produce in a raise-bed garden smack in the middle of Hometown, USA
 
souggy said:
So you're advocating for an American Holocaust? How can we even be self-sufficient with our population density? That's why it's not an option: you cannot feed the population we have without relying on imports. To successfully pull off a locavore movement for each and every citizen would means fulfilling the prophecy of Thomas Malthus.
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You are right but only because you don't account for all the wasted food thrown out. With home-gardening and family farms there will be little waste.
 
Of course I'm not advocating for an American Holocaust. I'm advocating for a little supplementation of the average American family's diet with some backyard gardening. Hardly a radical view.

I don't think it would even come close to self-sufficiency, but people can do a surprising amount for themselves if they want to.
 
rolling7 said:
Lets see.
Fresh, home-grown products vs. greasy fast food.
Who lives a better and healther life?
Someone like you could not even imagine what a wonderful crop can be produce in a raise-bed garden smack in the middle of Hometown, USA
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You assume you know an awful lot about me. Obviously, you know nothing.
 
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