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The Lasting Legacy of the Last Decade: A Shrinking Middle Class

bobknightfan said:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/middle-class-set-back-over-last-decade-report-174840799--sector.html

This....along with endless war....is the true legacy of the Bush/Cheney Administration and six years of total Republican control of the government from 2001 thru 2006 which set all of this into place. Is anyone really surprised?
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Arguably some of our current issues can be traced to a housing crisis and the related massive financial crisis, the underpinnings of which preceded Bush/Cheney.
 
I mean, this article is fine, but the shrinking middle class is not confined to the past decade. The seeds were planted in the 80s, sown in the 90s, the plant sprouted in the 00s, and it is a full blown disaster of a tree in the 10s.
 
Tax policies that made sense in one particular situation and at one particular time may not make much sense in a different situation and at a different time. Tax and economic policies are not chiseled in stone but need to be adapted to needs and circumstances.
 
sailordeac said:
Tax policies that made sense in one particular situation and at one particular time may not make much sense in a different situation and at a different time. Tax and economic policies are not chiseled in stone but need to be adapted to needs and circumstances.
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No. The Geonomic single tax on unimproved land value makes sense in any and every situation.
 
bobknightfan said:
Republicans only believe in changing taxes in one direction. Whatever the problem is, the Republicans' solution is always lower taxes.
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Obviously they have - so to speak - painted themselves into a corner. What makes matters even worse for them is that half of the adult population does not pay any income taxes and the members of the same half do not own any small businesses, so the calls to cut income taxes and taxes on small business are not going to be very enticing to them. So, the Pubs are not gonna win any presidential elections on that. They need to develop other issues that might resonate. Even cutting the deficit does not sound too convincing from them at this time because of W's excessive spending. So what do they have? Obama is bad? You're gonna need something more to win, I would think.
 
bobknightfan said:
Republicans only believe in changing taxes in one direction. Whatever the problem is, the Republicans' solution is always lower taxes.
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So tax me an extra 5% if it will help lower the deficit regardless of who's fault it is. Geez people need to be more patriotic instead of taking sides and hoarding their $$$. Can most upper, middle, & upper lower not afford a 5% bump to help the country?
 
Cutting taxes will generate jobs (more taxpayers) and revenue which we can use to cut the deficit.
 
lemme save DeacMan and others the trouble:

You see, what happened was that the unions and their bloated pensions came in and fucked management/business owners/job creators up, making the US less competitive. Obama came in with his health care law and made management/business owners/job creators unsure of the future and stop hiring and cut wages. The EPA and their clean air and water bullshit made management/business owners/job creators jittery and stop hiring and cut wages. Obama's stimulus increased the debt, so business owners/management/job creators freaked out and stopped hiring and cut wages. It was all they could to get out of bed in the morning and go unlock their business, they were being bombarded by these unreasonable idiots on all sides. At one point, many of them almost decided to pack it in and get on public assistance because they saw how sweet it was for those on it. Being a manager/business owner/job creator is very very fragile. The conditions must be just right or it just isn't going to work, its too hard.

Basically, management/business owners/job creators have been shit on by workers wanting health care, better pay, and clean air/water. It is the fault of the American worker. Oh, and the ones out of jobs and too old to work are fucking it up for management/business owners/job creators because they have to pay taxes that go to entitlements for these bloodsucking leeches. So it's also their fault.
 
sailordeac said:
I got that. The rest is a little mysterious though.
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Basically asking if you happened to know why it's only been implemented very sparsely. In an econ 101 sense, it's the very best tax possible because there's no deadweight loss from it. It eats up only rents. And yet it is about the rarest kind of tax. It seems to me that it should be a/the tax we implement and actually do chisel it in stone, because it's the best tax.
 
TuffaloDeac10 said:
Basically asking if you happened to know why it's only been implemented very sparsely. In an econ 101 sense, it's the very best tax possible because there's no deadweight loss from it. It eats up only rents. And yet it is about the rarest kind of tax. It seems to me that it should be a/the tax we implement and actually do chisel it in stone, because it's the best tax.
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Seems OK to me, although I am not versed in the particulars. But I don't own any such land, so go ahead and tax it. Let the hunting clubs and nature lovers pay it.

Just one request: it can't be extended over water. :D
 
sailordeac said:
Seems OK to me, although I am not versed in the particulars. But I don't own any such land, so go ahead and tax it. Let the hunting clubs and nature lovers pay it.

Just one request: it can't be extended over water. :D
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Every landowner would pay. Say you own a 200k house. Either the insurance estimate or an assessment (multiple regression on home prices/values in the area) figures out that $160k of the value of you home is in the structure and $40k in the acreage. Then your taxes are based on the $40k land that your house sits on. Tax wise, there'd be no difference in having a $160k house on $40k land or a $1mm house on that same parcel.

Water would most certainly be covered by a geonomic/georgist tax, if your lot extends under a lake or something. Basically the idea is that natural resources truly belongs to the community and the tax ensures that some portion of the rents of land (varying from low amounts to 100%) accrue back to the community.
 
The Ryan Plan will devastate the middle class and upward mobility. But the rich will get much richer very quickly.
 
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