Nesrie
1628
You were so incredibly rude with your first sentence, but of course you won’t admit it. You thought you edited it out in time, but you sure as hell did not. It’s simply not possible to have a civil conversation with you.
I think I’ve admitted to more then a few mistakes in my time on this forum and changed my mind on a few issues.
It was initially a little rude, which is why I edited it out. Mostly because it was rude, but also because you tend to react strongly to any remark you see as an attack.
I’m sorry for the original comment. That’s why I removed it in the first place.
Sorry if this was already mentioned in the hundred-plus posts after this, but the quotation is at least partially manufactured. No credible source exists for part of it, and the terms “inflation” and “deflation” did not exist until after Jefferson’s time.
https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/private-banks-spurious-quotation
Legowarrior-landia sounds like it’s the mirror version of Rapture. I think you’re going to need to round up some cash and buy an island somewhere or build an underwater city to conduct a social experiment. I wonder how many folks will choose to move to Legowarrior-landia and how long it will last.
First, congratulation in advance I hope it works out for you.
I think you are being pessimistic about the maintenance cost. I’ve average way less than 1% for my house in Hawaii (mostly because 75% of the value of the house is the land). My properties build in the 2000s in Vegas are average just under 1% of current value or 1-2% of purchased price. My properties near Kansas City, MO which I bought with partner for 35-60,000 and were built in the 1940 are averaging about 2%. Depending on the age once you fix the stuff you know needs to be repaired(which I include in the purchase price). I think 1-2% is realistic, less if you can DIY. (I can’t). Now mind you the kitchen and bathroom remodels, man dens can be expensive, I’m just referring to painting, carpets, replacing toilets, furnace, a roof amortized over 30 years,fences etc The must do vs nice to have.
Second when your are comparing rent vs buy. You are forgetting a very important factor. Roughly $250/month of your payment is going toward principal and after 5 years that is $300/month. At the end of the 30 years you’ll own the house. At the end of 30 years, if you continue renting the rent (assuming 2% annual increase) will over $2,100.
Actually, I mostly agree $1 million is perfectly good starting point. As you say $1 million is reasonable amount retire on in many parts of the country, and should be enough (with a paid for house) and social security for comfortable middle class retirement almost everywhere.
If it was up to me. I’d completely eliminate the estate tax…
In it’s place. I’d treat inheritance as ordinary income. (Since most people assume you have to tax on inherited money this wouldn’t be a big change in perception.) Plus it would allow the Democrats to campaign on eliminating the dreaded death tax.
I’d also allow each person to inherit one million from each parent tax free. Then, I’d let the Republican have to explain why Don Jr, should not have to pay any taxes on the money he inherits from Donald Sr.
One million as the start for inheritance taxes sounds pretty reasonable to me.
Also, treating inheritance as income is probably a good idea, but unworkable pretty much anywhere, since politicians do not normally belong to the middle class.
ShivaX
1636
I’m fine with the $5 million. It’s just that after that we should be dropping hammers.
Of course while no one was really looking they upped it to like $12 mil.
Nesrie
1637
I am mainly focusing on retirement because the very idea that someone spent their entire life working for something, and let’s face it, for most people who have a millionish dollars in retirement, it probably is a lifetime of savings, doing exactly what we as society told them to do, being responsible and saving, and not only did they not benefit from it, aka the dead part, their benefactors then get taxed for it. Not only does it not play as a concept, it’s not even targeting the right group. We’re a big nation, we should have means to tax the top 10% without raiding the retirement accounts and houses for the professionals. White collar workers are not the enemy, they can still be treated as disposable and replaceable at their place of employment, and still rely on being able to work.
This puts us back at the oreo cookie again.
David2
1638
Thanks, found the qoute, but didnt see that it was heavily modified! Interesting. That its been around since the 1930s, still quoted and yet still inaccurate is amazing.
Great episode of Pitchfork Economics this week, on the subject of worker compensation.
http://www.pitchforkeconomics.com/episode/does-the-market-really-pay-you-what-youre-worth-with-marshall-steinbaum-and-saru-jayaraman/
Both the segments on compensation-vs-worker-value and tipped positions are great.
I get that people generally pay more attention to opinions that support their own, but you have to realize that this show is heavily biased towards liberal viewpoints. I listened to the episode on the minimum wage, and they did things like:
- cited the same Krueger and Card study from 1994 as gospel, and called into question any findings that contradicted that (including classical economic theory)
- criticized the Seattle study for only focusing on smaller restaurants, but didn’t point out that the Krueger and Card study only focused on chain restaurants
- the hosts said things like, “If a study shows that a minimum wage hike is actually hurting the people it’s trying to help, you know they’re lying to you.” So any results that don’t agree with your viewpoint are automatically lies? That’s convenient.
The general attitude seemed to be that Kreuger and Card proved classical economic theory wrong, and so any studies that contradict K&C must also be wrong.
David2
1641
Any thoughts on the fed dumping 3 times 75 billion this week into the internal bank borrowing system? Something they last did in the 2008 crisis. They also adjusted the interest rate down twice in the last quarter if i recall. As has been pointed out i’m no financial expert, but that does seem alarming, or am I missing something?
David2
1643
A) The there was extreme volatility inside the bank funding market where the interest to get money for the banks was much higher than it should have been in a normal economy.
B) That the Fed not only dumped money into that system (the first time since 2008 as far as I can tell), but dumped 75 billion, the max allowed 2 (!!!) times in a week and 50 odd billion another time on Monday i believe, for a total of 3 times in a week!
C) That the Fed lowered the interest Rate 2 times in the past couple of months, which they normally dont do (as i understand it) unless they are trying to stimulate the economy.
That seems alarming in ANY sense, and would appreciate context and verifiable info if it shouldn’t be…
I think you’ve got it right, although I wouldn’t call it alarming per se. A little recession or a little stall is fine. The problem is when there’s a lot of credit that has no backing that stops being payed in a cascading effect.
While we know the first condition is true (and hasn’t really changed since 2007), the second is still unknowable, I think.
CraigM
1645
You are correct that this is unusual, but this seems to be a case of political meddling by the executive branch pressuring them to do so in order to mask the effects of tariffs.
However it is concerning as it does kneecap one of the monetary tools for dealing with a recession.
David2
1646
I was wondering what your thoughts of the Fed report that shows a record number of Americans are three months (or more) behind on their car payments. This suggests a lot of credit, and people unable to sustain their credit. Seems like a repeat of the 2008 crisis, I even recall Warren mentioning that banks were using similar tactics that created the 2008 crisis by bundling (and hiding) the bad debt in groups of good debt.
I know its 1000% more complicated than that, but it seems that all the pieces are there, for a repeat…at least from my laymen perspective.
