How did I miss @IronEdithKidd’s entry?
Must have been one of those cases where I opened the page and then actually did something productive for a bit and came back and the page didn’t update.
2 Likes
Depending on where you live, if you are not a pregnant woman, minimum wage puts you above the income threshold for Medicaid.
…indeed.
5 Likes
Depends on your needs- I vend at fairs. The smartphone gives me the ability to take credit cards, GPS to find my way to new events, web access to keep my site up to date with items that sell, email and Facebook when I’m living in a tent behind my booth for a weekend or a week at a time, and the ability to find the nearest bank, hospital, or pizza place. I feel like I can safely state that it’s not a luxury for me- especially when it saves me several hundred dollars on a GPS and a CC terminal with cellular access.
5 Likes
“Shorter of breath and one day closer to death”
1 Like
I took a job in a secret undersea base. It’s a tough economy and I don’t have a lot of options.
Also I maybe wasn’t supposed to tell you all that. You might want to stay at a hotel the next couple of weeks.
1 Like
I think that was a meme about Bill Gates who has wealth levels Trump never approached. Still the secret about many rich people is they are penny pinchers and would probably push down a kid to grab a stack of $100s.
And yes, the evil Koch brothers. Or George Soros. Or the Hollywood elite. Etc etc.
Absolutely. But let’s be honest. Most people use only a fraction of what their phone or computers are capable of. Most people working minimum wage jobs are using their phones for entertainment and social communication, neither of which requires cutting edge tech.
If my mom’s computer died, it means she might get the shakes from solitaire withdrawal. If mine died while I was doing freelance, not only was I personally screwed but odds are several of my clients will lose some money as well.
2 Likes
Minimum wage works typically get back everything they paid in taxes. as a refund. That said, they’re still out of the money until the following June. Not much help paying the rent.
1 Like
Even better, when your employer helps you sign up for food stamps ala Walmart and then Walmart turns around and becomes one of largest recipients of food stamp dollars.
The System Works!
2 Likes
Surely if more people earned more, everyone could sell more stuff. It’s like business is conspiring against itself.
2 Likes
They may get back their income tax, but there are many other kinds of tax in America, most of them regressive taxes. Sales tax, sin tax, payroll tax are all designed to fall heaviest on the poor.
3 Likes
It is true that the other taxes are paid regardless. However I take exception to your characterization they are “designed to fall heaviest on the poor.” That maybe the effect, but to say that they’re intentionally designed that way is a bit too far. Do tell why these taxes are internally designed to keep the poor poor?
You think the tax code wasn’t designed by Congress? What happened, did it come down from heaven? Cabbage patch maybe? Take exception if you like, but it’s not an opinion, it’s a fact.
As for why taxes are designed to hurt the poor, I’m damned if I know why. Maybe you should ask Paul Ryan, currently the loudest proponent of making the tax code even more regressive.
2 Likes
Of course the tax code was designed by Congress. I’m saying you need to back up your accusation that Congress is sitting there saying “Bwahahaha! This will keep them poor!” as opposed to this simply being an unintended side-effect of other policies.
while i would generally agree with the proposition that one should not assume malice when stupidity will suffice, it is also true that paul ryan and others of his ilk have been rather proud of their designs on making the tax code favor the wealthiest even more than it currently does while reducing the rather limited safety net our country has for the poor to ever more dickensian levels of misery. certainly sales taxes and property taxes (usually paid indirectly as part of rents) require a larger fraction of the income of someone in the lowest quintile. the payroll taxes for social security and medicare are going to be paid on all of the income of someone below the top 5 or 6% of individuals while those at the 0.1% may have millions in income that is untaxed.
honestly, unless you’re part of the 1%, you’re speaking against your own interests and are engaged in class war against yourself.
3 Likes
I completely agree that the tax code is intentionally set up so that the wealthy get to keep even more of their wealth, and the social contract is being intentionally shredded. I completely agree about that. What I am not convinced is that the goal is to keep the poor poor. Personally, I think Paul Ryan, and the rest of the “trickle-down”, or as GHWB rightly put it during the 1980 primary, “voodoo economics” supporters are either oblivious to the actual effects, or perhaps in some misguided way actually proud of these effects. Not so much that it keeps the wretches in their place, but rather it “will motivate them to get a job!” Take for instance the current move to move ignore over 100 years of history, and move to a flat tax. The motivation isn’t to raise taxes on the poor, it’s to package drastic tax cuts for the wealthy in way that’s palatable for the masses. The effects on the people that are super wealthy simply aren’t a concern.
The facts don’t really matter in American politics (especially conservative politics) today. All that matters is ideology.
on that part we can definitely agree.
[quote=“robotmonkeys, post:31, topic:41649”] I take exception to your characterization they are “designed to fall heaviest on the poor.” That maybe the effect, but to say that they’re intentionally designed that way is a bit too far.
[/quote]
If you intentionally set up the tax code to go easy on rich people then you are also designing it to go harder on poor people. It’s completely intentional, the people who write and implement the laws just don’t like to think about it that way.
2 Likes
If they don’t think about it that way, then it isn’t intentional. It’s being oblivious to the repercussions.
That’s like saying “We’re not punishing people for being female, we’re rewarding people for being male. That’s not intentionally sexist!”
They know what they’re doing. They’re just doing their best not to think about it in a way that makes them look like douchebags.
3 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
