Disaster in the Making

[HisArpy]

I don't know how it works.
I'm just noticing that, while the nomber of billionaires increased, American working class aren't where they should be. For the no.1 empire and for such enormous technological advances, they should live a different life.
Or pay lower taxes than the 0.01%.

Hmmm...

American's "working class" is the only such class in the world that can live in a well constructed pest-free home, own and drive a car, wear clean clothes daily, and have sufficient food for approximately 1 week already stored in their homes. This is in addition to clean water to drink and bathe in readily available at the turn of a water tap.

These things indicate that "the working class" isn't "poor".

Further, there have been articles about how nearly half of America pays almost no taxes on their income. That's less than what the 1% pays regardless of the tax tables so any narrative on how the 1% pays less in taxes is disingenuous.

And again, if you want to make the rules about who gets to keep money, you have to be one of the rule makers. In this case that means you have to be one of the wealthy.


As to how it works; when you were in school, did you ever notice that some of your fellow students excelled and some didn't?

Do you expect the rest of life to be any different? Or perhaps you think the best student in the class could request the teacher lower their exam scores and give the difference to another student so that they wouldn't be "failing" so badly?

 

[phrodeau]

Says who?


Lots of military campaigns have left the scene of battle before the situation was "stabilized". History is littered with wars which left the countryside devastated and no one cared then or cares now.

Besides, the Kurds are mainly Muslims. Nothing can make Trump care about them.

 

[suurfer]

Hmmm...

American's "working class" is the only such class in the world that can live in a well constructed pest-free home, own and drive a car, wear clean clothes daily, and have sufficient food for approximately 1 week already stored in their homes. This is in addition to clean water to drink and bathe in readily available at the turn of a water tap.

These things indicate that "the working class" isn't "poor".

Further, there have been articles about how nearly half of America pays almost no taxes on their income. That's less than what the 1% pays regardless of the tax tables so any narrative on how the 1% pays less in taxes is disingenuous.

And again, if you want to make the rules about who gets to keep money, you have to be one of the rule makers. In this case that means you have to be one of the wealthy.


As to how it works; when you were in school, did you ever notice that some of your fellow students excelled and some didn't?

Do you expect the rest of life to be any different? Or perhaps you think the best student in the class could request the teacher lower their exam scores and give the difference to another student so that they wouldn't be "failing" so badly?

Oh, the old comparison: "But they're living better than Chinese sweatshop workers."
I read somewhere (https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/02/germany-austerity-blyth-speech-spd/) that there was a time when an entire American household could be kept by just one working member. Before they tried to combat deflation, by getting women into the workforce.

 

[Rightguide]

Hmmm...

American's "working class" is the only such class in the world that can live in a well constructed pest-free home, own and drive a car, wear clean clothes daily, and have sufficient food for approximately 1 week already stored in their homes. This is in addition to clean water to drink and bathe in readily available at the turn of a water tap.

These things indicate that "the working class" isn't "poor".

Further, there have been articles about how nearly half of America pays almost no taxes on their income. That's less than what the 1% pays regardless of the tax tables so any narrative on how the 1% pays less in taxes is disingenuous.

And again, if you want to make the rules about who gets to keep money, you have to be one of the rule makers. In this case that means you have to be one of the wealthy.


As to how it works; when you were in school, did you ever notice that some of your fellow students excelled and some didn't?

Do you expect the rest of life to be any different? Or perhaps you think the best student in the class could request the teacher lower their exam scores and give the difference to another student so that they wouldn't be "failing" so badly?

And never forget, we have the fattest "poor" people on Earth.

 

[Rightguide]

Says who?


Lots of military campaigns have left the scene of battle before the situation was "stabilized". History is littered with wars which left the countryside devastated and no one cared then or cares now.

The Democrats didn't have any problem galloping out of Vietnam after 58,000 Americans were killed for nothing.

 

[HisArpy]

as much as I like you, these memes are getting on my nerves.
How tf can hundreds of millions of McDonalds and factory workers just get over their "lazinness" and become rich?

It's not personal, let's not make it so.

This is going to be long and there's really no way to shorten it. So, if anyone has a problem with that, stop reading here and just go on with your life.

To begin: Low income earners have a problem in that they've not been taught the things they need to succeed. Some aren't capable of learning these things. You know this so let's set them aside and discuss the remainder as a general premise. Of those who remain, they've not only not been taught how to succeed, they've been taught how to FAIL.

In general, the "average person" can learn how to succeed. Millions do it and have done it for generations upon generations.

People today feel as if they can't do as well as their parents have. It's because they've been deceived by almost everything around us. School intentionally hasn't educated them because sheep are easier to shear if they're willing. And your parents cannot teach you what they themselves do not know.

In the real world, besides having no financial knowledge, advertising is a constant and it's designed to get you to buy the product being hawked. The second you give in to that impulse, you lose.

You lose because you no longer have the money you once had. In exchange you have a product that can only decline in value. Or, at best, remain static. At worst, it will rise in cost of ownership. That's called a "bad investment" and it applies to almost everything you can do with money.

Credit is probably the best example of this. With credit you can instantly have everything you desire for low monthly payments. Until you hit 100% of your earning capacity that is. At that point you no longer have a place to live, food to eat, clothes to wear and you STILL have to go to work to earn the money to make a rich man richer.

That's about as dumb as it can get. Yet nearly everyone does it. And then we all complain about how we're poor.

Little things I learned the hard way:

MONEY is the measure. It's the ONLY measure. Everything else is a lie designed to separate you from your money. Learn that law or weep. I did.

For starters, I am not "rich" but I don't have to glean farm fields to pick unharvested veggies so I have food to eat over the winter like I did when I was a child. I don't have to do that because I learned the hard facts that NO ONE is going to "help me" so if I didn't want to actually starve to death I needed to figure out how to take care of myself.

So I learned and created "rules to live by". Simple rules but rules that work for me.

I don't put my "paycheck" into my checking account. It goes directly into my savings account. I sit down once every month and pay my bills by writing old fashioned checks. Then I physically have to go to the bank to transfer ONLY THAT MUCH money from my savings account to cover the checks. Everything else stays put. Going to the bank is a pain so I don't do it. That keeps my fingers off of my money. If I can't get to it, I can't spend it.

Better still, I KNOW how much of my money those fucking bastards are getting. And I don't like it. The balance goes way up, (Whoo Hoo!) then it goes down while I grind my teeth over every penny I'm paying out to those Damn Fucking Bastards. So I do everything I can to keep their dick skinners OFF OF MY MONEY!

From there: I don't use my ATM card or credit cards for purchases. I also don't buy addictive overpriced crap from Starbucks or set up recurring monthly billing for crap. I do draw some folding cash from my savings for "walking around money" but it's limited to barely enough to cover an occasional burger or something. I brown bag lunch every day from leftovers. I don't buy "special crap" to have for lunch either. No twinkies or chips or anything like that.

At the end of the month I know EXACTLY what it cost me to live for the past 30 days. If it's less than my income, I'm ahead of the game. If it's more I need to figure out how to up my game or control my spending.

This is hard when you're younger, but it's do-able. I've been doing it my whole life. I'm not "rich" because I've had issues but I don't have to scrape to pay the rent every month or worry about eating cat food during retirement.

Then I learned how to use the laws and codes to my advantage. Things like the fact that I use my car for work. That means I get a mileage deduction for work miles. I also get to claim the percentage of value of the car as depreciation over the 5 year lifespan of the "asset".

These things are the "tricks" the wealthy use and "the poor" don't. There are ways YOU can use them to help you do better. All it takes is learning what works for you in your personal situation and how to make it happen. It's what I did. If I can do it, so can you. So can anyone else because the tax code is neutral. Find the exceptions and exemptions that your government gives to everyone and USE THEM to your advantage.

For a few examples of what I'm saying here:

I can afford to live in a higher priced neighborhood these days. I don't because the property taxes on that house would leave me with little to show for it except bragging rights on a home I'll eventually not be able to live in. That's fucking stupid. So is having a VPN to hide your Lit identity. Or throwing a huge superbowl party every year for friends who never reciprocate. (Hint: they're sponging off of you to have a good time at your expense.) I don't buy a round at the pub every night. I don't smoke weed, and I don't pay for other exorbitant "pleasures" that only separate me from my hard earned cash.

In the end it's about control. Not "the man" controlling you, YOU controlling you. Every day, you have to control yourself financially. Because money is the measure. YOUR MONEY, not someone elses. It's not your job to help other people by giving them the rewards from your labors.

Instead, you need to concentrate on what you're doing and finding the little ways you can change your situation.

Take for example, a hypothetical "worker". This person gets up in the morning, drives to work, works all day and then drives home again. So do his coworkers. This is probably your life too. Ask yourself; WHY does this hypothetical worker drive to work instead of stepping out of the house in the morning and already being AT work?

What the fuck am I talking about? Let's do another "applied" hypothetical -

Uber and Lyft are legit businesses ANYONE with a car that qualifies can do. Step out of the house, log on to your Uber/Lyft and you're "working". Go pick up your carpool buddies who pay for the ride to work according to the Uber/Lyft scale. They can share the ride according to the rules but they MUST PAY for the ride.

This makes it a legit business on your part. Because it's a legit business, you get to deduct the miles to/from work as well as depreciate the cost of the car over the depreciation timeframe on your taxes.

10 miles to/from work each way 5x/week is 5200 miles per year. At the approximate 50 cents mile the US Fed Gov allows, that's $2600 directly off your line 32 income. Add in the depreciation for the car (assume $20k car) over 5 years (the usual depreciation period for autos) and you reduce your line 32 income by another $4k. Total = $6600 LESS TAXABLE INCOME while you get to keep all that money (and the taxes you didn't pay on it) right there in your hard to get to savings account.

IF that is, you play by the rules and can make those deductions. I'm not advising ANYONE to do this. What I'm saying is start thinking and stop whining. IF you believe you've found a way to reduce your taxable income and/or increase your income TALK TO A TAX PROFESSIONAL BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING!!! If they're good with it, grab on with both hands and do it.

There's a book out there called "The Richest Man in Babylon". It's a collection of stupid fables that have a financial "moral of the story". Each story builds off the previous one and what they do is teach a set of "rules" anyone can do. The technique works because the "morals" are universal.

Things like "own your own home." Paying rent every month gets you NOTHING in the end. (Tip: So does leasing a car - you're "renting" it from the manufacturer.) Get the book and read it. Open your eyes to see the possibilities around you and talk to someone who can advise you on them.

Hell listen to Susie Ormond podcasts if that's all you can do.

If I can do it, you can do it. It takes desire, a willingness to tell the world "no", and the guts to step out there and try to pull it off knowing that sometimes you're going to fail anyway. There is no reward without risk but you CAN minimize the risk. If it works, you're ahead of the game. Over the long run, it adds up. When it does, suddenly you're "rich".

 

[HisArpy]

Oh, the old comparison: "But they're living better than Chinese sweatshop workers."
I read somewhere (https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/02/germany-austerity-blyth-speech-spd/) that there was a time when an entire American household could be kept by just one working member. Before they tried to combat deflation, by getting women into the workforce.

2 wage earners living in a "moderate rent" apartment can live on 1 income for a very long time and bank the second income completely. IF, that is, they don't lease a new car every 2 years and have $10K in credit card debt while using Grubhub to deliver dinner every night.

After a decade of banking the entire net income from even a $10/hr job, you can have scads of cash in the bank to buy a home and continue to invest for the future. Best part is that buying the home means you'll usually pay LESS for the mortgage than the rent on the dumpy apartment you just vacated.

Winner!

 

[BotanyBoy]

The Democrats didn't have any problem galloping out of Vietnam after 58,000 Americans were killed for nothing.

They are all suddenly huge fans of endless wars for no reason.

How much you want to be a fight starts on the (R) clock they all get suddenly super anti-War again??

 

[schism666]

Gen. McCaffrey on Trump’s claim the Kurds are happy: ‘It’s simply absurd, it’s cruel, it makes him look stupid’

https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-whit...-s-cruel-it-makes-him-look-stupid-71621701832

 

[zipman]

The Democrats didn't have any problem galloping out of Vietnam after 58,000 Americans were killed for nothing.

Yes, so let's keep making the same mistakes over and over again.

That's brilliant.

The thing you fucktards don't want to discuss is that our own military advisors were against it.

But Trump did it so you will back it no matter how stupid a move it was.

 

[Rightguide]

It's not personal, let's not make it so.

This is going to be long and there's really no way to shorten it. So, if anyone has a problem with that, stop reading here and just go on with your life.

To begin: Low income earners have a problem in that they've not been taught the things they need to succeed. Some aren't capable of learning these things. You know this so let's set them aside and discuss the remainder as a general premise. Of those who remain, they've not only not been taught how to succeed, they've been taught how to FAIL.

In general, the "average person" can learn how to succeed. Millions do it and have done it for generations upon generations.

People today feel as if they can't do as well as their parents have. It's because they've been deceived by almost everything around us. School intentionally hasn't educated them because sheep are easier to shear if they're willing. And your parents cannot teach you what they themselves do not know.

In the real world, besides having no financial knowledge, advertising is a constant and it's designed to get you to buy the product being hawked. The second you give in to that impulse, you lose.

You lose because you no longer have the money you once had. In exchange you have a product that can only decline in value. Or, at best, remain static. At worst, it will rise in cost of ownership. That's called a "bad investment" and it applies to almost everything you can do with money.

Credit is probably the best example of this. With credit you can instantly have everything you desire for low monthly payments. Until you hit 100% of your earning capacity that is. At that point you no longer have a place to live, food to eat, clothes to wear and you STILL have to go to work to earn the money to make a rich man richer.

That's about as dumb as it can get. Yet nearly everyone does it. And then we all complain about how we're poor.

Little things I learned the hard way:

MONEY is the measure. It's the ONLY measure. Everything else is a lie designed to separate you from your money. Learn that law or weep. I did.

For starters, I am not "rich" but I don't have to glean farm fields to pick unharvested veggies so I have food to eat over the winter like I did when I was a child. I don't have to do that because I learned the hard facts that NO ONE is going to "help me" so if I didn't want to actually starve to death I needed to figure out how to take care of myself.

So I learned and created "rules to live by". Simple rules but rules that work for me.

I don't put my "paycheck" into my checking account. It goes directly into my savings account. I sit down once every month and pay my bills by writing old fashioned checks. Then I physically have to go to the bank to transfer ONLY THAT MUCH money from my savings account to cover the checks. Everything else stays put. Going to the bank is a pain so I don't do it. That keeps my fingers off of my money. If I can't get to it, I can't spend it.

Better still, I KNOW how much of my money those fucking bastards are getting. And I don't like it. The balance goes way up, (Whoo Hoo!) then it goes down while I grind my teeth over every penny I'm paying out to those Damn Fucking Bastards. So I do everything I can to keep their dick skinners OFF OF MY MONEY!

From there: I don't use my ATM card or credit cards for purchases. I also don't buy addictive overpriced crap from Starbucks or set up recurring monthly billing for crap. I do draw some folding cash from my savings for "walking around money" but it's limited to barely enough to cover an occasional burger or something. I brown bag lunch every day from leftovers. I don't buy "special crap" to have for lunch either. No twinkies or chips or anything like that.

At the end of the month I know EXACTLY what it cost me to live for the past 30 days. If it's less than my income, I'm ahead of the game. If it's more I need to figure out how to up my game or control my spending.

This is hard when you're younger, but it's do-able. I've been doing it my whole life. I'm not "rich" because I've had issues but I don't have to scrape to pay the rent every month or worry about eating cat food during retirement.

Then I learned how to use the laws and codes to my advantage. Things like the fact that I use my car for work. That means I get a mileage deduction for work miles. I also get to claim the percentage of value of the car as depreciation over the 5 year lifespan of the "asset".

These things are the "tricks" the wealthy use and "the poor" don't. There are ways YOU can use them to help you do better. All it takes is learning what works for you in your personal situation and how to make it happen. It's what I did. If I can do it, so can you. So can anyone else because the tax code is neutral. Find the exceptions and exemptions that your government gives to everyone and USE THEM to your advantage.

For a few examples of what I'm saying here:

I can afford to live in a higher priced neighborhood these days. I don't because the property taxes on that house would leave me with little to show for it except bragging rights on a home I'll eventually not be able to live in. That's fucking stupid. So is having a VPN to hide your Lit identity. Or throwing a huge superbowl party every year for friends who never reciprocate. (Hint: they're sponging off of you to have a good time at your expense.) I don't buy a round at the pub every night. I don't smoke weed, and I don't pay for other exorbitant "pleasures" that only separate me from my hard earned cash.

In the end it's about control. Not "the man" controlling you, YOU controlling you. Every day, you have to control yourself financially. Because money is the measure. YOUR MONEY, not someone elses. It's not your job to help other people by giving them the rewards from your labors.

Instead, you need to concentrate on what you're doing and finding the little ways you can change your situation.

Take for example, a hypothetical "worker". This person gets up in the morning, drives to work, works all day and then drives home again. So do his coworkers. This is probably your life too. Ask yourself; WHY does this hypothetical worker drive to work instead of stepping out of the house in the morning and already being AT work?

What the fuck am I talking about? Let's do another "applied" hypothetical -

Uber and Lyft are legit businesses ANYONE with a car that qualifies can do. Step out of the house, log on to your Uber/Lyft and you're "working". Go pick up your carpool buddies who pay for the ride to work according to the Uber/Lyft scale. They can share the ride according to the rules but they MUST PAY for the ride.

This makes it a legit business on your part. Because it's a legit business, you get to deduct the miles to/from work as well as depreciate the cost of the car over the depreciation timeframe on your taxes.

10 miles to/from work each way 5x/week is 5200 miles per year. At the approximate 50 cents mile the US Fed Gov allows, that's $2600 directly off your line 32 income. Add in the depreciation for the car (assume $20k car) over 5 years (the usual depreciation period for autos) and you reduce your line 32 income by another $4k. Total = $6600 LESS TAXABLE INCOME while you get to keep all that money (and the taxes you didn't pay on it) right there in your hard to get to savings account.

IF that is, you play by the rules and can make those deductions. I'm not advising ANYONE to do this. What I'm saying is start thinking and stop whining. IF you believe you've found a way to reduce your taxable income and/or increase your income TALK TO A TAX PROFESSIONAL BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING!!! If they're good with it, grab on with both hands and do it.

There's a book out there called "The Richest Man in Babylon". It's a collection of stupid fables that have a financial "moral of the story". Each story builds off the previous one and what they do is teach a set of "rules" anyone can do. The technique works because the "morals" are universal.

Things like "own your own home." Paying rent every month gets you NOTHING in the end. (Tip: So does leasing a car - you're "renting" it from the manufacturer.) Get the book and read it. Open your eyes to see the possibilities around you and talk to someone who can advise you on them.

Hell listen to Susie Ormond podcasts if that's all you can do.

If I can do it, you can do it. It takes desire, a willingness to tell the world "no", and the guts to step out there and try to pull it off knowing that sometimes you're going to fail anyway. There is no reward without risk but you CAN minimize the risk. If it works, you're ahead of the game. Over the long run, it adds up. When it does, suddenly you're "rich".

And there it is for those who persevered...good job Harpy.

 

[Rightguide]

Yes, so let's keep making the same mistakes over and over again.

That's brilliant.

The thing you fucktards don't want to discuss is that our own military advisors were against it.

But Trump did it so you will back it no matter how stupid a move it was.

Military advisors were against bugging out in Vietnam as well, but the Democrats didn't seem to mind, and you and the rest of today's fucktards apparently don't want to here about the hypocrisy involved there.

 

[phrodeau]

Military advisors were against bugging out in Vietnam as well, but the Democrats didn't seem to mind, and you and the rest of today's fucktards apparently don't want to here about the hypocrisy involved there.

And the Commander In Chief was Gerald Ford.

 

[zipman]

Military advisors were against bugging out in Vietnam as well, but the Democrats didn't seem to mind, and you and the rest of today's fucktards apparently don't want to here about the hypocrisy involved there.

If you don't think it was a good strategy then, why do you support it now?

 

[Rightguide]

And the Commander In Chief was Gerald Ford.

Doesn't matter, the Democrat Congress withdrew funds for the war and forced our retreat. Obviously, their true strategy in starting the war was to kill off 58,000 of our best men. They succeeded.

 

[schism666]

Doesn't matter, the Democrat Congress withdrew funds for the war and forced our retreat. Obviously, their true strategy in starting the war was to kill off 58,000 of our best men. They succeeded.

trump wasn't one of them

 

[Rightguide]

If you don't think it was a good strategy then, why do you support it now?

The decision to move 28 Americans from between to opposing superior forces in Syria and the surrender of the field after 58,000 killed and over 300,000 wounded in Vietnam, isn't analogous in any way.

 

[zipman]

The decision to move 28 Americans from between to opposing superior forces in Syria and the surrender of the field after 58,000 killed and over 300,000 wounded in Vietnam, isn't analogous in any way.

You're the one who made the analogy, you moron.

 

[jomar]

Awesome

 

[dagdag]

words directly from leader's mouths are now merely "semantics"?

"It" seems to be holding! Cease fire and pause are the words used interchangeably in different places by different officials from each side.

Turkish side clarified that a cease fire would be between legitimate parties, and they don't seem to consider the PKK/SDF/YPG as a legitimate party.

 

[suurfer]

Looks like Trump met his match in terms of histrionics.

After reading Trump's third grade letter, I now read Erdogan's promiss to "crush the skulls of PKK fighters."

 

[SpeareChucker]

you're* smart stuff.

It's funny zippy has adopted 13 year old Bush talking points now that they are partisanly convenient.

How much you want to bet he was part of the "BUSH IS LITERALLY HITLER!!" crowd

zip was awfully quiet when President Obama was on his destabilization tour...

 

[SpeareChucker]

Looks like Trump met his match in terms of histrionics.

After reading Trump's third grade letter, I now read Erdogan's promiss to "crush the skulls of PKK fighters."

Third-grade is the talking point that the Socialist/Liberal/Progressive press
wanted to dominate the shot across the bow, and you, I'm sorry,
took the bait, hook, line and sinker...

Shame on you.

 

[Aglaopheme]

It’s not holding.


And, guess what!?!

Those troops that will be leaving Syria are now on their way to Iraq to fight ISIS.

You can’t make this crap up.

 

[zipman]

Third-grade is the talking point that the Socialist/Liberal/Progressive press
wanted to dominate the shot across the bow, and you, I'm sorry,
took the bait, hook, line and sinker...

Shame on you.

It was totally written at a third grade level. Shame on you for defending him no matter what he does.

He denigrates the office of the president day but you partisan hacks just dodge, deflect and defend him.