The Next President is...

[brabus]

4 hours ago, ClearedHot said:

but it does show the government system is a freaking mess and warrants a peak under the hood

$4.7T in federal untracked payouts. Doesn’t mean that’s all FWA, but it does at least demo the complete incompetence of the federal gov. The gov is managing our money like children, some of them with sinister intent.

 

[BashiChuni]

22 minutes ago, brabus said:

$4.7T in federal untracked payouts. Doesn’t mean that’s all FWA, but it does at least demo the complete incompetence of the federal gov. The gov is managing our money like children, some of them with sinister intent.

 

THIS IS WHY WE NEED TO PAY MORE TAXES - nsplayr

[nsplayr]

1 hour ago, BashiChuni said:

THIS IS WHY WE NEED TO PAY MORE TAXES - nsplayr

I do think people who have the money to do so, i.e. high W2 earners but also, and first, the extremely wealthy & highly profitable corporations need to pay more taxes, yea.

If for nothing else to stop deficit spending every single year, but also to maintain our nation's quality of life and top dog place in world affairs.

[SocialD]

2 hours ago, bcuziknow said:

Hate much, or just that bitter over life’s choices?

 

Nah man, life actually couldn't get much better now that I'm retired from the military lol.  Just had flashbacks to dealing with GS employees who were just road block after roadblock, rather than supporting the people their shop is supposed to support.  I just see those types as easier to let go than a bunch of newhires, especially those closest to SS age.  Best way to figure out who to keep/dump would be to talk to those who they're supposed to support.  

[nsplayr]

2 hours ago, brabus said:

$4.7T in federal untracked payouts. Doesn’t mean that’s all FWA, but it does at least demo the complete incompetence of the federal gov. The gov is managing our money like children, some of them with sinister intent.

 

FY24 total federal outlays totaled $6.75T. Do you really think that because allegedly $4.7T of those were missing a previously-optional field that it's indicative of widespread fraud, waste, and abuse?

4.7 / 6.75 is exactly 69%, I'm half inclined to believe man-child Elon picked that number as another 69 joke.

If Treasury, the Fed & DOGE want to work together to improve internal accounting practices, great, go for it. Maybe requiring this code on every transaction is a good improvement, I'm not an expert here but I'm happy to accept smart, positive changes to the way the government operates it's processes.

It's like in the DCA crash when folks latched on to the fact that the helo wasn't broadcasting ADS-B. Wow, that seems like a smoking gun! But if you actually fly aircraft, you know that's not a big deal, let alone causal in deadly crash that occurred.

Some folks here (not saying you on this, just folks in general) rightly laugh / get mad when non-experts wildly speculate and misjudge stuff about aviation but also happily make the same mistake when the headline is about something else and it conforms to their predisposed views. 

Edited Tuesday at 06:47 PM by nsplayr

[nsplayr]

12 minutes ago, SocialD said:

Just had flashbacks to dealing with GS employees who were just road block after roadblock, rather than supporting the people their shop is supposed to support.  I just see those types as easier to let go than a bunch of newhires, especially those closest to SS age.  Best way to figure out who to keep/dump would be to talk to those who they're supposed to support.  

Agreed on this...if dead weight is anywhere in the federal bureaucracy it's at the top, not the young folks or recent job-movers who are still probationary.

If I were a dictator and bent firing folks in my squadron, it's not all the LTs who would be packing their shit despite the fact that they are hopeless fuckups who can't even make corn right 😅 The first folks I'd can are the non-leadership O5s and E8s who have 20+ years in the bank but are still just cruising on, taking up space.

My favorite government civilian who should be sent packing is one Mr. Bumpers. Clown-ass named individual but that's his real name. Useless roadblock. The young highly recruited folks like the AG's Honors Program who were all canned is the absolute back-asswards way to do it.

If Pete et al are talking about "Why do we have 44 4-stars," I mean I can tell him the answer and he's still a wholly unqualified and inappropriate choice for SECDEF, but he's at least starting at the right echelon to find efficiencies...

Edited Tuesday at 06:48 PM by nsplayr

[SocialD]

48 minutes ago, nsplayr said:

The first folks I'd can are the non-leadership O5s who have 20 years in the bank but are still just cruising on, taking up space.

 

 

This is exactly why I left when I did.  Finished up a CC tour with 22 YOS and less than zero desire to continue down the leadership track.  I knew I'd just be a deadweight O-5 DSG, soaking up sorties and holding up an O-5 slot.  Unfortunately, way too many of those Mr. Bumpers out there who are filling a seat, dug in like a tick, maintaining the status quo.   

Walked into the local FSDO a few years back and the place looked like a geriatric facility.  Talking with one of the reps, most were retired military, who already were fed retirement eligible and clearly old enough to collect SS.  Anyone who has worked with the FAA knows how painful some of those crotchety old dudes can be.  I understand the desire to keep working, but new blood is a good thing. Hell, one of the reasons we can't get enough DPEs in the area is because the early 70s dude at the FSDO doesn't want to manage more DPEs (per a friend/DPE).

Edited Tuesday at 07:30 PM by SocialD

[nsplayr]

💯 to all that

[ClearedHot]

47 minutes ago, nsplayr said:

It's like in the DCA crash when folks latched on to the fact that the helo wasn't broadcasting ADS-B. Wow, that seems like a smoking gun! But if you actually fly aircraft, you know that's not a big deal, let alone causal in deadly crash that occurred.

Shut up Nav. 

ADS-B was not a smoking gun and I didn't latch on to the ADS-B issue as casual, but as a dinosaur who now uses ADS-B religiously, I see the enormous SA benefit offered by the capability.   I think if it was in use it could have been a glove save.  On at least two occasions ADS-B has "saved" me.  Both times were I was where I was supposed to be and others were not.

56 minutes ago, nsplayr said:

I do think people who have the money to do so, i.e. high W2 earners but also, and first, the extremely wealthy & highly profitable corporations need to pay more taxes, yea.

I already do pay more....how much is enough?  I already pay 35% AND Social Security that I likely won't get.  The progressive tax schedule is pure punishment to those who are successful.  Please save the progressive liberal crap justification.  It is blatantly unfair and now you want more...shocking...not.  I am so glad my "extra" contribution could pay for these items.

- $59M for ILLEGALS to stay at the Roosevelt Hotel in NYC

- $10M for "Mozambique voluntary medical male circumcision"

- $9.7M for UC Berkeley to develop "a cohort of Cambodian youth with enterprise driven skills" -

- $2.3M for "strengthening independent voices in Cambodia"

- $32M to the Prague Civil Society Centre - $40M for "gender equality and women empowerment hub"

- $14M for "improving public procurement" in Serbia

- $486M to the “Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening,” including $22M for "inclusive and participatory political process" in Moldova and $21M for voter turnout in India

- $29M to "strengthening political landscape in Bangladesh"

- $20M for "fiscal federalism" in Nepal

- $19M for "biodiversity conversation" in Nepal

- $1.5M for "voter confidence" in Liberia

- $14M for "social cohesion" in Mali

- $2.5M for "inclusive democracies in Southern Africa"

- $47M for "improving learning outcomes in Asia"

- $2M to develop "sustainable recycling models" to "increase socio-economic cohesion among marginalized communities of Kosovo Roma, Ashkali, and Egypt"

- $1.4M contract to physically observe mailing and clerical operations

- Over $32 million from various other government departments for Politico Pro, which then wrote nothing but positive stories about Biden and negative stories about Trump.
 

 

 

[nsplayr]

51 minutes ago, ClearedHot said:

Shut up Nav. 

ADS-B was not a smoking gun and I didn't latch on to the ADS-B issue as casual, but as a dinosaur who now uses ADS-B religiously, I see the enormous SA benefit offered by the capability.   I think if it was in use it could have been a glove save.  On at least two occasions ADS-B has "saved" me.  Both times were I was where I was supposed to be and others were not.

I wasn't talking about you, I was talking about Ted Cruz. I agree with pretty much everything you've written about ADS-B and concur - I fly with an ipad w/ ADS-B on the occasion that I fly private pilot-wise and it's a tremendous help. The fact that I at times can have much better SA in a $100K -172 with a < $1K iPad/puck setup compared to my $20m military aircraft is pretty messed up. I endorse all mil aircraft to have synthetic vision, moving map, ADS-B, all of the things...you and I are both familiar with the level of SA that just good software/hardware integration can bring to the fight.

51 minutes ago, ClearedHot said:

I already pay 35% AND Social Security that I likely won't get. 

Don't worry grandpa, you're close enough to the grave that social security won't even have to cut payments before you start collecting 😁 

Also if you're telling us your *effective* federal income tax rate is 35% then you make a shit-ton of money, easily top 1% or beyond of W2 earners. You also pay less as a % than at any time since the roaring 20s.

If I were in charge I would more effectively tax the UHNW crowd and corporations first, but not gonna lie, if you are beyond a top 1% W2 earner I would ask you to pay more also - that what it will take to both get our fiscal house in better order and to continue the American standard of living and place in the world that we've come to expect. I'll say it every day and twice on sundays, you can't fix the problem with austerity.

51 minutes ago, ClearedHot said:

Please save the progressive liberal crap justification.

I mean, at least for now, I don't think I will.

BO.net and typical AF flying squadron are massive echo chambers / amplification chambers of typical conservative & libertarian-leaning rhetoric and thought. Which is fine, many of my best friends are Republicans so it's no hard feelings.

I'm happy to provide a different perspective while also learning the good parts of what many of y'all are saying. I think what I'm doing until I quit again is better than the "lol eat the rich" crowd you can find from the left online in most places.

Also the vast majority of the things you listed, which I've seen neatly put together before online, are fine with me. They're classic Bush-era, bipartisan democracy & capitalism promotion around the world. I'd rather spend money like that than cede the playing field to the CCP model or the Russian gangster model.

Edited Tuesday at 08:53 PM by nsplayr

[ClearedHot]

9 minutes ago, nsplayr said:

I wasn't talking about you, I was talking about Ted Cruz. I agree with pretty much everything you've written about ADS-B and concur - I fly with an ipad w/ ADS-B on the occasion that I fly private pilot-wise and it's a tremendous help. The fact that I at times can have much better SA in a $100K -172 with a < $1K iPad/puck setup compared to my $20m military aircraft is pretty messed up. I endorse all mil aircraft to have synthetic vision, moving map, ADS-B, all of the things...you and I are both familiar with the level of SA that just good software/hardware integration can bring to the fight.

I was quite honestly shocked at the SA provided.  In the AC-130H for many years we did not have a moving map or access to the nav data other than tuning TACANS and the ILS.  Around 9/11 they added another screen up front and we were hoping it would be a repeater of the PFPS moving map the Navs had but we only got sensor imagery on it.  H model pilots tended to be very good (not me, I sucked), at building a mental picture of the AOR and what was happening on the ground...we had no other choice.  The U-Boats had the Tactical Situation Map but dudes tended to stare at it rather than look outside.

13 minutes ago, nsplayr said:

Don't worry grandpa, you're close enough to the grave that social security won't even have to cut payments before you start collecting 😁 

You are probably right...I am at the end game of a big career (or end career decision).  In reality, without intervention the fund is depleted in 2034 right when I am trying to collect peak fundage.

17 minutes ago, nsplayr said:

Also if you're telling us your *effective* federal income tax rate is 35% then you make a shit-ton of money, easily top 1% or beyond of W2 earners. You also pay less as a % than at any time since the roaring 20s.

Crazy huh, not bad for a ham-fisted gunship pilot.  I am extraordinarily lucky to have made some very wise financial decisions.  That being said, I do not enjoy writing quarterly tax payments in the amount of $33,000 to the government....that in addition to the withholding on my retirement, salary and 40% of all most bonuses. 

20 minutes ago, nsplayr said:

if you are beyond a top 1% W2 earner I would ask you to pay more

I already do pay more...a LOT more.

22 minutes ago, nsplayr said:

BO.net and typical AF flying squadron are massive echo chambers / amplification chambers of typical conservative & libertarian-leaning rhetoric and thought. Which is fine, many of my best friends are Republicans so it's no hard feelings.

Never any hard feelings, you are welcome to come break bread at my house anytime, I've told you that before.  Whatever liberal brainwashed lunacy is rolling around in your noggin is offset by the fact that you are part of the less than 1% who stepped forward to serve...and I know the things you did for this nation.  You do provide a great perspective.  I've said it before, I think framers wanted great long debate.  We might get a little loud at times but I will happily buy you a beer anytime...before I fall in the grave.

[brabus]

2 hours ago, nsplayr said:

Do you really think that because allegedly $4.7T of those were missing a previously-optional field that it's indicative of widespread fraud, waste, and abuse?

Are you able to actively read, or do you just see a few trigger words and hit reply? I clearly said it was not an indicator of a bunch of FWA, but it is accounting ineptitude at the most basic level, which is very concerning. 

[brabus]

Most mid-level officers are in the top 10% of tax payers. The top 1% is somewhere around a half mil or sightly more. I’m not saying $690K isn’t a lot of money for us normals, but seems like top 1% gets thrown out as if it only encompasses Gates, Bezos, etc. Tax the rich is a stupid and losing strategy, especially when you have half of tax payers barely providing anything, and not to mention all the people who don’t pay a dime in taxes, but suck societal resources without issue. 

I think both sides can agree the tax code needs improvement, but simply continuing to increase punishing successful people is a ridiculous proposition. How about we just go flat tax, no breaks/deductions (or very little at least). Something like everyone pays 10% fed, whatever that totals to is what the fed budget is. Oh that’s not enough to fund all your bullshit pet projects? Too bad, draw the cut line like the rest of us who understand basic finances do.

Edited Tuesday at 09:35 PM by brabus

[17D_guy]

18 hours ago, ViperMan said:

Back to my opinion. When someone who is able to claim 100% disability can still fly a 9G jet and stands next to someone who is 100% disabled who had all four limbs blown off in AFG, I think that's a bit sick, frankly. Something is wrong with the system.

I'm 100% T&P. Some days I do great and feel like the disability is fraud; some days I can barely get out of bed and realize why it's there. Basically every joint from L4 down is jacked up.

Either way the rating is a roll of the dice. I'd hate to go on a good day and be told I've been faking it. Or get means tested and since I make so much get it cut off...then get laid-off/fired (PTO just got changed where I work) and be in the wind. Doubly worried since the wife is a DAF Civ...

That doesn't even go into the tax "benefits" of being a disabled vet and possibly losing them.

[blueingreen]

3 hours ago, nsplayr said:

If for nothing else to stop deficit spending every single year, but also to maintain our nation's quality of life and top dog place in world affairs.

I'm not expecting a dissertation on this, but I would like to see somebody with your ideological inclinations attempt to answer / offer a perspective on this simple question: Why has our standard of living declined in so many tangible ways? You mention things like 90% tax rates for the ultra-rich during the WWII era, but the effective tax rate for the vast majority of people, the middle income earners, was no different than it is today. As I've mentioned before, confiscating the wealth of all our billionaires wouldn't even enable us to fund our government for a year. What's going on here?

[17D_guy]

31 minutes ago, brabus said:

I think both sides can agree the tax code needs improvement, but simply continuing to increase punishing successful people is a ridiculous proposition. How about we just go flat tax, no breaks/deductions (or very little at least). Something like everyone pays 10% fed, whatever that totals to is what the fed budget is. Oh that’s not enough to fund all your bullshit pet projects? Too bad, draw the cut line like the rest of us who understand basic finances do.

Fair, I've hated the 1% saying. It's more the .1% that are "the problem." Technically I'm in the 1% as well according to some metrics. But as I said in another post, I ain't "hide my money like an oligarch rich" and my stock investments aren't ever going to make a dent in the percentage of ownership of a company. 

But, with the flat tax how is that going to work with the Bezo's, Musk's, et al who use loans on their stock as their means of acquisition/funding? Does this include a flat tax on corporations, no more R&D deductions for example?

The rich can also pay cash to avoid these taxes, a la "the greek experience" 😁.

The flat tax has been shown to hit the poor harder than the current system. I don't know everyone's experience here, but I feel like a lot of you haven't interacted with many poor people regularly. I have them in my family, and because of my political/religious leanings I deal with them regularly. The majority of them aren't lazy, do nothings. Most are working at least one job, or have a disability of some kind, or medical challenges that are just outside their control. 

Note, I say all this with a son who has rejected every leg up I could provide (Tricare/GI bill/VA ed benefits) who completely fits the bandied about poor person trope on here. But again...kid has some mental disabilities he's no longer taking meds for. SIGH....
 

[BuddhaSixFour]

I’m sure billionaires have a different mechanism at their disposal, but let’s call this the Pledged Asset Line of Credit loophole where you borrow against stock (not taxed) unless you sell the stock to pay off the load (taxed as capital gains).  
 

I’ve never seen why that’s a hard one to solve. These loans have to be repaid, presumably by the sale of the underlying assets which triggers capital gains. So, let’s say when you pledge the stock against a PAL, we jot down the current value. If you sell the stock later, which you’ll eventually have to do, you get long term gains up to that amount, and any gains past that are treated as short term gains regardless of duration, and the underlying assets must be sold to pay off the balance when you die. No rolling forward shenanigans. Still leaves PALs as a reasonable financial tool but gets rid of them as a tax loophole. 
 

The dumbest way to address it is a wealth tax.

[Day Man]

27 minutes ago, BuddhaSixFour said:

These loans have to be repaid, presumably by the sale of the underlying assets which triggers capital gains.

I'm pretty sure they are paid off by yet another loan (and the interest is written off).

https://www.dcfpi.org/all/how-wealthy-households-use-a-buy-borrow-die-strategy-to-avoid-taxes-on-their-growing-fortunes/#:~:text=Wealthy family borrows against its,doesn't tax borrowed money.

agreed wealth tax (I am assuming you mean a net worth tax) is dumb.

Edited Tuesday at 11:44 PM by Day Man

[brabus]

56 minutes ago, 17D_guy said:

Does this include a flat tax on corporations, no more R&D deductions for example?

Maybe. It would delete all of the bullshit loopholes, but also there probably needs to be some incentive to industry to develop X because the gov needs it. So I don’t think it’s effective to truly kill every deduction, but we could kill a lot of them, assuming the flat tax rate is much lower than our current structure.

59 minutes ago, 17D_guy said:

The flat tax has been shown to hit the poor harder than the current system. I don't know everyone's experience here, but I feel like a lot of you haven't interacted with many poor people regularly

I do interact pretty regularly with them and I have seen the opposite of you. They more often than not are unmotivated to work hard and will do the bare min to buy the booze and smokes they want for the week. Yeah they’re working a job, but they are choosing to min run it and DGAF because they’d rather just blame the invisible “rich guy” than admit they’re simply not self-motivated and not success-minded. I will help where I can, but I also shouldn’t be forced to give my hard earned money to them (I do donate money and time because I believe in helping people who need it, but I do it FREELY, not forced by my gov - and that’s a huge difference in my book). I’m not saying there aren’t people truly experiencing hard times outside of their control, but they are not the majority in my experience. 

Obviously the flat tax idea is not perfect, nor would any system be perfect. How do we support the people who are truly hosed not by their own doing while minimizing the leeches? And how do we do that without complete wealth redistribution to some politician’s favorite blood suckers? I think a flat tax with well thought out deductions is a good discussion and something that, even with the inevitable cons, is way better than the bullshit we have now. 

[Lord Ratner]

Sales tax for all taxation as the baseline. This allows for removing sales tax on targeted items as tax relief for those who make less and therefore spend a higher percentage of their income on essentials. It also means workers never have to do taxes ever again. 

 

Tax fraud is harder because taxes are collected *from* the taxed by a business who does not want to go to jail for tax fraud. 

 

This would have to be done by constitutional amendment. Make the amendment such that the tax is only adjustable to 0%. No intermediate tax levels to favor this industry or that. Limit exemptions to a fixed level, let's say a max of $5,000 (just an example). If the item or service costs more than that, the rest is taxed. The exceptions are solely for helping low-income Americans, but everyone gets the same exemptions. 

 

Income tax was always a stupid and complicated solution. 

[Smokin]

2 hours ago, 17D_guy said:

The flat tax has been shown to hit the poor harder than the current system.

Virtually any other tax system is going to hit the poor harder than the current system because they have an effective negative tax rate at the federal level.  A flat tax or a sales tax only are the only ethical tax systems.  Our current tax system is legalized theft because people are effectively voting to have other people's property taken from them.  If you break into your neighbor's house and steal a bunch of money because he's in the top 1%, you go to prison.  But when 51% of the population votes to have the government do the same thing, somehow that is not only ok but is commendable.  This is basically the tax system that we have now.  People that pay almost nothing, or even get paid rather than paying taxes, vote to take money from other people simply because they can.

And just to make my post piss off the left as much as possible, all cooperate tax is dumb.  All you're doing with corporate tax is doing a bread and circus act to be popular with voters that don't see past the smoke and mirrors.  If you add a 10% tax on a company, that company isn't just suddenly going to make 10% less money that year.  They're going to raise their prices, cut costs, or both to try to make up for it.  Raising the corporate tax rate is going to increase the cost of goods, which is going to be paid for by everyone buying the product, so it is effectively no different than increasing the sales tax.  And since they will likely not be able to raise their prices by 10% without a substantial decrease in revenue, they're going to cut labor as well since that is the largest variable cost for most companies.  So raising the corporate tax rate is going to result in layoffs, inflation, and overall decreased quality of life for the workers and consumers.  But it sure sounds good when politicians say they're not going to raise your taxes, instead they're going to make sure companies "pay their fair share."

[nsplayr]

3 hours ago, brabus said:

Are you able to actively read, or do you just see a few trigger words and hit reply? I clearly said it was not an indicator of a bunch of FWA, but it is accounting ineptitude at the most basic level, which is very concerning. 

Nah it's just that when the average person sees a headline like this, and other folks share it, it makes them believe the whole thing is fraud. That's why Elon is tweeting this stuff out! It's not like "Hey guys I worked with Treasury and the Fed and improved an accounting process that will make things better!" You see the message he is putting out and the intent behind it and I would encourage you to think twice about sharing it. He wants to drive attention, he wants people to distrust the government so he can swoop in and make something better, etc. Maybe you agree with that overarching POV but I very much do not.

2 hours ago, blueingreen said:

I'm not expecting a dissertation on this, but I would like to see somebody with your ideological inclinations attempt to answer / offer a perspective on this simple question: Why has our standard of living declined in so many tangible ways? You mention things like 90% tax rates for the ultra-rich during the WWII era, but the effective tax rate for the vast majority of people, the middle income earners, was no different than it is today. As I've mentioned before, confiscating the wealth of all our billionaires wouldn't even enable us to fund our government for a year. What's going on here?

I think a lot of it is A) housing unaffordability, B) the pandemic really fucked us all up more than we'd like to admit, and C) people understandably whitewash the past and make it seem better by papering over the bad stuff and highlighting the good, while simultaneously worrying about and dooming about the future.

Covid effects over the last 4 years aside, today so SO MUCH BETTER than the past in a lot of ways. Life expectancy, per capita GDP, infant mortality, deaths from communicable diseases, literacy, college graduation rates, etc. etc. I can facetime my parents from across the world, fly an armed airplane from my hometown via satellites, and there are frickin' sharks with frickin' laser beams on their foreheads. You get the idea.

TBH the higher taxes on the wealthy in the past I think did really help. People today are better off in absolute terms but perhaps worse off in relative terms to those at the very top, and so that drives some of the anger you see today. The atomization of modern life doesn't help either, everyone is in their own little bubble without as many common touch points so it's harder to connect to people you don't personally know and respect.

Not to discount the precariousness of the modern economy - too many people are one layoff, one illness, one bad choice or spell of bad luck away from bankruptcy or death or just getting set back multiple decades of progress. There's something real there. Some folks in the past had better assurances that if they worked hard for the right company and perhaps with a good unio they could buy a middle class life and receive a comfortable-enough pension on the back end; that didn't apply to everyone but it applied to some and now that deal is not really one on offer.

My grandpa was a lifelong postal worker & postmaster in a tiny rural town and took his family from growing up in the depression to helping win WWII to having all four of his kids graduate from college. My father-in-law did a 30 year career at a steel mill sacrificing his body for the middle class promise...and he almost achieved it. The mill went out of business right before he was going to retire and his pension was bought out and renegotiated to a ghost of what was promised. Today really no jobs other than mil have pensions anymore so you'd best save & invest wisely or else. That's just 2 generations later and my own family as an example...and we're all doing pretty good!

I have ideas on how to fix some of that, but obviously I don't have it all worked out, neither does anyone else. Liberals I think have better ideas, but conservative ideas have some merit too. We need to work together better to help fix what has degraded.

Overall I still think western liberal democracy and capitalism is still the best plan for the future and I intend to fight hard to keep us and our system on top so that more people in our country and around the world can live better lives.

Edited Wednesday at 12:58 AM by nsplayr

[nsplayr]

33 minutes ago, Lord Ratner said:

Income tax was always a stupid and complicated solution. 

I mean ok, but then why does literally every country on earth except a handful of weird, tiny enclaves use income taxes? I don't look at any country on that list and say, "Gee, I'd love to be a citizen there!" I mean maybe if you're a fat fuck Qatari with inherited wealth and you can just drive Ferraris and do whatever...

A mix of income and other taxes that most of the world uses is like democracy and capitalism, it's the worst system except all the other ones we've tried.

Edited Wednesday at 12:51 AM by nsplayr

[busdriver]

While ideologically, I like all the weird libertarian tax stuff; I think it's all picking at the edges of a pipe dream.  

The population is getting older.  We will likely need to cut/reform spending and increase taxes.  Of course that is political suicide.  So it will only happen after fiscal insolvency.

No one on this board should be planning on social security.

[dream big]

10 hours ago, nsplayr said:

I do think people who have the money to do so, i.e. high W2 earners but also, and first, the extremely wealthy & highly profitable corporations need to pay more taxes, yea.

If for nothing else to stop deficit spending every single year, but also to maintain our nation's quality of life and top dog place in world affairs.

Our nation’s quality of life wasn’t built on taxes.