Where will inflation stop?

Opti said:

In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :

We are pretty much already taxed on 100% of what we make. Try and do ANYTHING without a tax.

Everyone should pay taxes and they should be obvious, maybe we'd hear less "othering" about them paying their fair share, and everyone could come together on fiscal responsibility. Pipedream I know, but so is a simplified tax code

Do you attend your parties primaries?
   If so just stand up and make your best case for a simple purchase tax to replace income tax.   Actually to replace all federal taxes.   If done without exceptions it would only be 3% and that would provide income to reduce the debt.   

frenchyd said:

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

frenchyd said:

AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) said:

frenchyd said:

In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :

... If you give me a choice of deductibility or lower taxes. I'd take lower taxes, wouldn't you?  
        

I'd take a simple tax code. Simple. I'd prefer consumption over income, but one that takes X, based on Y, without think tanks and special interests adding in 2(E+R/H)/T-n.

The beauty of a consumption tax over an income tax is you can decide  if you want to pay tax or not.   
   Don't want to pay?  Don't buy anything.   
 

The beauty of a consumption tax is that poor people are taxed on 100% of what they make. 

Don't want to pay? Move out of your apartment and into a cardboard box. Then stop eating.

Or grow your own food.  It was done for a long time before we started buying things to eat.  
   As far as living in an apartment?  How do you win doing that?    There are places in this country that will pay you to move there and places where you can move into abandoned home.  
   Yes I know. It's hard work!! No luxury's. But also no taxes.  

The places were the abandoned homes are, are also the places where the good paying jobs aren't. Maybe some people can move in there with a huge supply of MREs and a ton of cash then survive there by hunting and eating stray cats or something, but the average person just isn't going to do that.

In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :

Actually if you want to be free of taxes you'll want those places where you can grow your own food and live independent.  

Boost_Crazy said:

In reply to ProDarwin :

I thought that sounded high especially for the average person. But it checks out. Lots of info backing it up. This article is interesting because it breaks it down by state...

Average total taxes paid by state

Everyone thinks of income tax- but add in sales tax, vehicle related taxes, property tax, etc- it adds up. Still, I didn't expect it to be that high. Since a good chunk of people don't pay income or property taxes, those paying must be quite a bit over the 33%. And those are just the direct taxes. Not the taxes to businesses that we pay as higher prices and lower wages. 

The amazing takeaway from that list to me is NH at #5.  This being a state with no sales tax.  But I understand the property taxes are rough here.  And the "services" taxes if you eat out or stay in a hotel are surprising.  The irony is so many MA folks move here for the lower taxes, but since that state is #2, I guess everything is relative.  PA being more middle of the road (#18), it seems high here. 

I suppose I don't spend a lot of energy on taxes since my taxes are fairly simple. I don't have much in the way of deductions, so I plug in the numbers on the form and the result is what it is. With the last change in the tax law, my deductions are nearly equal to what I owe so I don't really get much back - to the point where it's not even worth it to file electronically as that would cost a significant percentage of the refund.  State and local taxes are flat percentages, so filing is basically an administrative process. 

Amusingly, right now I pay less taxes than I should, since I "live" in PA and pay taxes there, but I'm working in NH and buy stuff there. The hotel taxes I pay get reimbursed and I don't eat out very often. 

GIRTHQUAKE said:   If China attempts to blockade Taiwan to force them into using the Yuan only, a missile from an F-35 reopening access to American markets blowing up a boat suddenly becomes a VERY tangible thing. That's why they're partially tangible, and the part of the purpose of the modern Navy; preventing wars as economic policy by other means, allowing everyone to play in the sandbox by keeping them in it 

Taiwan temporarily blockaded Taiwan last August. I didnt see a missile then. The US engages in war as economic policy all the time. Again access isnt tangible. You can pervert the definition all you want but our currency isnt backed by anything tangible and the things it is backed by are being weakened. 

The EU is pretty cool  But they're realistically, the only nation that can replace the American largesse, if only in access to liquid cash.

You understand that the dollar wasnt always the reserve currency right? They all made the same argument you are making, before getting replaced. It routinely changed throughout history during tumultuos times. Most modern governments arent above currency manipulation to increase the supply. Have you looked at the US M1 Money supply lately?

BRICS? Man, BRICS isn't a thing. It'll NEVER be a thing- it's a term OUR economists came up with to describe up and coming economies in ~2012 that was coopted by anti-american voices, since whom:

We've been over this before. BRICS is a thing. They've had a summit every year since 2009. They are supposed to decide later this year if they are going to admit new members and what the criteria will be. Iran and Saudi Arabia have formally requested to join. Last year Russia created an alternative to SWIFT. They are also supposed to discuss an alternative to the petrodollar at this year summit. Russia is trading oil and gas in Ruble and China in Yuan. Its seen as a way to combat western dominance in global institutions. Id recommend doing a little reading on the subject, because its definitely a thing and has been for over a decade. Its effectiveness could be up for debate, but wether its a real thing is not.

In reply to frenchyd :

I feel little affiliation with either of the two major parties so I do not attend primaries. I do appreciate what the House Reps did with introducing the Fair Tax though.

frenchyd said:

In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :

Actually if you want to be free of taxes you'll want those places where you can grow your own food and live independent.  

I don't want to be free of taxes and I don't want to grow my own food.

Frontline just did a very good overview of what is essentially the same topic, I highly suggest it:

Age of Easy Money: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/age-of-easy-money/

Around the country and across the world, the threat of a recession is looming and economic uncertainty is rising as markets, businesses and individuals adjust to a new reality: the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates and pulling back on its epic monetary experiment that started with the Great Financial Crisis.

From the award-winning team behind The Facebook Dilemma and Amazon Empire, the two-hour documentary Age of Easy Money investigates how the Fed’s experiment has changed the American economy and what it means that the era may be over.

There probably should be a new topic for this, since this one is pretty F'd out, but some of the basic points in the FL piece that I got:

  The Fed dumping money into the economy (and bailing out entities) has to have consequences.  The fact that they have done it numerous times in HUGE amounts, compounded with the government dumping some huge stimulus money into the economy... clearly not a good thing.  Holding interest rates super low for so long makes it very difficult / damaging to raise them.

  Another aspect that hit me was a few people noting that this process is a moral hazard, that effectively encourages people / companies to take risky actions and tends to punish those who don't.

Anyway, it's a bit long, but take a look,  It seems to be very good.  It's also rather current, even has a bit about the Silicone Valley Bank at the end.  Doesn't have a lot of needed visuals, so you can just turn it on and listen to it as a sort of podcast if you want.

Opti said:

In reply to Boost_Crazy :

Yah we are getting fleeced and most people dont realize it. What we get for it is a massive deficit, bad infrastructure, endless wars, and failing systems.

I think a lot of people wouldnt be so upset if the government was actually good stewards of our money and thought our money actually went to good use, but a third of all your productive labor is still pretty obscene.

A lot of that money disappears down black holes. War on Drugs, CIA Black Holes, intelligence agency's,  etc. 

      l then there are subsidies.  In spite of the protectionism we grant them, the subsidies we Give them.  Sugar,  basically controlled by 7 families.  Is twice as expensive in the USA as the global price is.  

In reply to frenchyd :

Frenchy the entire government budget is a black hole. I recommend you read Paul's Festivus report. I think last year we spend like 150k on a scientific grant so they could see if Thanos could actually snap his fingers with the infinity gauntlet. Waste is the rule, good spending is the exception.

You are talking about small potatoes

Opti said:

I think last year we spend like 150k on a scientific grant so they could see if Thanos could actually snap his fingers with the infinity gauntlet.

that's about what i make (EDIT: *while*, not *for*) reading this forum 

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

Sounds like you need to get in the business of testing comic book movies for the federal government. Could easily knock out 3 or 4 of these studies a year.

What are the hulks pants made out of?

How do they use the restroom in spandex?

How many arroslws does Hawkeyes quiver hold?

Does the robustness of black widows assets affect her acrobatics?

Opti said:

In reply to frenchyd :

Frenchy the entire government budget is a black hole. I recommend you read Paul's Festivus report. I think last year we spend like 150k on a scientific grant so they could see if Thanos could actually snap his fingers with the infinity gauntlet. Waste is the rule, good spending is the exception.

You are talking about small potatoes

Taxpayers easily spend that kind of money for their kids to learn the flute, do robotic Sumo, put on a musical, or learn to read. 

Research Grants are often given to institutions to do all kinds of stuff the public would view as pointless for the purposes of education. 

The problem is that in order to prevent that level of waste you'd spend that on hiring staff to be more scrutinous of Federal grants. 

Opti said:

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

Does the robustness of black widows assets affect her acrobatics?

I'd guess they ensure the center of gravity is optimally positioned, but just speculation. 

Just saw this info, that is actually related to the original topic :

Overseas shipping costs are back down to pre-pandemic levels (essentially came back down around December).  July of 2021 a container was around $22,000.  It is currently around $3000.

Will this affect prices... well, it should if those price rose because of shipping (some did not raise prices).

In reply to aircooled :

While in an ideal world it should affect prices, we won't see if it does until at least all the inventory from higher cost containers is sold. 

Opti said:

In reply to frenchyd :

Frenchy the entire government budget is a black hole. I recommend you read Paul's Festivus report. I think last year we spend like 150k on a scientific grant so they could see if Thanos could actually snap his fingers with the infinity gauntlet. Waste is the rule, good spending is the exception.

You are talking about small potatoes

If a peer reviewed scientific study seems frivolous to you. Then I'm sorry, you simply are not worthy of judging. 
      Since I was a young  boy  I've heard the same refrain. About government waste. 
       I'm not a scientist. But I also don't know where peer reviewed scientific data will lead to. 
     The one thing I would never do is Judge a serious search for knowledge  based on a superficial reading.   
   It's tough enough trying to find scientific proof without the wisecracks of the ill informed.  
    

aircooled said:

Just saw this info, that is actually related to the original topic :

Overseas shipping costs are back down to pre-pandemic levels (essentially came back down around December).  July of 2021 a container was around $22,000.  It is currently around $3000.

Will this affect prices... well, it should if those price rose because of shipping (some did not raise prices).

 

I wonder if the reason for containers being priced so high is because  of the tie up in ports like Long Beach etc?  Or was that more of a chicken/egg situation?  

Opti said:

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

Sounds like you need to get in the business of testing comic book movies for the federal government. Could easily knock out 3 or 4 of these studies a year.

What are the hulks pants made out of?

How do they use the restroom in spandex?

How many arroslws does Hawkeyes quiver hold?

Does the robustness of black widows assets affect her acrobatics?

This is deceptive. Nobody is doing government studies about Marvel Superheros. The study in question is about the physics of a finger snap and how friction plays a critical role and it would actually be helpful in the design of prosthetics. Using Thanos and the Infinity War as an example of how snapping fingers using a metal glove instead of bare skin would have a different result was just an way of showing how different materials respond, or don't respond to a finger snap. The idea that Thanos could actually kill half of the world's population with a snap of his fingers after acquiring six fancy rocks was not explored in this study, nor were the restroom habits of anybody in the Marvel Universe.

https://research.gatech.edu/oh-snap-record-breaking-motion-our-fingertips

In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :

Wait! You mean to tell me that someone misrepresented a fact in order to further their own agenda?

Why I never!

In reply to pheller :

Taxpayers easily spend that kind of money for their kids to learn the flute, do robotic Sumo, put on a musical, or learn to read. 

Research Grants are often given to institutions to do all kinds of stuff the public would view as pointless for the purposes of education. 

The problem is that in order to prevent that level of waste you'd spend that on hiring staff to be more scrutinous of Federal grants. 
 

Or, we can just give those responsibilities back to the state and local governments as originally intended.

In reply to frenchyd :

If a peer reviewed scientific study seems frivolous to you. Then I'm sorry, you simply are not worthy of judging. 
      Since I was a young  boy  I've heard the same refrain. About government waste. 
       I'm not a scientist. But I also don't know where peer reviewed scientific data will lead to. 
     The one thing I would never do is Judge a serious search for knowledge  based on a superficial reading.   
   It's tough enough trying to find scientific proof without the wisecracks of the ill informed.  

This is the #1 problem with government spending. There are many people that believe that if something is worth doing, then it's worth doing at any cost. They can't see that the cost is out of proportion to the benefit, and fail to realize that those dollars are tax dollars taken from the people that earned them. They see any questioning of the program as a challenge to the validity of the program itself, rather than the cost/benefit ratio. 

Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :

Wait! You mean to tell me that someone misrepresented a fact in order to further their own agenda?

Why I never!

https://thepostmillennial.com/rand-paul-us-government-spent-118000-to-learn-if-thanos-could-really-snap-his-fingers

In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :

Or they could have saved the $118k, and just looked it up to see if anyone had researched this before. Took me 10 seconds to find this from 2012...

Science World How Do You Snap Your Fingers 2012

I'm sure the above is not the first or only other time this subject was researched. 
 

Boost_Crazy said:

In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :

Or they could have saved the $118k, and just looked it up to see if anyone had researched this before. Took me 10 seconds to find this from 2012...

Science World How Do You Snap Your Fingers 2012

I'm sure the above is not the first or only other time this subject was researched. 
 

What you linked was an article in a online magazine, not an academic study. At the end of the article it even states "Seems this subject requires further study. What are you waiting for, snap to it!"

They are actually asking for a study to be done on this.

And nothing in this article relates to how snapping your fingers with different materials affects prosthetics, as the study does.