Just Thinking Chronology

Keeping with the theme of the weekend.

This is Jamo Thomas with his Northern Soul classic ... probably.

I am occasionally corrected on just what exactly is a Northern Soul classic, and what is not.

I Spy For The FBI.

I wonder who thought that punctuation marks might be a good theme for a set design?

First, the good news.

According to the Federal Reserve's Flow Of Funds report for the first quarter of 2018, the net worth of US households rose above $100 trillion for the first time ever, hitting a new all time high of $100.8 trillion.

Now, for the bad news.

As always, you can click on any of the charts below to link up with the reference article from which this piece was taken.

Your oligarchy at work.

Imho.

As always, click the image below for a trip to a decent but mildly opinianated little piece on the issue.

As an aside,

The last sentence of the above article reads,

"In 1974, President Gerald Ford signed legislation that permitted Americans again to own gold bullion."

It should have been followed by the following,

"And in so doing, realiized a tidy little profit for the federal government of the United States of America."

Not entirely sure what "recover real value" means in the above chart.

Thought about it for a minute.

Decided I just didn't care.

Xenophobia:

From the Greek words ξένος (xénos, foreign) + φόβος (phobos, fear) + -ia.

An exaggerated or abnormal fear of strangers or foreigners.

A strong antipathy or aversion to strangers or foreigners.
 

Oikophobia:

From the Greek words oikos meaning a “house,” “family,” “people,” or “nation” and phobos.

An abnormal fear of the home, or of a house.

Recently expanded to mean an extreme or irrational fear or dislike for one's own people, home, nation and culture.

So you know; there is a strong liklihood that anyone you encounter making accusations of Xenophobia is simply suffering from Oikophobia.

Since we are rife with discussion lately about the nature of the Republican tax plan, I thought I'd break out an old post.

So, as I continue my rant on "How They Keep Us Apart" I'm going to use simple numbers.

Consider a system of taxation wherein:

Everybody files as an individual (no joint filing)

The first $20,000 of income is exempted from taxation.

All payroll taxes are abolished (FICA et. al.).

All deductions from taxable income are abolished.

All of em ......... quit your whining ......... no exceptions!

The one and only, universal rate is 20%.

God himself only asked for 10%.

So, if you make $20,001.00, you pay 20 cents in taxes, or 0.001% of your total income in taxes.

That's affordable.

If you are a couple, regardless of your status and each of you are making $20,001.00 a year, your total taxes will be 40 cents and your rate will still be 0.001%.

Still affordable. 

If you make $25,000, you pay $1000.00 in taxes or 4% of your total income in taxes.

Notice here that $1000,00 is more than 20 cents.

And .......

4% is more than 0.001%.

Let's say you make $50,000.00, you pay $6000.00 in taxes, or 12% of your total income.

$6000.00 is more than $1000.00 and way more that 20 cents.

And ...

12% is more than 4% and much, much higher than 0.001%.

Let's say you attain that magical number of $250,000 and are now "Rich".

You pay $46,000 in federal income taxes, or 18.4% of your total income.

Which is, I am sure you know by now, more than .......... etc.

How bout a cool million?

You pay $196,000 in federal income taxes, which represents 19.6% of your total income.

What if you are Tiger Woods and you used to make $80,000,000 a year?

Under this system you would have paid $15,996,000.00 in federal taxes or 19.9955% of you total income in taxes.

What I've described here is what is typically described as "The Flat Tax".

But, as far as I'm concerned, it ain't flat at all.

The more you make, the more you pay in taxes, which is as it should be if you're gonna tax income.

And ..... the more you make, the higher your tax rate.

Although, not by much and it does flatten out at the very top.

Still, it is "progressive".

The gravy here is that you can now fire your accountant.

(Sorry Doug, Willy, Loris. This isn't personal, and I still love you all very much) and most of the IRS.

And here is the most elegant part, regardless if you make $20,001.00 ... $25,000 ... $50,000 ... $250,000 ... a cool million ... or $80,000,000, you are secure in the knowledge that every single American anywhere in this glorious land who made the identical amount of income, paid the identical amount in federal income taxes, regardless of place of residence, fertility, charitable and religious proclivities or anything at all.

Now, wouldn't that be a nice feeling?

"This isn't enough income to fund the government." You might say.

The system we have now doesn't provide sufficient income to fund the government, nobody seems overly concerned about that.

From Bloomberg and Zero Hedge

Despite obscene increases in the cost of health insurance,

The number of bankruptcy filings among health care companies is "surging".

Because the geniuses who designed the "Affordable Care Act", "Obamacare" were so certain their legislation would completely eliminate uninsured citizens in the U.S., that they decided to offset the costs of the "Obamacare" by eliminating subsidy payments to hospitals that had previously been used to cover losses from treating uninsured patients.

These struggling health care providers primarily provide care within America's poorest communities in our inner cities and rural areas.

Of course!

Now, right here is where your Uncle Roany explains ... as opposed to, predicts ... the future.

As inner city and rural healthcare providers fail, well financed investors will step in and acquire the assets of these failed institutions.

You will be told that this is a great thing that these people have done because poor people in this country will not have to face life without their local hospitals.

Then, the new owners of these "assets" will succesfully lobby Congress for the reinstatement of the former subsidies in order to guarantee that nobody, regardless of means should go without healthcare.

Then these now "viable" healthcare companies will be offered and sold at a significant profit.

These profits will be taxed as capital gains and as such at a reduced rate.

Congratulations all around.

Oh yeah, and as an aside, here's the Q3 2017 US personal consumption totals.

Your goverment at work.