Korporate America

This isn't about charity.
This isn't about giving to the lazy people who have decided to drop out of society.

This is about corporate responsibility.
The tax payer is consistently being relied upon to keep America afloat.
What has Korporate America done for the country in the past 7 years?
Have they taken on huge risks? Who has paid for those risks?
Have the regulatory systems that were in place to protect America completely been ignored?

The tax payer continues to get fucked big time.

 

Corporations primary responsibility is to their investors and their employees. Their responsibility to the public is only to make available a product or a service which will attract enough consumers to allow their continued existence. If the quality or price of their product or service fails to satisfy consumers competition can result in their demise if they do not take appropriate actions. Corporations like individuals, with the possible exception of GE, pay taxes, and raising their taxes only increases the costs of their business which most often is passed on to their consumers. Very few labor intensive products would be readily available at as low a cost if it were not for large corporations.

While it is the taxpayers, both individual and corporate, who are relied upon to keep the country (government) afloat, the number of actual taxpayers is diminishing. As more and more people demand to take from the system more than they put into it, with government acquiescing their demands, a point is reached where individual responsibility becomes a liability and can be shirked at the voting booth.

Corporations owe nothing more than providing something that consumers find the value of equal to the cost. If that is not met, the consumer has the right to exercise their individual choice of not purchasing, nothing more.

The progressive tax system has allowed government to create programs which are unsustainable over time even if all the wealth of all the citizens were to be confiscated. If the tax system required all earners to pay the same rate regardless of income, and tax increases were applied equally to all, fewer programs would be allowed to exist or be created, nor would tax increases be seen positively by many voters. Even governments will eventually fail when they refuse to live within the means they can possibly acquire. The U.S. government has been living on borrowed time for quite a while now, and appears likely to escalate reaching the end point.

 

I have many years to go before I retire but have also run the #s on what I can expect out of social security.
Yes, for the tax payer Social Security is actually a great investment which only gets better the longer you collect.

so what happens if SS is taken away?
My parents and most if not all of the retirees (myself included at the time) simply would not be able to put food in our bellies.

So what other options are there?
Eliminate SS and let people invest as they see fit?
A 5 year chart of the stock market clearly shows that would spell disaster for many retirees.

Government is not the only entity that has contributed to the current economic crisis. Corporations undoubtedly have played a huge part in this. And that needs to be acknowledged.

 

You may say that corporations have a responsibility to their employees, but the fact that wage growth is not keeping up w/ the cost of living tells me something vastly different.

I'm not for a flat tax rate but the current system needs to change.
GE is not the only exception to corporations paying taxes.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/08/12/us-usa-taxes-corporations-idUSN1249465620080812

IMO the consumers part in all this is that they have allowed themselves to become simple sheep in the entire equation. They have stopped questioning the world around them and would rather be told what to do and what to buy.

 

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

>>hit the refresh button a few times to watch the debt clock go up<<

Korporate Amerika,s AAA credit rating will be downgraded for the 1st time in History- -

Inflation is going to be out of control- -The Washington crowd think taking from SS and Medicaid will help- -we all know there are other programs (military..etc..) that should be raided 1st. The budget was balanced for the 1st time under Clinton,s administration- Bush killed it- -and left the mess for all that will follow him for yrs-
Us that are a bit older have Social security and medicaid to worry about- -for those a bit younger this could be just the beginning

 

Any plan that pays out more than you pay in is a great investment, but are such plans sustainable?
Personally I would have loved to have had the option to opt out of Social Security during my working life, but recognize the fact that many persons are incapable of investing wisely and safely.
Although I doubt elimination of the Social Security program is even a possibility, the fact remains that something needs to be done with it to maintain it, raising the tax rate, increasing the max amount of earnings taxed, lowering the payments to recipients, or a combination to maintain solvency.
When you look at the stock market falling prices don't necessarily mean that profits are not possible. But most people don't follow the market closely enough to take advantage of the downturns.
Government makes the rules and regulations under which corporations must operate, and they respond in ways that allow them to remain profitable and remain in business. As long as they are operating within the laws created by government they should receive no blame.

 

Not all people are employed by large corporations, and those who are generally earn more than those who are not, and that too raises the cost of living for all.

The reuters article, while likely based on some facts, doesn't provide the details necessary to use it for much more than a political statement.

I really like the Fair Tax proposal, HR 2525 I believe. I've been unable to find fault in it.

Who should be held responsible for those who make poor decisions?

 

wget --quiet http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock -O - |grep debtiv.gif |sed -e 's/.*41.ALT="//' -e 's/".*//' |tr -d [:space:]

It's been running under cron for years, collecting data at midnight EST.

By Korporate America, I assume you mean the U.S. government, which I would not invest in having given it a personal rating of C- years ago. American corporations are another thing entirely, and there are many I rate highly, not to say that money can't be made most any company using the right trade strategy.

From my viewpoint inflation since Obama took office has increased, and the dollar has lost about 27% against the currencies I deal with, over 6% in the last week alone.

While I don't propose taking from Social Security and Medicare, they do require some attention to keep them afloat. The military could stand some budget reductions, and base closings around the world, or at least start charging the Nations who wish them to remain as they boost their economies at the expense of our own.

Many of the programs created by the Federal government could be eliminated entirely, and the States given the option to continue them if desired, and done so much more reasonably, rationally, and cost effectively.

Clinton was lucky, he had a Republican Congress beginning in 1995 who held his feet to the fire.

I find it somewhat ironic that a septuagenarian should have to argue with those who have many years before they can retire over the debts that are being accumulated which will have great effect on their latter years long after I'm gone. The real hard times are yet to come, and what is being put forth as crisis today will be longed for.

 

Most of the people I know and have discussed this with have given me the impression that basically their plan advisor made some recommendations, they followed them and don't think too much of the details about their retirement plans.

Also, if we're going to look at how little the everyday person knows about safe investing, shouldn't it also be mentioned the hand that market manipulators have in eroding savings? Weather it's day traders or the politicians who are in big business' pockets.

It's not only about the clueless taxpayer.

I really don't see how anyone can think that their was nothing wrong w/ the games that caused the credit crisis. I consider myself self educated in terms of investing and the economy and even I was asking in '05/'06
'what is a possible end game of such low interest rates and stratospheric housing values'.

I think it's very obvious that a lot of people knew where this could lead but because their derivatives were insured they continued to take on huge risks.

Just because a policy lets a company do something does not mean the company shouldn't stop and ask itself what are the long term consequences not only to its own ongoing concern but also the larger picture, the economy, the industry in which it operates.
It's because big business seems to be incapable of self regulating that we have such a bloated government.

 

IMO the #s don't add up.
Sure, by eliminating income taxes the taxpayer has more to spend but only a portion of that additional income will be collected as sales tax. The net effect is that the gov revenue is drastically reduced.

I simply don't see local government being able to make do on the reduced revenue.

If you raise the sales tax rate to generate more revenue, how high would sales tax have to be to equal the previously collected income tax?

 

The simple solution is to not get involved in the market if you don't know what you're doing, but there are some well managed funds which have good records in both bear and bull markets.

Government regulates, and not only big business but individual investors respond by looking to where government intervention has created the least risk, and it would be foolish to not take advantage of such situations when and where they exist. All humans naturally look to where they can reap the greatest return for the least effort, even those who refuse to admit it.

 

Perhaps you haven't read it entirely? I think all your questions are answered, and government revenue is not reduced, and can easily be increased if needed without creating undue or even any additional burden on those who earn the least.

 

You do make a good point there.
That's why it would be nice to be given the option of SS or manage your own retirement.

But then again it would be funny if in such a scenario so many opted for SS that we wind up being back right where we started. The masses relying on a government hand out.

 

I've read maybe half of it.
Mostly because I'm not even sure if i'm reading the actual bill.

Is this it?
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.25:

If it is then I will continue to read.
But if that's not it can you point me in the right direction.

 

I really don't know where you're getting that from.

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/dail...020207.html?sec=topStories&pos=4&asset=&ccode=

 

An option would be good only for those who know how to invest without losing, which probably isn't a very large percentage of the population.
For those who would choose SS, or if it remains as is, the only options are one or a combination of raising the SS tax rate, raising the maximum taxable income, or as the law currently states, reducing payments to all so that the total payout doesn't exceed the combination of revenues received and remaining fund balance.

Prichard, Alabama is a good example of where the country is heading if some changes don't start taking place very soon.

 

That's the bill, and there's a book by Neal Boortz and John Linder titled "The Fair Tax Book" which explains it more clearly. There are also some articles which try to show why it would not work, but what we have now doesn't really work as we find ourselves about to acquire a National debt of nearly $17 trillion within the next year, with trillion dollar budget deficits becoming the norm.

 

Try www.irs.gov for a starter, and even the wiki claims that the top 5% of earners pay 60% of all the tax collected, but it's easy to pick out figures and present them in a way that makes a case for one view or another. But taxes, like other expenses related to running a business, salaries, wages, medical/dental insurance, paid vacations/holidays, sick pay, advertising, political/charitable contributions, heating, air conditioning, furniture, maintenance, cleaning, tools, raw materials, pensions, etc. are all a part of the price of whatever is produced and made available to the consumer.

 

Carlin speaks of Korporate Amerika- - from Main street to Wall street
-Good rap* * *
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV1lZMTCqf8

 

As they say in The Wall Street Journal:...... "Capital is on strike"

The metaphor for this situation is The Cowardly Lion.....supposeldy big and powerful, yet frozen in fear and confusion. Unable/unwiling to invest.


P.S. a year can be a very short time.