Re: OT: Scary Graph

That's why if we ever get the chance to change things in future with some truly meaningful electoral reform, we need to consign the concept of a "career in politics" to the historical garbage can.

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To late for my wife and I, we closed our very small business the day Hurricane Micheal blew it away, so I only got use of the changes for the one year. I do plan on taking advantage of the low tax brackets and transfering as much a I can using Roth Conversions before I start SS and Required Minimum Distributions. This helps the economy short term, I'm pay taxes I don't need to, but hopefully if I live long enough, it saves me taxes over the long term. And, depending on stock market returns over the next 30 years, might even save something for the kids. Odd to me, we lost our whole source of income and there was nothing in the tax code for me to write off to save on taxes. Well, ya, everything was already written off. But still! Another oddity, because of the special circumstances of the Hurricane, the state allowed self employed people to collect unemployment. My wife applied, I'm a little cranky and didn't want to, but after being prodded by the wife, (even if you don't want it, give it to the kids) I applied. I sent in basically all the same paperwork showing our business (same pages), including SS cards and drivers license, I was denied! And she collected. I always have this question in the back of my mind, is it because she is a minority. :-)

It's just as well, I had no interest in going back to work, with my wife, she wasn't so sure. It didn't take her long to figure out she still didn't have enough time to get everything done even without a job. Mikek

What are you some 'young' punk kid, I started at 65 cents an hour.

1969, I was 14 and worked at a kids park running rides. All not legal, but it was good for me. I worked my way up to $1 an hour over 3 summers. This reminds me of a story, my grandfather and his wife rented a home very close to the kiddie park the last year I worked there. I had cleaned up something don't even recall, but I had many beer bottles in my trunk, to be returned for the deposit, she happened to see them and comment she wouldn't tell anyone I was drinking. I was so flabbergasted that I didn't even respond. I wasn't drinking, didn't drink those, but didn't think I'd be believed if I did deny it.

Ya, after the Hurricane, the area was flooded with Spanish only speakers, it was great fun to watch them use Google to translate so they could communicate with the contractors. I had one very good Mexican crew and one not so good. I had a crew of 4 working and one spoke some English. They played there Mexican music while they worked, when at some point I ask, what happened to the music, he told me that the guy had somehow deleted all the music he had on his phone. I showed the guy my phone and brought up the streaming of several Mexican stations, he liked it, so I downloaded the app onto his phone and then he could play music from a dozen Mexican radio stations on his phone. The phone plugged into a Dewalt speaker system.

Ya, keeping up with the Jones can create real life problems. Financial stuff is my interest, I try to spread the word that, it makes a huge difference to "Live under your income" I see people that make good money but have a need to spend it all, going deeper and deeper in debt. This page, not presented as well as possible, but it shows even though middle class wealth increase, they just keep taking on more debt.

Mikek

I'll agree with that. Even though we saved and did well over 30 years, The next 6 years in the stock market (Obama years) 2012 thru 2018 doubled our net worth. Our timing was good but also Lucky. Mikek

Economists don't have to be - that's the province of traders.

Traders don't have to see the big long-term picture; they are only concerned about what other traders will think in the next 1min-1day. Cause and effect are irrelevant; it is similar to a game of poker.

It is a weather vs climate distinction, but you've made your position on that kind of distinction quite clear.

Are you suggesting that economists, or climate modelers, are usefully predictive?

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics

Climate modellers start from physics and chemistry.

Economists start from human behaviour and game theory.

Traders start and finish with game theory, plus some inside knowledge - if they can get away with it.

m " n

pay the tax at all, and the house you live an pension funds do seem to be e xempted.

r getting enough to be able to save.

It's not true for you. but as a generalisation over the whole population it is correct.

For you.

You started off well, but since 1787 other people have observed how you got it more or less right, copied the good bits and left out the bad bits, and are now doing better.

The US managed to built up a huge mass of investment in infra-structure and human capital while it was better run than it's comptetitors. It's now a l ot less further ahead than it was and dropping back rapidly. It's still mar ginally ahead on average income per head, but not on median income per head

I'm not talking about wealth, but income. US middle class income has stagna ted in real terms for the last few decades, and the real income of the top

1% of the income distribution has more than doubled.

So it every other advanced industrial country.

Politicians love to distract the population with controversies about minor matter.

Technology has made 42" TV's, conpuyters, and cable content remarkably chea p.

The US health care system isn't, and your life expectancy figures are impre ssive.

Again - technological progress.

You should come to Australia for a visit. We do too, and our health care sy stem works rather better. The Dutch health care system works even better.

s.

Not so much if you aren't in the top 1% of the income distribution.

The US comes in at 19th. The Netherlands is 5th and Australia 11th

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Bill Sloman, Sydney

You have the advantage that you can test it in the lab, and can be fairly confident that if it works there it will work in the field. Economists have a more difficult problem.

John Larkin thinks that any non-experimental science is "fuzzy". He doesn't seem to have clue how observational science work, and probably thinks that astronomy is "fuzzy".

Up to a point

It is still collective behaviour.

There's more to getting rich than understanding how the economy works, and you can be rich (or at least appear to be) when you have a very defective understanding as Donald Trump illustrates perfectly.

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Bill Sloman, Sydney

Not necessarily a good thing. Four out of five startups don't last more than few years.

Which ones doesn't really have much to do with the corporate tax rate.

Most start-ups are started up by egomaniacs with an inflated idea of their own competence. Some get lucky. About 80% don't. You went through three before you got lucky.

It wasn't pro-business. It was pro-wealth.

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Bill Sloman, Sydney

John Larkin spends too much time listening to James Arthur, and absolutely none thinking about what government can and should do.

Why? Politicians have specific skills, mostly to do with working out what everybody else wants, and those skills will always be valuable.

What the US, the UK and Australia need in the way of electoral reform is proportional representation and multi-party coalition government.

This does get rid of the uncompromising dogma-driven sort of politician who can't negotiate compromise solutions, but the people who are good at representing their electorate will still have secure careers.

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Bill Sloman, Sydney

Which was exactly the point that Tom Gardner was making, and the point that you are clearly incapable of taking on board. Are you planning on colonising krw's niche?

How would you know?

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Bill Sloman, Sydney

Of course they are. James Arthur doesn't want to believe it, but his thinking isn't evidence-driven (otherwise he'd have a more realistic appreciation of the skills of the founding tax-evaders) and neither is yours.

"Usefully predictive" isn't "100% accurate".

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Bill Sloman, Sydney

But does that make their calculations usefully predictive?

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics

Obviously not. The fact that John Larkin thinks that it was worth posting the question does make it clear that he hasn't got a clue.

It could also indicate that he might not have a clear idea of what might constitute a joke.

Either way, it's waste of bandwidth.

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Bill Sloman, Sydney

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My first job was at 13, in 1966 for $1 an hour. I finally got my first credit card, this year. I always lived with the principal of, If I can't pay for it, I don't need it for anything less than a house or a new vehicle.

I agree with your, "If I can't pay for it, I don't need it". We never even financed any of our auto purchases, but none of that stopped us from having a credit card or two! Mikek

He is an obnoxious fathead. But he's a much better President than any of the professional politicians who ran against him would have been.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
picosecond timing   precision measurement  

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com