OT: Trump: "China thinks we are dumb SOBs"

state plan. The majority of the states have their own

ase rate plus a rate based on your unemployment record. =A0If

ying some serious dollars. =A0Other wise, it is about 1% of

system (new employer vs old), etc.

in me running my business, I should find one with a higher

r not.

rofits, well, then time to scream bloody murder. =A0No reason

some slub too dumb to keep his job. =A0Unless of course, it

w.

That $456/month is more than enough for most people to buy their own health insurance. Except now they can't, since you've so wisely taken that money from them. (Moot, because now, of course, those policies are illegal.)

How trivial is it, instead, just to save up 6 months' expenses on your own for a rainy day, once, and then reap the benefit, safety, stability (and interest) from having that money and that extra $456/ month for the rest of your life?

I did that when I was 17, on minimum wage.

-- Cheers, James Arthur

Some kind of consumption tax is preferable to income tax - at least to the half-assed graduated income tax we have in the US. It would be more fair to pay a fixed percentage on whatever income than to map large ranges of income into the same payment.

The unemployment tax is almost negligible in most states. The major contributors to the lack of hiring are the business portions of personnel income and medicaid taxes and the expense of personnel bookkeeping and regulatory management. For a small business it is not a myth that each employee has to be worth approximately 3 times his/her salary for the business to break even. In states known for heavy handed regulation (MA,NY,CA,OH,etc.), a business with just 4 or

George

plan. The majority of the states have their own

rate plus a rate based on your unemployment record. If

some serious dollars. Other wise, it is about 1% of

(new employer vs old), etc.

running my business, I should find one with a higher

profits, well, then time to scream bloody murder. No reason

slub too dumb to keep his job. Unless of course, it

Wouldn't work because everyone would see how much they are really paying in taxes (it would be worse than dividing the federal spending (on-budget + off-budget) by the population since a good percentage would not be able to afford to pay taxes on their consumption so taxes would have to be even higher on the remainder)-- and there would be a revolution.

James, thanks for a voice of reason and understanding... I'm a long- time USA Engineer (From 833As to DSPs) and recently I lived in China for two years. I was fortunate to cover High-Tech for a Chinese newspaper, and spend a few weeks in very rural Hunan, China. I took a lot of photos and helped my Chinese friend who is writing a book to interview many old people (80-95) who have lived thru the incredible hardships and changes of the last 80 years in China. We also visited several schools, from poor small town elementary schools, to high-end competitive high-schools that looked like a college campus. But my favorite was the school in a remote small village where they told me "A Western person has never been here before". (Remember, China has about 500,000 villages, though!).

I have really noticed the Chinese at work. It's strikingly different than much of the 'West'. Everyone in China seems to work SO hard! So it's not just numbers they have. And, every street in every town has it's entrepreneurs. One way or another, they are real businessmen.

But the contrasts in China are incredible. The big-city high-rise high-tech part is forging ahead. But only 25% or so of Chinese live / work there. The rest are in rural towns and villages, making a living, growing some rice, a vegetable garden, a couple of pigs, making a little charcoal, Etc. Etc.

This discussion (is it sci.electronics.politics ?) pushed me to finish a photo essay about China, Work, and Contrasts. You can see it here:

I'm from Vermont USA. I've lived in Africa, China and now the Middle East. Vermont is home. But I think I'll always come back to China. I'm going back in June, and hope to bring my Grandsons with me. We'll land in Hong Kong. But we'll head for the villages.

Regards, Terry King ..On the Red Sea at KAUST snipped-for-privacy@terryking.us

r state plan. The majority of the states have their own

base rate plus a rate based on your unemployment record. =A0If

paying some serious dollars. =A0Other wise, it is about 1% of

he system (new employer vs old), etc.

r in me running my business, I should find one with a higher

or not.

profits, well, then time to scream bloody murder. =A0No reason

et some slub too dumb to keep his job. =A0Unless of course, it

dow.

Yep, it's pretty ugly. You can visit the IRS' Statistics on Income (SOI) section, where you'll find that only half of all households pay any federal tax, so the burden per household is, effectively, double.

Everyone quotes the deficit as a percentage of GDP. That's appropriate, when determining how big a drain the government is on the economy. That's the wrong measure, however, when assessing someone's creditworthiness.

The metric for creditworthiness is debt vs: ability to repay, i.e., income...

Federal revenue (income) in 2009: $2.105T Federal spending in 2009: $3.3T (160% of annual income) National debt (Federal) in 2009: $12T (600% of annual income, increased to $14T and 700% as of today)

So, suppose you made $100K a year, had $700K in debt, and $160K in fixed annual expenses...and went to the bank for a loan?

Our federal government wouldn't qualify for a credit card. Maybe a home loan though, from Freddie or Fannie. ;-)

-- Cheers, James Arthur

Moving. Stunning. Absolutely gorgeous. Made my day.

Thanks.

James Arthur

our

tor

or

wn

Just like what Enron did. Control companies to buy Enron's stock off the book.

Sure, let's make everone poorer. Why the hell not?

To make the hypothetical even more realistic, let's rephrase it--

Suppose you made $100K a year, had $160K in fixed annual expenses, and went to the bank for a loan? Then, during the interview, you admit having a $700K mortgage at a teaser rate, a $300K[1] balloon payment due this year, and the balance due in seven[2].

That's not counting the off-budget debt, or the unfunded obligations-- pay no attention to the man behind that curtain. Please, don't.

As a pure mechanical fact, printing money and inflating the debt away doesn't work, because the bulk of the government's obligations are-- get this--indexed to inflation! Inflation just raises their costs. Unless we de-index benefits, which is going to hurt.

The way out is to grow GDP faster than the cost of servicing the debt. But, the current borrowing and rapid pace of increasing debt service will make that a tight race, and place a heavy, heavy load on the country, for a long time.

And we can't keep running deficits.

We must raise taxes, or cut services, or both, severely. It won't be pretty.

-- Best, James Arthur

state plan. The majority of the states have their own

rate plus a rate based on your unemployment record. If

some serious dollars. Other wise, it is about 1% of

system (new employer vs old), etc.

me running my business, I should find one with a higher

profits, well, then time to scream bloody murder. No reason

some slub too dumb to keep his job. Unless of course, it

Yes. VAT was invented to hide the actual level of taxation.

Buy stock in companies that make printing presses.

John

government=20

begin=20

costs=20

The artificially low exchange ratio is part of the problem here.

begin=20

The=20

Not even a problem. Of course 200/month here won't even feed you without= =20 resorting to charity (e.g. food banks) let alone pay rent, utilities = etc., there it will do all of these things with spare for savings.

America

government

not begin

it costs

even begin

year? =A0

=A0Average

If they had any sense they wouldn't; they would be put to work at a=20 menial job until they understood that, they too, should contribute to=20 society.

One town in Florida trimmed their departments and shaved over 3 million dollars off their budget and are talking about refunding that money to their citizens.

Nearly 150 years after American railroads imported thousands of Chinese laborers to build rail lines across the West, China is poised once again to play a role in American rail construction. But this time, it would be an entirely different role: supplying the technology and engineers to build high-speed rail lines

So, they've learned a few things over there.... See this:

Hey, it worked in '30 (Hawley-Smoot).

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

I think that we can and will do just fine without any help from any existing system makers anywhere.

The main departure that we must understand should be (has to be) implemented is that it needs to be enclosed (the railway) and the trains would travel in a reduced air pressure environment, allowing the train to travel faster on less energy.

It also makes it more secure, and we DO need to consider that as well.

Floks simply have to depart from "the view" being part of what high speed transportation is about.

It is about safe, fast travel without fear of sabotage.

ALL the high speed trains I've been on in China used Canadian or European technology. AFAICT they are primarily users of that kind of high-tech. Maybe they'll license the technology and do the grunt work of assembling cars, but usually politics drives that kind of decision towards high-cost local companies, even if their track record (so to speak) is dubious.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Check out the "CW" (China Wall) pics on my ftp site.

ftp://jjlarkin.lmi.net/

John

Hey, Bernanke agrees:

Rock on Ben.

-- Cheers, James Arthur