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" Kelowna fires"
Jay,
I did find something in one of your emails on this 'ski topic' to agree with - lots of us are staying on the sidelines. I've been watching only, and maybe it's smarter to stay out, but I'm just going to dip a toe in, warily. Gene, I've found some opinions on this to agree with, but I just thought I'd compliment you on the best thought out and expressed viewpoint that matches mine - go Gene! Erik Brooks Left coast ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gene Goldenfeld" To: "Multiple recipients of list NORDIC-SKI" Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2003 10:48 AM Subject: Kelowna fires Jay Tegeder wrote: Now, let's talk about the tax cuts by the Feds which so concern you. They are not tax cuts. Repeat, they are not tax cuts. They, like here in Minnesota, are just reductions in the spending increases. Repeat, Actually, no, seen over a few years the recent reductions in federal taxes are shifts in taxation from the federal government to the states and localities. I mean, someone has to pay for education, roads, parks, public health, welfare, etc. The question is how much will actually get shifted. Bush and his conservative advisors/supporters hope that the end result of federal tax cuts will not only be political benefit for themselves, but an overall effect of cutting social and societal (education, roads, etc.) expenditurs and programs. This is both ideological and economic (where ideology comes from) - in a capitalist system all government expenditures come out of business profits, however they derive to the gov't. Bush & Co. represent corporate America with a vengeance, with a view akin to that which dominated American political life in the late 19th/early 20th century. They also know that it's much harder to raise taxes at a local level, and such a battle will have to be fought over and over at each of the 50 states and numerous localities, where big business money has historically had much more influence. should someone who earns more have to pay a higher percentage of his income in taxes than someone who makes less. That doesn't sound very American to me. Should someone who makes 21,000 per year be taxed at a higher rate than someone who makes 20,000? Where do you draw the line Jim? Who decides in your Howard Dean Socailist Utopia? The people who make the most money create a lot more jobs than those who don't. Is that good or bad in your world? Excuse me, Jay, but the America you reside in has had a *progressive* income tax system for quite a long time, first during and after the Civil War, and then continuously from around 1913, when the 16th Amendment to the Constitution allowing income taxes was ratified. In the last decade or two, with the dominance of conservative economic and social policies, the degree of prgrogressiveness has been considerably chipped away at, but even now some pay 15% and some pay 28 or 35% or whatever it is. Now, here's the kicker. If, as you say, government expenditures have been going up relative to inflation, and the absolute and deduction-based tax rates for the wealthier sections of the population have gone down, then it would follow that the relative tax burden has shifted even more downward into the middle and lower classes (that's definitely the case for user taxes). If that's true, then your argument about what's "American" and not is particularly self-defeating, since you are just one more of us on the short end of the equation. To highlight this even more, if you check income stats for the US, you'll find that except for a little blip at the end of the 90s, average individual income has been falling steadily on an inflation-adjusted basis since the early 1970s. Depending on family configurations, that has meant relatively less and less money to pay more taxes - for you, me, the others here, and most of the rest of the population. Bringing it back to this newsgroup, less money left to buy cross country skis and support ski resorts (something to consider in terms of industry trends). Note: This has been one of the most puzzling subject diversions I've ever seen on rsn. We're a long way from Kelowna and the plight of Scott and his neigbors. I mean, forest fires predate claims about global warming. Gene |
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