" 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