Cozumel, thank the Congress...

[lamont]

back in 2006 you might have been able to buy an oz of gold with that check...

 

[georoc01]

I doubt the Income redistribution act will have much of an effect on the economy of cozumel, although it may allow some more fixed income eldery in Florida to afford one more cruise this year.

 

[bvmjethead]

You gonna suggest any solutions or just complain loudly?

I got shafted... THANKS CONGRESS!

I love paying 80k in taxes every year and getting nothing back. I love paying all that money and watching my worthless in-laws get $4000 back from the government when they paid NOTHING!

I'm sorry for making good sound decisions in my life. I should of had 5 kids before I was 18 and dropped out of high school to work a minimum wage job the rest of my life. I should have sat on my rear and expected the government to take care of everything.

The government in this country is nothing but a bunch of bastards that reward stupidity and irresponsibility.

That's ok... this year I'm going to employ my kids and reduce my exposure to good ole Uncle Sam. Screw them all... We'll see what happens to all the "social programs" in this country when there isn’t any high paying jobs left to pay for them.

Let the good ole Dems win the White House and jack up taxes even more. I'll start seriously looking at moving my business offshore.

We don't manufacture anything here anymore... we are a "service" based economy now. Since we don't produce anything it makes it MUCH easier for companies to just move their HQ's offshore and do business here (see current offshore of back office operations to India). Once they jack the taxes up, the companies will break for the border... there goes the “service” jobs.

We are competing against 3rd world countries that have NO social program safety nets. The battle was over before it even began... but hey it's the GLOBAL ECONOMY!!! LET'S CREATE MORE SOCIAL PROGRAMS!!!!

 

[cruiser]

I got shafted... THANKS CONGRESS!

I love paying 80k in taxes every year and getting nothing back. I love paying all that money and watching my worthless in-laws get $4000 back from the government when they paid NOTHING!

I'm sorry for making good sound decisions in my life. I should of had 5 kids before I was 18 and dropped out of high school to work a minimum wage job the rest of my life. I should have sat on my rear and expected the government to take care of everything.

The government in this country is nothing but a bunch of bastards that reward stupidity and irresponsibility.

That's ok... this year I'm going to employ my kids and reduce my exposure to good ole Uncle Sam. Screw them all... We'll see what happens to all the "social programs" in this country when there isn’t any high paying jobs left to pay for them.

Let the good ole Dems win the White House and jack up taxes even more. I'll start seriously looking at moving my business offshore.

We don't manufacture anything here anymore... we are a "service" based economy now. Since we don't produce anything it makes it MUCH easier for companies to just move their HQ's offshore and do business here (see current offshore of back office operations to India). Once they jack the taxes up, the companies will break for the border... there goes the “service” jobs.

We are competing against 3rd world countries that have NO social program safety nets. The battle was over before it even began... but hey it's the GLOBAL ECONOMY!!! LET'S CREATE MORE SOCIAL PROGRAMS!!!!

Wikel--

I couldn't agree more. It seems, however, a cycle is at work here (or any democracy) that was written about in 1787 by Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, who had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Empire some 2,000 years earlier:

“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by dictatorship.

“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

1) From bondage to spiritual faith;
2) From spiritual faith to great courage;
3) From courage to liberty;
4) From liberty to abundance;
5) From abundance to complacency;
6) From complacency to apathy;
7) From apathy to dependence;
8) From dependence back to bondage ...”

 

[cowdog77]

so they could also provide a tax rebate to those who don’t pay taxes (welfare recipients). They are supposed to get back about $300.

Grrrrr...

 

[Wakeboardr]

I'm sending my money back to the treasury to help pay the $720,000,000 a day it's costing for us to prop up the Iraq government and rebuild their country.

 

[Mandarin Goby]

Well, I teach (and do research in) macroeconomics at a business school, and I have to tell you that only about 20-30% of the rebates go towards increasing consumption expenditures. The rest go towards "saving" (paying off debt); hence, these are really election year knee-jerk responses to an economic downturn, if that.
Also, if you spend some part of that money in Cozumel you would be importing a service.

Unfortunately, I do not qualify for the rebate, but will go to Coz with my family and plan to spend a ton of money regardless!

Thank you for posting this. I don't have as much econ training/experience as you do (only an Econ minor in college); however, it seems like it should be plain to anyone with intelligence (which one would hope would describe members of our legislative branch) that this is a superbly stupid idea. The budget deficit, the false staving off of inflation by reducing interest rates, etc. has been weakening our dollar ridiculously, and shaking our economy. I must imagine this is only going to make things WAY worse.

I told my broker I wanted to put a majority of my savings into gold. He kept trying to talk me out of it. But his "high performing" funds are tanking along with my retirement savings. Time for me to be my own investment advisor.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Well my last real job did go off-shore. I'm still getting by and paying taxes but life is nowhere near as fun as it used to be. I'd sure be happy to see a check come in the mail...from one of the clients who owes me money...the government...I don't care.

What I'd really like to see is sensible spending and a sensible tax structure. Then they wouldn't need to give rebates.

 

[Mandarin Goby]

Oh, one more thing. I love how the talking heads on the news said that the only way this "stimulus" would work is if we spend the money. Saving it (paying down debt), like Selo said, will do NOTHING except increase our budget deficit. Can you imagine how stupid congress should look to the average person? "Here, everyone. FREE MONEY! Just make sure you use it on junk to pick up our economy by the bootstraps. Don't be prudent with it by paying down your high rate credit card balances you ran up buying your previous junk."

 

[MikeFerrara]

You gonna suggest any solutions or just complain loudly?

I'll suggest a solution. Fire 75% of the government. Cut the pay of the remaining 25% in half, give them a list of things to do with deadlines and manage them closely because they are NOT to be trusted. Make them work for a living.

Turn off every bit of government spending except that which is absolutely necessary to keep the most basic infrastructure running and keep it shut off until each line item can be reviewed.

End this nonsense of sneaking pork fat (or whatever they call it) into legislation.

Uphold the Constitution. Our Constitution guarantees rights and freedoms, NOT safety and NOT a free living. Our politicians as well as our military took an oath to protect the Constitution. They need to be reminded of what their job is.