Hallmark Moment : "Sorry You Lost Your Job..."
That's pretty sad considering the price of Hallmark cards these days. Nowadays it's cheaper to buy a whole magazine than it is to buy one card, you may as well buy the newly unemployed person a magazine they can read on their off days.
Read the article GLOBE AND MAIL/Hallmark introduces job-loss sympathy cards
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Why is it, in a so-called economic downturn, that no Hallmark card shops close? Other retailers, restaurants, car dealerships, and entire malls shut their doors, but Hallmark stores stay open.
There is nothing in any Hallmark store that anyone really needs, yet it’s BAU in a recession.
Forget about successive quarters without growth, the number of unemployed, jobs lost or created: Hallmark should be the hallmark. When Hallmark stores close, times are bad; until then, there must be plenty of discretionary income, so quit whining and find out how to get your hands on some of it.
Read the article FOX NEWS/Hallmark Makes Layoff Greeting Cards for Customers
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Hopefully the cards don't say "printed in China" on the back. That would be a real punch to the gut.
Read the article GLOBE AND MAIL/Hallmark introduces job-loss sympathy cards
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The loss of a job is like the loss of anything in life - it's important to grieve it and feel supported while dealing with the change.
Most people don't know what to do but avoid the person they know who has lost their job. Usually this is because they feel bad for them or don't know what to say, or feel guilty for still having a job. Of course, the person who just lost their job may feel isolated because of this - just at the point where they could really use a hand and some support.
If a card helps show support to someone during a hard time, I am all for it.
Read the article GLOBE AND MAIL/Hallmark introduces job-loss sympathy cards
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We all have a different perspective. My mother used to say, "Things work out for
the best." I see the loss of a job as an opportunity to move on to something
better. Since humans tend to be creatures of habit, going to and from work
everyday is just a habit. There are good days and bad days. Some people at work
are nice and some are not. Loosing your job is an immediate shock. It's probably
unplanned and unexpected. Receiving a card about your job loss shows there's
someone out there who cares enough to send a card.
By the way, aren't
there cards that congratulate you on your divorce?
Change is good!. The
only thing in life that's constant is change!
Read the article CBS NEWS/Job loss greeting cards: Kind or out of place?
What the Recession Means for Young Adults
"I would like to thank the Baby Boomers, who's parents sacrificed a lot for them
and took that lesson to sacrifice their children for profit."
You are
blaming the WRONG PEOPLE. The baby boomer generation is who built up the economy
to the point where were able to have near full employment. It was the boomers
who fought the old prejudices to extend economic opportunity to women and
minorities.
Those who caused the economy to crash were not boomers. They were
mostly greedy, selfish "what ever I want is all that matters" Generation Xers.
I'm sick to death of my generation being blamed for this and all our other
social woes. No doubt, we must admit our mistakes.
And, as far as I can tell,
our biggest mistake is that we didn't raise our children with the same value
system that we have, but allowed them to be coddled, self-important,
ill-prepared whiners, who only care about themselves and what will be handed to
them on a silver platter.
Read the article NPR/Census: Recession Taking Toll On Young Adults
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The impacts on young adults are tragic and severe, but it's a mistake to think
that their problems are limited to them. The story hints at this.
The
economic crisis is linked to the housing crisis of declining values. With the
younger generation increasingly unable and unwilling to move into home
ownership, there is no DEMAND basis for house prices to rise and there won't be
for some time unless dramatic action is taken to create jobs.
We are all
interconnected. Throwing the young under the bus (which we are also cutting
funding for) by trying to balance the budget DURING the crisis, instead of AFTER
the crisis, will come home to roost for older homeowners as well.
Whether
they appreciate that before it's too late is largely up to them.
Read the article NPR/Census: Recession Taking Toll On Young Adults
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The fix is in. It's just taking a while for most Americans to accept it for what
it really is: the end of US manufacturing. Under Republicans US corporations
have moved at least 16 million jobs over seas. Why? Because of the obvious
reason: Profits but also because of a not so obvious reason as well... they are
making a shift to the USA being the purchasing capital of the world and not the
producing capital. Just as England became a "nation of shopkeepers" 150 years
ago so will the USA over the next 5-10 years. Those who hold patents and
licensing rights to products will be rich forever, those who do not will
struggle to consume the plastic crap made around the world.
One part of
the issue above overlooked is the amount of young people leaving the USA. I know
of at least 20 websites of US expats that have moved to Brazil that have sprung
up in just the last 2 years. For every site there are dozens of other expats
that regularly comment. That's just 1 country that doesn't even speak English!
Look for those who've moved to Britain, Australia, Ireland, Belize or a Germanic
country. There are literally hundreds of sites of expats living in Spain, Italy,
Sweden/Norway and even Chile/Peru. Those who can are getting out in droves.
Read the article NPR/Census: Recession Taking Toll On Young Adults
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Setbacks. In a nation that rewards the accumulation of wealth from wealth and
not from labor the rich will continue to get richer and the poor, poorer. The
poor will also get angrier as more jobs and capital are sent overseas, making
their situations worse. And who could blame them? They live in a democracy,
based on representative government. But when their representatives do nothing to
protect their interests they will, of course, feel alienated and powerless,
unless they take power into their own hands, just the way the first American
revolutionaries did.
I am afraid that as the gap between rich and poor
continues to grow civil unrest is coming to this country because our
representatives are failing us. Our national economy must return to a
public-interest based economy, for the good of country because what is good for
our people *is* good for our country. The two cannot be separated any further.
If nothing is done, the endgame will take us back to where this country
started – to a bloody struggle for a fair voice and representation in
government. This country is on the wrong track. If something isn't done soon for
average Americans, how long will it be before the entire train derails?
Read the article NPR/Census: Recession Taking Toll On Young Adults
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I am in my 20s, male, college degree, and greatly underemployed (yes, I understand that I am the lucky one). Many other people around my age are unemployed FORMER Obama supporters (as was I). We all had high hopes in the potential our college professor style president could offer us. Sadly, we have lost a large portion of our ideals and really care about our lives. We are soldiers and businessmen, political and apolitical, hard workers and lazy workers (although all lack work). I hope that my generation's economic misfortune helps us become like the greatest generation, but right now ideology is lost and reality is upon us. We want jobs. We don't want unemployment benefits, welfare checks, food stamps; however, we want to contribute to society. How do we do that in the current atmosphere?
Something has to change. I'm sorry if your partisanship makes you hate my post, just realize that this is how we feel. Our greatest concerns are not with the expanding gay culture (we are the largest supports of that culture), it is not with universal health care for every man women and child (we understand that it is wrong to let people sick die miserable deaths), what we want are opportunities.
As a nation, we will be suffering from the loss of work for my generation in the years to come.
Read the article POLITICO/Census: Young hit hard by recession
"Jobs, Jobs, Jobs -- That's the magic word!"*
*James Martin, who rode freight trains for eight years from 1932 looking for steady job he never found. From Riding the Rails: teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression
As a Republican I heard many strong pints made by a Democratic President, but the one statement that rings most true is that there are no silver bullets; it will take hard work, dedication and willingness of my fellow Republicans to actually work with this President for the good of the nation, not just fulfill your self righteous ideologies.
So as an American, a taxpayer, a fully employed citizen and a person who thinks it is just time to do what's right - quit torpedoing this man and get something done!! We are Americans, not some podunk Third World, mud slinging little Country;
I urge all of you politicians to grow up and do right by the America people! Whether we like it or not, we do have a responsibility to our less fortunate American neighbors in this down economy, just as we have no student left behind we also need to consider No American Left Behind ..... things WILL get better ... let's not starve and denigrate each other in the process.
Read the article CNN/Obama calls on Congress to quickly pass his 'American Jobs Act'
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This was, by far, the best speech I have heard in a long time from any
president. This was not only full of hope, and promise for a brighter future for
all Americans, it will actually work. It is brilliantly simple. Any politician
who does not support/pass this is, in my opinion, cheating his/her constituents
and this great nation and could be conceivably called un-American
I have not
voted Democrat in years yet this speech has given me a reason to pause and
re-think my political affiliations. In one sense, thinking more about the party
rather than the country leads me to believe I may be part of the problem rather
than part of the solution. Party loyally is not everything.
The President has
fallen flat on many issues according to the polls and tonight he redeemed
himself. There is an old saying: Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way. Tonight he
led. Congress needs to choose one of the latter two.
Read the article NPR/Obama's
Message: 'Stop The Political Circus,' Pass His Jobs Plan Now
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Obama wants to "stop the political circus"? It was the President's big labor
supporter who only hours ago publicly referred to political opposition as
"SOBs". It is the President who has shamelessly used his bully pulpit to turn
this latest jobs proposal into a reelection campaign event. He has submitted no
formal proposal to Congress, but has instead used the issue to attack his
political opposition and garner media attention with corny campaign-style
theatrics .
The fundamental truth is that this President is deeply predisposed
against private business. His lifelong ideology is one of anti-capitalism,
pandering to big labor, and promoting a government controlled economy. He is a
nightmare for businesses. Plainly the private sector economy will not improve
significantly while this President is in office.
Read the article NPR/Obama's
Message: 'Stop The Political Circus,' Pass His Jobs Plan Now
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The Republicans want to give breaks to the wealthy, with the reasoning that they
create jobs. But even if that were the case, they wouldn't add workers to a
factory if there was no demand for the products being made.
The middle
class are the primary consumers. If they have no money, there is not going to be
any consumer demand. If you want to stimulate the economy, it's the consumers
that need to have money to spend, not the wealthiest 2%.
Read the article NPR/Obama's
Message: 'Stop The Political Circus,' Pass His Jobs Plan Now
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Oh yoohoo! My fellow Americans! Get a clue!
That teensy little bit of extra money you are getting because of this payroll tax cut...guess whose money that is? That's right, chum. It is your money. It is money that goes to Social Security. So you can have your $12/pay period now, but when you turn 79, or whatever they end up raising the retirement age to so that Social Security won't go bust, don't come whining to me. Because I am telling you right now that you are simply getting an advance on your allowance. And if there's nothing left down the road, well too darned bad.
And don't let anyone tell you that this will help reduce unemployment. No it won't. The share your employer pays has stayed the same. And even if they reduced that part (and again...that's YOUR Social Security on the line), except maybe for really really large employers, the few measly bucks won't add up to enough to hire even one more person.
The only way that those few extra dollars in your pocket might do any good at all is if you run to the nearest store or e-commerce website and spend them. Preferably on stuff made in the U.S. of A.
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/Obama Exhorts Congress on Jobs Plan
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We're talking nickels and dimes. A real stimulus would simultaneously address real needs our country faces: construction of high-speed rail and other mass transit infrastructure, solar panels on every rooftop in America, smart grid development, and the usual infrastructure repairs that are put off year after year: roads, bridges, levees, schools, water mains, sewage treatment facilities, airports, etc., etc., etc. Our country is falling apart because multinational corporations and the mega-rich do not care to spend anything on rejuvenating it: the big bucks are to be made in China and 3rd-world "free trade zones."
And then there is education. All the bloviators prattle on about how American "innovation" and "technology" and "entrepreneurialism" are going to win the race to "lead the world," while simultaneously firing thousands of teachers, cutting funds to public schools, hobbling the very educational process with excessive testing and crazy ideological warfare over what American kids can be taught, attacking teachers' unions, and creating a nation of functionally illiterate college graduates and mentally disturbed high school drop-outs.
Oh, yes. The payroll tax cut. Bravo. Clap. Clap. Clap.
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/Obama Exhorts Congress on Jobs Plan
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Wow. (Understatement)
It is about time! I believe that I like this "new" Barack Obama.
Fired up. Dare I say, confrontational?
Look. I know that a LOT of people on this comment board are griping about his comments regarding Social Security as well as many other parts of his speech.
Good.
I am:
1.) Unemployed - I am an IT Admin with a B.Sc. in Information Technology who has seen tons of tech jobs move offshore due to corporate tax loop holes. He is proposing that some (hopefully all) of these loop holes be removed.
2.) Putting Teachers, first responders, and cops back in the work force is needed. Who is against that, for pity sake?
3.) Medicare, Social Security - these programs are great in theory. But they were written in the 1960's. Times change - Social Security needs to be restructured in a fair way. Only the first $109,000 of someone's income is taxable via Social Security. If this loophole were closed, we would be well on our way to solving the defict problem. Not entirely, but the elimination of this huge hole in the tax code would really help.
4.) Infrastructure. Who in this country has NOT driven across a bridge filled with potholes? Or a highway in need of repair? Dams, flood control projects, federal, state, and local parks and other needed community assets are all in need of repair or renovation.
5.) The BILLOINS of profits by Exxon, IBM, Sun, BP, Occidential Petroleum, Apple, Bank America, and the list goes on. They lay off workers to enhance their stock price, pay millions to lobby Washington to gain tax loopholes, and send jobs overseas. Why? Because they take advantage of tax "incentives" that their special interests push through congress - a move that short circuits the democratic process.
Tonight the president layed out what needs to be done. Do I agree with everything? Not really. But he made a LOT more sense than all of the other politicians combined.
If he got angry.... Well, all I can say, it is about frigging time.
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/Obama Exhorts Congress on Jobs Plan
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The first thing I would do to stimulate job growth would be to revive the
Depression-era Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corp, to
hire the long-term unemployed -- put them to work rebuilding our crumbling
highways, ports, bridges, school buildings, parks, playgrounds.
I would
spend around 6.7% of GDP per year on the work programs, that would be like us
spending $900 billion/year on public works projects. At prevailing wages
(national wage index as of 2009 was $40,711.61), that would employ 22 million
people, out of roughly 25 million currently unemployed. Add a few hundred
billion for materials and we could build factories to mass produce electric cars
and high speed trains and upgrade our freight and passenger rail network and
power grid at the same time. The money could be borrowed at the current 2%
Treasury Bill rate, a great deal.
Also, exempt the first $20,000 of
income from payroll taxes this year and next, create an infrastructure bank,
provide tax incentives for small businesses to hire, expand the Earned Income
Tax Credit, and so on.
Yes, the ratio of the national debt to the total
economy is high relative to what it’s been. But it’s not nearly as high as it
was after World War II – when it reached 120 percent of the economy’s total
output.
If and when the economy begins to grow faster – if more Americans
get jobs, and we move toward a full recovery – the debt/GDP ratio will fall, as
it did in the 1950s, and as it does in every solid recovery. Revenues will pour
into the Treasury, and much of the current “budget crisis” will be
evaporate.
Get it? We’re really in a “jobs and growth” crisis – not a
budget crisis.
Read the article WALL STREET JOURNAL/Perry, Romney Clash at Debate
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Odd, 2 years and 9 months into his presidency and he now thinks it is important
to speak about jobs? I guess polls do work wonders.
I for one am now glad
that obama is POTUS, as he has awakened a slumbering animal....Americans. There
is a palpable unrest among voters who are finally at the breaking point of
seeing this great country on its final legs, having been driven to the brink by
liberalism, disregard for the Federal Laws, and a wanton disregard for fiscal
responsibilities. Let me put it this way:
A simple explanation of the
Federal Finances
U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
Fed budget:
$3,820,000,000,000
New debt: $1,650,000,000,000
National debt:
$14,271,000,000,000
Recent budget cut: $38,500,000,000
Let's remove
8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:
Annual family income:
$21,700
Money the family spent: $38,200
New debt on the credit card:
$16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
Total budget
cuts: $385
Fairly sad I must say. I can not wait for Nov '12
Read the article WALL STREET JOURNAL/Obama to Call for New Spending, Tax Cuts to Create Jobs
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Have you considered the reason for the jobless rate in our country
right now? I mean, you are clearly intelligent enough to break down the budget
cuts in to terms we can all understand as a household. What about the economic
crisis? It stems from years and years of failed lending policies along with
guidelines from both Republican and Democratic offices that forced a housing
market bubble that would ultimately burst.
On top of that, Republican forced tax
breaks on the wealthy and tax loopholes for large corporations have stifled the
tax revenue for government in lean employment times (less income for workers =
less income tax in case you didn't understand that part).
My point is, our
country's issues are so complex right now that scribbling out the budget cuts
like a grocery list to make it easier to understand is just a bit too
simplistic. In addition, blaming a president who has been in office for less
than a term for problems that have been brewing for years is completely unfair
and shows such blinded bias that one has to wonder if you will ever consider the
facts as a whole, or if you are the type to always use the only part of an
argument that works fr you to make your point. Have a nice day.
Read the article WALL STREET JOURNAL/Obama to Call for New Spending, Tax Cuts to Create Jobs
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I admire President Obama's persistence in trying to rally the country by
bringing the focus back to economic growth and job creation.
The Oganization
for Economic Development is predicting a global slowdown of the world economy
with the G7 experiencing very slow growth. Worldwide demand for goods and
services is down and is expected to shrink for the rest of 2011.
Against that
forecast, there is little the US can do, even if taxes and regulations were
abolished overnight. Without demand, private sector suppliers will not hire.
Indeed, with diminshed demand, they will be forced to cut costs and lay more
people off. The only sector left is the government sector. Congress has alreay
signaled that it will not support government sector expansion.
I wish the
President well because if he fails we all fail.
Read the article NPR/Amid
Skepticism, Obama Prepares For Jobs Speech
Fear and Loathing in the European Banking Zone
Get ready for another dose of capitalism for the poor (austerity) and socialism for the rich (bailouts).
Deutsche Bank's CEO Josef Ackermann remarked on Monday, "...it is an open secret that numerous European banks would run into trouble were they forced to write down their sovereign bond holdings to reflect current market value."
I'll translate this into Main Street English: Some major banks in Europe are actually insolvent, and this may become apparent to everyone in a sudden and catastrophic way before the authorities have time to figure out a band-aid bailout.
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/
In Euro Zone, Banking Fear Feeds on Itself
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Iceland has the right idea. Write off the "debts" and write off the corrupt institutions that allowed criminals to legally steal.
Let's face it, at the core, this is all about legalized larceny! The people who perpetrated this had the attitude and mentality of thieves playing at a fixed casino. This was not about rational investing, but rather it was about "making a killing".
By allowing the doctrine of "too big to fail" to become some kind of absolute....we only perpetuate the corruption and put off the eventual day of reckoning.
Our global financial system can not survive ever escalating boom bust cycles that only serve to enrich a relatively tiny number of predators while destroying the real wealth of the vast majority of investors and taxpayers. The current way we do business is not sustainable.
The would be "masters of the universe" are just sick puppies locked into a hoarding thieving pathology.....they are no more "successful" than a malignancy that also "grows".
We need to cut our losses and change the whole paradigm that governs our financial affairs. There is nothing creative or constructive about dishonesty and theft...no matter how slick the rhetorical/"legal" packaging.
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/
In Euro Zone, Banking Fear Feeds on Itself
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I'm not an economist (thank God) but have long talked with my friends about WHERE the collapse of the world economy would begin. My thoughts are that old Europe is first to go followed by Obamaville, Japan and then the rest of the planet. There simply isn't any real money out there to cover the short falls we have created.
We've played smoke and mirrors for so long that salvation is going to be a cathartic economic cleansing (i.e. a depression). We start over and we hopefully learn from our mistakes - no more big government, pay as you go for all governments and minimal taxes and controls on business.
Socialism simply doesn't work; you have only to look at countries of the former Soviet Union and old Europe (Greece, Spain, etc.) Buckle-up, it's going to be a rough ride.
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/
In Euro Zone, Banking Fear Feeds on Itself
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It is GAME OVER!
The banksters and their puppet governments, both in Europe and the U.S. have been papering over this debt crisis for more than 3 years with bailouts and accounting tricks. Well, it seems that smoke and mirrors can only cover up insolvency for so long.
To my fellow U.S. citizens: Please do not let panic overcome your rational thinking. This economy desperately NEEDS massive de-leveraging and the bankrupt financial institutions must come clean and actually go through bankruptcy.. This debt and insolvency is the boat anchor holding back our economy. Had this been allowed to happen 2008, we would NOW be experiencing an economic recovery.
This is going to be a rough road, but it's a path that we absolutely MUST take for the long term health of the economy. The road of bailouts, accounting games and massive government deficits smooths out the short term, but there's a cliff at the end.
No more bailouts, no more accounting games, no more stimulus
Read the article HUFFINGTON POST/European Bank Failure: Investors Fear Possibility Of Another Lehman Brothers
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How is it that we ordinary folk on the ground have seen this mess coming for years yet our politicos and their bankster friends haven't? It wasn't so long ago that the Establishment and mainstream press were lauding Gordon Brown as the best Chancellor we ever had. His friend, Times economist Anatole Kaletsky, wrote an article in 2008 refering to "the depression that never was".
Well, now everyone is waking up to the reality but 3 years further on and with a pile more debt to deal with. We urgently need Marshall Plans to rebuild our indebted Western economies with a strategy of making work and thrift worthwhile. It will mean hard choices, going far further than the token austerity rhetoric from George Osborne. Otherwise we will witness social breakdown and reactionary authoritarian Govt across the indebted West as society becomes evermore polarised between a client state and the global rich.
Read the article TELEGRAPH/Is the world doomed to suffer another Depression?
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Its all very simple really. Marx was an idiot when he said communism will win but he was bang on when he said capitalism will eat itself. He noted that the middle classes will be squeezed into slavery a century ago.
When you have CEO's paying themselves bonuses up 170% in ten years on stock growth of 20% its obvious someone has to pay. When you have oligarchs asset stripping whole eco structures and continents to buy football teams and furs for their mistresses you have a problem. When you have the human race breeding faster than rats on one measley planet you have a disaster. As I said its all very simple really. All the rest is just hot air!
Read the article TELEGRAPH/Is the world doomed to suffer another Depression?
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This is just the beginning I suspect.Unlike some here , I do not come here pretending to be some kind of an expert in the situation. I can only say what I see.What I see is the fake bodies such as the IMF saying austerity has failed it is time for something else? Something else? like what? I can only presume the lady who was shoe horned into that position as head of the IMF at the poor Mr Khans expense, must mean the opposite of austerity.Spendy spendys.
This total madness tells me that it is abandon ship, austerity has served its purpose, lining somebody elses pockets of course.Now it is time for calamity.Hold on to hat, it is party time.
This will bring out the worst in the politicians, who we must now surely know, are at least the worst kind of liar.
What outrageous power grab or similar will transpire and will the brain dead western population even notice, because I am convinced we are living under a strange oppressive misinformation being peddled about virtually everything.Just take a cold hard look at our country and government and especially Europe.
Read the article TELEGRAPH/Is the world doomed to suffer another Depression?
These Big Companies Pay More to CEOs Than in Taxes
A variety of shelters, loopholes and tax reduction strategies allowed the companies to average more than $400 million each in tax benefits — which can be taken as a refund or used as write-off against earnings in future years.
The chief executives of those companies were paid an average of more than $16 million a year, the study found, a figure substantially higher than the $10.8 million average for all companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index.
The authors of the study, which examined the regulatory filings of the 100 companies with the best-paid chief executives, said that their findings suggested that current United States policy was rewarding tax avoidance rather than innovation.
Read the article DAILY BEAST/Companies Pay More to CEOs than Taxes
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I don't resent that people make a lot of money - it's the American Dream.
I just think they should have to pay their fair share. The cost of running a large and wealthy country has been foisted off to the middle and working classes (and their children) who provide the labor and everything else that helped them prosper and get rich.
Read the article DAILY BEAST/Companies Pay More to CEOs than Taxes
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Tax us more, say wealthy Europeans
German group latest to volunteer for higher contributions, saying country could raise €100bn in two years with a 5% wealth tax
Now, as both France and Spain consider introducing a wealth tax, a group of 50 rich Germans have joined the "tax me harder" movement by renewing their open call to Angela Merkel to "stop the gap between rich and poor getting even bigger".
The German group, Vermögende für eine Vermögensabgabe (The Wealthy for a Capital Levy) is the latest manifestation of a feeling among some well-off individuals that the spare cash in their bank accounts might be able to ease, if not solve, the financial crises threatening to cripple their countries.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/29/tax-us...
Read the article DAILY BEAST/Companies Pay More to CEOs than Taxes
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Now this is something an ambitious investigative reporter can get busy on--why is corporate America sitting on $2trillion+? And let the truth come out, let the chips fall where they may.
I thought the very concept of capitalist involved taking risk; but no, lately it's become the government must guarantee the environment and the outcome or else the megacorporations will hold the government hostage.
Same groups trying to sneak up on doing away with the middle class tax deduction for mortgage interest. Trying to discourage homeownership, trying to suppress the middle class, trying to create more havenots. Mortgage interest deduction, except for children, about the only deduction middle income earners get
Read the article DAILY BEAST/Companies Pay More to CEOs than Taxes
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Cue the violins, the anti-CEO, anti-big-biz torrent of rants.
This is a click-bait article based on a silly study that attempts to show causation when there's none.
Sure, some CEOs are overpaid, but by 'average large company' CEO pay standards, these particular CEOs do not have outrageous salaries.
The primary problem is an utterly dysfunctional tax system. The US system is a mess compared to what companies face in much of the rest of the industrialized world. Unless that is fixed by Washington, the rest is useless caterwauling. Companies will maximize cash flows, and that includes minimizing tax, period.
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/Where Pay for Chiefs Outstrips U.S. Taxes
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Companies that pay lavish CEO compensation while doing everything possible to minimize taxes are within the law and acting rationally, if irresponsibly. The problem lies not with the companies but with us: we elect the people who create the tax code. Companies (and individuals) will generally stay within the law. We need to be aware of the Congressional representatives who make the laws that create the tax structure.
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/Where Pay for Chiefs Outstrips U.S. Taxes
READ MORE COMMENTS: JULY -AUGUST 2011
