Senate passes tax reform bill

a reply to: Aazadan

You're assuming ones income stops at retirement. You're also failing to take into consideration additional bumps to the minimum wage over time.

And you're trying to backpeddle your way out of making an asinine statement that was so easily disproved.

TheRedneck

a reply to: Aazadan

Found what?

I have found many opportunities in life and taken them. But, I have NEVER expected nor taken from my fellow taxpayers. I made some sacrifices along the way, but I can go to bed at night knowing that what I am privileged to have in life was not because of sucking off my fellow taxpayers' tit.

a reply to: TheRedneck

Not backpedeling at all. Those are factors you didn't take into account. Especially retirement, after this whole thread listening to people claim that even minimum wage earners saving 5% would be millionaires at retirement time... and you don't even include savings into it.

Face it, anyone born now, or anyone born in the last couple decades will almost certainly see more than 1 million cumulative in their lifetimes. Inflation has made it such that 1 million is not a lot of money. 30 years from now it's going to be even less.

a reply to: Aazadan

What would you have me do instead, sit around doing nothing other than collect disability and listen to people like you say that I'm lazy and should get less? Instead, I got the tools to do what I want to do in life... it took time, but anything worth doing does. Less than 1% escape and get off through their own merits.

I (we?) expect you to at least appreciate the help you've been given. But instead of doing so, you condemn the entire country because you choose to listen to the easily-proven lies of a hack pundit rather than taking the time to discover the truth for yourself, even when some of the work is done for you. You threaten to leave the country that has helped you so much because of those lies. You disrespect and make light of the achievements of others, much greater achievements than you yourself can claim. And then you show extreme disregard, even contempt, for anyone who tries to make it on their own without sponging the system.

I expect you to have actual consideration for others as has been shown to you. Your attitude toward others resembles that of a rattlesnake more than that of a human.

TheRedneck

a reply to: Aazadan

I agree that one million dollars is not a huge amount over a lifetime. But, if you ever reach that figure (I know, you're 35 and getting a late start and all that), I hope you appreciate how your fellow taxpayers that launched on time, worked hard, started a business, advanced up the corporate ladder, all while making some sacrifices along their way, are the ones that got you there. They may not get there, but they helped you. But, you seem like the type that will think you did it all on your own because you knew how to milk the system.

a reply to: TheRedneck

You and I were thinking the same thing at the same time. We posted virtually the same thought, so I'm glad I'm not the only one that sees this man for what he.

a reply to: Aazadan

Not backpedeling at all.

Bull popsicles!

TheRedneck

a reply to: queenofswords

We've been on the same track for a while.

I'll say it again: I'm a soft-hearted fool. I saw someone with a sob story who sounded confused and tried to help. That's what I do. As usual, they then turned on me by outing the fact that they can't calculate their way out of a brown paper bag with a calculator, despite claiming to be an engineer, and went on to condemn not just me, but other posters for being upright citizens. It's happened before many times, but that one person out of 100 that I help who actually appreciates it makes it worthwhile, I guess.

But all that has taught me to be cautious when I see red flags, and I see a field of them here. Aazadan is no engineer; I doubt he has ever sat foot on a college campus. I doubt everything he has stated, even that he believes what he has stated. But in the end, the joke is on him, because he will be outed for who he really is. Not by me, of course, nor by ATS... these are pixels on a screen he can hide behind. But someday, somewhere, somehow, he will be faced with his lies and nowhere to hide.

I really am an old man, and I have seen it happen over and over and over again. People may get away with it for a while, but eventually the truth has this way of getting out. Karma can be a real mean one when she wants.

TheRedneck

a reply to: queenofswords

The time value of money.

If I wanted to have, say, 50K a year for retirement (a decent goal around here), a million dollars would supply that for eternity. All I would need is a 5% annual return on investment, which is not that hard to achieve.

That also applies to retirement savings. If one has time to invest for a long period, the real monetary advantage is the time, not the amount. Interest piles up over the years, compounding as it goes.

TheRedneck

a reply to: nwtrucker

I remember how life got worse for my husband and I in the late 80’s. Everything started increasing for us but wages. I take comfort that when those white rural evangelicals figure out they were lied to, republicans can’t blame democrats this time.

a reply to: nwtrucker

But the average citizen does NOT benefit, do they? You still have people living in tent cities in America. You still have hard working people living in sub standard accommodations, no matter how many hours they pull to make the rent. You still have HUMAN BEINGS living in conditions you would not force a dog into.

As to the unemployment rate, its pretty healthy right now. The problem that our government are having, is trying to keep up with the narrative that if you have nothing, its because you did not work hard enough. Unemployment here is better than in other major European countries, like France for example, and is actually very close to the same rate as the States currently. The problem is not a lack of jobs. Its a lack of money in the system being used by the people who uphold it from its foundations.

The US and the UK populations are having a similar problem right now, because hard working people are getting paid next door to nothing, for long hours and arduous work, while company profits and pay to executive types who have not done an honest days work in decades, goes through the roof. You need to understand something. If a company is in good profit, but has any employee on a wage which does not pay his rent, his bills, feed his family, then that company is artificially profitable. The rules are simple. If you cannot afford to pay everyone working for you, enough that they can live off it, debt free, and make savings for their future, then your company is in the wrong, and so are its executives, because they are not employing people, but exploiting them. When a company has billion dollar profits, top executives chauffeur driven in limos, flown from rooftop to rooftop in corporate choppers, but is not providing a living to all its employees, those profits are not profits, they are ill gotten gains.

There are only two ways about it, nwtrucker.

Either companies pay their every employee, from the lowest to the highest, a wage which accommodates their needs, or they must pay more taxes, so that the underpaid amongst the workforce, can be given a safety net, which prevents the skinflintery of the company for which they work, forcing them into poverty and misery. Now, most people who complain about tax rates, suggest that companies should pay their staff properly, instead of requiring them to apply for assistance of some kind, costing the taxpayer money in subsidy in all but name. In that much, I agree. Companies SHOULD take a profit hit, in order to correctly pay their employees, rather than forcing them into the clutches of the government.

But they do not. That is the bottom line. Someone has to pay these people. They MUST be fed, their rent MUST be covered, their families WILL be nourished, and the only thing which dictates whether that happens the right way, or the wrong way, is the will of people to ignore injustice.

originally posted by: TheRedneck
I (we?) expect you to at least appreciate the help you've been given.

I have lots of appreciation, appreciation doesn't mean I have to go along with what I think are bad ideas though. The country is seriously morally bankrupt, we have a President who likes to look at 13 year olds, who raped his wife, who likely abuses his daughter, who is a serial liar, and people go along with it. We have a major party run by Evangelicals who are anything but what their faith says they should be. We have a donor class that gets their legislation through regardless of what the people say.

Why should I support that?

originally posted by: queenofswords
a reply to: Aazadan

I agree that one million dollars is not a huge amount over a lifetime. But, if you ever reach that figure (I know, you're 35 and getting a late start and all that), I hope you appreciate how your fellow taxpayers that launched on time, worked hard, started a business, advanced up the corporate ladder, all while making some sacrifices along their way, are the ones that got you there. They may not get there, but they helped you. But, you seem like the type that will think you did it all on your own because you knew how to milk the system.

Where have I ever said I've done anything on my own? I'm aware of who has helped me and how much. I don't consider a single thing I've ever done in my life to be a solo achievement. From school to something as simple as making the cup of coffee I'm drinking right now.

We've argued this point in the past (with you taking a radically different position) because I said I happen to believe in the concept of "You didn't build that".

originally posted by: TheRedneck
a reply to: Aazadan

Not backpedeling at all.

Bull popsicles!

TheRedneck

It's not my fault you made incorrect assumptions.

a reply to: TheRedneck

Strange, a few months ago you were absolutely convinced of my credentials because of explaining truth tables and how some software was achieving very high performance with image recognition because it was all built using bitwise operators in a post in the science/technology forum.

Now you disbelieve me because of a political disagreement? I guess it's easier to think people are lying rather than that they've also looked into an issue and come to a different conclusion? The truth is, since the whole Moore thing, you've gone off the deep end. Remember that post a couple weeks ago where you said you were going to retreat to your bunker and become an enemy of the state if Moore was denied being a Senator?

a reply to: Aazadan

I have lots of appreciation, appreciation doesn't mean I have to go along with what I think are bad ideas though.

You appreciate nothing. You comprehend very little.

You keep asking why should you have less than what you want? Maybe because others have accepted less than what they want so you could be helped. Others have given you a hand up (according to your posts), and you repay them with contempt, disgust, and demands for more.

Ungrateful, contemptible, self-centered, egotistical, self-entitled, spoiled...

The country is seriously morally bankrupt, we have a President...

Oh, we are definitely morally bankrupt! You prove that with every single post. As for the rest of that... every single thing you just posted is unproven and a lie. You couldn't prove a single word of it. Oh, I'm sure you can find an article online that makes similar accusations; I could find one that says the planet is flat if I wanted to. But that's not proof... it's the ravings of a spoiled brat who has nothing but fantasies to contribute and is throwing a hissy fit like a three-year-old.

TheRedneck

originally posted by: TheRedneck
The time value of money.

If I wanted to have, say, 50K a year for retirement (a decent goal around here), a million dollars would supply that for eternity. All I would need is a 5% annual return on investment, which is not that hard to achieve.

That also applies to retirement savings. If one has time to invest for a long period, the real monetary advantage is the time, not the amount. Interest piles up over the years, compounding as it goes.

TheRedneck

Inflation will devalue that 50k each year. I don't know about you, but I expect to live well into my 120's or later due to modern medicine, especially if we can ever upload ourselves to machines. That's not viable on $1 million. $1 million is for people who want to die early and die broke.

a reply to: Aazadan

Strange, a few months ago you were absolutely convinced of my credentials because of explaining truth tables and how some software was achieving very high performance with image recognition because it was all built using bitwise operators in a post in the science/technology forum.

I gave you the benefit of the doubt. But you're right; that was a mistake.

Now you disbelieve me because of a political disagreement?

No, I disbelieve you because you refuse to accept evidence, refuse to show the slightest appreciation for those who have helped you, and have made incorrect statement after incorrect statement.

When you showed me you could not handle simple calculations, yet called yourself an engineer, that sealed the deal for me. You're either a liar or the most incompetent example of an 'engineer' imaginable.

Congratulations! You pulled the wool over my eyes. You're not the first and you won't be the last.

TheRedneck

a reply to: Aazadan

... I expect to live well into my 120's or later due to modern medicine, especially if we can ever upload ourselves to machines.

Not even familiar with the state of the art in your own field... sad...

TheRedneck

originally posted by: TheRedneck
a reply to: Aazadan

... I expect to live well into my 120's or later due to modern medicine, especially if we can ever upload ourselves to machines.

Not even familiar with the state of the art in your own field... sad...

TheRedneck

How is that my field?