Money Matters - Part 8

hope not

I think they are overhyping the 'good news' of black Friday. To me it's a sign that people are desperate for large discounts.

Wonder if we'll get any Black Friday stats on percentage of purchases by cash as opposed to credit?

What to watch for is follow-through for the rest of the season and profit margins.

We (my half-sister and I who share this house) have NO credit cards anymore. Sometimes it's tough, but in the long run we don't run up a debt load we cannot afford to pay off, so she and I both avoided the Black Friday Mania. We do have a neighbor who will lend us cash money for emergency repairs if we cannot cover them, and we pay her interest. Haven't needed to do that much, and usually it's just for a few weeks.

There's a lot to be said for having no mortgage and no credit card debt. Even at that, the insurance, utilities and home taxes are killers.

Yes they are.

Its frightening how much it costs to live a 'moderate' life in the Baltimore Wash area, similar to much of East Coast, and I suppose not as bad as So California

I hear you loud and clear, Sally.

Market going crazy over the latest 'good news on Europe'. Bad part is - now WE are helping bail them out. It never ends. Market only sees immediate effects. Greed and fear. Never changes.

Who's gonna bail us out?

The 99% like usual.

I need to vent, gas went up $.30 monday afternoon after being @ $2.99 all weekend!

Gee - gas has gone down to $ 3.69 here.

Would you define "the 99%" for me, please?

Ouch jumper2....Ouch Yankee cat! That's DOWN?

darius, I suspect ''all of us'' ; anyone who doesn't break into a cold sweat when they start chanting Tax the Rich!

Not really, Sally - at least not the way it's been used lately. Has much more to do with political affiliation than net worth.

Thanks for clarifying but that confuses me. Maybe the 99 percent who are not well connected to the power? Still, since we shouldn't get into politics here, I'll leave it at that and look elsewhere.

A casual look at which rich people have been appearing at the Occupy 'events', or explicitly backing them should give a hint. Also - a relevant fact to keep in mind. 50% of the so-called 99% pay NO federal tax.

Thanks for further info, esp that last little tidbit. Cripes.

Close, Victor. Actually 47% of all Americans pay no income tax. (That includes children.) I'm one of the 47% because I draw a social security amount that's below the poverty level, and have no other income nor holdings. Oh, I DID have some investments, but the change in social security payouts just before I retired left me high and dry, and living off my investments until they were gone.

Actually, it's 51%, D. Low income retirees should not have to pay. But anyone who is working, and retirees with more income should pay. There are a significant number of people in the 50-70K income range who pay nothing. That is ridiculous.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/05/51-of-americans-pay-no-federal-income-taxes/238329/

I agree that there are too many loopholes, allowing those with higher and higher incomes to avoid taxes... sometimes avoiding them altogether.

According to Wikipedia, 27.3% of the US population is under 20 and 12.8% is over 65. Unemployment is hovering about 9% (assuming that is working age adults, the other 59.91% not in the classes above) which is about 5% of the population. Yep - that is very close to 47%. All I can say is thank goodness for the military and all the jobs it provides!

But nothing is worse than politicians in important economic/tax/financial positions who get away with tax evasion.

Cat - the current 51% not paying is the highest percentage EVER. We have had higher unemployment rates in the past.

What is the current percentage of people over 65? I will bet it is bigger than is has ever been in the past. (Us baby boomers are getting up there, you know.) Also I bet there are more people living in poverty than ever before.

Just sayin' that using the number 51% WITHOUT saying what it includes is purposeful miscommunication.

I'll go out on a limb and say most people would probably assume that children and retirees don't pay Fed tax. Maybe I'm wrong. What IS purposeful miscommunication, or outright lying, is saying that the upper people are paying less than they have in the past when they are in FACT paying much more. (They refer to rates without mentioning who pays what percentage of total - in other words, tax burden share) It is also deceitful to say that the top 1% is somehow holding back the other 99%. This country has always been - at least until recently - a bootstrap nation. No one gave me anything. No one gave my wife anything. We both are from LOWER middle class families. Apartment living our whole upbringing. No vacations. We both earned scholarships to go to school and we majored in something that actually was needed in society - not psychology, sociology or gender studies. When we applied for our mortgage in '96, banks were already under pressure by the government and were employing all types of strange tactics trying to entice you into risky products. I said no thanks and got a boring old fixed rate mortgage after scrimping for five years to get a down payment. These are the stories NOT being heard.

This message was edited Dec 1, 2011 3:29 PM

Did not mean to imply that psychology and sociology are not needed. But there has been a glut of those majors for decades. When I took the GREs in 1987, the proctor told us that more than half of the people taking the exam were psych majors.

Hey, maybe the gov't should hire 10,000 more psychologists rather than the 10,000 planned attorneys this year?

Can't be any worse. Would LOVE a no-lawyer rule for Congress.

How many would be left?

Only a handful, I would guess. I will start a new thread later when I am back to the computer.

New thread.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1232171/