Maggie's FarmWe are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for. |
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Monday, April 13. 2009The $250,000 Club: It's a Martini Party, not a Tea PartyGiving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. P.J. O'Rourke The Martini Parties are a spontaneous grassroot national movement of the comfortable, but far from rich, edge of the American middle class. We believe that all working Americans should pay income taxes, and not just the upper 50%. We're the folks who pay the bulk of the American taxes - lawyers, doctors, dentists, engineers, accountants and financial planners, small businessmen, managers, architects, pilots, ship captains, small-town stockbrokers, insurance agents, corporate VPs, B-school profs, consultants, medium-sized farmers, entrepreneurs, contractors, etc., etc. (The very highly-paid need not join and, of course, most household incomes of over $250 include two working adults.) Our plan, designed over Easter brunch, is to figure out how to get our taxable incomes under Obama's $250,000 tax increase. It's a contest and a game. Since we already pay most of America's bills, we figure we are already doing our part and paying our fair share of the dues. So our Yankee-based Movement is this: Get a group of friends together and hire some planners and accountants, and figure out a way to get yourself below the bar - even if it means donating more than 10% of your income to your charities (although they are trying to eliminate those deductions too), increasing your mortgage (although they are trying to reduce that loophole too), putting money in trusts, reducing one's charges for loyal clients - or plain old working less. Let's all of us prosperous non-wealthy do the Limbo Rock and get under the bar - even if it means that we work less and play more like the lazy Europeans - more boating, golf, tennis, fishin', hangin' out in cafes drinkin', and shootin' and huntin' - and more vacation time with less expensive vacations. I ain't slaving for 36-43 cents on the dollar (which is where I would end up after Fed taxes, CT income taxes in which the marginal rate covers all income if you make over 250, and property taxes. I am patriotic, but not stupid. I do not want to be a victim of plunder. I also tithe to church and charities, but that doesn't count: it's voluntary. And if I end up poor, no doubt the government will take good care of me.
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This would be worth doing just to hear the howls of outrage from the left...how dare one not work for the good of the country, aka obama and the shiftless left.
B, i grew up in, and most of my family lives in, the heart of the entrepreneurial end of the oil patch, SW Louisiana. Hundreds --thousands --of small biz tech specialists across the belt from Lafayette, Morgan City, Houston, Corpus Christi, are "spoolin' it up andgoin' to the house' as the old oil patch expression puts it. Lots of these guys came up through the ranks and in their 30s give or take, start their own shops and do one single task bettern than anybody else more or less. Ten or twenty hard, bust-ass years later they've got a dozen or three hands (employees) in their 20s, married with children.
These guys are quitting, or gonna quit. It's the new marginal rates, and thye special punitives aimed at oil. Guys who paying 55% taxes already are looking at 70% and just saying to hell with it. With a half dozed foreign capitals just droolin for the next chance to bust oiil back to 150, 200, 300 --a tax policy gutting our domestic infastructure is worse than ordinary Democratic idiocy --it's so inline with the Kremlin's fondest dreams ("Making America Green --and Energyless"), I don't see where it's not treasonous. And once those oil patch guys are gone, they are gone. It's like nuclear techs and dam engineers and naval architects and all the rest. You can't put them in a bell jar and revive them in 20 or 30 years. By then, when you do need them you will pay some Chinese company to do it for you - cause you can't do it yourself.
And it isn't just domestically. It is amazing to see the Chinese in Africa. They are doing what Bechtel and KBR and those guys used to do. The Canadians and South Africans, Aussies, Brits and a few French give them some competition, but Yanks are pretty thin on the ground. Funny thing is that it seems like many people do not appreciate the expertise, smarts, personality types, and skills that these jobs require. It's not like you can just hand those jobs to anybody. Bridge engineer? Surgeon?
found a pretty clever twitter
http://twitter.com/ourenemy it’s from the point of view of the state, kinda funny thought you might enjoy it :) Making so much money that you are in the Government's tax crosshairs. It would be nice to have such a problem. You all ought to try living on nothing for years on end. You wouldn't be feeling so sorry for yourselves.
I expected more than one comment like that. We aren't asking for pity - just trying to be intelligent about things.
But just consider: Would you work for 38 cents on the dollar? Agreed that income taxes are bad and getting worse, but why the resignation as if income taxes are inevitable? Taxes, sure. Income taxes? Impossible...largely because income is not wealth and it sets us up for a "bait and switch" of colassal proportions...on april 15th..
If we were to switch to a consumption based tax, as suggested by the fair tax, it would be very fair in that the taxpayer would not pay on what they earn and save but on what they spend. Don't want to pay taxes? Don't consume so much. May I suggest something to those of you who belong to the $250,000 Club? Is there a way for you to keep track of what you're making during the year [of course there is -- Quicken, among other things] and when you are approaching $250,000, move on to a barter system? Barter is one of the oldest and best ways to fly under the radar of the intrusive government tax agencies. Of course, you might have to prepare a sort of sales brochure to list your specialties. But that's easier than ever before, thanks to computers.
Marianne Moving to Afghanistan or Somalia ought to get yall down where yall need to be.
Good luck, yanks. Miss Marianne yall have to digress into outlawry to not declare bartering "income".
IRS says, Bartering is an exchange of property or services. You must include in your income, at the time received, the fair market value of property or services you receive in bartering. For additional information, Refer to Tax Topic 420 - Bartering Income and Barter Exchanges. Now, don't yall go gettin' yallself arrested, girl. Leag ... I've never claimed to be perfect, nor perfectly honest. It's more of a "you do zis to me, I do zat to you" thing. If the gummint is determined to take enormous amounts of my hard-earned money, then I'm entitled to figure out ways to skirt around some of the taking. In a modest way, of course.
Barter is a very old and time-honored way of avoiding confiscatory taxes. And Lord knows, this tax plan on the part of the Democrats is confiscatory unto the third generation. I don't think I can be arrested for suggesting it [yet] because folks are going to be doing it, whether I suggest it or not. Marianne Glad that yall are only suggesting outlawry for others.
Me thinks, i'll pass on this time honored tradition of outlawry. |
Tea Parties all over. Martini Parties too, but in private I suppose. Photo from Ann Arbor. Map of today's Parties: Lots of 'em. Also, Why you should go to one. LAT: Tea Parties are insane. Tea parties are about future taxes: Q&O. Each
Tracked: Apr 16, 07:18