You actually dont know what the anthem protests are about, do you?
I do. A bunch of spoiled brats who have been blessed and lucky beyond belief, but yet āfeels the painā of people they never met as if they have themselves have experienced any kind of real oppression. Have them join the Venezuelan football team and live in true oppression and then tell me how unfair America is.
People in this country have no fucking clue what oppression and unfairness is. They are spoiled silly brats.
The key to understanding your situation is to experience something way worse and far more common. Then you get the prespective you need to understand what oppression really isā¦ and under true oppression, there is no āmicro agressionsā just opression.
Understand it not at your own folly.
Venezuelans know nothing of oppression. Have them joint he DPRK soccer team.
DPRK knows nothing of oppression. have them talk to a jew living in germany in 1945ā¦ etc.
A situation doesnt have to be the worst situation ever for it to be wrong, and for people to want to change it. Or do you actually think that none of those football players have ever faced discrimination or oppression?
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And my thought on a higher capital gains rate is simply not to āpunish the richā but mainly to replace revenue lost from lower income tax rates. That said, the investing class has had their druthers in tax policy for a long while now - in light of how we need now to incent productivity (and basic entrepreneurship, business creation), itās time they pay a higher portion and we ease the burden on the ādoersā.
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Oh, and I wanted to address this specifically - a great point, on which we generally agree. The problem is all classes arenāt owning the means of production broadly through capital markets. They can in theory, but in reality they have a number of barriers in their way.
One? To invest you first have to save money over and above consumption. With the necessities of life becoming expensive (at a per annum rate higher than the rate of return on the market), thereās less and less to build wealth with. To add insult to injury, wages havenāt nudged (in real terms) in forever, so consumption is getting more and more expensive, leaving no savings, meaning no investment, meaning no ownership of the means of production.
There are lots of other aggravating factors as well. A big part of achieving the goal we both want is entrepreneurship - but thatās being choked off, as the pathways close down.
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Are we talking about the President; his Family, and much of his Cabinet?
I used to share that opinion, that the lower and middle income folks were caught in a sort of inescapable consumption trap and they had no hope of escape.
Iād like to direct you to the Mr. Money Mustache blog. He and his wife worked normal jobs (80k & 60k) bought a $400k house in Colorado and still managed to retire by 30 years old. They live on less than $25k/year, they eat organic meats and veggies and take 3 vacations a year and never touch the principle balance on their investments (4% rule). He even has a failed spec building business that slowed him down.
You might be thinking āthatās impossible!ā, but there are dozens of families that achieved financial independence on less income sharing their stories on that site. Itās about lifestyle design and thinking before you spend ādoes this fit my goals?ā
You donāt need NFL Sunday ticket, the latest iPhone, restaurant meals and a $50k car to function in modern society.
Full disclosure: I absolutely blew up my financial situation when I raided my 401k to fund my then successful business only to lose it all when the feds shut me down (donāt do that!). Iām working toward FI slowly but surely. Just with a longer time horizon than Iād hoped.
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I mostly agree with you, generally, but these arenāt normal jobsā¦ iirc the median household income is like $55k in the US. Not $140K.
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Again agreed. They have single moms on there with no degree, retired by 50 with a paid for house and able to travel. Thatās like 20 years early if you ask the average latte buying/big spending middle class person.
I wasnāt saying everyone could exactly copy the guy/gal that started the website. Just that financial independence can happen for middle/lower classes.
Sure, itās possible, but letās look at it big picture. If everyone all of a sudden stopped buying latteās how many jobs will be lost? If people stop buying the newest iPhone how many of Appleās 50k employees are laid off? If we stop buying $50k cars (I wish, lol) how many jobs are lost at x manufacturer and y dealership?
Itās a bit of a catch-22.
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Not really. Consumerism wont die if .5% of the population that cares about Financial Independence decides not to buy things they consider dumb. Nearly everyone else will go right on competing with the Jones complaining that they have to work till they die and that SS doesnāt pay enough while they save 5.7% of their income.
That cash wouldnāt just disappear either. You can only do 2 things with money: spend or invest. So if every American family started saving 20% instead of 5% thereād be a flood of capital into the markets for companies to undertake new projects with.
Itās like arguing that families shouldnāt pay off credit card debt carried at 20% because it would hurt VISA. Obviously VISA will be fine.
Delayed gratification and making/executing a plan is not popular. Thatās why thereās so many crash diets and BS supplements in the fitness industry. Spending less than you make wonāt catch on.
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Thatās your opinion and thatās fine, but the first thing companies do when EBIT is down is look at cost savings measures and one of the first areas they look is headcount. Long-term itās not smart, but itās an effective short-term stop-loss measure.
My point is, what youāre advocating canāt happen on a large scale the way our economy currently operates. The economy would undoubtedly contract.
So, the idea that anyone can do it (save/retire early), while true, is also a fantasy on a large scale.
Like I said, big picture.
Sure; except, sales revenue is down because people are saving their money instead of buying goods/services.
If theyāre investing (flooding the market), returns are likely going to be down because profits are likely down.
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FTR, Iām not arguing switching back to a savings first mentality is a bad thing or that it isnāt do-able long-term, but it would require a substantial change in how our economy currently operates, serious growing pains, and a monumental shift in expectations, both micro and macro.
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I can follow the logic, Iām just not sure it will help. How does one account for lowered investment velocity for new businesses? In other words, if you put cap gains up to 37% like top bracket income there is going to be a LOT less investment in New business creation because most new businesses fail. Venture and Angel firms are looking to make 5-7x the investment back in 5-7 years, specifically to offset the high risk (and rate) of business failures.
Making it more difficult to recover that risk doesnāt help new businesses access capital imho, because it will tighten the reins on what investment firms will go into. A bit like the banking credit crunch we are just coming out of.
Incentivizing entrepreneurship and new business creation is a worthy goal I agree with. I donāt see a stick being the way to do itāI would rather see a carrot.
This I agree with. No long game ever does, otherwise everyone would be Arnold.
Trumps in PR todayā¦ Prediction he keeps trying to convince the folk hes doing a great job and new jobs gold nuggets and wildest dreams will come trueā¦
Meanwhile in reality Rapper Fat Joe does more for Puerto Rico then Fat Donald
I see your point, but I think too many variables interrupt the (assumed) linear relationship between tax rates on ROI. And data bear this out - as I recall, real business investment doesnāt track with the ups and downs of the capital gains rate (Iāll see if I can dig up that chart). And of course, Warren Buffett is famous for saying that tax rates on investments donāt drive investorsā investment decisions - and I think that makes sense (up to a point) because an extra 17 cents lost on the dollar invested are not dealbreakers except for people worried about breaking even (which most early investors are not).
I think business opportunities drive investment more than relative tax rates, so I worry less about investment being chilled by tax rate increases.
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A situation needs perspective. Thatās the point. If your hunting for wrongs, you will find them. We are all humans and people make mistakes, donāt always do, due diligence, etc. Blowing things out of proportion helps no one. Things may be wrong, they always will be. We should strive for perfection and yet understand we will never get there.
If have to drill down to micro-aggression, where you have to search and interperate to find the wrong, your situation is not that bad and the problem may not be the situation, it may be youā¦
Them too.
Iām not Arnold yet but reading the New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding so I will probably be him in two years.
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