Cost of Education

April 13, 2011 by Mike 2 Comments

Read in the paper this morning that a school district in Maine is giving iPads to each enrolling kindergartner. Yes, that’s kindergartner. They’re getting the $700 models. I think I’ll go back to school.

No wonder the cost per student in the US is around 10 grand each.

As The Curtain Lifts

July 31, 2010 by Mike

I read in this morning’s The Villages Daily Sun that there is a move afoot in Congress to repeal the part of the health care law that requires all businesses to file paperwork on all of their vendors from whom they buy $600.00 goods or services in a year. Small businesses are up in arms because of the expense and massive amount of paperwork required to accomplish this. Democrats and Republicans are both in favor of repealing this section of the health care law.

It was allegedly incorporated originally to collect $19 billion of estimated unpaid taxes. $19 billion to help “pay” for the bill. That the health care bill would pay for itself was just plain incorrect. Now the curtain is being lifted.

Oh, Good. Another Bailout

December 9, 2009 by Mike

President Obama announced another bailout. It’s not likely to work, but he has to do something besides blame the “previous administration” for the economy.

Here’s why government spending won’t fix the economy: Government money has to come from somewhere.

Taxes. Taxes come from the economy in the first place, so the net effect of government spending from taxes is zero.
Borrowing. Sure that puts extra money in the economy, but because of the interest, each dollar spent is worth less than a dollar.
Printing. Each extra dollar printed reduces the value of all the dollars already in circulation. Thus, each dollar spent is worth less than a dollar.

Government spending doesn’t create new wealth or extra jobs, it just redistributes money from those who pay taxes (or loan the government money) to those who help politicians get elected. ¹I had a little help here from Glenn Beck’s Arguing With Idiots.

Footnotes[+]

Footnotes
↑1	I had a little help here from Glenn Beck’s Arguing With Idiots.

The Reason for Taxes

June 8, 2009 by Mike

“Remember, the reason government is funded by taxes is because it produces almost nothing that people will pay for willingly.” — Mark Hillman

Federal Income Taxes and You

April 17, 2008 by Mike

The Congressional Budget Office released the following figures: ¹Historical Effective Tax Rates: 1979-2005. Released December 2007

% of Population	Approx Annual Income	% of Tax Burden Paid
Top 1%	$1.3 M or more	38.8%
Top 20%	$512 K or more	86.3%
Top 40%	$58 K or more	99.4%
Bottom 60%	Less than $58 K	0.06%
Bottom 40%	Less than $37 K	0.00% ²Many in the category will get money “back” even though they paid no taxes.

Footnotes[+]

Footnotes
↑1	Historical Effective Tax Rates: 1979-2005. Released December 2007
↑2	Many in the category will get money “back” even though they paid no taxes.