Archie Kobain

And I shot it in the middle
And it, it drove me out of my mind
I should have known better
Said I wish I never met her
Said I, I leave it all behind

Yowsa!

Violence on Television
You know, I’m not usually one to complain about what gets put on the airwaves.  My philosophy is that, if you don’t want to watch it – turn the channel or, better yet, turn it off.  But it’s getting a little ridiculous. Just the other day, I turn on the LEDs – it really incorrect to say “tube” these days – and there is live coverage of an old man beating the crap out of a little kid.  I was about to call the police or the FBI or somebody, but it turns out that it was the Vice Presidential debate.

You know, the worst part about today’s political process is the avalanche of twisted truths that the two parties constantly throw at each other to try and confuse the public into seeing things their way.  The interesting part to me is that, these are not stupid people.  So when they throw these things out there, they must know that they are purposely misguiding the public. It’s seriously disgusting.

Actual Actuality
One thing that always gets me is the idea that by taxing the rich, as if there were that many rich people, we could solve the country’s financial crisis.  Then they all talk about the number of American who pay no income tax, which is different, by the way, from American who do not file tax returns.  Well, jeez…  I thought if you didn’t tax taxes, you went to jail?  Not always.

First of all, in some not-too-outdated document that I read (sorry for the lack of details), there was an estimated 42 million American living at or below the poverty level.  These people do not pay taxes because they don’t make enough.  Senior citizens, living exclusively off Social Security also have no taxable income and, in many cases, do not have to file a return. That’s a lot of people – but that doesn’t make all of these people mooches or tax evaders.

Then there’s the thing about lower income people paying a higher percentage of taxes.  Well, it turns out that this is many times true.  Particularly when you weigh in state and local taxes.  Somewhere (again – I think it was USA Today) I read that in Alabama, if you make $13K per year, you spend about 11% of that on state & local taxes, where if you made $230K, you only spend about 4% on state & local taxes.

OK.  So there are two things to note here.  First, these are state and local taxes, not federal taxes.  Next, the above figures only make sense.  State and local taxes are mostly basic usage taxes.  So for example, if you only have $4 to you name and you buy milk for $2 – you could say that you spend 50% of your money on milk.  On the other hand, a guy with $100 will buy the same $2 milk and he’s only spending 2% of his money.  And guess what, we can’t charge rich people more for milk.  We already charge them more for the houses they live in, and the cars they drive, and the trips they take, and the seats they sit in on airplanes.

It’s also important to understand that when people talk about paying federal taxes, they mostly mean income taxes.  So if you have twenty million dollars under your mattress but you didn’t work last year and you made no income – you don’t have to pay income tax. If you’re a frat boy, living large at an Ivy League college and driving around in your Porsche 911, while mommy and daddy pay all your bills, you don’t have to pay income tax.

But hey…  Blame the game, not the players.

So, more or less, that takes care of the people not paying taxes.
Now I have to break my silence about The Two Yo-Yos. Because this really pisses me off!

We should tax the crap out of Romney, right?
There are a few little words that Obama throws in, whenever he brings up the fact that Romney only paid 14% on his $20M income last year.  These are very important words.  He always says, “that’s the Capital Gains tax rate”.

Does anyone know what that is?
Most American don’t pay capital gains tax.  Capital gains is what you pay when you sell a business or sell investments, and it’s paid on the difference between your basis (what you paid for it) and what you sold it for.  So, for example, if you buy a business for $1M and sell it years later for $3M, you have to pay capital gains tax on the $2M that you are making on that transaction.

So, here is what makes President Obama so out of touch with small business.  Every time that he asks, “why should Mitt Romney only pay 14% in taxes, while you pay 25% or 30%?”  he’sw comparing payroll taxes to capital gains taxes.  And here’s what he doesn’t get…

Let’s pretend that some entrepreneur , not completely unlike me, decides to start a business.  He’s a young punk with very little money or credit but decided to move forward anyway.  So, on a shoe string, armed with a credit card (with a $2500 limit), he launches his business.  Every business statistic on the planet says that he’ll probably fail in the first two years.  During these first two years, however, he works hard and takes home very little money. At some point he calculates how much money he’s making for the hours that he’s putting in and laughs that he’s averaging 15 cents per hour.

But wait, the IRS dictates that small business owners need to take a fair salary and pay payroll taxes, even if the company isn’t making money.  OK, so…  Before even being ready or making money, the government is making sure they get theirs.

The small business person makes it work.  He survives the first few years and slowly starts to make more money.  He sees his friends only working 8 hours or less per day while the small business person works his ass off – and doesn’t necessarily get twp weeks of vacation per year, because even when he’s on vacation, he’s back at work.  Most people separate themselves from the finances of where they work, they just want their paycheck.  The small business person doesn’t sleep at night thinking about finances, after all – he’s responsible for keeping a bunch of people employed.

So let’s say that, for years, this small business person keeps up the fight, now he’s making some money, paying payroll taxes just like you and keeping others employed.  Now there’s an economic downturn and shit hits the fan.  As a small business person, everything is at risk.  Now let’s say that he needs a little extra cash to keep the business going and keep everyone employed.  The small business person goes to see his banker and is essentially laughed out the door.  He is told, “a few years ago I could have helped you”.

That translates to, “in order to protect the public, the Obama administration passed a whole bunch of new banking laws that prevent us from loaning money to those who need it”.

So the small business owner has to make a decision:  Do I close my doors or risk all that I’ve made so far?  Answer: The small business person goes home and takes money out of his IRAs or 401K, pays penalties for taking that money and put his personal future at risk again – but the business survives and his employees stay working.

Remember, during all of this time, he is taking payroll and paying payroll taxes – just like you.

Now, after say – 10 or more long years, the small business person decided to sell his business.  He’s worked hard and now his business is worth a million bucks!  A let’s say that he had started this business, as described above for little or no money, so his cost basis is $0.  This means he has to pay capital gains taxes on the whole $1M.

So President Obama is saying that now, after all of this – I guess since he thinks the small business person didn’t really build his business, the government did – he should have to pay 25% to 30% of that to the government, just as if it were payroll taxes.

So after years of hard work, putting others to work, paying payroll taxes every step of the way, putting everything at risk, and getting little or no help financially from anyone, President Obama thinks that a 14% capital gains tax isn’t enough.  So now that small business guy sells his business for $1M and Obama wants $300K from him.

Is it disrespectful to say “fuck you” to the president of the United States?
Probably.  OK, so then I won’t do it.

The Silence Resumes
So, as you may remember, I am ready to look past the election.  After all, one of The Two Yo-Yos are going to win and really, really – not much will change.  We need to start working on the things that really matter, like getting money out of politics.

Well, I found this website that was highly entertaining and on point.
It’s called The Story of Stuff Project:  http://www.storyofstuff.org/

If you’ve been reading my reading my “stuff”, I think this video will hit home.
I probably couldn’t have put it together better myself.

Here’s The Story of Citizens United…

And with that, my friends, and a quick Red Head of the Week…

Redhead of the Week

…we end another broadcast day.

See ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya.

– Arch