Why government needs to be able to turn the wrench both ways

[Econoline]

All of our SS contributions will go, pfft, along with our last breaths.

...and along with all the automobile, homeowner's, and health insurance premiums you've been paying.

[oldr_n_wsr]

All of our SS contributions will go, pfft, along with our last breaths.

...and along with all the automobile, homeowner's, and health insurance premiums you've been paying.

You don't get those back anyway, unless you have an "accident". Maybe his estate can get the value of hte bike.

[Econoline]

Uh, that was sorta the point.

I'm not worried that no one will get that money after I die, any more than I am about the SS taxes I've paid.

And I'd like to second Meade's thanks to dgs for his (and his wife's?) altruism and generosity to future Social Security recipients!

[Lord Jim]

Well, when you have that motorcycle accident, make make sure you make a good job of it Dave...

I don't want you lying around living the good life as a quadraplegic at taxpayer expense....

[oldr_n_wsr]

My suggestion is a bridge ubuttment that has no crash barriers. That would be my choice. Of course my wife would never get on the back of my MC, so I would be doing a solo gig, and she would get any insurance that would pertain to me being dead.

[Lord Jim]

And don't forget Dave, that when you decide to do that Jackson Pollack number with your body on the bridge abutment, it will be taxpayer funded, unionized state employees who will be paid to scrape you up and hose down the mess....

[Lord Jim]

if we would have decreased the tax rate to 5% for everyone the economy would have taken off so explosively that the government would have plenty of money, and we could have paid off the national debt.

That's a bit facile, Econo...

Of course The Law Of Diminishing Returns cranks in, (just as it would if we put the tax rate to 99%, hoping to raise more money that way...)

Determining the "Goldilocks zone" (or for those with some background in College level philosophy, the "Aristotelian Mean" ) level of taxation, is an inexact science...

But as I've said, I don't believe that raising top rates from 35 to 39, (or to 37 or 38) would break the back of the economy....

And agreement on that point would be worth reaching, if it was part of an overall package that also addresses spending.

[Gob]

The US added 146,000 jobs in November, official data shows, as the economy seemingly shrugged off storm Sandy.

The unexpectedly strong performance brought the unemployment rate down to a four-year low of 7.7% of the workforce.

The jobs figure was well above most analysts' expectations and continued a recent surge that began in July.

Weekly benefits data registered a sharp but short-lived jump in the number claiming unemployment benefits in the states ravaged by the storm last month.

"Our analysis leads us to conclude that Hurricane Sandy did not substantively impact the national employment and unemployment estimates for November," said John Galvin, acting commissioner at the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS), which produced the jobs report.

The jobs survey data for the individual states - which can be used by analysts to determine what effect, if any, the storm had - will not be released until 21 December.

[oldr_n_wsr]

And if you add up all those who have exhausted their benefits and given up looking for work the rate is what? 15%, 10%, 19%? Certainly much higher than 7.7%. Plus, here in the NY area, you have a bunch of construction workers who now are back at work thanks to Sandy. Temp work at best, but much of construction is that way.

[rubato]

All of our SS contributions will go, pfft, along with our last breaths.

...and along with all the automobile, homeowner's, and health insurance premiums you've been paying.

Most pension benefits &c.

yrs,
rubato