And, do you have any idea what it takes to get one of them? I do. I tried it. "Absolutely fantastic concept. But, you have to invest $xx,xxx.xx of your own money first." I invested everything I had... Not enough. So, today, the consumer is not being saved more than $3 billion a year, nation-wide. Not to mention what business could be saving each year. On the other hand, if I had not been paying it in taxes, I might have been able to get it off the ground. And I am not the only one.

Isn't it funny? If we didn't have the tax burden, the little guy would be able to keep up with financial matters and the bailouts would not be needed.

Years ago, there used to be "Farm Subsidies". It helped the farmers to keep a decent income, while keeping down the cost of food for the consumers. That came to an end, and quite a number of farmers went out of business. Then food prices started to climb. Oh, yeah. Your tax dollars at work.

 

Space had been a dream of private enterprise until Kennedy. The space program was one of his initiatives. Before that, it was private enterprise that was doing the research to give the government someplace to start.

 

you are both wrong, Ralph Kramden was the first one to send a person to the moon

 

then move to a reservation, great life they have there..

Thanx to the united States government people around the world still give it money so that it can be transferable to the economy. If our government was small no one would buy our treasures. Current debt of 12 trillion is whats financing the economy and without it you would not have as many loads to haul. Now, debt isnt good and we can all start another conversation about it but, blaming president Obama for the expansion of our government and our current problems is like pissing against the wind.

So why arent we all prosper and such after bush gave us all of those tax refunds and tax breaks.

What about all of those buisiness that were created around the housing and still are? How about military? GM builds Hummer, Boeing airplanes..





No its not. Economy is being strangled because Americans spent money they didnt have, buying things they cannot afford with the credit they shouldn't not have. Dont blame the taxes for that.

You dont need a better example than the roads you are driving on.

Nowhere in the world can you complete the 3000 miles coast to coast trip in 2-3 days with a truck, thats unheard of but you didnt know that did you?

Thats why i said that people need to get out more and see things from another prospective instead of criticizing everything thats is being done.

 

Haven't you heard? HUMMER is no more. GM shipped it to the "round file".

Funny. I keep on hearing the "parrots" repeating things that are being fed to the news media about "bad loans". But how come no one is talking about the loans that are close to "term" and then went into default? They were not "bad loans" when they were first made. They went bad twenty years later. Why?

And, what prospective would that be? The one where we give ALL our income to the government and clear off the national debt?

People don't have enough money now, so raise the taxes some more, and let them have even less. Then complain that they don't spend and that's causing the economy to go down the tubes even farther. You want a vicious circle?

 

At one time our income tax rates were higher than today. But, we also had quite a few things that could be deducted that are no longer allowed. For instance, thirty years ago we could deduct most interest we paid on credit cards and other credit. Today, about the only interest that can be deducted is for education and mortgages. Credit card interest is no longer deductible for most individuals. The high tax rates didn't really affect most Americans since most of us were not in the highest income brackets. It is mostly the additional taxes that have been added since that time that is killing our standard of living. Having a lot of gadgets and toys doesn't not necessarily raise our standard of living. Our money purchased more thirty years ago than it does today.

It is fuel taxes that have built our infrastructure, such as our roads. Many states have actually robbed their highway funds to pay for other programs. The advantage of using highway taxes for funding highway construction and maintenance is that the ones using the highways are paying for their construction and maintenance. And Hobo, you are correct about the freeways originally being constructed for military transport. You are not correct in the construction of the atomic bomb. German scientists were working on the development of the bomb during WWII. It was an American scientist named Oppenheimer who actually is credited with it's development. German scientists did come to the U.S. and Russia after the war and were instrumental in the expansion of the space program in both the U.S. and Russia. It was funded by tax dollars, but pushed by private enterprise. Out of our space program came many inventions such as microwave ovens and digital readouts. If you want to find out about some of the benefits we gained from the space program you might want to visit the Space Museum in Huntsville, AL. It is amazing how many products we use today that got their start in our space program.

By the way, Dejanh, I believe GM had to sell their Hummer division during the bailout. It is a shame. I understand that they had a very large market in the Middle East.

 

I was just told a couple of days ago that GM did not sell the whole thing off. They did sell considerable shares of HUMMER. But, as of this year, they will not be building them anymore. And, there are a few other products they've cut from their line. Don't remember what all they were. I think Saturn was one of them, too.

 

Think about it for a few minutes...

In the last quarter of 09, productivity went up by 6.9%. So, companies are producing more. But, at the same time, LABOR costs went down by 5.9%. So, how do you get labor costs down? I believe I read somewhere, some time ago, that you are not allowed to reduce wages. You can cut the cost of insurance premiums by going to a different health plan for employees, but I've never heard of a plan that cuts the cost by that much. How about reducing the number of employees? It suggests that while companies are starting to produce more, people are still losing their jobs. What kind of turn-around is that?

For that matter, if wages are being reduced, let's go back to what I was just talking about. People don't have enough money to cover their costs now, and cutting the wages won't do them any good at all. That's not a gain.
Households left behind as productivity surges - Stocks & economy- msnbc.com

 

Try again, GMAN. Oppenheimer WAS called the "father of the atomic bomb," but he was just the Scientific Director of the Manhattan Project. About HALF of the scientists actually doing the work were Germans, including Teller who was called "the father of the Hydrogen Bomb."

You can read about Oppenheimer's LIMITED and administrative involvement here:

J. Robert Oppenheimer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And you can read about the German scientists, their contributions, and the years that they came to the U.S. here:

Exodus of Scientists - The Race to Build the Atomic Bomb

Use the scroll bar to see all of them to the right of the page.

 

I thought I read or heard somewhere that Clinton did just the opposite, so I went looking.

and sure enough

He lowered taxes except for the very wealthy.