The Scandanavian countires pay ± 50% in taxes!!!
Keith
we are far closer to the European socialist system than most people realize.
of course, you stop paying taxing, you’ll get three square meals a day, cable/satlelite TV and no tax burden for a number of years. Good luck with your roommate selection! :shocked
Didn’t you guys all know you were working for the government? You were all fooled into thinking we were working for other companies or for ourselves…Boy what a joke!
You do realize that tax breaks and section-8 gurantees are entitlements?
Tax breaks are not an entitlement. However, I would be happy if the government got rid of all entitlements (including Section 8).
Mike
I don’t see the difference, both are the government giving you money. You have to fill out paper work to get both. They both give people money they haven’t ‘earned’. ie “you are entitled to this tax break because you bought a house” renters don’t get the same appreciation from the government. If the government removed section 8 at the same time they removed the tax deductions on interest would you still want to be rid of section 8?
We often forget that when we criticize the poor, but the rich get more entitlements than the poor and they are a lot larger.
I don't see the difference, both are the government giving you money.
That’s absolutely wrong! With a tax deduction, the government isn’t “giving” me anything, they are just not “taking” as much of MY money. With entitlements, the government is often taking MY money and giving it to someone else who has done NOTHING to earn it. I think that’s a HUGE DIFFERENCE!
Mike
Ha. A pregnant, low income, young mom will get free or low cost: housing including utilities, food for herself & her baby, health insurance, more benefits for making more babies, college tuition/benefits … and more. What does the average mom get? Not any of that. Low income people get tons of benefits if they try to get them. People CHOOSE to be rich or poor. Unless you are handicapped mentally or physically, you have no excuse for living like a bum. I was once poorer than probably anyone on these message boards, living off $30 a month for food (just 10 years ago, not that long ago). I had raman noodles and raisin bran for food - thats it. I got my silveware from Taco Bell (no kidding). I was dirt poor and almost homeless. Now I’m on track to being a millionaire…hell, my business is NOW actually valued at more than a million but I don’t count that valuation (I think its more like $600k). Either way, I make a big six figure income per year and I chose NOT to be poor.
Sorry to derail thread a bit.
Motivated CEO, what’s your story? How did you get where u were 10 years ago living on 30$ and how did you get out of it?
Mike,
I know I won’t convince you so I won’t try. But the poor who game the system are working at gaming the system. That’s their “job”. I think its a poor use of time, but understand that you don’t just “get” your entitlements, as I am sure you know.
But you have to see the parallels when a tax accountant games the same system to get big returns, or tax breaks from the government. The poor wait inline , the rich hire lobbyist.
But I understand that the government sets up entitlements for both the rich and the poor. How do you not call a tax break on SUVs an entitlement for the automakers???
Jay
How do you not call a tax break on SUVs an entitlement for the automakers???
A tax break on SUVs, much like allowing depreciation on rental property, is SOCIALISM (the ownership OR CONTROL of the means of production by the government). It’s nothing more than the government controlling our industry, in the one case the auto industry and in the other case the rental property business.
But the poor who game the system are working at gaming the system. That's their "job".
Let’s not call sitting on their butts; drinking beer while chain smoking and watching their big screen TV a JOB. It is NOT a job and it is NOT work. What it is - is LAZINESS!
Mike
In summation, I had no one to guide me along and tell me where to go in life. I was on my own since 14 — technically a ward of the State of Texas (a teenage orphan). My mom kicked me out of the house on my 14th birthday. At 17 I got my GED, and started college, which I did not finish (I went for about ~2 years). During that timeframe I worked a minimum wage nightshift job at a newspaper … and I lived in a 300sq foot efficiency apartment that was so small my bed touched my kitchen counter. Oh, and that apartment was so cheap it didn’t even have a door going to the bathroom…just a shower curtain. Yep, I was dirt poor. I ate cereal for breakfast, and raman for lunch & dinner. Once or twice my grandmother brought me a grocery bag of food, and once a week or so I went to her house for a good meal, so life wasn’t too bad (haha). Anyway at about the age range of 18-20 I started researching people who were successful, and taught myself to think like them (aka thinking positively). Due to my motivation & commitment - I managed to get myself some great jobs, without a college degree, yet I was paid more than many people with a master’s degree. In more recent years I started educating myself on business & finance, and I begin to copy the actions of successful people in business…and in turn found myself becoming rather wealthy fast. I have a six-figure income now (I won’t be specific, but I will say it’s over $200k net and growing), and I know real estate will my gateway to building a seven-figure income not to mention a very large net worth. In June or July, when I am done going through my current business expansion, my real estate investing will begin. I’ve talked to many REI investors, far more off this board than on this board, and since I’m sitting on a ton of cash and the credit markets are kind of tight I am going to start off investing in the note business. I’m literally going to create and hold, along with buy and sell, notes. Most of the older, wiser and super rich investors love the note business. There is some guy on here who raves about owning a mini-warehouse complex, warehouses, flipping houses and creating/holding notes on single family houses. That’s a SMART guy, and I imagine a really rich man. He’s been around long enough to know what true passive income is. Anyway, I know lots of similar guys (off this board) who do similar things…and I’ll be going along for the ride. I’m not dumb, I’ve got a couple lawyers who’ve already drawn up all the documents for me, I’ve got a couple close mentors who have guided me along the way and I’ve read books and educated myself on what I’ll be doing. The note business is extremely passive (e.g. no land lording) and you can get yields of 25 to 100% ++ if done right. Want an example? Say I pickup 2 acres of semi-prime commercial light industrial land for $80k cash in a bargain sale. I then can subdivide it into 3 parcels, and can sell them for $80k each at market price (very doable). If someone finances the land through a bank or pays me cash for every parcel of land, I get an immediate 300% APY assuming the transactions are all done within one year. If I can carry a note on each for 10 years at say 8% interest on ALL 3 PROPERTIES, to say small business owners, my monthly payments will total $2911.86 and I get an annual percentage yield of 43.03% assuming they put nothing down. If I could get $15k down per lot/property as well, my annual percentage yield jumps to a whopping 99.84%, since my basis in the property drops to just $35k. That’s like earning 99.84% interest per year for 10 years. And you can’t get more passive. If the person pays the note off early, the good part is I’ll probably make an even HIGHER APY since most of the profit is collected at the beginning of a note, if you understand how amortization tables work. If the person doesn’t pay, I just have my lawyer foreclose. Nice & easy. Of course those figures don’t include holding costs, legal costs, etc, but in the end those are minimal compared to the huge yields. You can do it with almost any type of real estate…and there are plenty of types to choose from, each with it’s own level or risk or reward. You might of guessed - I have learned to have money work for me. I don’t work for money. 
I see it differently. I see them giving OUR tax money to owners of SUVs.
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Laziness is the pay, the ‘work’ is standing in line, filling out those forms and being monitored.
Government giving people money can be called whatever you want entitlement, socialism, etc… its still taking from one person and giving to another. And the rich and poor both indulge the government, again with the rich being able to receive MUCH more. Mike, I am not trying to beat you up, but if you are against entitlements, why do you take section 8 renters?
Jay
. I had raman noodles and raisin bran for food - thats it.
You ate raisin bran!!! Generic Puffed Wheat in a 10 lb. bag goes a lot further!!! Just add cold water and pretend it’s milk. :shocked :banana :biglaugh
Mike, I am not trying to beat you up, but if you are against entitlements, why do you take section 8 renters?
FOR THE MONEY!
Mike
hehehe… Right on!!! :beer
Yay! Section 8 is great! Although, one of my rentals just had a recent change to their HOA rules - no more than 10% of the phomes could be under section 8. I think this is some kind of civil rights violation, but who knows.
Though that seems corny, that was a real argument back in the day in Dallas. See http://danielbesharalawfirm.com/walkervhud.aspx
Anyway - not accepting or limiting section 8 housing is NOT a racial issue. That is basically saying all people who are section 8 are blacks. Or mexicans. Or some other minority. WHAT?
What a joke. If I were black, I wound find it insulting to even initiate a lawsuit like that. You’re insulting your own race!!
Anyway - thats my 2 cents.