Re: US strike options on TSP

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 23 Mar 2014 09:20

What US has done with all those NGOs supporting all the causes is corporatize protests and made that another business. Grover Cleveland had once said "Business of America is Business!"

TSJones · Post by **TSJones** » 23 Mar 2014 11:14

ramana wrote:What US has done with all those NGOs supporting all the causes is corporatize protests and made that another business. Grover Cleveland had once said "Business of America is Business!"

It's all about the fund raising and finding the people who can organize and promote it. I've been involved in fund raising for Boy Scouts,
Church(s) and non profit charities. It can be hard work and a lot of your spare time. Sometimes you have to hire professionals.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 23 Mar 2014 22:02

Sure but in the end its a business.

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 24 Mar 2014 03:45

Pixel and Dimed: On (not) getting by in the gig economy

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 24 Mar 2014 05:32

TSJones wrote:
Gus wrote:http://www.theatlantic.com/business/arc ... or/284332/]My Life as a Retail Worker: Nasty, Brutish, and Poor[/url]

amirkhans are so severely short sighted and have a 'things will continue as is' attitude and just don't have the fear of being poor that many of us, certainly me, have experienced while growing.
It was his stupidity of making a crude joke about Romney, a president candidate running for office when he was a public persona and reporter. And he did it on the social media, Twitter. That is no different than William May's wife wiriting trash about India on Facebook or whutever. Her job was to reprsent the best face of America and she didn't. The sword cuts both ways. A reporter can criticise a political candidate but he must be professional. A reporter can state an opinion but it should be labeled as that and not news. There are professional *standards*. His comment about Romney being comfortable with white folks was borderline but not fireable. His crude Twitter joke however, about the verry person he was reporting on was fireable. I think he learned a lesson and it cost him dearly. But obviously he found another good job after suffering for a while. Lessons can be very expensive in the School of Hard Knocks.

He is not talking about why he lost his job, but mentioning his financial planning? Is it that difficult to save in the US? I would think he should have had resources instead of getting broke at 50? Those are the questions Gus is raising.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 24 Mar 2014 06:08

Lot of peeble in US live beyond their means. Sadly this is something that is trending all over the world. Oh, this guy by the way might have lost his assets to his ex as part of divorce settlement.

disha · Post by **disha** » 24 Mar 2014 06:57

Guys,

What is Brookings CIA plant @tanvi_madan upto with her tweets under #IndianPolitics?

TSJones · Post by **TSJones** » 24 Mar 2014 17:23

Karan M wrote:He is not talking about why he lost his job, but mentioning his financial planning? Is it that difficult to save in the US? I would think he should have had resources instead of getting broke at 50? Those are the questions Gus is raising.

It is very easy to get into a financial jam in the US. I am a perfect exampe of it although I never filed for bankruptcy. Looking back, I should have. Life would have been easier.

Divorce, long term illness, perrsonality disorders, they can all put you on the street. I learned a very expensive lesson from the school of hard knocks and it is this: try to live on 50% of your paycheck.

When you first start out in your profession that is very hard because you don't make that much and you may have college loans to pay off. So it is a real struggle. I have heard of people who have $100,000 or more in college loans! And they are not doctors! Some of them only have degrees in liberal arts. Journalism is not a very high paying job either when you start. It's a real challenge in life to get ahead and do with out for years and years.

member_28352 · Post by **member_28352** » 24 Mar 2014 17:48

Wonderfool. What a system of slavery. Get people with no scope of paying off 100 grand to fork that amount for a bogus liberal arts education. Seriously do you think that anybody who has a mortgage/college loan to pay off will ever challenge the orthodoxy of the prevalent views. This is how the slavery is perpetuated.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 24 Mar 2014 20:16

TSJ, Right this week a big debate is going on in San Francisco about income equity. Robert Reich, UCB is syaing the majority of gains since 2009 went to the top 1% and that 65% of the population lives paycheck to paycheck.

Aside. If any one reads Robert MacIlvaine, the scholar of Great Depression, the stats are similar to those before the 1929 economic crash.

TSJones · Post by **TSJones** » 24 Mar 2014 22:20

ramana wrote:TSJ, Right this week a big debate is going on in San Francisco about income equity. Robert Reich, UCB is syaing the majority of gains since 2009 went to the top 1% and that 65% of the population lives paycheck to paycheck.

Aside. If any one reads Robert MacIlvaine, the scholar of Great Depression, the stats are similar to those before the 1929 economic crash.

.

The S&P 500 index has more than doubled since 2009, so the 1% has made a lot of money if they kept their cool in 2008. Meanwhile the middle class and the poor's wages have stagnated. It's mean streets out there. And productivity is not stagnating in the US, it is growing. Short term maximization of profits with complete disregard of the destruction to people's lives is killing us.

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 24 Mar 2014 23:00

Advise for Browns
Dont invest hard earned money in rural, country side America. You will be harassed out by small town, village Fiefdom & racial culture. Actual racial,social hierarchy out there and very interesting to watch and study from close the way this phenomenon operates on ground. Sense of entitlement is as amazing as is the lack of work ethics. There are valid reasons for countryside have gone the True Detective way. Shrinking of economic opportunity is half the cause and story.The fault lays inside and not some where out in DC.

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 24 Mar 2014 23:06

TSJones wrote:
ramana wrote:TSJ, Right this week a big debate is going on in San Francisco about income equity. Robert Reich, UCB is syaing the majority of gains since 2009 went to the top 1% and that 65% of the population lives paycheck to paycheck.
Aside. If any one reads Robert MacIlvaine, the scholar of Great Depression, the stats are similar to those before the 1929 economic crash
The S&P 500 index has more than doubled since 2009, so the 1% has made a lot of money if they kept their cool in 2008. Meanwhile the middle class and the poor's wages have stagnated. It's mean streets out there. And productivity is not stagnating in the US, it is growing. Short term maximization of profits with complete disregard of the destruction to people's lives is killing us.

Only muddling Middle class is squeezed, high middle class is already gone with the wind. Poors have taken themselves out of the equation relying on welfare schemes.

TSJones · Post by **TSJones** » 25 Mar 2014 00:39

Inflation is relative to the income strata that you are in. The heaviest burden is upon the working poor.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/arc ... od/273811/

Aditya_V · Post by **Aditya_V** » 25 Mar 2014 13:35

Huh, Ithought lots of people are making USD 250K a year and they are complaining of thier lot?

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 27 Mar 2014 08:38

Dick Cheney: He Remade Our World

devesh · Post by **devesh** » 27 Mar 2014 10:18

ramana wrote:TSJ, Right this week a big debate is going on in San Francisco about income equity. Robert Reich, UCB is syaing the majority of gains since 2009 went to the top 1% and that 65% of the population lives paycheck to paycheck.

Aside. If any one reads Robert MacIlvaine, the scholar of Great Depression, the stats are similar to those before the 1929 economic crash.

65%? I would say it's even greater. probably 90%. at the least 80%.

If I don't get my next month's salary, i'll be behind on my loans, and credit card bills. there are no savings to dip into and pay off. 401k is there. but you cant withdraw willy nilly. there are taxes associated. so withdrawing prematurely could be a drain on the investment gains.

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 28 Mar 2014 04:16

Why Henry Kissinger Never Goes Away

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 29 Mar 2014 07:05

Reston on His Laurels

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 29 Mar 2014 07:59

How not to negotiate with believers.

Rajagopal · Post by **Rajagopal** » 29 Mar 2014 15:08

This is the photo captured during the recent terrorist attack on the Kabul guest house.

Please look at the photo and tell me what was going on inside the minds of these parents? what kind of worthless parents put the lives of their children in such terrible danger? Perhaps they thought Afghanistan was some kind of summer camp!!

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/forei ... bul-n66406

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 29 Mar 2014 15:22

More likely as a place to spread the good news.

Irrational, sad and futile.

But useful idiots.

member_19686 · Post by **member_19686** » 29 Mar 2014 17:14

Conflict energy reflects the goals, perceptions, and values of the individual actor-in sum, the ideological software with which each of us is programmed. To change the conflict energy of peoples-to lessen it or direct it in ways favorable to our national security goals-we need to change the software. As hackers have shown, the most aggressive way to alter software is with a "virus", and what is ideology but another name for a human software virus?

With this ideological virus as our weapon, the United States would move to the ultimate biological warfare and decide, as its basic national security strategy, to infect target populations with the ideologies of democratic pluralism and respect for individual human rights. With a strong American commitment, enhanced by advances in communications and increasing ease of global travel, the virus will be self-replicating and will spread in nicely chaotic ways. Our national security, therefore, will be best assured if we devote our efforts to winning the minds of countries and cultures that are at variance with ours...

A tangible implication of this analysis is a sharp increase in support for the United States Information Agency, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the numerous private-sector exchange and educational programs. These programs lie at the heart of an aggressive national security strategy.

- Chaos and Strategic Thought by Steven R. Mann, 1992

http://strategicstudiesinstitute.army.m ... 20mann.pdf

member_22733 · Post by **member_22733** » 29 Mar 2014 18:59

US law enforcement in action. Scoring brownie points with God by punishing the unwashed. To be x-posted in Positive news soon:

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/03 ... -abortion/

This week, South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R) approved an unnecessary abortion restriction that reinforces racial stereotypes about the Asian American community. House Bill 1162 bans abortions based on a fetus’ sex, and makes it a felony for doctors to perform this type of “sex-selective” procedure — based on the misperception that Asian women are more likely to terminate a pregnancy if they find out the fetus is a girl.

Banning abortions is part of a Republican Party fantasy** of taking the earth back to the year of the white lord: Jesus Christ. However they cannot antagonize ALL women (ALL women == white women in the USA). So to not offend white feminist and to appease the white lord Jesus Christ and his followers what do we do? That's right, make the law such that it punishes the unwashed heathens, in this case Asian (which in the US means East Asian) Origin residents of South Dakota.

If a Chinese woman goes for an abortion after the child's sex is known, then the doc (and probably the patient)can be charged with a felony crime (cannot vote if convicted). They can just go ahead and arrest/cavity search and then claim that they had "reasonable" doubt that doctor had conducted a sex selective abortion. No doc would ever agree for an abortion of a Asian woman after this. If I was a doc with a fear of racially biased white jurisprudence in me, I would not touch a case like that with a 10 feet pole.

This is the LokeshC's first rule about white society: Whenever a predominantly white society wants to 'go tough' on any act they perceive as immoral, every non-white minority is fair game and hence they should watch their backs for the white lynchmob in the form of law-enforcement.

This is where MUTUs and MMTMs play a role:
After watching a showing of Joyluck Club at my university, a lot of my MUTU Chinese friends were all gung ho about an Chinese American story being told on the big screen. I kept telling them, this is made for your white friends to feel good about themselves and this will come back to bite you in one form or the other. They laughed it off.

I feel vindicated today

** Democrats have their fantasy too: To modernize the unwashed. Republicans kill in the name of Jesus, Democrats kill in the name of modernization.

PS: More about the MUTU called Amy Tan and the Joyluck Club: http://www.eskimo.com/~webguy/writings/joysucks.html

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 30 Mar 2014 10:07

Is There Hope for the Survivors of the Drug Wars?

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 30 Mar 2014 10:55

Like I hinted earlier, those chaps in the Afghan picture with the kids? Evanjihadis.

Useful idiots.

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 30 Mar 2014 10:58

OK guys living in US, TSJ in particular, a question, since I'm hearing from friends as well as some people on here (not that they aren't friends) that you well and truly get screwed by taxes in the US.

So, say, someone is earning a gross salary of $250K/Year. What would be that person's net take-home pay (i.e. cash in bank) at month-end, assuming no loan payments, etc?

TSJones · Post by **TSJones** » 30 Mar 2014 14:42

I hope you appreciate this. I haven't done my own taxes yet and it took an hour to look everything up and calculate it. .....groan...

ok... a single person making an adjusted gross income (AGI) of $250,000 would net about $174,065.....that's a tax bite of 30% or so.

a married person with two children filing jointly with spouse on an AGI of $250,000 would net about $187,748.....that's a tax bite of 25% or there abouts.

..The above figures include eveything I could think of......personal and dependent exemptions, standard deductions, social security tax, medicare tax plus the new obama care tax.

I did not take into account tax qualified pension plans which could have resulted in a reduction of $17,500 from AGI and thus AGI woud be taxed at a lower marginal rate.

This is just a straight forward tax filing.

No home mortgage deduction
No professional expense or business mileage deduction
No Charitable giving
No stock dividends (taxed at a cheaper rate)
No long term capitals gains (taxed ata cheaper rate)
Interest income
yaddah....yaddah.....yaddah

A real tax professional would of course would hit all of this with his razor sharp pc tax software package
......you know......there's an app for that...

forgot to add....the above figures are for an employee working for a company. Self employed figures would be a little different.
*******And of course Professors who work at a university and teachers at most public and private schools do not pay social security. just medicare tax. a savings of 6.2 % on the first $117,000 of yearly income.

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 30 Mar 2014 15:40

Much appreciated indeed TSJ.

This gives the lie to the fact that the US residents are taxed into poverty. The rates in the EU are worse. It is easy for someone to lose up to 40% of their gross income to taxes. Calculations vary across countries and all that crap, but net net - the US seems reasonable in comparison.

Not sure what the buggers were whining about...

Shreeman · Post by **Shreeman** » 30 Mar 2014 15:57

JE Menon wrote:Much appreciated indeed TSJ.

This gives the lie to the fact that the US residents are taxed into poverty. The rates in the EU are worse. It is easy for someone to lose up to 40% of their gross income to taxes. Calculations vary across countries and all that crap, but net net - the US seems reasonable in comparison.

Not sure what the buggers were whining about...

JEM - TSJ's calculations do not include state or local taxes. University professors pay social security like anyone else as far as I know. In states that tax income, the combined number has been close to 40%. For example, Califoirnia and San Francisco or Maryland and Baltimore etc. States that do not tax income (eg Washington) also tend to pay less, thus fewer people would be close to 250k.

Mandated iunsurances, property taxes, etc are noit included here. People north of 250k, typically have a ton of deductions/tax avoidance methods too (some of which TSJ noted) but otherwise the grass is the same everywhere. 40% is not a very high number. In any case, the combined state+federal number will rarely come under 30% without serious manipulation.

Re. professors, TSJ is confused by some onbscure section 218 exemptions, they are not as widespread as he assumes. Nor are all universities public.

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 30 Mar 2014 18:01

Thanx Shreeman... hmm...seems like both parts of the pond are similar after all...

TSJones · Post by **TSJones** » 30 Mar 2014 19:01

Shreeman wrote:
JE Menon wrote:Much appreciated indeed TSJ.

This gives the lie to the fact that the US residents are taxed into poverty. The rates in the EU are worse. It is easy for someone to lose up to 40% of their gross income to taxes. Calculations vary across countries and all that crap, but net net - the US seems reasonable in comparison.

Not sure what the buggers were whining about...
JEM - TSJ's calculations do not include state or local taxes. University professors pay social security like anyone else as far as I know. In states that tax income, the combined number has been close to 40%. For example, Califoirnia and San Francisco or Maryland and Baltimore etc. States that do not tax income (eg Washington) also tend to pay less, thus fewer people would be close to 250k.

Mandated iunsurances, property taxes, etc are noit included here. People north of 250k, typically have a ton of deductions/tax avoidance methods too (some of which TSJ noted) but otherwise the grass is the same everywhere. 40% is not a very high number. In any case, the combined state+federal number will rarely come under 30% without serious manipulation.

Re. professors, TSJ is confused by some onbscure section 218 exemptions, they are not as widespread as he assumes. Nor are all universities public.

Universities have the option of joining or opting out. A lot of univerities do opt out of social security. that also goes for county, and city governments as well. I worked for a company that made a lot of money selling annuities to professors and teachers that did not join social security.

furthermore if you don't take the standard deduction you can itemize your deductions and deduct state income tax. in those states that do not have an income tav you can deduct sales taxes. so this is an either or propsition. state income tax or sales tax but not both at the same time.

also I would point out if the $250,000 married filing jointly and the wife worked too, she paid social security tax also. In my example the wife did not work.

I went back and reclacuated the above figures for California Income tax. In the state of California a single man would pay 37% taxes from his pay check and married jointly filing would pay 32% of his pay in the above example. That is only claiming $22,488 State income tax as an itemized deduction. There are many other itemized deductions you can add to that. No 401K, no charitable, etc. has been added to the itemized deduction.

to the question of whether california university professors pay social security......read this

http://map.ais.ucla.edu/go/1002015

Shreeman · Post by **Shreeman** » 30 Mar 2014 19:49

TSJ,

We are discussing noise here. Your numbers are 7.5% state, when in effect this would apply,

http://www.boe.ca.gov/cgi-bin/rates.cgi ... &LIST=CITY

various sales, registration, property tax amounts not included as income tax even out any deductions. 40% is not a bad ballpark figure (close enough to 37%) discounting active tax management. Location alone can add several percentage points.

Opting out of social security means opting out of benefits as well. Private universities do not have this choice. State schools (and state employees in general) have to find an alternative, and the opt out process is not simple. I have no idea how many opted out, but it is a small percentage. You pay either way, into the national system or the alternative.

And none of this includes cost of living in a costly state.

TSJones · Post by **TSJones** » 30 Mar 2014 20:29

Shreeman wrote:TSJ,

We are discussing noise here. Your numbers are 7.5% state, when in effect this would apply,

http://www.boe.ca.gov/cgi-bin/rates.cgi ... &LIST=CITY

various sales, registration, property tax amounts not included as income tax even out any deductions. 40% is not a bad ballpark figure (close enough to 37%) discounting active tax management. Location alone can add several percentage points.

Opting out of social security means opting out of benefits as well. Private universities do not have this choice. State schools (and state employees in general) have to find an alternative, and the opt out process is not simple. I have no idea how many opted out, but it is a small percentage. You pay either way, into the national system or the alternative.

And none of this includes cost of living in a costly state.

you're messaging with an expert in the field. non profit private univerities and religious organizations can also opt out of social social security but not medicare taxes. everybody has to pay medicare. Except the Amish.

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 30 Mar 2014 20:35

The Real Harlem

Shreeman · Post by **Shreeman** » 30 Mar 2014 20:54

TSJones wrote:
Shreeman wrote:TSJ,

We are discussing noise here. Your numbers are 7.5% state, when in effect this would apply,

http://www.boe.ca.gov/cgi-bin/rates.cgi ... &LIST=CITY

various sales, registration, property tax amounts not included as income tax even out any deductions. 40% is not a bad ballpark figure (close enough to 37%) discounting active tax management. Location alone can add several percentage points.

Opting out of social security means opting out of benefits as well. Private universities do not have this choice. State schools (and state employees in general) have to find an alternative, and the opt out process is not simple. I have no idea how many opted out, but it is a small percentage. You pay either way, into the national system or the alternative.

And none of this includes cost of living in a costly state.
you're messaging with an expert in the field. non profit private univerities and religious organizations can also opt out of social social security but not medicare taxes. everybody has to pay medicare. Except the Amish.

The expertise is good to know. I will probably have tax questions in the future, then.

If paying social security and the 9% rate, the percentage above rounds to 40 without taking on debt/interest deductions.

Mortgage/rent is also quickly inflated where wages rise. The amount of "free" money or what the rest of the folks understand as savings dont turn out to be any large amount, even for what is hypothetically a large number.
I suspect this is more what JEM wanted to know.

For example, healthcare costs are very different and real. If actually using the insurance, co-payments costs for prescriptions still keep adding up even if insurance pays at 100%. 250k, even if taxed marginally lower in the US, does not go as far as an equivalent amount would in Canada or most european couuntries.

Of cvourse, the system is rigged for active tax management, so with your help JEM might do much better in the US.

Edit -- UCLA iss a state school. Does Stanford follow the same rules?

In any case, I am certainly not an expert on taxation beyond having to pay them, thus will leave further discussion of the topic to you.

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 30 Mar 2014 21:12

Deal Me Out: A stacked deck at the New York Times

TSJones · Post by **TSJones** » 30 Mar 2014 21:40

Shreeman wrote:Of cvourse, the system is rigged for active tax management, so with your help JEM might do much better in the US.

Edit -- UCLA iss a state school. Does Stanford follow the same rules?

In any case, I am certainly not an expert on taxation beyond having to pay them, thus will leave further discussion of the topic to you.

A casual google of Stanford.......it looks like they opted to be in social security. however I would note that professors are considered a different class of employee than just regular employees. It all just depends. Faculty can operate under a different contract. Religious affliated hospitals are an interesting subject also.

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 30 Mar 2014 21:44

abhishek_sharmaji,
Thank you for the links to many insightful articles on socio-economic issues in US and the odd article about UK.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 30 Mar 2014 22:36

LokeshC wrote:** Democrats have their fantasy too: To modernize the unwashed. Republicans kill in the name of Jesus, Democrats kill in the name of modernization.

Their version of modernization which is more like the version peddled by Rhodes Scholars whose heads had been messed with in Oxbridge.