One state has found that relying on a significant percentage of its budget to be derived from traffic fees and fines leads to a massive shortage when drivers fail to break the law.
The post Good Drivers are Creating a Budget Shortfall, Proving Gov’t Needs You to Break the Law to Fund Itself appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
Conservative economists Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore are predicting a new mass exodus of wealth from New York and California because of the new tax law. But academics who have studied taxes and migration call the forecast “pure nonsense.”
In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal headlined “So Long, California. Sayonara, New York,” Laffer and Moore (who have both advised President Donald Trump) say the new tax bill will cause a net 800,000 people to move out of California and New York over the next three years.
The tax changes limit the deduction of state and local taxes to $10,000, so many high-earning taxpayers in high-tax states will actually face a tax increase under the new tax code.
The post 800,000 people are about to flee New York and California because of taxes, say economists appeared first on Intellihub.
Californians are bailing on the Golden State in droves as the tax burden and housing costs make the price of living unbearable for far too many. Many of those fleeing are the hearty middle-class who are being pushed into poverty by the socialist policies forced on them by the state’s elites.
The trend is a symptom of the state’s housing crunch and the ever increasing taxation. Census Bureau data show California lost just over 138,000 people to domestic migration in the 12 months ended in July 2017. Lower-cost states such as Arizona, Texas, and Nevada are popular destinations for relocating Californians.
Housing costs and the tax burden is far less impactful in pretty much any place outside of California, whose socialist policies drive up poverty and continuously erode the middle class leaving only the extremely wealthy and those in abject poverty.
The surging number of those working in Silicon Valley and still unable to afford adequate housing should be a warning about big government, but it sure doesn’t seem like anyone is taking notice as their taxes continue to rise. As governments creep toward socialism though, poverty becomes the norm, not the exception. Silicon Valley has the highest median income in the nation. But a soaring tax burden and expensive regulations have caused housing prices to increase which has also caused homelessness to surge. –SHTFPlan
“There’s nowhere in the United States that you can find better weather than here,” said Dave Senser, who lives on a fixed income near San Luis Obispo, California, and now plans to move to Las Vegas. “Rents here are crazy if you can find a place, and they’re going to tax us to death. That’s what it feels like. At least in Nevada, they don’t have a state income tax. And every little bit helps.” Senser added that he previously lived in the east San Francisco Bay region, and said housing costs and gas prices are “significantly lower in Las Vegas. The government in the state of California isn’t helping people like myself. That’s why people are running out of this state now.”
A USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll of Californians last fall found that the high cost of living, including housing, was the most important issue facing the state. It also found more than half of Californians wanted to repeal the state’s new gas tax, which raised fees by a whopping 40 percent further burdening those already living paycheck to paycheck.
During the 12-month period that ended in July of 2017, California saw a net loss of just over 138,000 people, while Texas had a net increase of more than 79,000 people. Arizona gained more than 63,000 residents, and Nevada gained more than 38,000. “You can literally have a lot of buying power for the dollar in Southern Nevada versus Southern California,” said Christopher Bishop, president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. “So it has been a major trend over the year, year and a half, and we’re seeing it increase.”
Via SHTFPlan
The post Californians flee the state in droves over taxation and housing costs appeared first on Intellihub.
This article was originally published by James Quinn at The Burning Platform
Yeah, keep your eyes on the road, your hand upon the wheel
Keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel
Yeah, we’re goin’ to the Roadhouse
We’re gonna have a real
Good time
The Doors – Roadhouse Blues
Spending a week driving around a western state 1,700 miles from my stomping grounds in Pennsylvania provides a different perspective on the level of economic, social and political degradation impacting the country. With a daily commute along the crumbling, crummy, gridlocked deathtrap roadways into West Philadelphia, the squalor and decomposition of our civilization is self-evident.
I live in a corrupt state with the highest gasoline taxes, highest tolls, massively underfunded government pension liability, failing government run public schools, suburban sprawl dotted with ghost malls, vacant industrial parks, and urban ghetto shitholes plagued by drugs, murder, welfare mentality, excessive taxes, and left wing politicians.
Politically, the state is virtually split down the middle, with the urban enclaves of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh dominated by Democrats, rural areas dominated by Republicans, and suburbs capable of going either way – but leaning left. Trump won the state mostly due to the lack of enthusiasm for Hillary in Philly and Pittsburgh. If the Democrats weren’t so dysfunctional and beholden to the far left, a moderate Democrat would win the state easily.
The governor is a Democrat and the legislature is Republican controlled, so budgets are virtually impossible to pass, with the only predictable outcome being higher taxes, fees, tolls, and deferral of essential actions to address the billions in underfunded government pensions. The Federal prison has a wing just for corrupt PA politicians. At least life is predictable.
Living in the northwest suburbs, 30 miles from the City of Philadelphia, and commuting into the city on a daily basis for the last 12 years, has given me a good vantage point in assessing the state of the infrastructure, economic trends, and societal decay in my part of this exponentially delusional, debt dependent, chaotic country. The U.S. and my corner of PA. have supposedly been in the midst of an economic recovery for the last nine years.
The government data shows a declining unemployment rate, rising GDP, non-existent inflation, record corporate profits, low interest rates leading to a growing housing market, soaring consumer confidence, and a record high stock market. In the parlance of Jim Morrison, we’ve been at the Roadhouse having a real good time. We’re gonna need more than a beer to recover from the inevitable hangover.
My suburban slice of Montgomery County is prosperous and growing, based upon demographic and economic data produced by the government. The populace is mostly upper middle class white collar families. I’ve lived in the same house for 23 years, through the 2000 internet bust, the Greenspan created housing bubble, the 2008 Wall Street created financial implosion, and the supposed nine year economic recovery. Within three miles of my house we had two strip centers with 100% occupancy in 1995. For the last eight years one center has been 90% vacant and the other 50% vacant. Office buildings built in 2005 still have numerous vacancies. Entire 600,000 sq. ft. office parks remain unoccupied, except for weeds, rodents, mold and decay.
Grand government plans for new retail outlets never materialized. Numerous gas stations have been shuttered, rotting and weed infested testaments to better times. Numerous grocery stores, locally owned restaurants, and small businesses have gone belly up during these supposed good times. Imagine what will happen during the next official recession.
This Potemkin economic recovery is buttressed by unpayable debt, Federal Reserve easy money, fudged financial industry accounting, fake economic data, endemic political corruption, and a perpetual flow of propaganda from the corporate media spigot convincing the mathematically challenged masses all is well and going into debt to keep up with the Joneses is a brilliant strategy for success. If you ignore the fake news and false rhetoric from politicians, bankers and the media, you can see the continued economic deterioration with your own eyes and your own bank account.
You can tell what our society values and supports by observing your immediate surroundings. The only construction I see are new bank branches, new medical facilities, drug stores, new fast food joints (creating the need for new medical facilities), and new government buildings. The once teetering Wall Street banking industry is alive and well due to tens of trillions funneled their way by the Fed and feckless Washington political machine.
You can’t swing a dead homeless person without hitting a Too Big To Trust Wall Street bank branch. Why do we need these monuments to greed and hubris when you can make a deposit with your smartphone, pay your bills on-line, and use your debit or credit card for every transaction? It’s insane to waste money on thousands of branches. But, when you can get your money from the Fed for free, everything looks like a good investment.
The trillions flowing out of people’s bank accounts and into the coffers of the sick industry complex have enriched these corporations to such an extent; they feel the need to build palatial complexes and numerous outlets for their “legal” drug distribution. You know an industry is rolling in dough when they build high tech glass palaces with concierge service and upscale restaurants, to service sick people.
Those Obamacare premiums and insurance payments are going somewhere, and even after paying the corporate executives their obscene salaries and bonuses, there is plenty left over for the construction of medical Taj Mahals and lobbying corrupt slimy snakes in congress for more. Despite the extravagance of these medical facilities, the service still sucks, a Tylenol costs $25, the physicians are barely adequate, the mis-diagnosis rate is sky high, and the staff is surly and rude.
Local politicians build themselves new grand municipal buildings, even though there are vacant office buildings out the wazoo. New Social Security Administration buildings are constructed at an astounding pace, especially in the Democrat controlled urban ghettos. New Section 8 housing estates are built with union labor on the taxpayer dime. That is the common denominator in all the new building occurring in this country.
The funds for this frenzy of banking, sick care and government construction has materialized out of thin air by a privately owned banking cabal called the Federal Reserve in conspiracy with the Deep State. This entire engineered Potemkin recovery and building boom is built on a liquefying foundation of bad debt and lies. Let it roll, baby, roll.
My little piece of suburban paradise in this failing and falling empire of debt may be decaying slowly, but my daily commute into the putrid, dilapidated, crumbling ghetto killing field called Philadelphia is a different matter. This corrupt liberal bastion of unfunded government pensions, outrageously high taxes, overpriced union labor, criminal Democrat politicians, dreadful public schools, potholes that could swallow a small car, crumbling infrastructure, murder, mayhem, and an enslaved underclass of welfare dependent minorities, is much further along the track to collapse. This city has pockets of prosperity, but its death rattle is unmistakable. The decay is too far gone and debt too large to realistically reverse course, even if there was a will to do so – which there is not.
My week in Colorado further clarified my view the American empire is in decline, but it is a cascading decline with regions and cities at various stages of collapse. My relatively rural suburban enclave is probably fifty percent of the way there. Philadelphia is eighty percent of the way there. Colorado only appears to be twenty five percent of the way there. I would ponder much of the western U.S., excluding the liberal bastions in California and Washington State, is also further from collapse than the heavily urbanized debt burdened northeastern U.S.
Driving up I-25 to Fort Collins, down to Colorado Springs and west to Boulder and Breckinridge, presented a fairly broad view of the greater Denver area. The most conspicuous aspect of Colorado, from my perspective, is the vast picturesque expanse of open space as far as the eye can see. Every direction seems to be framed by snow-capped Rocky Mountains. It’s the diametric opposite to my daily commute through the 30 Blocks of Squalor in West Philly.
The beauty of the Colorado landscape is somewhat obscured by a seemingly never ending proliferation of retail malls along the entire expanse of I-25. They all look alike, bathed in a beige sandstone design. The malls are populated by the same national retail chains inhabiting the ghost malls on the east coast. They are still constructing new malls, something not done on the east coast for years.
It seems there are still a significant number of people with disposable income in Colorado. Their labor participation rate has actually increased as their unemployment rate has fallen. The plunge in the participation rate has produced fake unemployment levels on the east coast. From that perspective Colorado is in better shape than most of the country.
You can’t help but notice the weed dispensaries sprinkled across the countryside. The legalization of marijuana has certainly had a short term economic benefit, as it has generated jobs and a massive inflow of tax revenue into government coffers. The longer term negative impact is revealing itself by the inordinate amount of homeless addicts in downtown Denver, at interstate off-ramps, under bridge overpasses in Boulder, and loitering in public parks in college towns like Fort Collins. The seeds of collapse are already planted. The influx of liberals fleeing California and the east coast are already indoctrinating a formerly conservative self-reliant state with socialist, feminist, and nanny state philosophies. This was borne out by Hillary’s narrow victory in 2016.
The infrastructure is not in a state of disrepair. Instead of trash and garbage along its interstates, there are clean-up crews picking up tumbleweeds. Everything still has that new smell feel. You just don’t see dilapidated structures. There are no potholes. Stop lights always function. Traffic is heavy at peak times, but not gridlocked. With the best ski resorts, awe inspiring tourist attractions (Garden of the Gods, Red Rocks), the majestic Rockies, growing economy, lack of government pension liabilities, and the weed industry, Colorado will sustain itself far longer than the Democrat run putrefying urban ghettos on the east coast. Make no mistake, the American empire is in the midst of a cascading collapse, and it will reach Colorado eventually.
If ever the lyrics “The future’s uncertain and the end is always near” were more applicable, it would be this past week. The stock market plunged by almost 1,300 points (no tweets from Trump taking credit), Trump accelerated his trade war with the world, he replaced a warmongering general with a warmongering neocon psychopath, the first quarter GDP estimate continued to decline to below 2%, a bunch of useful idiots were manipulated by Soros, Bloomberg and other liberal billionaires to protest against their own rights, and Trump topped it off by stabbing his supporters in the back by signing a bloated Democrat/RINO $1.3 trillion spending bill funding left wing priorities while ignoring everything he supposedly stands for. The Deep State either has pictures, or he is just a wolf in sheep’s clothing with no moral compass or desire to fulfill the agenda he ran on. It was a profoundly disappointing week for Trump supporters, even as the financial markets and economy show unequivocal cracks.
As we enter the second half of this Fourth Turning, there is a lot of uncertainty regarding the specific events which will propel us towards its climax. We do know the events will be driven by the three catalysts of debt, civic decay, and global disorder. We’ve breached the $21 trillion national debt level, with Trump’s new budget poised to blast through $22 trillion in less than a year. The $200 trillion of unfunded liabilities looms in the foreseeable future. Corporate debt stands at an all-time high. Consumer debt stands at an all-time high. Global debt approaches $200 trillion. The coming financial dislocation will blow this powder keg of debt sky high. Matches are being lit on a daily basis.
Civic decay accelerates as gun grabbing left wing billionaires attempt to disarm the deplorables before the real conflict arrives. The Deep State wages war against the insurrection within their swamp. Surveillance agencies commit acts of treason. The Constitution is shit upon by those in power. An ongoing coup against the sitting president proceeds unabated. The citizens are treated as sheep being led to slaughter.
The few critical thinking dissenters are treated as criminals for exercising their First Amendment rights. The social media conglomerates, acting as the eyes and ears of the Deep State, lure the masses into willingly sacrificing their private information. There will be no compromise. The animosity between right and left has reached civil war levels. There is no middle. This will be a fight to the finish.
Trump has surrounded himself with neo-con war mongering philistines, while provoking nuclear powers, and embroiling our military in unwinnable conflicts across the Middle East. Trade wars, whether warranted or not, will ratchet up the intensity and antagonism. The Muslim hordes invading Europe are already provoking a political uprising across the continent. The North Korea problem is far from solved. Politicians across the globe facing unsolvable domestic issues will turn to foreign conflict as a way to distract the masses. Once the Rubicon is crossed the law of unintended consequences will rear its ugly head. The future of humanity hinges on the push of a button. Do you trust the current lot of feeble minded sociopaths to do the right thing?
The future may be uncertain but the end is always near. Within the next decade the future will be revealed. I believe we are headed for harder times. There is no going back to better days. Trump is the catalyst for conflict, both domestic and international. He will not save this nation. It will be up to individuals across the land. It’s time to mentally, physically, and financially prepare for the bitter winter ahead. Keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel. In the meantime, follow Jim Morrison’s advice and get yourself a beer.
Financial analyst Peter Schiff says there’s a big problem with the economy even though the mainstream media is reporting that rising interest rates are a good thing. The problem, however, is that Americans are broke, and those interest rates could have a major impact on some of our wallets.
“The bad news is, we are going to live through another Great Depression and it’s going to be very different. This will be in many ways, much much worse, than what people had to endure during the Great Depression,” Schiff says. “This is going to be a dollar crisis.”
“When you are talking about the magnitude of the debt we have, that extra money [raising interest rates] is big. That’s going to be a big drain on the economy to the extent that we have to pay higher interest to international creditors…a lot of this phony GDP is coming from consumption, while the average American who is consuming is deeply in debt and they are going to impacted dramatically in the increase in the cost of servicing that debt…given how much debt we have, and how much debt is going to be marketed the massive increase in supply will argue for interest rates that are higher.” –Peter Schiff
Retail sales “unexpectedly” fell again in February even though most media outlets are touting a booming economy that can support raising the interest rates. It was the third straight monthly drop and the first time the US economy has seen three straight months of declining retail sales since 2012.
Sales fell 0.1% in February even though analysts had expected an uptick of 0.3%. According to CNBC, households cut back on purchases of motor vehicles and other big-ticket items, pointing to a slowdown in economic growth in the first quarter. But Peter Schiff won’t sugarcoat this one for us: Americans are broke.
And the worse things get, the less investors seem to notice.
What makes matters even worse is on Friday, we got the “too good to be true” and “just what the doctor ordered” Goldilocks jobs report that said 1 million people got jobs. Schiff said this “good news” report doesn’t make any sense, actually.
“So why didn’t any of those million people take their paychecks and spend them at a retailer? I mean, Trump is talking about all the great jobs, and all the raises that people have, and all the tax cuts. Why are retail sales down for three months in a row?” –Peter Schiff
Unfortunately, we also saw Americans running up record high levels of debt at the same time that the government is running massive deficits.
Last month, the New York Fed released the latest data on US household debt, revealing it has grown to a record $13 trillion. So yes, Americans have been spending, but they’ve been putting a lot of it on plastic. Credit card balances grew by $24 billion in the last quarter of 2017 alone. Could it be that Americans have maxed out the plastic?
At some point, a house of credit cards will collapse.
Schiff is hard on Donald Trump too, and rightfully so. Lower taxes are always a good thing, the lower the better, in fact. But Republicans refused to cut any government spending while instead, increasing it to the point of running massive deficits, making them worse than Democrats when it comes to being fiscally conservative.
The cold truth is that a back plan is needed, and most Americans don’t have that. Many would be in some serious trouble during a financial downturn, and the country is most definitely headed that way.
(image: Getty)
(The Real Agenda News) Trump will personally save up to $15 million. Jared Kushner will save up to $12 million.
David Stockman minced no words, calling the measure “a fiscal, economic and political monster…hands down the worst tax bill enacted in the last half-century.”
On Wednesday, Trump practically admitted it’s no “middle-class miracle,” saying slashing the corporate tax rate from 35 – 21% was “probably the biggest factor in our plan,” exposing GOP Big Lies selling it.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said “(p)rimarily, and priority number one, is middle-class Americans.”
Speaker Ryan roared “(t)he entire purpose of this is to lower middle-class taxes.”
GOP Majority Leader McConnell, like other party officials, turned truth on its head, saying “(t)he theme behind this bill is to get middle-class tax relief for most people in the middle class.”
Fact: Tens of millions of middle and lower income households will end up paying more in the out-years, getting little or nothing along the way – except broken promises, the way US duplicitous politicians always operate, scamming the public to benefit the privileged few.
According to the Center for American Progress (CAP), Trump and six members of his inner circle will benefit hugely from the GOP bill.
He stands to save up to $15 million, his heirs to save around $4.5 million in estate taxes.
His son-in-law Jared Kushner will save up to $12 million. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, Secretary of State Tillerson, Commerce Secretary Ross, Small Business Administration head McMahon, and Education Secretary Devos will save $4.5 million in estate taxes alone, along with a hugely lower annual tax liability on personal income and investments.
According to CAP’s Seth Hanlon, “the American people, whether they receive a tax increase or tax cut from this bill, are outraged that President Trump, his cabinet, and members of Congress stand to receive big payouts from this tax bill.
The extent of the self-dealing became especially apparent when a last-minute provision benefitting the real estate industry was inserted at the last minute.”
“Trump, of course, promised to release his tax returns, like every president since the 1970s, but has brazenly gone back on his word. Congress has the full power to obtain and release Trump’s tax returns, but the Republican majority has buried its head in the sand.”
“Still, there is no doubt that Trump is getting major new tax cuts from this bill – at the same time as it preserves special loopholes, like the deductions Trump reportedly takes on his golf courses. These are illustration(s) of the venality and corruption behind this bill.”
Americans for Tax Fairness communications director TJ Helmstetter called the GOP bill “a money grab by the ultra-wealthy, including the multimillionaires in Congress and Trump’s own cabinet,” who’ll benefit hugely.
In contrast, ordinary Americans got scammed, a reverse Christmas present, courtesy of GOP gangsters running things in Washington.
When in power, undemocratic Dems are just as venal and despicable.
The post Trump Stands to Gain Big Time on Newly Approved Tax Cuts appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.
Former Texas Congressman Ron Paul is calling out Congress for celebrating ostensible tax cuts—that will hammer middle-class Americans.
San Diego is desperately trying to control a Hepatitis A outbreak brought on by the homeless problem plaguing the state of California. The city has now opened the first of three giant tents meant to contain the outbreak of the deadly virus.
The first of three industrial-sized tents to house the homeless as part of the city’s efforts to contain a hepatitis A outbreak. The outbreak itself stems from the deplorable conditions people were living in on the streets – mainly, the fecal matter that is left from those who live on the street. Of course, the government isn’t going to climb off the backs of their residents in California, instead, they will continue to raise taxes and create more homeless people while desperately and frantically trying to stop the problems that their overbearing government has caused.
About 20 people made their way to a bunk bed Friday in the tent that will house 350 single men and women. Two other giant tents will open later this month — one specifically for families and one for veterans. The tents will house a total of 700 people with an attempt to keep them from defecating on the street and spreading the Hepatitis A virus.
More than 3000 people are homeless in San Diego, and risk contracting the disease which has killed 20 people so far. The city had to divert $6.5 million budgeted for permanent housing to fund the operation of the tents for seven months. The tents will provide an array of services from mental health care to housing navigators. But the city still faces an acute housing shortage for the poor. Faulconer has earmarked more than $80 million in stolen (taxpayer) funds to address the problem. So the city wants to fix poverty by taking more from earners and creating more poverty. Bravo, California.
Local residents are concerned that the homeless will simply bring their disease with them. Gemma Librado lives a block away from the tent that opened Friday. Last Sunday, a homeless man high on drugs and with a bleeding hand ran into her apartment when she opened the door and locked himself in her bathroom. She and her 6-year-old son ran out of the apartment and called the police. The man broke things in her bathroom, left bloodstains on her floor, and scared her and her child. “If this makes things more orderly than I support this,” she said. “But I’m worried. I don’t want this to bring in more homeless to the area and people using drugs. There are families with children around here.”
The whole situation is a “Catch 22” scenario: damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. The problem: we’re American citizens and this is our country. The concurrent problem? It is our country that caused this predicament to occur with North Korea…in a pattern of American imperialism that has been going on actively for about a hundred years. The problem is twofold:
1. North Korea can strike the U.S. with an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) attack and/or nuclear missiles, yet:
2. The United States government, through the current and prior two administrations has set the stage for this…as either:
There is an American oligarchy. The oligarchy is not only made up of business and industrial magnates, but of politicos and religious leaders. The business magnates need the lawmakers and politicos to give them “carte blanche” with tax breaks and incentives such as government contracts. The system needs the general populace (or the “proletariat”) to pay taxes and “grunt” out spending on consumer goods and services that keeps the whole thing intact. As in the movie “THX-1138,” there must be periods to pay the utilities, pay for the food, pay taxes on gasoline, taxes on property, taxes on consumer goods, yearly tax increases, and insurances…health, automobile, homeowner…required insurances…
…that ensure the consumer is strapped and shackled to the endless treadmill…where there is no getting ahead…. a new holiday every month to get rid of more of that disposable income for in gifts, travel, and heartfelt largesse…a maelstrom of “emoticons” that condition every purchase….
This is the system we’re in. The problem is, as Americans, what do we do? Roll over and allow ourselves to be taken? To be destroyed as a nation or a people for the fact that our government is not what it was originally intended to be?
I ask for you, the readers to understand my point and stance. I know the government is corrupt and harmful to the citizenry, and has been cancerous to the international community for decades. Yet, this is where we live. Do you remember the original “Red Dawn” movie, where the Soviet was taken prisoner, and Swayze was about to kill him? Swayze was asked what was the difference between them (the Soviets) and us. Swayze responded with, “Because we live here,” and then executed the Russian.
We the people are at fault for not putting a stop to this decades ago. We do not have representatives: we have self-serving politicos in bed with the oligarchs who are trying to do a few things together.
Namely, to amass and secure wealth, assets, materials, and chosen manpower, and then rid themselves of 90% of the populace…and move into a global governance where they rule over slaves whose lifespans are dependent upon their obedience and productive (utilitarian) function.
There is a book entitled “Rogue State” by William Blum that is worth reading if you want the “up and skinny” on American Imperialism. Here is an excerpt that was applicable both yesterday (it was written in 2005) and today:
“American foreign-policy makers are exquisitely attuned to the rise of a government, or a movement on the verge of taking power, that will not lie down and happily become an American client state, that will not look upon the free market or the privatization of the world known as “globalization” as the summum bonum, that will not change its laws to favor foreign investment, that will not be unconcerned about the effects of foreign investment upon the welfare of its own people, that will not produce primarily for export, that will not allow asbestos, banned pesticides, and other products restricted in the developed world to be dumped onto their people, that will not easily tolerate the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, or the World Trade Organization inflicting a scorched-earth policy upon the country’s social services and standard of living, that will not allow an American or NATO military installation upon its soil…” (ppg. 23-24)
The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) nations are currently working to encourage the world to abandon the petrodollar, and Russia and China are little by little advancing the return to the gold standard. China is going to back the Yuan with gold and run an exchange for oil. All of this “sticks in the craw” of the United States and the Western Financial, Political, and Military Hegemony. Iran, Venezuela, and North Korea are not members of this hegemony. American imperialism is clear, and it is enabled by the complacent, stultified public that has been conditioned to believe in American exceptionalism while keyed into a patriotic fervor when a prompted event occurs where such a fervor is in the interests of national objectives.
All that is happening currently falls in line with this. Two excerpts for your learned perusals. The first quotes none other than H.R. McMaster, the former three-star and globalist who slipped into the position of President Trump’s National Security Advisor after railroading K.T. McFarland. This is from the Daily Mail article entitled “Kim is getting closer and there’s not much time left,” from 12/2/17 by Matthew Wright:
“President Trump’s national security adviser HR McMaster said on Saturday that each missile launch from North Korea increases the possibility of war. ‘There are ways to address this problem short of armed conflict, but it is a race because he’s getting closer and closer and there’s not much time left.’ And Kim Jong Un’s nuclear ambitions are the gravest national security threat that America faces, according to McMaster. ‘The greatest immediate threat to the United States and to the world is the threat posed by the rogue regime in North Korea and his continued efforts to develop a long range nuclear capability,’ he added.”
So, McMaster termed North Korea as “the greatest immediate threat to the United States and the world.” If that is the case, then why this? Read this next excerpt from Reuters entitled “Exclusive: Pentagon evaluating U.S. West Coast missile defense sites – officials,” by Mike Stone from 12/2/17:
“On Wednesday, North Korea tested a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that can fly over 13,000 km (8,080 miles), placing Washington within target range, South Korea said on Friday. Congressman Mike Rogers, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee and chairs the Strategic Forces Subcommittee which oversees missile defense, said the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), was aiming to install extra defenses at West Coast sites. The funding for the system does not appear in the 2018 defense budget plan indicating potential deployment is further off.
“It’s just a matter of the location, and the MDA making a recommendation as to which site meets their criteria for location, but also the environmental impact,” the Alabama Congressman and Republican told Reuters during an interview on the sidelines of the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in southern California. When asked about the plan, MDA Deputy Director Rear Admiral Jon Hill said in a statement: “The Missile Defense Agency has received no tasking to site the Terminal High Altitude Air Defense System on the West Coast.” The MDA is a unit of the U.S. Defense Department. Congressman Rogers did not reveal the exact locations the agency is considering but said several sites are “competing” for the missile defense installations.
Rogers and Congressman Adam Smith, a Democrat representing the 9th District of Washington, said the government was considering installing the THAAD anti-missile system made by aerospace giant Lockheed Martin Corp, at west coast sites. The Congressmen said the number of sites that may ultimately be deployed had yet to be determined. THAAD is a ground-based regional missile defense system designed to shoot down short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles and takes only a matter of weeks to install. In addition to the two THAAD systems deployed in South Korea and Guam in the Pacific, the U.S. has seven other THAAD systems. While some of the existing missiles are based in Fort Bliss, Texas, the system is highly mobile and current locations are not disclosed. A Lockheed Martin representative declined to comment on specific THAAD deployments, but added that the company “is ready to support the Missile Defense Agency and the United States government in their ballistic missile defense efforts.” He added that testing and deployment of assets is a government decision.”
There you have the inconsistency that lends itself to understanding of the complete…and true…picture. McMaster parrots the lines of the immediate threat of North Korea to the United States…chiming in, and “to the world,” to bring in thought common among the primates…the whole “troupe” of baboons is at risk. There’s the basis for justification for a U.S. first strike…protecting the community of nations, partners, “comrades,” etc.
But the true “Art of the Deal” is to follow the money generated by the public apprehension worked up through the government and media reports. The money? Where are the missile defense systems going to be located? And who will pay for them? And when will the government decide?
So, Congressman Mike Rogers of Alabama is working on identifying the role of the MDA and government-selected locations, as well as Adam Smith, 9th District Democrat congressman out of Washington. Rogers said several sites were “competing” for the missile defense installations. Also, “friendly” Lockheed Martin said they are “ready to support the MDA and the United States government in their ballistic missile defense efforts.”
Isn’t that wonderful, and wondrous? The article mentions the decision wouldn’t be made until sometime in 2018. What a sense of urgency for an imminent attack that is!
What it all really means is they still need to figure out a method for leasing property and racking up expenses ten times the actual cost…so that Rogers, Smith, and all the other politicos can line their pockets and steal the excess, as well as grease the palms of a small army of municipal commissars and apparatchiks. Then…here comes the benevolent Lockheed Martin, a “mom-and-pop” store that is just awaiting governmental approval and decisions to help everyone out…all funded by the stupid American taxpayer. The corporation and the government, hand in hand to protect the little taxpayer serfs!
And if the nuclear missile bypasses THAAD and Aegis (that we already know will not perform), oh well! Responsibility and accountability are two different things. Besides, everyone will be mad enough that nobody will notice those last-minute wire transfers of funds and stocks into hard gold and silver overseas, nor the scrambling of the politicos and executives to ensure they are out of the country or safe in funded bunkers when it commences.
No, the problem is we as citizens are on the outside looking in. North Korea has the capability to hit us and kill millions of people. The truth is that we will prod them into doing it, for one scenario or another as outlined in the beginning of this article. Trust them: you can trust in the politicians in all their narcissistic hubris armed with aggression and impunity and shielded in self-righteousness. You can trust in them to initiate a nuclear war, but don’t worry. They will be safe, sound, and underground in a secure location that you paid for, while you’re barbequing up above.
The next world war will be initiated by an EMP attack against the U.S., followed by a nuclear exchange and then conventional warfare. Whether another country initiates it, or we do is another matter that will probably never be ascertained after it happens.
Jeremiah Johnson is the Nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces (Airborne). Mr. Johnson is also a Gunsmith, a Certified Master Herbalist, a Montana Master Food Preserver, and a graduate of the U.S. Army’s SERE school (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape). He lives in a cabin in the mountains of Western Montana with his wife and three cats. You can follow Jeremiah’s regular writings at SHTFplan.com or contact him here.
This article may be republished or excerpted with proper attribution to the author and a link to www.SHTFplan.com.
One senator called out his colleagues for giving the Senate just hours to vote on a nearly 500-page tax bill with illegible hand-scribbled amendments.
(ZHE) — Shortly before 2am on Saturday, the Senate passed “the most sweeping rewrite of the U.S. tax code in three decades, slashing the corporate tax rate and providing temporary tax-rate cuts for most Americans” handing Republicans a badly needed legislative and political victory. Senators voted across party lines in a 51-49 vote, ending days of debate and “hand wringing” as leadership worked frantically behind the scenes to win over holdouts and get the proposal in line with the chamber’s rules.
Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, who had cited concerns over the bill’s effects on federal deficits, was the only Republican dissenter. Corker, who is retiring after 2018, said in a statement ahead of the vote that he “wanted to get to yes” on the tax plan. “But at the end of the day, I am not able to cast aside my fiscal concerns and vote for legislation that I believe, based on the information I currently have, could deepen the debt burden on future generations,” he said.
Corker’s dissent however was not enough to halt passage, and shortly thereafter Vice President Mike Pence presided over the final passage vote. GOP senators, who stayed on the Senate floor until the vote closed after midnight, broke out into applause after Pence announced the bill had passed.
“This is a great day for the country,” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said during a 2 a.m. press conference after the vote. “We have an opportunity now to make America more competitive, to keep jobs from being shipped off shore and to provide substantial relief for the middle class.”
The bill would lower tax rates for individuals through 2025 and permanently cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20% (more details below). The bill’s tax cuts for individuals are temporary in order to comply with budget rules that the measure can’t add to the deficit after 10 years. The bill would also repeal ObamaCare’s individual mandate, a priority for President Trump and many Republicans.
* * *
The vote brings the GOP close to delivering a much-needed policy win for their party and President Donald Trump. After the vote, Trump said on Twitter that he looks forward to signing a final bill before Christmas. The president expressed gratitude to McConnell and Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch for steering the measure through the Senate. “We are one step closer to delivering MASSIVE tax cuts for working families across America,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
We are one step closer to delivering MASSIVE tax cuts for working families across America. Special thanks to @SenateMajLdr Mitch McConnell and Chairman @SenOrrinHatch for shepherding our bill through the Senate. Look forward to signing a final bill before Christmas! pic.twitter.com/gmWTny3SfS
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2017
On Saturday morning, Trump followed up his praise to the Senate GOP, tweeting the “Biggest Tax Bill and Tax Cuts in history just passed in the Senate. Now these great Republicans will be going for final passage. Thank you to House and Senate Republicans for your hard work and commitment!”
Biggest Tax Bill and Tax Cuts in history just passed in the Senate. Now these great Republicans will be going for final passage. Thank you to House and Senate Republicans for your hard work and commitment!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2017
* * *
Amid the republican jubilation over the passage of a bill which is heavily weighted to benefit corporations and pass-throughs, and will encourage all self-employed businesses to become LLCs, there was just one problem: nobody actually read the 479-page bill.
As Montana Senator Jon Tester wrote late on Friday:
I was just handed a 479-page tax bill a few hours before the vote. One page literally has hand scribbled policy changes on it that can’t be read. This is Washington, D.C. at its worst. Montanans deserve so much better. pic.twitter.com/q6lTpXoXS0
— Senator Jon Tester (@SenatorTester) December 2, 2017
NY Governor Andrew Cuomo showed what the “handwritten notes on the page” looked like:
Senate Republicans are so desperate for a win they are going to pass a tax increase on New York with handwritten changes to the bill. pic.twitter.com/pT2Xvubiy2
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) December 2, 2017
Commenting on this, Senate Democrat Charles Schumer noted that a set of last-minute revisions to the bill changed it in ways that had yet to be analyzed by the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’s official scorekeeper for the effects of tax legislation. “Is this really how Republicans are going to rewrite the tax code? Scrawled like something on the back of a napkin?” However, McConnell said the bill, the first text of which was introduced on Nov. 20, went “through the regular order.” He dismissed complaints like Schumer’s. “You complain about process when you’re losing,” McConnell said.
Bottom line: the chaotic process was similar to how Obamacare was passed on Christmas Eve in 2009: in fact maybe a slight improvement: at least this time Congress didn’t have to “pass the bill to find out what is in it.” And it’s not like anyone reads these bills anyway.
So what happens next?
Before it goes to Trump, lawmakers will have to reconcile differences between the Senate bill and one the House passed last month, a process that will begin Monday. Although both versions share common topline elements, negotiations on individual provisions inserted to win votes, particularly in the Senate, may be protracted and difficult. The final product will end up being a central issue in the 2018 elections that will determine control of Congress.
“We’re going to take this message to the American people a year from now,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said after the vote.
* * *
Among the major overhauls, both the House and Senate measures would cut the corporate tax rate to 20% from 35% – though the Senate version would set that lower rate in 2019, a year later than the House bill would. Also, the Senate bill, unlike the House version, would provide only temporary tax relief to individuals, ending tax cuts for them in 2026. Both bills are expected to add more than $1.4 trillion to the federal deficit over 10 years, before accounting for any economic growth. Bloomberg reported that last minute revisions to help shore up GOP support added about $32.5bn to the measure’s 10-year cost, according to a one-page analysis from the Congressional Budget Office.
The House and Senate bills also align on the contentious issue of individual deductions for state and local taxes: They’d eliminate all but a deduction for property taxes, which would be capped at $10,000. They differ on the home mortgage-interest deduction; the House bill would restrict that break to loans of $500,000 or less with regard to new purchases of homes. The Senate legislation would leave the current $1 million cap in place.
According to Bloomberg, the bills also differ on the tax rates they’d apply to multinational companies’ accumulated offshore earnings. The House bill would tax those profits at 14 percent for earnings held as cash and 7 percent for less-liquid assets. The revised Senate bill contains a lengthy section that has no direct mention of the rates, but a person familiar with the Senate plan said they’d be 14.5 percent for cash and 7.5 percent for less-liquid assets.
The Senate also approved a 23% tax deduction on business income earned from partnerships, limited liabilities and other so-called pass-through businesses. The House version would create a 25% tax rate for such business income, with restrictions on which businesses could qualify. Small businesses would get extra relief under the House legislation as well.
The House bill would also eliminate the estate tax, while the Senate version would limit the tax to fewer multimillion-dollar estates, but leave it in place. And after 2025, the limits would lift. Under current law, the estate tax applies a 40% levy to estates worth more than $5.49 million for individuals and $10.98 million for married couples. The Senate bill would temporarily double the exemption thresholds. The House bill would double the exemption thresholds, and then repeal the tax entirely in 2025.
As discussed previously, the House bill would consolidate the current seven individual tax brackets to four, leaving the top tax rate at 39.6%. The Senate bill would have seven brackets – with lower rates, and a top rate of 38.5 percent. As Bloomberg notes, “studies have shown that many of the tax bill’s benefits would go to the highest earners – and some middle-class taxpayers might actually pay more – a finding that could impact the House-Senate talks.”
Most importantly, perhaps, the Senate bill includes a repeal of Obamacare’s mandate that most Americans have health insurance or pay a penalty. The House bill does not.
Here is a side-by-side comparison of the two plans thanks to the WSJ:
Also while we have yet to get confirmation, below is a list of last minute changes and revisions that made it into the final bill per Reuters:
Attention now shifts to a House-Senate conference committee – a specially appointed, temporary panel that will be charged with hashing out the differences in the bills and preparing a final version for both chambers to consider. Party leaders will select a small group of lawmakers, likely from the House and Senate tax-writing panels in each chamber, who would then be approved by each chamber. That work could start as early as Monday, with many high-stakes issues to be worked through. The deadline of Dec. 31 is an artificial one, though – aimed partly at securing a victory well in advance of the 2018 congressional elections. Republicans would have until the end of 2018 before they lose their ability to clear final passage in the Senate without a filibuster.
By Tyler Durden / Republished with permission / Zero Hedge / Report a typo
This article was chosen for republication based on the interest of our readers. Anti-Media republishes stories from a number of other independent news sources. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect Anti-Media editorial policy.
(ANTIMEDIA) — Washington Republicans want to lower Americans’ taxes without bringing spending down, and President Donald Trump appears to be completely on board with this plan despite having complained about the same practice in the past. But this policy has a series of other unintended consequences (or perhaps intended, just not publicized).
One of them, as the Washington Post‘s “Wonkblog” explains, is that Trump’s tax plan will give China even more power over the U.S. economy, as additional Treasury bonds will have to be issued for decades to come to cover for the tax cuts. Since less revenue will come in from taxpayers, the U.S. will have a gap to fill, and the government will have to make ends meet by issuing additional bonds.
According to the St. Louis Federal Reserve, there are more foreign banks, corporations, and investors who hold U.S. Treasury bonds than private domestic investors. And to Trump’s likely horror, over a third of the foreign investors are from China and Japan, meaning that in combination with Hong Kong, China held $1.38 trillion in bonds in September, making it the country’s largest foreign creditor.
To nations like China, purchasing U.S. Treasury bonds makes sense because the dollar still holds its position as the world’s main reserve currency.
By purchasing Treasury bonds and notes, foreign investors actually help the United States government delay with the dollar’s eventual collapse, as the bonds help to maintain the dollar’s value even as the Federal Reserve has, until very recently, has continued increase the money supply, bringing the overall purchasing power of the dollar down because its supply is much higher than what the market demands. This has been true ever since President Richard Nixon destroyed the dollar by bringing an end to the gold standard.
With the Trump administration’s support, Congress is raising the debt as they also cut revenue (read: taxation), and the necessity to press investors to buy more bonds is becoming all too real. The result is that, despite having displayed a tough, anti-China stance during his campaign, Trump is actually putting the very survival of the dollar in China’s hands.
Further, the Trump administration is also walking away from its nationalist tone, as its tax plan will actually help Americans purchase more foreign goods and services.
From a balanced, unbiased point of view, that in itself isn’t bad. But from a nationalist point of view, it’s blasphemy.
By keeping Americans from paying more taxes, they will have more money to purchase products coming from abroad. Foreign companies and governments will then, as a result, have more capital to invest in U.S. Treasury bonds. To middle-of-the-road and establishment economists, this phenomenon known as a “trade deficit” is detrimental to Americans as domestic businesses aren’t exporting as much as Americans are buying from abroad. Nationalists like Trump and his supporters also agree, as noted by the Washington Post. So it is surprising that the administration is now attempting to downplay the inevitable trade deficit increase by claiming instead that his tax plan will increase domestic investment, keeping the money within U.S. borders and eventually increasing exports.
To anyone who truly understands how the economy works, the notion that trade deficits are damaging to the economy in any real sense is ludicrous. As Austrian economist Murray Rothbard noted, instead of crying because we’re not exporting “enough,” “we should rejoice that foreign investors are willing to finance our cheap imports.”
Even so, on the campaign trail, Trump accused his opponent, Hillary Clinton, of “[unleashing] a trade war against the American worker” by supporting trade deals that, in his view, benefited China and crushed the United States.
Promising that “[t]he era of economic surrender [would] finally be over,” he energized his nationalist base by promising to get America to export more than it imports again. Except now, he’s supporting the trade deficit, which is a boogeyman to his base. Unfortunately, to the president’s legacy, it will come back to bite him if this plan eventually makes its way to his desk.
With a tax bill that both continues to give China incentives to help maintain the dollar’s strength and increases the trade deficit — making America not that great again the eyes of Trump’s supporters — it’s clear that the president and Republicans aren’t being as consistent, or even as conservative, as they may have claimed in the past.
This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse
Yes, this is a true story. I was completely shocked when I learned about this too, and this just underscores the importance of repealing the individual mandate immediately. Shortly after taking office, President Trump issued an executive order which was intended to move the IRS away from enforcing Obamacare’s individual mandate, but now the IRS has found a way around that executive order. According to the official AARP website, the IRS has announced that it will not process any tax returns from individuals that are not willing to disclose whether they currently have health insurance or not…
The Internal Revenue Service won’t process individual tax returns in 2018 unless taxpayers indicate whether they have health insurance coverage or an exemption.
The move, announced last month, reverses course from this year, when the IRS said it would not require filers to indicate on 1040 tax forms whether they had health insurance. Filers were still required to have medical insurance or pay a penalty, but the IRS accepted and processed returns even if taxpayers didn’t indicate coverage status.
So what this means is that you will not get your refund until you tell the IRS if you have health insurance.
And if you don’t have health insurance and you don’t qualify for an exemption, you could be hit with a very painful financial penalty.
Of course purchasing health insurance in some parts of the country is enough of a penalty as it is. For example, I recently wrote about a family of four in Virginia that is now facing the prospect of paying $3,000 a month for health insurance.
Talk about being between a rock and a hard place.
And it also turns out that the IRS is going back and sending threatening letters to those that didn’t indicate if they were covered or not on previous tax returns. Here is more from the AARP…
IRS spokesman Bruce Friedland said it followed a review of IRS procedures.
“The IRS has determined that it is more burdensome for taxpayers to allow them to file an incomplete tax return and then have to manage follow-up letters and potentially amend their return,’’ Friedland said. “Identifying omissions and requiring taxpayers to provide health coverage information at the point of filing makes it easier for the taxpayer to successfully file a tax return and minimizes related refund delays.”
In September, the IRS started sending letters to about 130,000 taxpayers who didn’t address the health care requirement on 2014 and 2015 tax returns.
So if you left that section of your tax return blank in previous years, you should be expecting a letter in the mail very soon.
At this point, many of you that are reading this article are probably starting to get very angry. After all, didn’t President Trump sign an executive order earlier this year that was going to end enforcement of the individual mandate?
Unfortunately, that was not the case at all. In fact, Politico is reporting that the Trump administration “is still dutifully enforcing Obamacare’s individual mandate”…
The Trump administration is still dutifully enforcing Obamacare’s individual mandate, despite early signals it might undermine the unpopular linchpin of the health care law.
Weeks after the close of tax season, the IRS continues to process penalties from potentially millions of taxpayers who refused to purchase health insurance last year.
That’s even though hours after taking office on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued a vaguely worded executive order instructing federal agencies to waive or defer parts of Obamacare that would “impose a fiscal burden” on states, individuals or health care providers.
Enough is enough.
Obamacare should have been repealed on the very first day of the Trump administration, but unfortunately the RINOs in Congress are going to keep blocking any effort to do that. Elections really matter, and in 2018 we need to kick out the RINOs and put in new leaders that are fully committed to a 100% repeal of Obamacare.
We also need to do something about the IRS. They have always been a rogue agency, but now they have gotten completely and totally out of control. I am running for Congress in Idaho’s first congressional district, and I believe that we should completely shut down the IRS.
The status quo is simply not acceptable. Obamacare is financially crippling families all across America, and we should be absolutely disgusted that Congress has not found a solution to this problem even though they have had almost an entire year to get something done.
Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.
If you want to know what is coming and what you can do to prepare, read his latest book Get Prepared Now!: Why A Great Crisis Is Coming.
(COMMONDREAMS) — Despite declaring the “full-on whopper” of a lie this week that his tax plan “is not good for me, believe me,” a new analysis by the New York Times published overnight shows that President Donald Trump would save himself well over a $1 billion if the proposals he laid out were to become law.
Using what it is known about Trump’s fortune—a still difficult number to determine given that he refuses to release his tax returns—the Times looked at a portion of Trump’s 2005 return leaked to the press earlier this year alongside an estimate by Bloomberg which put his net worth at approximately $2.68 billion in order to assess the degree to which he would directly benefit.
While keeping in mind that other estimates (and unsubstantiated claims by Trump himself) put his wealth higher, the analysis based on the $2.68 billion estimate found that Trump would personally enjoy:
Meanwhile, Politifact was among those taking serious issue with the spurious claim made by the president, that the abolishment of the estate tax was a move geared to protect “millions of small business owners and the American farmer” while not mentioning that it is a policy specifically tailored to help millionaires and billionaires like himself pass their massive wealth to their heirs with zero federal tax liability.
The fact-checking site reported:
In 2017, estates worth less than $5.49 million are exempt from the tax, according to the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center. Above $5.49 million, the estate is generally taxed at 40 percent. However, family-owned farms and closely-held businesses may be able to pay less or pay in low-interest installments.
So how many estates are affected by the tax? Not many, and the people who pay it are usually among the country’s richest families.
Politifact concluded that Trump saying “millions” of American farmers and small business owners would benefit was “a ridiculously high estimate. Only 5,460 estates even pay the tax each year, according to a credible estimate, and of those, about 80 represented small businesses or farms. We rate the statement Pants on Fire.”
As Philip Bump wrote for the Washington Post on Tuesday, “Trump asks us to take on faith that these public provisions will somehow work to his detriment without explaining why. We’d be foolish to do so.”
By Jon Queally / Creative Commons / Common Dreams / Report a typo
This article was chosen for republication based on the interest of our readers. Anti-Media republishes stories from a number of other independent news sources. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect Anti-Media editorial policy.
A new survey was done in the United Kingdom and it shows just how hard it is for young people to survive paycheck to paycheck. Almost half of those surveyed admitted to needing credit to make ends meet until they get paid again.
More than half of young women have to borrow to make their funds last to the end of the month, highlighting the impact of stagnating wages, insecure work, and rising prices like taxation on millennials. A survey of 4,000 people aged 18-30 shows that 51% of young women and 45% of young men regularly use credit to stretch their finances until payday. The report also found that a quarter of these young people in the UK are constantly in debt.
When asked how they borrow to make ends meet, one in five claimed they used overdraft credit or borrowed from family members. The next most common form of borrowing was the use of credit cards. The Young Women’s Trust, which commissioned the representative sample of young people, said many of those questioned in the survey also worked extra hours or skipped meals to make their cash stretch to the end of the month.
The survey was conducted after a growing number of people began asking for help from debt charities with personal debts and monthly bills. The debt charity StepChange said it was concerned about a steep increase in the number of “under-40s” and renters who were struggling to make ends meet. This adds to the trend for low-income families to rely on credit to buy essential items. This debt epidemic is not likely to go away either, with the added burden of regulations and taxation on personal income, it isn’t a surprise that people have begun to struggle financially.
Even if a credit company forgives a debt, in the United States, the IRS will demand that the company give a 1099-C form, which is then reported as income, and taxed as such. Being in poverty becomes the norm when a society drifts toward more government control, and we are beginning to see this credit epidemic rise in first world countries.
The Young Women’s Trust charity’s chief executive, Carole Easton, a former chief executive of ChildLine, said 25% of young people believed their level of debt had gotten worse in the past year and 61% expect to be still in debt when they are aged 40. She warned that this is a scary outlook for many. This could leave young people with “little hope for the future”, especially as the Bank of England has hinted in recent days that it is likely to raise interest rates in the near future. “The worry is many young people will be pushed further into debt,” she said.
“Much more needs to be done to improve young people’s prospects. This means giving them the right skills and support to find jobs, ensuring decent and flexible jobs are available, and paying a proper living wage that doesn’t discriminate against age. This would benefit businesses and the economy too,” said Easton, letting the government off the hook.
But that money has to come from somewhere. Increased wages mean increased prices. It’s an economic cycle that is being strangled by regulations and taxation. Perhaps a reduction in their tax burden? Maybe if the government would climb off the backs of workers, they could begin to get ahead.
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Author: Mac Slavo
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Date: September 20th, 2017
Website: www.SHTFplan.com
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