Stirring Shit Up
Sure, I could post this at my regular blog, but it’s nowhere near as much fun as if I post it here:
Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
Uncle Pays the Bills
 |
|
Find Local
|
Categories
- ATF (769)
- Death Match (10)
- Eminent Domain (225)
- In the bag (9)
- Notes to Junior (546)
- Poker (74)
- Recipes (142)
- Shotgun Noob (11)
- The Airing of Grievances (19)
- uncategorized (47,725)
June 11th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Okay, I’m filming a rebuttal. Who’s with me?
June 11th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
It would be funnier if it was done about democrats. Maybe have obama walking on water.
June 11th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Come on, you have to admit the lesbian couple was funny.
June 11th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Seriously – who’s with me?
June 11th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Ok, I know tgirsch posted this, but check out the Get Informed link and tell me this isn’t first rate satire.
What the VPC guy doing in his spare time?
June 11th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
I’m sure it was a real knee-slapper for anti-capitalists everywhere, but then who says the Republicans are for capitalism? I mean, the EPA for example, was started by, you guessed it– a Republican. Apparently the movie makers didn’t get that memo. They were probably born long after Nixon took the fall, and if it didn’t happen during their lifetimes, they’re likely unaware of it.
McCain wants to punish the suppliers for the high price of oil. What’s capitalist about that?
Bush instituted the free prescription drug program, and he let Teddy write his education bill proposals. What’s capitalist about any of that?
My reaction to it was; same amazingly ignorant shit, different day.
I find it richly amusing, being lectured about the Constitution by Democrats and Greenies. Is that irony or what?
June 11th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Lyle:
This is part of why I thought it would be fun to post it here. A lot of the frequent commenters here aren’t Democrats, but they ain’t Republicans either. But a lot of them actually are closet Republicans (who claim to be libertarians or something, but really aren’t), and those are the most fun to mess with. 🙂
June 11th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
I’m not a republic, not even a closet one. I’m not a democrat. I don’t call myself a libertarian, although that would probably be the most accurate mainstream definition of me. I lean a little towards the extreme side of libertarianism.
That said, that video was a complete load of idiotic tripe.
June 11th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Garbage.
June 11th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Tripe it was. Ungh! 😛
June 11th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
But that video did such a poor job.
June 11th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
I am voting Democrat because: Paying 30% of my wages in taxes is not enough…
I am voting Democrat because: I like rolling blackouts…
I am voting Democrat because: Paying 5ive dollars a gallon for gas is just not enough…
Come on people lets keep the train rolling…
June 11th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
I suspect that very few people are actually paying as much as 30% of their wages in taxes, even when you use the most pessimistic reckoning of how much tax you pay.
Also lest everyone forget, rolling blackouts occurred in large part because of Republican-led energy deregulation.
And if you think Republicans would do anything meaningful about gas prices, you’re nuts. Unless you think paying $4.82/gallon this summer instead of $5/gallon is a meaningful difference (and even that assumes that a summer gas tax holiday would actually be reflected in the price of gas, which virtually no economist believes).
Face it, the market has decided: gas is expensive. It’s been artificially cheap in the US, thanks in large part to hugely expensive government policies propagated by Democrats and Republicans alike, for decades.
June 11th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
tgirsch…
So, when was Tax Freedom Day? Was it more or less than 30% of the way through the year?
(For the innumerate: 30% of 365 is 109.5 days…a little more than three months, but less than four. Of course, Tax Freedom Day attempts to count all taxes, Fed, State, and Local, not just Federal Income Tax.)
June 11th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Ah yes, Tax Freedom Day! The poster child for misleading use of averages!
June 11th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Actually, you can’t really do a rebuttal. They’ve bought up http://www.imvotingdemocrat.com and redirected it to the same site.
Because, you know, they are all for freedom of speech and stuff.
June 11th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
That may be true of income tax, but when you factor in gas tax, property tax, sales tax, professional license tax (heh), SS, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc – not to mention all of the hidden taxes passed onto you by the companies that pay 100 taxes – you are spending well over 50% of your labor to finance gov’t.
Unless of course your an unproductive member of society, in which case you are being paid by the gov’t.
June 11th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Sorry, should have read “Well over 30%”
June 11th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
That video has got to be one of the worst attempts at cleverness I’ve seen in a long time. It does have one accurate statement, though, in the credits:
Damned straight.
You’ve got to be shitting me. Rolling blackouts were worse in California than anywhere else. Which party controlled their legislature when this “deregulation” regulation was enacted? All they were saying was give Peace a chance. Well, we did, and he blew it. And then another Democrat went and made matters worse.
June 11th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Right. “Deregulation” indeed. Interesting how you can increase the number of regulations for something, and call it “deregulation.”
“Pure bullshit” would have been a more accurate name for it.
As for voting Democrat, well I’m voting Democrat because:
1. only criminals should have guns.
2. people shouldn’t have to work if they don’t want to.
3. everyone should make $30/hr.
4. money falls from the sky, and the Democrats will force all the greedy bastards in control of the cash to share.
5. because we are all entitled to have someone else wipe our butts.
6. because Al Gore’s house still isn’t big enough to fight global warming.
7. because freedom is important, especially the freedom to live an unhealthy lifestyle and to have someone else pay for the consequences.
8. because only fuzzy bunnies are good.
June 11th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
tgirsch: As a self-employed bidnethman in the 35% bracket, I also pay 15+% SocSec on wage income (that’s 50% right there unless you take strenous steps to try to protect yourself, but I’ve been there, Dude) plus State income tax. Add to that: property taxes, sales taxes, and taxes on fuel, ammunition, etc., ad infinitum.
Oh, and did you now that business real property is taxed at double the rate for your home? And utilities? Much higher than home rates.
Next, we can get into consumer law, which overwhelmingly favors the consumer at the expense of the eeeevil capitalist.
Only then can we discuss restrictions, zoning, labor laws, and other requirements placed on businesses, which get between buyer, seller, owner, and employees, all of which add to the cost of producing goods and servicing the wants and needs of one’s fellow man, and as such are defacto taxation.
Of course, in this age of immaculate ignorance, with our school system absent without leave, no one knows any of this stuff first-hand unless they’re in business. But I know– screw the businessman, right? “Tax the rich, feed the poor, ’till there no rich no more” (Yeah– only the poor– with no one left producing anything. Ta dah! The Soviet Union returns)
June 11th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
tgrisch, why are you so full of shit? Maybe because your a leeching mo fo dependent on the government vis a vis productive citizens for your survival, and you aren’t subject to armed robbery like us productive ones, doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t pay taxes. Maybe you should shut your gov’t cheese eating mouth and be nice to the ones who keep this society afloat. I guarantee when the government needs money to buy bullets to suppress us they going to get that money by not printing welfare checks.
This country would financially, morally, and logically be better off if you weren’t alive.
June 11th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Wow, that’s some heavy-handed nonsense, most of untrue and the remainder irrelevant. Geesh, if only the Right was as clever, well-organized, capitalist and stingy as that thing claims: I’d vote for them twice! Sadly, they’re not.
–Look, I’m an anarchist and even I think that vid’s just ignorant, not funny. But hey, you just keep on drinkin’ that lefty Kool-Aide. It’ll all be better when the Obamessiah saves all us poor, ignernt, cousin-humping gunnies from the horrid burden of having enough take-home pay to live on. Oh, yeah, that’ll fix it. Got your wheelbarrow-wallet yet? Better get it now.
June 11th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
I’m voting Democrat, because it’s unfair that an employee starting out at Walmart job that doesn’t require any skills doesn’t get paid enough to single-handedly support a family of four.
I’m voting Democrat, because I want my hybrid car to “express my persona”.
I’m voting Democrat, because the Republicans are obviously racists. If they weren’t, they’d do more to force minorities to spend more time at country bars, hockey games, and NASCAR races.
[/sarcasm]
I like how they even make sure to squeeze in the “coat hangar abortion” argument in their “information” about the movie. People who are against abortion obviously aren’t really against it. They just don’t want poor people to be able to get them. You know how us rich, educated folks like to spend all of our time coming up with ways to keep the poor man down.
June 11th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Tgirsch, I thought we already pointed out that your definition of “not paying that much” required people to completely ignore social security or medicare, not be self-employed, and included a lot of people working less than full time at minimum wage.
I don’t think those are remotely relevant.
June 11th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
On another note, you have a regular blog Uncle?
June 12th, 2008 at 12:06 am
Wow. I couldn’t even get all the way through.
I’d say it’s disingenious, but it’s worse than that. It’s active stupidity running rampant for the world to see. If I didn’t think 90% of the 18-30 year old voting block believed that crap, I’d feel a lot better about reaching for something to laugh at in there…
June 12th, 2008 at 12:33 am
Hardcorps:
The idea that I’m “leeching” off the government is laughable. And I live in the second-worst city in the country for violent crime, so the idea that I’m “not subject to armed robbery” is even more laughable (unless you were referring to taxes as armed robbery, in which case it’s still more laughable to suggest that I’m not subject to it). You can make snide remarks about my “gov’t cheese eating mouth” all you want, but I don’t receive welfare, I help pay for it. (And, of course, compared to corporate welfare, gov’t cheese is a tiny drop in the bucket anyway.)
Lyle:
I’d humbly suggest that you’re a lot more like the exception than the rule. Just what percentage of Americans do you suppose are self-employed businessmen in the 35% bracket? And what percentage of those do you suppose are blindingly stupid enough to organize their business in such a way that every penny of profit is subject to the self-employment tax? Never mind the tax problem, if you’re doing that, you’re operating as a sole proprietorship, which means you risk all of your private assets in addition to your business assets should your business get sued. It’s downright reckless.
BWM:
As I detailed in the post I linked, I’m well over the median income, virtually all of my income comes from wages rather than capital gains, I don’t itemize, I do almost nothing clever to avoid paying taxes, and I’m not taxed at anywhere near 50% of my income, even when you include social security, medicare, property taxes, and sales taxes. If you look at the absolutely most pessimistic possible way to summarize my tax picture, you can really stretch and get my effective tax rate up close to 35% — nowhere near half. So if you’re paying anywhere close to half, I’d have to suspect you’re either making a shitload of money (like top 5% income or better), or you’re doing something very wrong, or both.
gattsuru:
Even though I’m still not sure why minimum wage workers somehow don’t count, I really don’t think it skews the picture all that much. As we previously argued (round and round and round) you can look at just the middle three fifths of incomes (60% of all incomes, for those of you who are bad at fractions), and what I’ve argued about effective rates of taxation continues to hold true — in fact, it’s more true than if you include the top and bottom quintiles. And as I mentioned above and in my original post, I explicitly included social security and medicare taxes. In my “pessimistic” estimate, I even included the employer portion, which would be the equivalent of paying the self-employment tax.
Laughingdog:
I am not Uncle.
June 12th, 2008 at 2:39 am
I never said that, Tgirsch. I said that people who make less than they would at a normal work week at minimum wage are pretty irrelevant on this discussion. People paying a few hundred dollars at most in yearly taxes usually aren’t the ones linking to Tax Freedom day yearly.
And once you included sales taxes and property taxes, you jumped over the very 30% that you’re contesting here, while also claiming the company health insurance and 401k that I keep getting told that normal people just don’t get and need our taxes to support (and fairly low property taxes, although that’s just compared to my experience in more left-wing nutty places).
Because that tax must come out of the Evil Corporation Income Box, not the costs of products sold or the pay of workers…
June 12th, 2008 at 8:17 am
I just pulled my tax return. I paid a bit over 28% in taxes last year, and I’m very far from wealthy.
June 12th, 2008 at 8:18 am
Lol – if the goal was to stir up shit, mission accomplished.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Don’t forget that state and federal income taxes are only a portion of the taxes you pay in a year. On top of that is sales tax, as well as taxes on every utility that you pay. Then there’s property taxes, fees to register your vehicles and have a driver’s license. Fees to get permission to improve your home. Food tax tacked on top of sales tax when you buy prepared food (even if the prepared food is a fountain drink that I had to pour myself).
The list can go on and on.
I’d also like to know how Tgirsch figures that it was deregulation that caused the rolling blackouts in California, and not the fact that the lefties put a stop to any attempt to build more power plants in the state. The only part deregulation plays in there is that the power companies have more leeway to ensure they provide power to their own customers before they have to provide any to other companies. If Californians don’t want more power plants in their state to keep up with the increasing demand, they can pay the consequences for their own decisions. You might have noticed that there aren’t many red states having issues with blackouts.
June 12th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Lol – if the goal was to stir up shit, mission accomplished.
🙂