Archive for August 18th, 2011

What happens if there are no rich people?

August 18, 2011

Great chart in the WSJ, extracted from the latest IRS data:

image

Provokes a couple of thoughts:

  1. There aren’t that many folks earning over $1 million annually … less than 250,000 out of 150 million tax filers.
  2. The reported thresholds are AGI – before taxes … number of folks in the categories r is even smaller after-taxes or if you income average across a few years
  3. Number has shrunk during the recession … what if they all go away, e.g. move or get their $millions taxed away or stop earning
  4. Earnings & wealth … even the WSJ doesn’t seem to understand the difference between stocks and flows – earnings is a ‘flow’, wealth is a ‘stock’ … millionaire status should be based on wealth not one’s year’s earnings

This issue doesn’t impact me as long as I’m making $8.75 an hour teaching … and, I have no great interest inprotecting the so-called super rich … but, I don’t like singling out a miniscule group of citizens for targeted “attention” … today it’s them, tomorrow, it’s us.

Bad precedent.

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Posted in Taxes | 1 Comment »

In praise of high-speed rail … oh, just kidding

August 18, 2011

Ken’s Take:  Here’s a nice summary by Michael Barone debunking one President “No Sacred Cows” Obama’s  sacred cows … high-speed rail between and through solid blue territory (think Nevada & California) and swing stated (think (Iowa).

In negotiations on the debt limit, Obama has fenced off several programs from any cuts at all.

One is, astonishingly, the $53 billion he wants to spend on high-speed rail projects. To call high-speed rail a "boondoggle" is to engage in considerable understatement.
 
These projects include

  • $715 million for construction of 100 miles of track between the small towns of Borden and Corcoran in California’s Central Valley.
     
    A train from Iowa City, Iowa, that will take longer to get to Chicago than already existing bus service
  • A train from Minneapolis to Duluth, Minn., that will average 69 miles per hour — about what you could average on the parallel Interstate 35.
     

Obama has rhapsodized about the pleasure of walking to a train station and taking a high-speed rail trip to another city.

But the great majority of Americans don’t live within an easy drive of a train station.
 
A high-speed rail line might make sense in the densely populated Northeast corridor between Washington and Boston, but these projects make no sense in most of the rest of America.

No wonder the governors of Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida have turned down federal money for rail projects that parallel interstate highways.

They realize that their taxpayers would get stuck for inevitable cost overruns and operating deficits.

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Posted in Transportation | Leave a Comment »

Feds’ spotlight shifts from tanning salons to Chipotle …

August 18, 2011

According to the WSJ …

After an immigration audit of its payrolls, burrito chain Chipotle Mexican Grill lost 450 of its roughly 1,200 employees in Minnesota.

Now it’s dealing with the aftermath— rising turnover – as workers concerned about their documents might have decided to seek employment elsewhere — and grumbling customers because of slower service from new employees.

When you went in there before … the quality was great,” says  a longtime Chipotle fan in Minneapolis.

“Now it takes forever. People are slopping stuff together.”

Other areas being targeted by audits include Virginia and Washington, D.C.

“It is very troubling for us to lose so many great employees,” said a company spokesman.

Ken’s Take: “Slopping stuff together”?  Isn’t a burrito – by definition – stuff that’s slopped together?

Lighten up, dude …

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Posted in Food & Drink, Immigration | 1 Comment »

Seriously, would you trade our healthcare system for Canada’s or England’s?

August 18, 2011

A recent “Investor’s Business Daily” article has been making the email circuit.

Provides statistics from a survey by the United Nations International Health Organization:

* * * * * *

Percentage of men and women who survived a cancer five years after diagnosis:

U.S. 65%  Canada 42% England 46%

* * * * *

Percentage of patients diagnosed with diabetes who received treatment within six months:

U.S. 93% Canada 43% England 15%

* * * * *

Percentage of seniors needing hip replacement who received it within six months:

U.S. 90%  Canada 43% England 15%

* * * * *

Percentage referred to a medical specialist who see one within one month:

U.S. 77% Canada 43% England 40%

* * * * *

Number of MRI scanners (a prime diagnostic tool) per million people:

U.S. 71 England 14 Canada 18

* * * * *

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Posted in Health Care / Medical Insurance | 3 Comments »