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If You Are Considering Buying A House, Read This First
In September of 2011, when looking at the insurmountable debt catastrophe that the world finds itself (which has only gotten worse in the past several years) we warned that "the only way to resolve the massive debt load is through a global coordinated debt restructuring (which would, among other things, push all global banks into bankruptcy) which, when all is said and done, will have to be funded by the world's financial asset holders: the middle-and upper-class, which, if BCS is right, have a ~30% one-time tax on all their assets to look forward to as the great mean reversion finally arrives and the world is set back on a viable path."
Two years later, the financial asset tax approach, in the form of depositor bail-ins, was tried - successfully (as there was no mass rioting, no revolution, in fact the people were perfectly happy to accept the confiscation of their savings) - in Cyprus, further emboldening the status quo, in this case the IMF, to propose, tongue in cheek, that the time has come for the uber-wealthy to give back some ("it's only fair"), and to raise income taxes through the roof (which of course would mostly impact the middle class as the bulk of current income for the 1% is in the form of dividend income, ultra-cheap leverage extraction on assets and various forms of carried interest).
And now, a new tax is not only on the horizon but coming fast and furious to allow the insolvent global regime at least one more can kicking: one which will impact current and future homeowners across the world.
But first, let's step back.
Last week, the IMF did what only the IMF could do: come to the realization that we proposed in 2009, and even the Davosites discussed earlier this year: namely that the middle class is effectively an endangered species, and rapidly on its way to wholesale extinction, and that the polarity between the rich and poor has never been greater. The IMF concluded, with the panache that only this comical organization is capable of, that income inequality "is weighing on global economic growth and fueling political instability."
The WSJ reports:
The International Monetary Fund's latest salvo came Thursday in a top official's speech and a 67-page paper detailing how the IMF's 188 member countries can use tax policy and targeted public spending to stem a rising disparity between haves and have-nots.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde has made the issue a high priority for the fund, warning—along with some of the fund's most powerful shareholders—that inequality is threatening longer-run economic prospects. Last month, Ms. Lagarde said the income gap risked creating "an economy of exclusion, and a wasteland of discarded potential" and rending "the precious fabric that holds our society together."
The IMF's solution? The same as that of socialists everywhere: redistribute the wealth... because apparently socialism works every time, all the time, with stellar results.
"Redistribution can help support growth because it reduces inequality," David Lipton, the fund's No. 2 official and a former senior White House aide, said in a speech Thursday at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "But if misconceived, this trade-off can be very costly."
"There's a sense that the burdens of the crisis have been unevenly distributed, that the middle classes and the poor have footed more of the bill of the crisis than the economic elite," said Moisés Naím, a senior economist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Venezuela's former trade minister.
Oh is there a sense? Is that why the Fed has halted its QE program which takes from what little is left of the middle class and gives to those who already have more money than they can spend in several lifetimes. Guess not.
So how does the IMF suggest going about this wholesale, global socialist revolution? Simple: the way we explained nearly three years ago.
The IMF's latest paper doesn't prescribe country-specific measures, but it does offer several proposals that are likely to be controversial. Most notably, the IMF says many advanced and developing economies can narrow inequality by more aggressively applying property taxes and "progressive" personal income taxes that rise as incomes increase.
The median top personal income-tax rate across the globe has halved since the 1980s to around 30%. But the IMF says "revenue-maximizing [personal income tax] rates are probably somewhere between 50% and 60% and optimal rates probably somewhat lower than that."
We wouldn't be too concerned about income taxes. After all, one needs to have a job to have income, and as everyone knows by now, jobs also are on their way to extinction, and every central bank everywhere will merely print the money needed to cover the income tax shortfall, leading to that "other" alternative to fixing the debt problem: global hyperinflation (with a little precious metals confiscation on the side: just like FDR did in the 1930s).
But going back to the original point, here is why those in the market for a house should be worried. Very worried. From page 40 of the IMF's paper on "Fiscal Policy and Income Inequality":
Some taxes levied on wealth, especially on immovable property, are also an option for economies seeking more progressive taxation. Wealth taxes, of various kinds, target the same underlying base as capital income taxes, namely assets. They could thus be considered as a potential source of progressive taxation, especially where taxes on capital incomes (including on real estate) are low or largely evaded. There are different types of wealth taxes, such as recurrent taxes on property or net wealth, transaction taxes, and inheritance and gift taxes. Over the past decades, revenue from these taxes has not kept up with the surge in wealth as a share of GDP (see earlier section) and, as a result, the effective tax rate has dropped from an average of around 0.9 percent in 1970 to approximately 0.5 percent today. The prospect of raising additional revenue from the various types of wealth taxation was recently discussed in IMF (2013b) and their role in reducing inequality can be summarized as follows.
- Property taxes are equitable and efficient, but underutilized in many economies. The average yield of property taxes in 65 economies (for which data are available) in the 2000s was around 1 percent of GDP, but in developing economies it averages only half of that (Bahl and Martínez-Vázquez, 2008). There is considerable scope to exploit this tax more fully, both as a revenue source and as a redistributive instrument, although effective implementation will require a sizable investment in administrative infrastructure, particularly in developing economies (Norregaard, 2013).
And there you have it: if you are buying a house, enjoy the low mortgage (for now... and don't forget - if and when the time comes to sell, the buyer better be able to afford your selling price and the monthly mortgage payment should the 30 Year mortgage rise from the current 4.2% to 6%, 7% or much higher, which all those who forecast an improving economy hope happens), but what will really determine the affordability of that piece of property you have your eyes set on, are the property taxes.
Because they are about to skyrocket.
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BINGO! This is the ONLY solution and it will not ever see the light of day...
Socialism has no elites. There is no socialism here. It's Fascism: http://youtu.be/4Ml7-aDXrgQ
In 1975 Ireland suspended residential property tax. It is now back on the command of the Troika. The people here are still in love with property. All cash buyers rushing in to pick up bargains after the monumental crash of 2008/ 20012. But I caution everyone. The banks are only now tackling the loan arrears and there will be a surge of property on the market over the next 12/18 months. It is not the asset class it once was. Taxes. fees. Etc is eating away at returns not to mention when interest rates start rising again. We are in a totally false market with no way to estimate true price discovery.
some may like this history: coal co's hired workers provided co housing, co stores for food and dry goods..the miners were paid in co script, good only at co stores which provided credit when the pay ran out before the month ran out, worked 6 days 12 hours/day, a week, at pay that never got them out of co debt...today people when told of this system - usually say what idiot would work for the coal co's in a dangerous mine filled with dust, and at risk of cave ins, explosions, while being forced to buy products and rent from the mine co?
so how is this any differant from how modern americans live today?
Yep, I have been thinking more and more about the parallels you just described. 90% of the population makes just enough is "script" to make it to next week. Crony capitalists own the "company" stores. The Government is the mine owner. The MSM is the company newsletter telling us all how great it is.
and all of those of which you speak are union run and the 'Crony capitalists' is really fascism.
here in our wonderful NW chicago suburb you now need to aquire a city permit to cut down a tree on your own property. My son in law works in the streets and san department of a much richer suburb and there you not only need a permit to cut down a tree on your own property but said permit costs 150 dollars. We as a people have accepted all of this. Our state personal income tax was just raised to 5 from 3 percent. Tolls on toll roads doubled. I believe we in America pay .43 a gallon in Federal taxes for roadway maintainance. Corporate tax rates spiked as well. The retired cops and firemen in my suburb have a guaranteed COLA written into law in their pension agreements. I had a county building permit issuer make me sit and wait a half hour while she ate her lunch as I walked up to her counter just as the clock clicked high noon. It is high noon in America. I was transferred to Obamaville, sorry, Chicagoland from Cincinnati in 1998. The home I purchased then for 168 is now worth 168. I have paid property taxes of 6000 plus per year for 16 years. Happiness will be Chicago land in my rear view mirror. When the few of us who support the beast just walk away it will cave in. I was speaking with my better half the other day about when we first married. Two bedroom apartment. 350 a month. Groceries with meat and fish, 60 bucks a week. I would return to that tomorrow if I could find it. Money, schmoney. Those who chase it never catch enough. I have lived with it and without it, it is just some easier with it. Public employees of any kind need to retire at 68 like everyone else. Firemen and cops aren't heroes. Sports teams aren't awesome. It is time to quit feeding the beast that is government on all levels. Avg suburban beat cop here makes 85 k a year. Not a sergeant, a patrolman. It is insanity. Streets and san chicago workers 100 k plus with OT. Insanity. I have to stop, blood pressure thing. Good day all.
Stop being weak and effeminate. Your jealousy towards middle class Americans is pathetic, and your "if I don't have it, they can't too" is the ramblings of a defeated soul. Our fellow middle class Americans, our neighbors are not the economic enemy. When you go down that convoluted and sadistic intellectual black hole, the Oligarchs win.
Oh, by the way. I too live in a city where you need a permit for such things as tree removal. The permit process doesn't bother me, although it does remove the immediacy of many projects. See, it prevents dumbasses like you from chopping down a tree and having it destroy the neighbors house.
101
It is not the 'middle class' of which he speaks it is the elitist communist unions that have insatiable appetite for ever increasing pay and healthcare increase and the trillions in associated legacy costs all of which are paid for by taking money from another persons. Even the taxes paid by unions comes from the tax on another persons hard work.
Or is your salary derived from the hard work and taxes paid by the hardworking union members? If they are using their salary to buy the private product or service you provide, aren't their wages being used to support you?
No Dick, you haven't answered the chicken or egg question.
Would these "hard working union members" be government employees or private sector employees?
Chickens & eggs...lol.
You're a public servant. If your goal is to make a lot of money, start your own business and stop trying to get rich off the backs of taxpayers. The Illinois and Chicago pension systems will collapse. It is mathematically impossible for it to work in its current design. People can't be paid nearly what they made while working, to not work for 40 -50 years. And on top of that, the pensions are extremely underfunded and Illinois and Chicago are BROKE.
And here again is a failure in logic.
"Oh, by the way. I too live in a city where you need a permit for such things as tree removal. The permit process doesn't bother me, although it does remove the immediacy of many projects. See, it prevents dumbasses like you from chopping down a tree and having it destroy the neighbors house."
No, the permit DOES NOT PREVENT accidents from happening, all it does is add additional costs and another layer of bureaucracy to the act of cutting down a tree on your own property. I can see (in my minds eye) the highly qualified tree surgeon running in front of said tree, as it arcs downward toward the neighbors house...furiously waving his permit.
Will the permit stop the tree in midair? No, it won't.
Same goes for the homeowner do-it-yourselfer, the permit prevented nothing.
Now, a question for you Accounting101...because "authorities" issued the permit (to professional or amatuer, doesn't matter), why can't they be held liable for the damage done as well? They did "permit it" didn't they?
And therein lays the truth of statism.
Only it can collect fees & fines for permitting this and banning that, while still holding itself completely blameless for any consequence of those actions. Once you recognize this and understand this, you can stand with freemen.
"Stop being weak and effeminate." He sez.
Like I need a govermental tax code, collection, and enforcement structure because any stupid neighbor drops a tree on any other stupid neighbor's property. Sounds like I'd be wanting the govt to be covering for my weak and effeminate there.
The guy is a fucking trip...lol.
Wow! Accidents happen. You've got it all figured out. Sure accidents happen, but a lot less likely in our tree removal scenario if its done by a licensed and bonded professional and not by your Uncle Larry.
I know you fancy yourself an intellectual, but it really just masks a severe selfishness and immaturity that most of us shed by the age of four. All this "freemen" nonsense is just an egocentric view and a belief that you are a world upon yourself.
I don't give a damn what you believe in or do, but your beliefs and actions don't stop at the end of your reality. I will not allow your bullshit to intrude into my life, or the life of my family. All actions have consequences, good or bad. That metaphorical tree your cutting down better end up in your fucking yard, not on top of my house.
"Sure accidents happen, but a lot less likely in our tree removal scenario if its done by a licensed and bonded professional and not by your Uncle Larry."
So you've given up on the idea that a permit prevents damage but being licensed makes it less likely? I guess we take these small victories as they come from people like you, however, the state issuing a license doesn't prevent it either. And having a license is nothing more than another form of permit (remember I spoke of layers of bureaucracy and added costs?) to extract money.
"I know you fancy yourself an intellectual, but it really just masks a severe selfishness and immaturity that most of us shed by the age of four."
I readily admit having at least the same mental capacities as you, to not be driven from a classroom of four to six year old kids...lol...yes...but severe selfishness only resides in the hearts of technocratic scolds (immature statist-kindergartners like you) who think paying tribute to the state (in the form of fees, permits & licenses) can possibly prevent accidents.
"All this "freemen" nonsense is just an egocentric view and a belief that you are a world upon yourself."
Freedom is nonsense, selfish and egocentric. Got it. Thanks for proving my point about immature technocratic scolds who define freedom only as something those in power allow you to have. One would suppose there are individual fee structures for purchasing whatever freedoms one chooses to exercise on any given day, in your statist world.
"That metaphorical tree your cutting down better end up in your fucking yard, not on top of my house."
If it lands in your yard or on your house its called negligence and you have been damaged, its why I have insurance if I'm a professional and one of the only reasons for law if I'm not, you and your insurance company will sue me I'm sure. Now, whether I had that permit, had paid the state tribute, errr, ummm, a fee, am licensed or not, never made any real difference now did it?
The-tree-is-now-on-your-property.
And again, why does the state escape from any consequence of its actions in...licensing, permitting (or otherwise allowing) someone (even professionals) to drop trees in your yard?
Surely a technocratic, brainiac progressive like yourself can come up with the correct answer, afterall you guys built this damned system, one incomprehensible brick at a time.
Poor dear.
Even ewe, cain't fix stupid.
Let alone your own.
Oh!
Please!!
Government!
Saaaayve Me!
Hopin' ewe gots insurance.
Because stupid is as stupid does.
Ana ewe liva neks to me!
The permits also allow you to flag prperties for higher property taxes. The goal is to keep increasing property taxes to get more and more revenue. Higher public pay and pensions.
Please explain in intelligent thought the hard on many of you have for teachers, firemen, policemen or any other fellow middle class public sector citizens. Why are you all so mad at your neighbors? And please, no bullshit about lavish pensions or large wages. If that was true, they wouldn't be living in your neighborhood.
Also, there is a lot of bogus shit about public employees getting 60%, 75% or even 90% of their average working salary upon retirement. While most of that nonsense is urban legend, if former public employees do receive 60% (Detroit police officers), they do not collect Social Security.
Also, many public employees contribute upwards of 10% per month for their retirement benefits. The average Michigan teacher will contribute $120,000 over a thirty year career to their pension plan.
Sometimes facts are a real bitch.
"Please explain in intelligent thought the hard on many of you have for teachers..."
Sure, be glad to...because school administrators think 3 x 4 should = 11 and are not standing up and saying no, thats wrong as teachers.
They are job scared.
Is that simple enough for you to understand?
I can go into the other "public servants" you mentioned if you'd like.
I'll take issue with just one detail here: firemen aren't like cops. They have to fight a thing which can't be killed and has no fear, and if you're lucky you put it out before it kills people. They need temperature & strength endurance most humans can't tolerate, period.
Cops get all arrogant because they think they can shoot their way through a threat. A fireman doesn't have that option.
Aww Ef' it.
If the consequences are retirement terms and benefits that are over and above what the norm peon tax payer gets, then yeah, do what you can to save people, and let the rest of it burn to the ground.
In the long run, circumstantial consequences are alway prefereble to any expansion of gimmement powers or fiscal demand.
And in the UK, Capital Gains Tax has already been introduced upon sale of property owned/sold by foreigners by the current Conservative Coalition. But not yet among British citizens. It will come soon enough. Solid evidence that the British Tories are little different to their fake opponents the Labour Party run by the Marxist Red Ed Miliband.
Then there will be the 'wealth tax' levied annually on bank account assets. Avoidance will be difficult as banks will not allow customers to withdraw their money in cash to avoid the "annual bank assets snapshot date", used to calculate the tax.
It will go on until the middle classes are impoverished and economies slide down the flusher, all for the sole purpose of funding the spending addiction of governments, which itself is what funds the tools they need to control and dictate to us.
Welcome to socialism.
+1 on details but you're owed a -1 on the final sentence. Socialism is the collective ownership by the people of the means of production. This is not socialism of any sort.
This is corporate (bank) ownership of everything (including government): it's called Fascism : http://youtu.be/4Ml7-aDXrgQ
Fascism is socialism.
Fascism is where socialists turn to when they inevitably fail to convince people that socialism is so wonderful and it will work if only we had a few more and a few more powers. At this point they ram collectivism down your throats and bring out the jackboots to enforce it. Before long you have a police state and a political police force to deal with dissenters.
Check www.mises.org for some very detailed analysis of socialist<->fascist policies. You can't get a fag paper between them.
Idiot.
http://youtu.be/4Ml7-aDXrgQ : this video proving my point IS FROM VON MISES, YOU FUCKMONKEY.
Socialism is pure anti-Fascism and Fascism is pure anti-socialism.
To remove corporations removes Fascism. Corporations merged to government are key to Fascism.
To remove collective ownership by the PEOPLE, PERSONS, HUMANS, is to remove SOCIALISM. It is a key component of all variations of socialism.
Words have meanings, fucko.
You have already lost the argument by use of foul and abusive language.
Your video just goes to show that some later members of Mises have different views on what fascism is compared to their founders. They should read earlier studies and a whole lot more which have been written. Also watch/read some stuff by Edward Griffin, he understands.
I remind you that Mussolini invented fascism (as we know it) and he was - by his own mouth - a lifelong socialist. Ditto Hitler.
As for your claim that "Socialism is pure anti-Fascism and Fascism is pure anti-socialism." That is not born out by facts on the ground. It's just naive blather from somebody who is entrenched in the Left-wing claim that fascism belongs on the Far Right of politics when it does not and never has done.
And if you look around, you will find that wherever 'corporatism' emerges, it is engineered by socialists. Why? Because the only major difference between Fascism and Communism is over "who owns" the means of production. Fascists in this sense are latter day Marxists who believe that it's OK for private ownership so long as the ruling elite still retains "control". That is what we saw in Italy and Germany. But the end result is the same: government control, imposed by ever more laws/regulations/rules and enforced by jackboots eventually.
As I said, fascism is where socialists turn to to impose and enforce their will, after they fail to achieve utopia by democratic means. That is what happened in Italy, Germany and in the modern era, in the UK under Blair and Obama ...and of course the EU.
Fascism, socialism, communism are all totalitarian models of government which advocate "collectivism". This alone makes them all alike and nothing to do with those of us on the Right of politics who believe in "individualism" and freedom etc.
You have not been charged for this lesson.
Have a nice day.
There is no argument to lose.
Wasn't even started. The foul language is a natural response to the nonsense I'm seeing, not as an insult to you really, but astonishment that such stupidity could exist at all, with a merely simple chance that stupidity resides in very (very) near proximity to you.
For you to respond to a Von Mises link I provide by insisting I go to Von Mises is comedy gold.
Fascism is not collectivism. All life that's not single-celled is "collectivism" and for you not to comprehend the total reality this sets in place from the activity of evolution, of an immune system, of disease & contagion, of tribal behaviours, of how all of that is reflected in the military, in finance, in various non-human species... is the height of ignorance.
I've been charitable by even trying to educate you rather than stopping at "comedy gold".
Progressive Left-wing propaganda.
I also suggested you read a lot of other stuff from many people outside of Mises who have also analysed fascism in excruciating detail and concluded it is "socialism gone mad" or if you prefer "the nasty face of socialism", for want of a better term. As one expert analyst says "fascism is socialism with a veneer of capitalism". I quite like that latter description because it describes very well so many politicians nowadays who claim to be "conservatives" or republicans" etc, but are in fact deep down socialists, striving for ever more government and ever more laws/controls.
You seem to have skipped over all that.
I also mentioned Tony Blair - who by his very own life history and from his own mouth to this day - is and always was a progressive socialist. Yet as British PM he was a control freak and often likened to Mussolini.
The facts speak for themselves. And it remains the case that whilst fascism has its own specific characteristics, it is a violent/authoritarian branch of socialism that imposes collectivism. That is what Mussolini did in Italy and it's what Hitler did in Germany.
All that said, I already know you will not agree with any of that, so let it go.
There is no left wing or right wing.
The entire puppet show is for imbeciles & children.
Are you a child? That doesn't leave you many options.
Con people into 'buying' a house that they don't really own, so they have to pay all the bills, insurance and maintenance and then gobmints charge higher and higher property or other taxes on it?
Yes banksters and gobmints = thieves an con merchants in cahoots with each other to rob the people blind
Fuck the IMF
That's one of the problems with real estate - it always comes with a parasite (gubbermint) attached and you can't move or hide it.
The broader stock market is screwed, since it's based on the economy, which has the jackboot of gubbermint on its neck.
Bonds will be vaporized by rising interest rates and defaults.
That leaves hard money, gold and silver, stored outside the banking system.
Tyler's Fiddle about ReAL-eSTATE & cHINA BURNS
gO FIGURE ZH,
like I have said for days chinese are so god damn fucking pissed about the 150 missing chinese, and its making the chinese government look bad, cuz nobody 'knows' fuck Cass Sunstein Chicago BOEING knows all,
But what does ZH do, they fiddle and talk real estate while the world burns in hatred of zio-con-neo bullshit and lies.
It is a symptom of the larger problem, communist vampires on your neck sucking your life, freedom and money to support the communists. It all comes down to tax the serfs to feed the union elites.
Nobody on the face of the earth cares how much USA hairlips PAY for their Land Owner SHIP PAPER, its like talking about OWNING BITCOIN on Paper.
It's a pathetic fucking debate.
Coming to you soon, BITCOIN property taxes and IMF has a plan to tax bitcoin holders a % of their gross in CASH.
It's coming, and nobody fucking cares.
The elite have realised theyve tapped out on income tax calories; screwed homeowners face double whammy of property tax and cost of living crisis
Well that's the most "bourgeois state" thing I've read today. Then again, I just woke up.
And if you don't pay up we're coming with terrorists to get the terrorists you terrorists.
Scranton raised property taxes by 49.9% last year.
My Prop taxes have increase 350% in the past 12 years and our teachers pension fund is about to implode. That, of course didn't stop them from giving the teachers a new two year contract last month increasing pay 9.8% over the next two years. fucking thieves.
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20140118/ISSUE01/301189978/looming-pension-payment-could-drive-city-taxes-to-highest-in-u-s
It could explode??? Are Chicago Business and Breitbart credible sources, or are they Oligarchical rags trying to separate the rubes from their money?
I'm wondering. Does $22 billion in assets, or $43 billion for that matter, constitute exploding. If I'm making $2 billion per year on my investments (after payouts), am I exploding? Perhaps you will hold me to some economically illiterate bullshit model where I must payout all my costs for the next 100 years not throughout those 100 years, but right at this very moment.
You just can't fix stupid.
I'd say about 30% of what's on Breitbart is legit. It's not great but it beats out CNN or MSNBC by a long shot.
Lowered expectations 'n' all....
Maybe you should consider a name change ACCOUNTING101.
An interview with Eugene Fama:
"How do you feel about buying Illinois bonds?
Well, in the short term, they’re OK. In the long term, I wouldn’t touch them. The [state’s] pension liability is much worse than [the reported $100 billion that] people think.
How so?
States discount their liabilities—I think Illinois uses a discount of 7.5 percent [it’s between 7 and 8]—arguing that’s the expected [annual] return on their portfolio. But the expected return on a portfolio is totally irrelevant. What counts is, How risky are the claims that you have to meet? You’ve made a promise to your employees that you’ll pay them a certain fraction of their income that is usually indexed. Which means it’s a risk-free real outcome. What’s the risk-free real rate? Is it anywhere near 7.5 percent? It isn’t. Historically, it’s like 2 percent. A 2 percent discount rate would approximately triple Illinois’s pension liabilities."
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/December-2013/Q-and-A-with-Un...
Calpers discount rate is also 7.5 % and in the fiscal year ending June 30 2012, the return on their investments was 1%.
http://blogs.barrons.com/incomeinvesting/2012/07/17/calpers-1-annual-ret...
"Politicians helped bring Chicago's public pension funds to the brink of insolvency"
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-11-16/news/ct-met-pensions-deals...
In trying to achieve that 7.5 % return on investments, they have sunk a lot of money into some extremely questionable investments.
And looky, those benevolent government officials funneling money to relatives:
"City pension funds already have been criticized for investing about $60 million in a real estate firm co-founded by Daley nephew Robert Vanecko that has lost about $11 million in value, according to fund documents."
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-11-17/news/ct-met-pensions-inves...
"Redistribution can help support growth because it reduces inequality," This is the very heart of the problem. It is not the government's problem to redistribute wealth. Governments by definition are corrupt! The arrogance behind this statement is absolutely stunning in its scope. Once you have a corruption of the basic premise of providing a level playing field then you get into plugging all these little holes of inequality. Small problems such as the total elimination of the middle class. These people literally cannot see the forest for the trees. Stupid is as stupid does.
They are not socialist, they are communists and want to redistribute wealth to the communist elites.
Communist is as communist does.
They are neither. This is the work of Facism. Corporation merged to government.
It is not the all-equality of communism, for that is not the goal, only the propaganda to "reduce inequality" as we can all see inequality is increasing. It is not socialism as that is the collective ownership of the means of production by the people, which is certainly never communist, never capitalist and never fascist (corporate).
All of this fiscal insanity is driven by the unions, in particularly government unions.
They are not socialist but communist’s elites, socialist would at least 'redistribute' your wealth amongst everyone, the unions only redistribute to themselves, the communist elites.
The chronic Siren calls of 'what about the children' or some other propaganda siren call has nothing to do with the children. It is the union cry to arms to once again steal your money via taxes to support their way of life. The unions have gone from protecting the common man/woman from what were once real abuses by some unscrupulous people to supporting there insatiable appetite for ever larger percentages of your income.
If you look at every city run by the democrats (now really communists) they have destroyed the cities and soaked them in debt so large they are in fact bankrupt and now they clamor for Federal bailouts again your tax dollars - money from your paycheck.
When government [insert union] takes your money under the threat of loss of your home, jail time or similar threat they have become the tyrant and we are now little more than serfs - the host for the parasites.
Wake up ZH, the democrats and most republicans are union enablers all of whom suckle from your life's blood.
Stop the fucking bullshit!!! Unions have been in a steep decline for fifty goddamn years and now represent only about ten percent of all workers nationally. They no longer have any power and the political party that unions have pledged fidelity to, sells them out every day of the week.
Where have you been for the last 40 plus years? Where you in deep hibernation in 2008 when the entire financial system of the western world collapsed? I suppose that was the UAW's fault. It were unions that created securitizations of mortgages, rehypothecation, CDO's, credit default swaps and other exotic derivative instruments, right?
Get the fuck of ZH with your dimwitted bullshit.
The unions WE are talking about have NOT been in steep decline. WE are talking about the unions that are funded out of property taxes. The ones that are starting bankrupt small towns and cities and even large ones like Detroit. YOU are talking about unions that organize factory workers.
No, we are talking about all unions, and towns like Detroit or Jefferson County, Alabama were not bankrupted by the workers of those municipalities. Oh, your radio didn't mention Jefferson County? That's where your bullshit economic theories meet the road.
Stop the economic illiteracy. Union workers and their pensions didn't
cause the worldwide economic collapse in 2008 and the subsequent depression.
I am not talking about the 2008 GFC. This article is about property taxes. Many of the posts are about the cost of local services that are paid from them.
Right, increased property taxes as a way way to fill the gaping revenue hole brought on by 40 years of financialization, culminating with the 2008 collapse.
Yes and that 2008 collapse was primarily caused by the 'Community Reinvestment Act' signed into law by Carter and then put on steroids by Clinton and now 0bama.
So all this stupid shit is about political tribal politics? It all makes sense now. Commence with the political tribal circle jerk.
I agree with you there brother! Property taxes can be hugely unfair and burdensome. In the US, because they are set by local governments which bear the brunt of the kickback and are within relatively easy reach of voters, any increased reliance on them would have to be imposed by state or Federal governments, which is hard to imagine outside of a state of martial law.
But that could happen.
Oh, unlike others here, I rarely talk about things that I do not understand. There are exceptions when I blab about something that I end up getting schooled on. I do know local governments as I consult to them. I do know public and private schools. I have spent a great deal of time with these subjects. I do know a little about the public pension systems in my state. In fact one of my gigs is being on a state board where I get a retirement account. I spend maybe 20 to 30 hours a year and get paid maybe $2 to $3k annually. I already have over $1k in a retirement fund after 4 years. There is also a medical savings account. If I serve on the board for 17 years, I could then work full time for the state for 3 years and then retire in style based on the average of my last 3 years salary. Get it? Work 20 to 30 hours a year for 17 years and then work full time for 3 and the state looks at me like I an a 20 year employee with big retirement benefits. The only reason I know about this is because I had read about an attorney who did just this same thing.
Don't get me going on the overtime some of these jokers are making. You are either young and naive, dumber than shit, or a gov troll. If it is young and naive, then I hold out hope for you. If it is "dumber than shit", I have pity and compassion for you. If it is the latter, then FU.
You need to work on your economic literacy when it comes to state and local governments in the US. My father in-law lives like a king as a retired teacher. Two houses. Lives in Florida in the winter. He will most likely collect for more years than he worked. He knows it is a Ponzi and is nervous as shit. No ordinary person can amass the kind of wealth that allows these public servants to retire like they do.
My old bosses' brother retired to Florida at age 48 after working for the public transportation system in NY. My old boss is a highly compensate professional with some investing savvy. He will probably work until he is 65.
I don't have economic "theories" bullshit or otherwise. I don't listen to the radio or watch TV.
+100
Yaba Daba Doo. An up arrow for you !!!
I feel you.
From top to bottom, right down to the level of local government pensions, the system is rotten with scams. Any attempt to save, reform or rejigger the system will face getting scammed. It's important to know that. Sharing what you see amd know about it matters. Maybe you can fix the Board Member pension scam in your town. But no amount of denouncing this kind of thing, or even campaigning to fix it, will change how the system works.
And sometimes focusing on that - on the ugly side of how the sausage is made - can get in the way of thinking Big Picture.
We need to think Big Picture. The people who run our world may be the biggest scammers of all time, but they certainly think Big Picture. And if we don't, or we let them tell us what they want us to know and think about it, then we are the "scamees", the sheeple!
That's what keeps me coming back to ZH.
When, inevitably, something happens that sets off another great wave of outrage, like the Bailouts did; when 100, 200 million outraged people around the world, including millions in the US, take to the streets; that's Big Picture. We may GET scammed, but we won't BE a scam.
When that moment comes, if there are people everywhere, in every square or plaza where outraged folk are gathered, who can think Big Picture, we have a chance.
If there are people who can imagine themselves sitting across the board from those billionaires, doping out the meaning of their last move, how it's reflected in what's going on around them, what our next move should be, what theirs will be - people who can THINK LIKE PLAYERS - we have a chance.
And if these people can communicate with each other and share with those around them what the Big Picture is, and how to think about our next move, then we have a chance. A chance of not getting scammed. Even of coming out ahead.
Maybe even of taking our world back from the banksters, billionaires and neo-cons.
This post is a real contribution to our ability to think about what's going down. Let's take it for what it's worth.
So it's government, not unions, that are the problem. Outside of government this doesn't happen and it sounds like you're not even in a union and still get this contractual benefit, right?
101
Yes they represent an ever smaller portion of the population but their legacy cost of pensions and related expenditures now represent the massive debt that is killing these communist run cities and by proxy the entire country.
Get a calculator and start adding up the massive union incurred debt at local state and Fed levels and it is trillions of dollars which they need to support by taking ever larger portions of our paychecks.
Where the hell have you been, union meetings? Certainly not in an accounting class.
If they represent a smaller and smaller portion of the population, then your "legacy costs" become equal to that reality. Listen, your am radio is trying to confuse you with big numbers. There is no pension liability problem, just like there isn't a Social Security problem. The Oligarchs are convincing you that your assets don't really belong to you. Apparently, its worked.
101
Either you are a shill for the unions or you are living in a parallel universe.
The ever increasing debt load and increasing taxes are all to pay communist union wages, healthcare and legacy costs.
This is in fact a nationwide problem and is in the trillions of dollars, time for 101 to go back to 100 and start over.
No, he's right. You're in the parallel AM radio universe.
You gotta love how GM killed the bondholders but the unions got theirs. Dictatorship of the proletariat.
Sure, the union workers got theirs. They got a tiered wage system and the ability to pay more for their healthcare. How did their pension do? Right, they made out like bandits.
Ya. Bamy breakin all the bankruptcy laws to favor the uaw over more senior bondholders - vote buying banana republic ruled by bamy the banana king.
You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. GM bond holders were not secured creditors. What specific legal rights were violated? There is no law that states if there are four credit card accounts that are outstanding, I must pay equal amounts of debt outstanding to those creditors holding the accounts.
I keep telling you. Your radio doesn't always tell you the truth. And what's with the sympathy towards the bond holders anyway? Is it because those big banks are doing "God's work"?
You are unwittingly a whore for the Oligarchs.
And you are a wonderful troll!
Really? What did they get? Their pensions will be fucked while the execs walk away with the money.
+1 for your facts.
Too bad at least 12 dumbfucks -1'd you. It's their ignorance.
Because... Obama.
Ya. It's the great govvie (mainly demo) circle jerk between the pols and the government union voters (heros you know - fat cops, fat firemen, child molesting teachers) et al.
You are a fucking idiot. Just sayin.
I hear that Chicago is toying with the idea of doubling property taxes to fund (ta da!) their gov't employee pension fund.
Nonone ever, ever, ever talks about reducting spending; it's aways moar and moar taxation.
Incorrect. At this time in history unions are declining and Fascism, corporate ownership of government, is reality & it's getting more powerful every day.
Communism is when all are forced to equality. Socialism doesn't require that condition but does require the people collectively own the means of production, and presumably collectively keep and use the benefits of the production.
http://youtu.be/4Ml7-aDXrgQ
What is Fascism, John T. Flynn, Von Mises on youtube.
I can see that you are well and truly entrenched in the Left-wing propaganda that's been peddled for decades about where Fascism sits on the political spectrum.
Quoting the views of ONE person at Mises is overwhelmed by the very many detailed studies carried out over the years by Mises and many others. They all put Fascism squarely into the Far Left camp, just like Socialism, Communism, Maoism, Pol Potism and others. ALL of these are committed to totalitarian government, destruction of personal freedoms & liberties and of course "collectivism". Watch/read a lot of stuff by Edward Griffin and many others.
A modern day example of Fascism is Obama himself. He is by any measure a socialist. When he fails to get his policies approved by a democratic congress, why yes, he simply tramples over the American Constitution and issues an Executive Order to impose them anyway. The DHS are the enforcers, along with a growing number of other shady agencies of The Almighty State.
There is no left wing. Nor a right.
You still falling for that puppet show?
There are KINGS and SERFS.
You know which one you are.
There is no collectivism here and collectivism is not left wing or right wing.
There is FASCISM, they are very much NOT COLLECTIVIST but a corporate army with divisions, sub-units, leaders, no collectivism. The individual is banished from collectivism but is revered in corporate Fascism as various levels of leaders & controllers of Fiefdoms.
Your ignorance is astounding, except 99% of the rest of Murrika is equally dirt-ignorant.
Get a grip on yourself, Tyler. I know you've decided to drink the Martin Armstrong Krazy Kool-Aid that consists of the following: Governments all over creation, with the the IMF leading the way with their statist, confiscatory nostrums, will tax their way out of their unfillable debt hole.
Now read carefully:
IT WON'T WORK!
and
IT'S VITRUALLY A NON STARTER
(The plethora of proliferating IMF white papers not-withstanding)
The Cyrprus bail ins should not, I repeat, not be seen as evidence that bail-ins are anything like a slam dunk that will be implemented with nary a whine from the populace. Cyrprus is no more a viable test case on the efficacy of implemeting bail-ins than crash testing a Prius is a viable way to determine how a Ford Ranger will respond in a collision. But on just such a construction does the entire Cyprus thesis hinge.
First of all, you leave out the biggest, and, by far, the most meaningful funds (that weren't) confiscated in Cyprus, the reason Cyprus banking was Cyprus banking to begin with, namely Russian (oligarch and otherwise) wealth that was left almost entirely untouched. Are you beginning to sense the problem with the scheme of taxing the wealthy to bail out governments?
So now you are left with what is left of middle class money to go after. Well, it's not nearly enough to do the job, and the chilling effect on the economy -watch those tax receipts to Treasuries around the world plummet- will more than offset any gains from confiscation. It's called Zero Sum, Zero Hedge.
There is, thankfully, a far less painful and much more effective means for addressing the debt. What's more it has the added benefit of correcting the monetary system's chief flaw. And because it is less painful and vastly more effectve, it will, in time, be the solution du jour. Can you guess what it is?
I'll give you a big hint: See line one on the asset side of the ledger of the ECB's balance sheet.
You may be right, it won't work.
But your case is built on the premise that we are being governed by decent, honest, rational, thinking people. We are not. Instead, we have government apparatchiks at all levels who are plain criminals. They are involved in a game of "steal as much as you can by any means". Then there's the shoddy outfit IMF, now run by a permanently suntanned French socialist, who pays no taxes. It goes on.
New ways of stealing the wealth (mostly savings) of the hard working middle classes are definitely coming down the tracks. let there be no mistake.
THAT it will tank our economies even further is irrelevant to the criminals running government. This is the full-on-in-your-face socialism that has been planned for decades.
I can see where one might interpret my case as resting on the premise of government being run by "decent, honest, rational, thinking people" However, it doesn't rest on any such premise.
My case rests on the idea that the problem of paramount importance, namely the urgent necessity for global monetary system reform-which needs to happen in order for debt to be rendered harmless (if not entirely extinguished) and for the proper functioning going forward of the global economy- is not something that government ever decides, though they may be seen to pull the levers that initiate change.
The folks that produce what the world can't get along without decide how such problems are resolved, certainly not egregiously indebted governments who have, for far too long, been paying for real stuff by running up an unpayable tab. The IMF and any other bodies that presume to be in the drivers seat on the matters under discussion operate in a misama of self delusion as they whistle past the graveyard.
The age old solution of uncooperative slaves is solved in the same time-honoured fashion: bring in more slaves. The will to make more babies than can be fed, and the encouragement to tell people it's the only way to help the next generation, and the propaganda of "agenda 21" (which is a hoax) for "depopulation" will, combined with the Vatican's global dominance in evil, make more babies. That means you, slave, can always be replaced with 2 cheaper slaves when you're done cooperating.
History belies everything you have said, esp U.S. history. We have always taxed our way out, and it has always worked.
It will continue to work.
The only question is who is going to pay the taxes?
Taxation in the U.S. has become increasingly *regressive* for decades. It is high time to reverse that.
The top 5% of Americans hold over 90% of the financial wealth. They should therefore be paying *at least* 90% of the taxes. But they are not, not even close.
It is past time that we directed our taxation toward accumulated wealth, rather than merely income.
History belies everything YOU have said stopthejunk. What happens when you vote the 5% into slavery? They will either move or quit producing, or, are you thinking of putting them into an "arbeits lager"?
Pig Circus We're still in ILLANNOY too, preparing to escape.
Heaven forbid the just reduce spending. Gulp.
Perfect. Please inform us on what is important to you that should be cut. Your personal sacrifice is admirable.
You. The government you work for should lay you off.
There's a long list government public union excesses. All these public employees that are collecting on 2 or 3 public pensions.
To get rid of the state and municipal pensions they need to cap it at a max payout and make these entitled public pensioners pay for more of their benefits,
No more free rides. The rest of us are going broke paying for it.
Convert ALL Government pensions to Social Security - Bitchez!
They pretty much have already; it's called FERS whereas the old system was the CSRS.
Bioscale Our annual prop tax for a 2200 sq ft home on 1 acre (septic and well) is nearly $10K, in one of Illannoy's northwestern armpit suburbs..
You could move down South with all us inbreds. Pay a fraction of those taxes, and complain constantly about how the gov. doesn't provide all the services that they did Up North. This seems to work for millions of rent seekers.
That's insane. You're counting all the floor space so multiple floors adds up to the 2200, right?
The place I'm in isn't nearly that small by that standard and the property tax is not even half what you're paying. This is in Canada, by the way. Not that I pay the property tax but the landlord did disclose to me it's under 4k/year so I know that much.
To the IMF you bunch of sorry maggots:
Molon Labe! MF's
Renting is worse. Tax the fed. End usury.
In the city of Rochester, NY, more than 40,000 properties owe back taxes of three or more years. No lie. Tax liens sold to American Tax Funding (ATF) and others at 41-46% of actual tax.
My question, if the city of Rochester government was wiling to sell those tax liens to a third party for less than 50% of the tax owed, why didn't they just offer the deal to the taxpayers? I am one of them and I would have taken the deal and paid. As it now stands, ATF "owns" lots of properties in the city of Rochester, but is reluctant to foreclose because they cannot sell them at a profit and/or pay the ongoing taxes.
These 40,000+ properties will remain in limbo until the system implodes, which should be within a year or two (I hope).
Personally, the rental property I won in the city has 4+ years of outstanding taxes and I await the day ATF or the City comes to foreclose as I will countersue everyone involved, buy another year or two in the court system and just walk away with all the free rent money.
Fuck government at every level. Don't just stop feeding the beast, starve and torture the motherfuckers.
"Don't just stop feeding the beast, starve and torture the motherfuckers."
The beast just keeps getting bigger.
The beast is getting bigger like an inflated balloon gets bigger. Hot air has been replaced with QE. It will end the same way.
Couldn't we fund it all by using all the wealth stolen by the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, et al, and hidden underground in Switzerland? Yeah, right.
I bought last year. Renting is a ripoff compared to what you pay permonth with mortgage.
Is that right? I rent. I have a fully furnished, utilities included place with even Internet and satellite TV included.
I have zero counterparty risk. I have zero debt. I have zero property upkeep to worry about. I have the ability to move on a dime if I must but my landlord would be furious and I like her so I wouldn't ever do that.
You know what? Even my landlord who's been a homeowner since age 30 is thinking twice about it and wondering how much easier life is just being a renter.
See as an owner you pay rent too. It's called property tax. You have equity sunk in. You may not get half of it back, maybe none of it. If you have a mortgage the bank is the next owner in line after government, you're further down the line.
I have no debt and no sunk equity, it can't be sold out from under me using a lien on the property because I have no stake in the first place to be lost, and the same goes for eminent domain.
You as a property "owner" bear all the risks. Good for you. Still happy with that decision?
Whinging about it on the internet doesn't do anything.
Yes it does. It teaches people, if you provide detail, how mistakes were made and how to avoid them. Because of this I'm avoiding the number one mistake: do not own. It's not real ownership so I refuse to partake. Do not use credit. Do not use margin. I use none of it. I'm better off for it. Thanks to the whining of others and the details they've provided my finances have been saved.
I have zero debt, zero mortgage, zero chance of seeking a mortgage or debt and I save a ton of money and cut risk out entirely on those angles. The only risks I have is if my boat is intercepted before I have an accident over deep waters, and if my meager dollars in highly leveraged ETF's goes bust, which I'm ready for before I even put a dollar in. If I gain, I gain, if I don't, if I lose it all because banks are insolvent or the currency collapses, that's what the shiney is for & my bug-out preps.
The pool of money the IMF loans and redistributes around the world helps to stabilize countries if they are failing or economically unstable. But many people do not understand who, and how they are funded. While the IMF exerts a fair amount of influence, it is political in nature and pushes the way the wind blows.
With a loud voice the IMF is overrated, it often uses only a small amount of money to make the very desperate march in line, at times this means not solving problems but helping to kick the can down the road. More on this subject in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/04/imf-overrated-institution.html
If its in a database, you don't own it.
None of this is a problem.
1) Exempt the 1st 500k of property. Progressively tax the rest. Middle class/poor not affected.
2) In a rising interest rate environment, seller-financed mortgages will be common.
If you can't do #2 when you want to sell, you're probably overleveraged in your house. Shouldn't have done that. Buy a smaller house you can actually afford. Do not buy a house with less than 25% down. Only idiots pay PMI. Do not take out a mortgage that you cannot pay off in 15 years or less. Cancel your cell phone and cable and stop buying new cars and eating out, and save some goddam money for once in your pathetic consumerist life. Do you really need a bolshie ticky-tacky house with a 2-story atrium?
Not only can you save huge amounts of interest with a 15 yr mortgage. Available from your lender is the, "Every Two Week Deduction" of mortgage payments, from your checking account, amounting to 26 payments a year instead of 12 months of payments.
I used this option and couldn't be happier to have paid off the mortgage in 18 yrs instead of the 30 I signed up for. (somewhat mitigated by the discovery of the Real Estate, Borough/Twp, School taxes which taught me the most fundamental lesson in my education about Real Estate):
Home Ownership is complete fucking Myth. You NEVER actually own your own house, you are leasing the building and land it sits on from the City, Borough, or Twp you live in. My taxes and other fees amount to 1/2 of what my mortgage payment used to be, and if I had not fought the assessment due to state wide assessments update based on flimsy, phony, "market value" data, I'd be at nearly the amount I was paying in monthly mortgage checks.
But yes, you do need a 2 story house if you have more than one person living in it. Separate floors have likely resulted in a 80% reduction in divorces, separations, and spousal abuse.
I have satellite and I'm unlikely to give it up unless I can get the same programs I watch, for free, or some other way thru, say, electronic theft.
New cars are a pointless luxury unless you are still a car fanatic. (truth be told if I had the extra cash I would buy a TESLA) and eating out is vastly overrated, but a few times a year, or for food is difficult to make at home and taste like the real thing, i.e. Thai, Indian, Sumatran, Ethiopian, Turkish, Greek, and Sushi.
IF da bitch me disrespectin' me and diggin for mah gold, ain't no 2 floors gonna stop the fight.
Or vice versa, if it was me that was the asshole.
My solution: don't get married.
The day I find an honest girl who's worth it I'll change my mind. 40 already, have seen not a one who's single. The ones I think would have been good are already married or engaged.
Shouldn't have done that? Funny you should mention that.
Last time I checked when the leverage keeps changing with no warning for the little guys that means that you can't know what is the safe leverage level which means only the richest can be the most secure: no leverage. None. That way the rates don't matter because you don't have a mortgage.
But if you're a little guy without the power to hire the best lawyers if someone makes a claim to your property using fraud claiming you did have a mortgage, empties your home of its contents and you can't ever get them back, maybe after a fight you can prove you owned the property outright but at what cost? You lose again because the "law" is in the pocket of the mafia. This has been easily proven with the Linda Green, Bank of America, Mozillo robosigning nonsense.
The law of the land is there is no law but what someone else changes it to behind your back, written or not, dropping the right brown bag into the right judge's pocket and same for any regulators.
the redistributive policy is already in place, and has been repealed in places like california. this is the redevelopment agency program. money from local property taxe revenue is sent to the state capital, where it is redistributed in grants for commercial development. (this is private home owners subsidizing corporate welfare) the effect of this program was to bankrupt the operating budget of small munis, (and devastate their bonds) while making funds available for new corporate franchise business, the kind that makes wall street get all giddy. so in CA they abolished it, and good riddance, it was a source of malinvestment and corruption.
there are two housing markets existing and new. government policy on housing is made to support new housing (jobs and the economy). housing is americas largest manufacturing industry. and like the auto industry, where demand is slipping for a number of reasons, the automakers continue to make more cars every year (channel stuffing, etc) we live in a capitalist potemkin village. government is adding to overcapacity in housing, not as exagerrated as China's housing market, but close.
a rise in interest rates would help owners in existing housing, who could carry the paper on the house they want to sell, and therefore be able to collect the full market value (as set by the Feds reflation program).
its very difficult to dodge property taxes, no corporate loopholes, (just corporate welfare) the landlord is going to pass the costs on to the renters, who pay for the property but don't own it. however if states and munis avoid the redistribution, these cities and counties can balance their budgets and shouldn't need to raise taxes. if i was a rich bastard with a mcmansion i would fight the property tax redistribution program, or redevelopment agency, and i would also be against eminent domain, which is the handmaiden of that policy. its the working class who wants the jobs, state apportioned franchise business grants, and super (obama) highways to bring in the shoppers.
There's plenty of corporate loopholes. My prior employer had such a loophole in promising to have jobs and in return not paying taxes for x number of years.
You just can't get the corporate loopholes if you're not a corporation. Under the law, however, you can become a corporation, can own one, start one, and work your angle for loopholes, can't you?
Eminent domain is an immoral thing that shouldn't be legal but it's one thing to want to change the system, it's another to figure out how it works and surive within it. Putting morals aside if you take benefit of eminent domain, finding when it's used and taking advantage of it to get property at a lower cost than the market because that's typically the sheystering involved, then you can get a lot done, can't you?
Can't you? Someone is. Why not you?
you're right it is possible to write off a home as a business expense, although it doesn't apply to many. the IRS might not be too accomodating. mitt romney has a home in La Jolla, which he is remodeling, actually he is tripling the size. i would be interested to know if he uses it as a corporate writeoff, he is someone who works the system without shame or apology to anyone
But first we need the guns. You know.......to save the poor, poor children.
Of course never know..WW3 is starting to look like a more attractive option.
Back to work Debt Slaves, nothing to see here. 'Crack of the Whip'.
In the land of freedom you never stop paying rent and you will never own your property, the day you think you can stop paying government rent is the day you will see IRS at your door auctioning the very home that you think you owned.
In the land of communism China, they the government already told you the land belongs to them but if you pay the current land deed at today's market price you won't have to worry about annual rent payment like USA for another 75 years.
Which do you prefer? Pre-Payment for 75 years or annual payment till you die?
They don't need more taxes, just more civil forfeiture laws.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/03/12/cops-use-traf...
http://www.ij.org/policing-for-profit-the-abuse-of-civil-asset-forfeiture-4
Redistribution in and of itself is not a cure-all. Always, always there are the matters of who is redistributing what from who to whom. (whom to who?) And then of what the effects on what and whom will be, and what feedback into the economy will result.
Calling it "communist" whenever the government does it, but not when Wells Fargo and Citibank do it, just clouds the mind and contributes nothing to our ability to think about these things.
Progressive and regressive taxation are both redistributive. Taxes can be redistributive, depending on who pays the biggest percent of their income or wealth, where the money goes and who benefits. Interest rate manipulation is redistributive. And debt liquidation, whether by fiat, by bankruptcy or by inflation, is also redistributive. It always matters whose debt is getting liquidated, and whose property. Because every piece of debt is also a piece of property, and people will fight for their property.
In a way, debt liquidation can be thought of as like abolishing slavery. Every slave freed represented someone's property being liquidated. The person who had been a slave was still there, but the claim on his use and work, present and future, and the wealth that claim represented, vanished. People fight wars over things like that.
And yet, one way or another, the debt must go, or the real economy will just get swallowed into a black hole. The ballooning wealth of the few is the other side of that hole. In the end, with the real economy gone, most of that wealth must evaporate also. But not all debt is equal. Which debt is strangling the economy, which debt has to go if we are to survive?
This article shows the banksters contemplating a mass levy on the property of the only-moderately wealthy and what's left of the middle class, effectively to save their government bonds and contracts, calling it "freeing the economy". Saving their butts - by preventing mass liquidation of their capital through inflation or bankurptcy - is more like it. The effect will be to accelerate the mass transfer of wealth to the top, accelerating the rate at which the life is being sucked out of the economy.
*** Bail-in's of course are also debt liquidation. Liquidating the bank's debt to the depositor, and the depositor's property, their claim on the bank. Thus, not all debt liquidation is helpful for preventing collapse of the economy, even if this one helps prevent collapse of the bank. In fact, for relieving the mounting pressure on the real economy, it's the exact wrong way to go! ***
No matter how it's structured, a global scale bail-in, or even one limited to, say, the depositors in GS,BoA, CitiBank and Douchebank, would be an economic catastrophe, with massive lost spending, missed payrolls and waves of bankruptcies of regular people and smaller businesses, further depressing the entire real economy.
A very important question raised by this post: why didn't the Crete bail-in produce a mass protest or revolution? Who's studying the ongoing effects of it? Are the people of Crete who let that happen regretting it now?
How do we show that? How do we make sure people are prepared to fight it? How could we credibly threaten to hold the perps responsible?
Clouds nothing.
http://youtu.be/4Ml7-aDXrgQ
What is Fascism? The merger of Corporation & Government. When it's government without corporation it may be socialism but today it isn't. If it's Government without corporation and not socialism it's a Fiefdom.
If it's with a corporation, or many, it's Fascism.
Definitions exist for a reason: they shorten dozens of precise & required descriptions of reality to single words, accurate words.
To dismiss this is to dismiss reality's resolution down to yes/no of what may have happened in an entire generation, much less a day, rather than to describe the actual facts, events & possibilities, threats, losses, etc.
I am not buying another house unless I can get half a block for 40 grand, this whole market is rediculous. The prices, taxes and upkeep are not worth it. Seems like a good time to live well below ones means and pack and stash, the opportunities are going to be unreal down the road and if they're not, still better ways to waste money.
The only time it is worth it to own your own home is to pay cash for it. If you can't, it is better to rent.
When you rent you are also paying taxes. They're just built in. There is no escape but freezing your ass off in North Dakota.
browsing some of those $1 home offerings in places like detroit, at least they spell it out, the taxes will eat you up, then you have to buy security, and maintain the property. (if you just want the lot, you would have to demo the house)
there are no jobs and no services and no shopping. you are effectively off the grid with inflated suburban tax rates. and no idea who long it might be before services are restored. it might be better if the city never restored services because eventually they would stop collecting taxes, you would in a kind of rural jungle, but at least the price would be right, and once the city stops providing service the criminals will leave. so if you think detroit is finished, good bye then its probably a nice time to buy.
so basically it's a great place to set up a lab for meth, E, or a grow-op but if the electronic part of the grid isn't kept up there, bitcoin won't be a part of it.
Long Tide.
Reread this section again: " Over the past decades, revenue from these taxes has not kept up with the surge in wealth as a share of GDP (see earlier section) and, as a result, the effective tax rate has dropped from an average of around 0.9 percent in 1970 to approximately 0.5 percent today. The prospect of raising additional revenue from the various types of wealth taxation was recently discussed in IMF (2013b) and their role in reducing inequality can be summarized as follows.
"
I used to live in Massachusetts (go ahead and criticise me for living there. I deserve it! ) The property taxes will kill you after the mortgage. The townships keep using the property valuations to send the milleages skyrocketing so they can raise the property taxes through the roof. It was only after the passing of prop 2-1/2 that saved many people from getting evicted from their homes. When these IMF jackasses get their way, you can say goodbye to your homes! In the Bay state they raise the value of slum hovels to millions and yet you cannnot live in them. This is the fault of both parties in the bay state.
Property tax is a fraud that shouldn't even exist.
I understand the concept and the benefits of collecting revenue from land by the owner. I understand the benefits of collective use of purchasing power of large blocs of agencies such as a corporation or even a government.
Ownership.
That's the fraud.
The real owner is the one collecting the rent not paying it.
So how come people pay rent, call it property tax, and pretend they are owners? That's that fraud.
Call it what it is: rent. The government is the owner, has full control, and you pay rent to live there, so there's no way you should pay an ownership stake to have zero ownership control.
Everyone should be renters and let the government own everything because they already do, de facto, and you're only kidding yourself to pay for actual land and an actual house when it can be confiscated at any time for non-payment of your rent, e.g., your property taxes.
Who are you trying to kid? What do you gain from being an "owner" and telling yourself the pack of lies required to feel pride in being a renter to Government, Inc. ?
Really?
Just be a renter and let someone else be the owner. You have less on the line (equity losses, extreme property damage, upkeep which is general but slow damage) and more ability to move.
How many people didn't drop everything to move to a new place for work all because their equity is tied up in a house they "own" and so are now doubly poor:
You own all the risk and none of the power.
Think about it.
accountant 101 before you call me weak and effeminate regarding paying a city for a permit to cut my own tree down you ought to reconsider. Calling names shows your lack of IQ. I grew up in Michigan. I was running a chain saw in high school. The closest you probably ever got to a tree was pricking your fingers on pine needles at Christmas time. You don't need to worry about me felling a tree on your house. You however will not be sharing a meal with me when you come begging for food when you finally figure out meat doesn't grow in those plastic wrapped styrofoam trays in the grocery store. As for your love for the unions you can keep that too. I had union goons slash all four tires on my car when I was 19 because I was working too fast on a piece work rated job and got the rate raised. The maximum I could make was time and a half for rate plus half. I still had time to sit in the break room and play poker for the last two hours of my shift. So I have seen unions at their best. My kid brother went to Detroit running a crew of drywallers to help finish a high rise that was being struck. He had armed guards with him and changed hotels every 3 days for 6 weeks while they finished the work. Someone pushed a rolling tool box off the 6th floor and almost killed him. I have seen unions at their best. As for me being weak and effeminate, anytime and anywhere big fella.
I was a teamster at age 16 to 18. The meetings were information propaganda about the minimum you had to do and keep your job and how to exercise your union rights to maximize pay while sticking it to the big nasty employer. It was a disgusting atmosphere.
Shows what you know. By the time we're ready for collapse Monsanto probably will have meat that grows in styrofoam trays. All "natural" of course as declared by the FDA they'll also grow in a tray.
Seriously... Income tax is too easy for dodgy bastards to dodge, too hard for the plebs to avoid being screwed, and only legitimizes terrorist organizations like the IRS.
Get rid of income tax, property tax, etc.
Impose a "sales tax" (aka VAT, GST) that's truly burdensome, like 30% or more. Then exempt certain "basic needs" items... Fruits & veggies, clothing items under $100, tampons, condoms, bus passes, bicycles under $1000, etc.
Poof! A "consumption tax" that encourages savings! Done right, it's barely noticeable to people on the bottom who are struggling to keep food on the table, but if you want to buy a luxury car, you'll feel it sting, just a little.
The best part is that this will tax drug-lords, prostitutes, politicians, and others whose livelihoods are on the fringes of civil society, making them pay their "fair share".