And just for the record, my corporation is going to pay 75% more taxes this year than last. Guess what? I'm not raising prices because my competition won't let me. Believe me I love profit, but the constant juggling act is increasing or maintaining market share while trying to increase prices and/or reduce costs. It's a very delicate balance and taxation is not even close to a consideration.
I don't think it matters if its immediately as like I said its not a direct relationship. your also said in part "AND it may NEVER be reflected in the consumer price if the businessman finds other ways to reduce those taxes" which for me makes my point. Your looking for a direct relationship and I agree its not there (excise it is) its indirect. If you reach a point after your taxes that your no longer making as much money as you would doing something else (all other things being equal) you could change your business to something else which of course lowers the amount of supply to the former industry. I don't think we are going to agree on this and thats ok. I am still willing to have a beer with you and talk about cars or golf...... I wish you and your family a very good Easter weekend and good luck on getting those taxes reduced. 75% ouch....
Yes, we are not going to agree. My only point I was trying to make is consumers don't always pay for a higher corporate tax rate. If they raised my taxes 15% next year I wouldn't like it, but I wouldn't close my business either. I would try to find a way to offset the 15%. Eventually I may go broke and that would be one less competitor in the marketplace, but there are twenty more ready to take my place with a better cost structure or other advantage. Happy Easter.
If your competitors have those same taxes to pay, it just ends up as higher costs on the end consumer, unless of course the prices get so high they refuse to buy. Which takes me back to the original argument. American companies have to pay for all those things, but the offshore competition does not. Thus the huge job losses. The only way to make the playing field more level under WTO rules is to tax the consumption and untax production/work. We are just too obstinate to do anything to save ourselves before its too late.
Yes this is the problem. We are in a world economy and it is difficult for our businesses to compete on an equal basis unless we export our jobs to those countries. It's a viscous circle. edit: The viscious circle will only come to an end when the entire world is on equal footing economically. So we have quite a few years to go.
Buddy, I have to agree with these guys about your brother. He sounds like the poster child for dumbasses to me. Either that or you've grossly overstated his career situation. I too was an exec for exactly 9 years. I wasn't very high on the ladder and the company wasn't that big but they were publibly traded so they weren't a mom and pop outfit either. Anyway, I left with over 400K in savings. My income ranged from 100K-250K during that time so I don't think I was a super saver by any means. I must say though, this Reaver is a funny guy who obviously has never made much money, or lives in rural Arkansas, if he thinks 50K should go far. I find his line that you need a 500K-600K house and all sorts of stuff to spend 7K/mo laughable. Perhaps he's still a young man without a family? No 500K house here, or new cars or private schools, or dinner's out. Sure we're not complaining and have all we need, but it costs 6-7K/mo to be me and I'm not living some rapper lifestyle I'll tell you that.
'How many of them are personal finance literate?' It does not take any sort of education to determine what you should buy vrs what you can afford. Problem is common middle class person trying to copy Hollywood star lifestyle will create financial shocks down the road. If maxing out credit cards is a fashion of sorts, then be ready to pay consequences.
You may SPEND $6-7 a month on living, but it is not your OVERHEAD. If you have a monthly debt overhead that equals $6-7 a month then you have lots of debt. Period. I'm 26 and I am not rich but I am doing very well for a 26 year old. I do have a family by the way, asshat. Go ahead post your numbers. Your gay ass caviar and wine expenses don't count as cost of living BTW. Go ahead and post some numbers up to explain how I am wrong. If you actually have a MINIMUM living expense overhead of $6-7k then you more than likely have AT least a $500-600k house (or multiple properties) a few expensive cars and lots of personal loans or credit cards. Bottom line is that it takes a hell of a lot of debt to equal $6-8k in debt overhead...either that or you have a 5 year term on your mortgage or something. Don't be weak and try to make fun of me for not being some corporate schmuck like you, go ahead and explain how it costs you so much to live. Like I said, I am referring to how much your MINIMUM overhead is. Not your little country club memberships or polo team dues or any of that prima donna crap. Back it up instead of talking shit about me.
Hey Reav, I pay 2300 per month in child support alone, so I can very easily see how someone can have high fixed monthly expenses.
HG- Ahh, I forgot about that side of the equation.... Sorry I should have clarified. I am only referring to things such as vehicle payments, credit cards, mortgages, etc. Also, I know it is subjective, but say that the worst happened and you lost all your income, etc- would you be able to go to court and get the child support obligation lowered? I have no faith in the judicial system, but is that a possibility? $6-7k a month is still a lot of debt most likely, aside from anything special like alimony, separate maintenance, child support, etc of course. Just an example: If you have a $50,000 car at a 60 month amortization at 5.5% (which is very reasonable for a car), then your monthly payment on the loan is $477. Multiply that by 2 and round up and you have $1k a month in car loans. Insurance would probably be about $300/mo on the high end. A $500,000 mortgage at 5.5% (again, a reasonable rate) would be $2838. Add $800 a month for taxes and insurance (depending on your area). That's $3600. So now you're at $4900 with two $50k cars and a $500k house. At a 2% monthly minmum payment, having an additional $50k in credit card debt would make for a $1k a month payment. Now you're right at $6k, if you round up. That's a lot of debt. Cell phones, utilities, etc add up, but they are the generally the same for most people and they are generally billed based on usage.