WE is the government we are their slaves.
2008 was the heart of the great recession $1 was worth .70 today it is 21000/12000 in DJI terms $1.75 -- try to keep up

$8.57 DJI 1982 to now
$2.52 CPI 1982 to now

Property is only good if your leverage is low LTV

I would rather see the government print money to give to the dumb-shits so I can take it from them, or the people that take it from them, or the people that take it from them, or the people that take it from them -- trickle up works too :2 cents:

There is no real difference whoever ends up with the money won.

Remember I'm fiscally conservative.

The reason people think the government owes them something is because they were raised being told so, by the government:

"We're taking this tax out of your check so if you're injured at work you get it back in disability payment" so you agree

"We're taking this tax out of your check so if you become unemployed we can pay you unemployment until you find work again" so you agree

"We're taking this tax out of your check so when you retire we can pay it back to you in social security." so you agree

"We're taking this tax out of your check so when you're older you'll get it back in Medicaid to take care of your health" so you agree

"We're charging you registration on your car and we're taxing that too so we can pay for roads and bridges" so you agree

"We're charging you a property tax on the home you own so we can have nice schools, a clean neighborhood and parks" so you agree

The city/state/national governments aren't following through on their end of the deal.

Taxes are a shell game as is the IRS but privatizing isn't the answer either we've seen how privatization always ends up in greed and collapse.

95% of American companies fail. Privatizing the government statistically means 95% of America will fail if that happens :2 cents:

So what's the answer?

There is no answer -- I saw that years ago. You just try to game the system the best you can.

The game is always changing. Like this Trumplican Dontcare crap -- I will need to come up with $16K in 2018 if this shit is enacted to stay in the game. In the end it will cost $500- $2,400 more the first year. Fortunately, in 2019 I can roll that money over x2 in the end I can use pretax money to pay for insurance -- for argument's sake 60% is out of my pocket and 40% the government's pocket they will eat fed/state tax revenue reductions. The Net Result is $4,000 tax credit + $6,400 HSA*40% tax revenue (fed/state) loss as the new law will allow premium payments from the HSA so I win -- but it's complicated and you need to have the front money to do it -- that is unfair.

Welcome the the Trumplican world where the rich get richer ...

Exactly. People should be able to look after themselves, have a job they're prepared to work hard at for a decent wage. And if they get ill, fall sick, get injured the family looks after them or they die.

Police, Justice System, Fire, Healthcare, Roads, Street Lighting/Cleaning, and the 100s other things that your taxes provide should be paid for at the point of use. It will be more expensive as more corporations squeeze more profits. Or the country could revert back to what it use to be when taxes were low. :Oh crap

Shit happens when the Armed Forces go private and a country with a better tax funded one decides to invade. Or a bunch of terrorists decide the countries defences are shit and decide to take over.

You'r an idiot, look at all the countries who are run like you want.

odd how the system I described worked for millennia, and somehow rarely the things you described happened... there were some better or worse times along the way, but civilization moved on, and it never required giving away 50% of your hard work to the state...

I'm not advocating completely getting rid of the government, but when deciding issues to favor smaller role for the government over bigger one...