Once in a while, I'll notice a Alabama story which draws me to ponder.
So it came out in the news today....that some UN (United Nations) dude is planning a trip to Alabama this week to investigate.....poverty, inequality and "barriers to political participation".
I looked at the item....roughly 12 lines.
This guy....Philip Alston....says he will visit a couple of places (Puerto Rico, West Virginia, and California are mentioned) on this 'road-trip'.
Where he intends to stop in Alabama? Lowndes County....down in the south central region of the state.
Based on comments, he's got some folks lining up his schedule and prepared to hype up their poor situation in life, while living in Alabama.
How exactly he will help to change the poverty and inequality? Well....that's the thing. He's basically a nobody. He'll write some report which will bring tears to your eyes, but he's basically going out to stay in some nice Holiday Inn situations....eat some high quality food....travel business-class....and spend a fair amount of travel funds.
You can imagine these folks trying to line him up and their hype? Well....we are so poor, and bad-off. He will have sit there for hours while these folks hype up their negative status in life. When he asks about the barrier to their political situation...he'll do his best to ask how evil the Republicans are in the state and is there any way we can get more folks signed up to vote....because the more that vote....the more likely they would go and fix all the problems that exist in the world.
It would be interesting if some Alabama folks would take him over for a catfish dinner, some Friday night football, a sip of whiskey, and offer up some advice on car mechanics....but that just won't happen.
Wednesday, 6 December 2017
Taxes
It's one of those statistics that news folks tend to skip.....roughly 45-percent of Americans don't pay anything on federal taxes. It adds up to around 77-million households.
They might have made enough in some cases to require the form submission, but when you add up credits....they zero out.
Oddly, I can go back all the way to 1978 and remember submitting my tax form in the spring of that period for five months of pay with the Air Force....feeling silly to waste time on filling out the form and to admit a total pay situation of roughly $5,000. That was the only time in my life where I paid nothing. I looked at the refund check as simply a 'gift'.
I sat there in 1979....a year later, and figured I'd just repeat the whole episode, and that $400 of pre-paid tax-money would ALL come back to me. I was wrong....I still ended up paying roughly $180 that year in taxes. It was an amazingly low amount of money but it just made no sense.
Are these 77-million households avoiding all taxes? No. They still meet up with property, car and sales taxes. For a lot of them, they are still throwing a thousand dollars a year toward their state government in various ways.
If you think about this....no one in America is truly living a tax-free lifestyle. Either through the federal folks, the state folks, or sales-taxes...you are paying into some pot. It's virtually impossible to skip out entirely.
They might have made enough in some cases to require the form submission, but when you add up credits....they zero out.
Oddly, I can go back all the way to 1978 and remember submitting my tax form in the spring of that period for five months of pay with the Air Force....feeling silly to waste time on filling out the form and to admit a total pay situation of roughly $5,000. That was the only time in my life where I paid nothing. I looked at the refund check as simply a 'gift'.
I sat there in 1979....a year later, and figured I'd just repeat the whole episode, and that $400 of pre-paid tax-money would ALL come back to me. I was wrong....I still ended up paying roughly $180 that year in taxes. It was an amazingly low amount of money but it just made no sense.
Are these 77-million households avoiding all taxes? No. They still meet up with property, car and sales taxes. For a lot of them, they are still throwing a thousand dollars a year toward their state government in various ways.
If you think about this....no one in America is truly living a tax-free lifestyle. Either through the federal folks, the state folks, or sales-taxes...you are paying into some pot. It's virtually impossible to skip out entirely.