Tax question

True enough - for $100K in combined loans, paid back over 10 years, you're looking at around $1000 a month, or $24K a year.

 

By God....we're all poor. Where do I get in line for a hand out?

 

Wait, you are looking at $240K for a $100K loan. At what interest rate?

 

Shoddy details on my part. It's really around $1150 a month, or $13,800 a year. From finaid.org:

Loan Calculator

Loan Balance: $100,000.00
Adjusted Loan Balance: $100,000.00
Loan Interest Rate: 6.80%
Loan Fees: 0.00%
Loan Term: 10 years
Minimum Payment: $50.00

Monthly Loan Payment: $1,150.80
Number of Payments: 120

Cumulative Payments: $138,096.57
Total Interest Paid: $38,096.57

 

That is still more then my mortgage payment. I am happy to say that I pay as I go and have zero in student loans.

 

People here are missing a basic point. If citizens demand and want the government to do various things such as providing public welfare, running schools, maintaining a military for aggressive war and regulating everything that might be a hazard - citizens have to pay for that in taxes.

Take New York if I recall they have generous aid for the needy, expensive school costs (per student) and offer many public services then you are obligated to pay the taxes for that.

Libertarians are simple people we would favor you keeping much more of your money but in return get reduced services with your obligations to take care of yourselves. And if you want to care for the poor to operate that as private charity where you decide which charities to support and how much. As I see it taxes at any level don't need to be more than 10% of ones income so at most 20% of combined state and Federal level taxes. But to do that we would need far less government and no one wants to do that. Less taxes and all these services and more handed to the government cannot work that is common sense.

 

I lived in Florida for a year and almost everything there is cheap. Or at least it was when I was there.

But I have to agree with Randall. No matter where you live in the United States, $100k is not "upper class". The average wage for those who work in fields such as engineering or even some medical professions has not increased in several years when you factor in inflation.

Fifty years ago, the average doctor made the equivalent to $300k-400k/year in today's money. Today, only plastic surgeons make that much. You can pin the problem on globalization and it's only going to get worse in the future. Americans wonder why more American kids don't become scientists or engineers when engineering jobs are among the easiest to outsource. Nobody is going to spend $30k+ on tuition to enter a field where the pay is poor considering the amount of work involved.

These days, people are better off learning a trade. It will likely pay better as well.

 

Maybe because you haven't read Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

 

Property taxes are supposed to fund the school districts, but the state redirects a lot of other tax monies to fund New York City schools so there is an uneven distribution. A homeowner on Long Island may face a $20,000 tax bill (and this is NOT a typo) for a new home, while the same person living within the 5 borough of NY City may pay a tenth as much.

A social safety net is something reasonable to provide, so we don't end up with soup lines. However, many services being provided to the population, funded through tax dollars, are probably inefficient and wasteful.

 

You screwed up!! Maybe you needed to use Bidens accountant since he only paid $47K in federal tax. and made just over $250K.

Obama spend ..."$47,488 to send their two daughters to the University of Chicago's elementary school." Why doesn't he use public schools and donate the money to the needy...you know...time for change and all that crap!

 

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Randell- is that gross or net? Do you know? I couldn't find the answer at the link.

 

I was assuming it was gross.

 

It guess the tax proposel could be Joe Louis is considered by many the greatest heavyweight boxer of all-time. He held the title for over 140 months, the longest stretch of anyone in boxing history. Unfortunately, the 'Brown Bomber' couldn't punch his way out of deep tax debt.

When Louis became successful, the top income tax level was 79%, and then during WWII, it rose as high as 90%. Louis donated money from two fight purses to the Navy Relief Fund and the Army Relief Fund, but those contributions were unable to be deducted, further complicating his tax problems.

After his initial retirement, Louis' debt forced him to attempt a comeback in 1950, but with a 90% tax rate, the comeback would not solve his financial woes.

 

Here is some interesting reading-

San Jose, Calif., Mayor Chuck Reed calls a family living in Silicon Valley earning $250,000 "upper working class." That is about what two engineers working at a technology firm can expect to make, but "a family earning $250,000 a year can't buy a home in Silicon Valley," he said.

James Duran owns a human-resources company in Silicon Valley and is president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in California. He supported Mr. Obama, but is worried about the tax proposals. He has laid off some employees in recent months and has been wondering how he can fund an extension of those workers' health-care benefits.

Mr. Duran said he and his wife earn about $400,000 annually, but "I'm barely getting by." They have high property and state taxes, as well as college tuition and savings to cover. "I'm an Obama man, but this side of him is a difficult pill for me," he said.

 

Gee, I wonder how many people would actually come to a pity party for a guy who thinks $400,000 a year is sub-poverty level living.

 

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I might come, are they serving food?