At least she didn't go out with you only to inform you later she did it just so her mother wouldn't find out she was a lesbian. Yes, that happened to me.

No kidding. :D

10 years later is actually is pretty funny. XD

.....

.....

I missed the great taxed to death and Redneck Red States debate. That's the main problem with our country they don't know how to spend the tax money they receive from us wisely, and the wealthy find every loophole in the book to keep the most of their money.
I'm in one of those Redneck red states, at least it used to be until Dubya Bush left office. Frankly, I would love to see socialized medicine, everyone get their 3 meals and a cot. Unfortunately, our elected officials are only in politics for themselves and any increase to our taxes is only going to line the politicians and their friend's pockets.
The first thing that needs to happen is to remove all these tax loopholes. One of the biggest being the investment loophole that Steve Jobs was guilty of abusing.
Also, on the list would be to stop giving away our tax money to other countries, especially those that have anti-american agendas.
We also as a country need better values. No, I'm not talking about christian values. I'm talking about treating your fellow man right. Doing your fare share around your neighborhood. Paying your fare share of taxes. In other words stop being greedy assholes.

Thank you.

My thoughts: Every government wastes money, US is not alone in that. If all the high income citizens paid the effective tax rate that all middle-class citizens pay, you wouldn't need to raise taxes to fund more programs, even with spending hundreds of billions on military affairs. Its completely inexcusable that someone who had $75K in income has to pay the government a higher percentage than someone who had an income that was 7 figures. People who actually work to earn their money get taxed while those who do nothing - their money just makes more money - get away with paying as little as possible.

And I would never call socialism a utopia. Perhaps it does work very well in Scandinavian countries, but they have relatively small populations compared to countries like Germany. I had a German professor and he HATED the German government and its welfare programs. So much so that he left the country. I can only go by what he told the class, but the number of people on welfare is apparently large and because of the income and benefits they receive from the gov, they have zero incentive to look for work, because they live better on welfare.

I'm for government social programs for people who have legitimate disabilities - physical and mental - but when you have such large programs, you will have a lot of people taking advantage and ruining it for the truly in need. I'd be pissed if I worked my ass off to earn a living and the government takes some of that income and gives it to someone who does nothing but watch TV all day.

^^This - that is how people can earn an income by performing no work (money makes more money), yet pay less tax than people who work. How fucked up is that? Money earned by doing nothing should be taxed MORE.

This is a big misconception which I hear all the time. While the US donates large sums of money as foreign aid, the actual percentage of the total budget earmarked for aid is tiny. Unless you meant spending on military campaigns and not aid.

It may be a small percentage, but $42B is not tiny. And yes, that huge $650B Defense budget even looks worse.

.....

Well, I didn't say it only works in less populated countries, but my thinking was/is: Smaller populations would generally have less people who would be dependent on the government. Combine that with very high tax rates and you get a government with substantial revenue but with less people to take care of. Yes, more people means more tax revenue, but also means more benefits need to be paid out. Saying all that, it kind of evens out If you had two countries with the same exact tax rates but different population size. Tho other variables would also need to be considered - the amount of income that country's population brings in, unemployment rates, etc.

Yeah, he didn't mention it. That is a better situation. But are there no minimum wage laws in Germany? 1 euro an hour is crazy. If they made 7 euro/hour, they might not need as much gov support.

This may sound mean, but if you are physically and mentally capable of work but just refuse to, I don't think you should get any government support. Even a tiny bit is too much.

But like I said, I'm not against social programs in general. I actually received it myself for a while. I worked part-time and did not qualify for employer-provided health insurance. But I lived in Pennsylvania, which offers health insurance with costs based on your income if you meet the requirements (PA always had this, long before Obama - its a commonwealth after all). I did pay higher state income tax in PA than I do now in NJ. PA is a flat 3% tax while NJ is bracketed and I fall into a low bracket (1.5%). I prefer social programs to be handled by states than the federal gov. This gives people a range of options. You'd rather pay less tax but with less benefits? You could move to X state. This was how the US was originally meant to run - it wasn't supposed to have such a huge central gov. It still retains some state independence, but its slowly fading away.

See? This is the difference between western european way of thinking and american way of thinking. Dignity is something very important here. But we have reached a dead end here. you cannot compare european high level civilization to...well...the USA. Actually I'm glad there is a huge ocean between us (no offense, really).

Anyway, back to bitching. :) We are having yet another winter storm. Employer sent an email out yesterday saying to check the emergency line in the morning, it will be updated at 7am. I check at 7am and it says offices are open. I get to work at 8:30am and I'm told that HR just sent an email saying all employees who can't work from home shouldn't come in and they will get paid without using vacation time. WTF? Yeah, its nice to get paid for staying home, but I was already there because of your shitty communication. I asked if I would get comp time or OT if I stayed. The answer was no. So I left. Thanks for wasting my time.

5th snowiest winter so far and till more to go.

Not sure what you are referring to when you mention the difference in thinking - I wrote a lot. But you can also stick your superior attitude where the sun don't shine. Typical mindset of internet forum users from Europe who blindly hate the US. Can't have a conversation on differences without making some kind of comment that Europe is superior or US sucks because X. I won't bother talking about these things with you anymore. I should have known better.

You're arguing with someone who's country averages two major collapses every 100 years. :P

like i said it's a dead end topic. Doesn't make sense to compare them both. now let's get back to bitching about our lives and blah.