Canada's skilled worker immigrant program is closed for new applicants, as of a few weeks ago.Originally Posted by JaneV2.0
Canada's skilled worker immigrant program is closed for new applicants, as of a few weeks ago.
Historically, how significant is the VP choice in a Presidential race?
redfox, the 538 Blog post loosechickens provided (http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes...an/#more-33035) discusses that.
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington
I've always liked Ryan. He seems willing to take the unpopular position when everyone around him is equivocating. It seems clear that government spending can't continue on its present course even if we double or triple taxes on whoever we care to define as the undeserving rich. I'm not sure realism is an effective political strategy, however.
I agree.
People would rather hear that increasing taxes on anyone making over $200K per year, or families making over $250K per year will put us back on the right track to sustainability. Nevermind the fact that it would only add $70B a year to an annual deficit of $1T or more.
Also, nevermind that we are projected to increase welfare spending over the next decade to approximately $1.3T per year (that's one third of the budget for those keeping score) and that all other social spending (about $2.1T) takes up pretty much all the remainder.
Under current Democrat plans, the variance between revenues and social spending as a percentage of GDP through the year 2080 are as follows:
revenues_outlays_current-full.jpg
I think it's high time someone started pointing these things out and making plans to keep the current systems from imploding.
Last edited by Alan; 8-12-12 at 1:24pm.
"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." ~ Albert Einstein
Anyone actually serious about using tax increases to solve the deficit argues for repeal of the entire of the Bush tax cuts. Not just some over 200k nonsense. That shows how much taxes could really bring in (tax rates that were already in existence before Bush). Doing so would bring in 3.7 trillion over 10 years. While that's not enough, it's not insignificant, it's not some silly 70 billion a year. An argument that taxes may not be the *entire* solution so therefore taxes should be none of the solution is just silly on the face of it. So lets not even bother with 3.7 trillion over 10 years, lets just leave it on the table right? You can maybe add in an additional $175 billion a year if you get rid of Obama's payroll tax cuts.
I read an interesting point that the Bush tax cuts actually cost us more than this as they increased the deficit on which we are now paying interest. Makes sense, but it is all so much sunk cost in terms of future policy.
I regard of course the entire system as unsustainable in deeper ways than just the budget (although sure taken as an isolated phenomena and as if it was the only phenomena the budget is unsustainable). But I'm extrapolating further, perhaps on more uncertain ground (but the environmental unsustainability is becoming obvious just in terms of water use etc.) than just bean counting will take one.
Trees don't grow on money
Well, it's a start. It's not exactly like rich people were streaming out of the country on trains, planes, and ships when the income-tax rate was at pre-Bush-tax-cut levels.
But we're not going to get out of the current mess by just repealing a few income-tax cuts or even completely eliminating benefits to the poor/disabled/elderly (of which there probably will be only more in the future). We really need to look at everything, including sacred cows like military bases outside the U.S., corporate/farm subsidies, local TIF, and "entitlement" social spending. Unfortunately, Ryan's plan doesn't even touch on most of those areas.
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington
There's no easy way out of this country especially to some rich English speaking country. Latin America sounds far and away the most promising. Learn spanish.Canada's skilled worker immigrant program is closed for new applicants, as of a few weeks ago.
Trees don't grow on money
I couldn't agree with you more! This is what I have discovered personally in my comparion shopping for countries to move to so I don't have to work until I drop dead.....I am jokingly now among those who know me in Phoenix referring to Spanish as the language of not working until you drop dead....Some good bets from what I have discovered would be Chile and Uruguay, and maybe Argentina, but keep in mind Argentina has become quite corrupt since the recession of 2001. Also perhaps Ecuador and Peru, but both can have safety issues.....however both have growing populations of ex pats fleeing working until they drop dead, willing to make some sacrifices to have control of their time and to some degree their lives. Rob
Iris Lilly, true that, I heard this somewhere recently. For me this is no big loss as I am thinking of the developing world anyway - to me it is far more interesting in many ways and is some ways is more human - an example would be the concept of time in much of the developing world vs. in the US - or to be fair, in Canada or Western Europe also. Personally for me, it does take a little getting used to but I much prefer a different concept of time than the one I deal with in the US.....Rob
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