And if every one does it then don't b***h when all the police, fire departments, road's, railways etc all disappear. Taxes pay for all that, They don't magically appear. The right of the money isn't for the government, Its for the people. When big corporations dodge taxes and in some cases actually get money back for nothing then it isn't the government that is truly hurting, Its the people. With your view on it you would be a top pick for a CEO in a big company "Yea Mr Government, We made $10 billion this year, So you give us another $1 billion, That's fair I think? Who care's about those pesky citizens hahaha"
No :the more money the government has the more money it will spend and the more money it will wast and the more money it wiil want .Every US citizen (300 million of them) has a debt of 65000 $,the reason for this is that the government has to much much money:the only possibility to prevent the government to wast money and to increase the debt is to give the government less money.The individual citizen will use his money better than the government and than "the people"(which as such does not exist),because it's his own money,for which he has to work .The government has no own money,the same for the people,the result of which is that the individual responsability has disappeared . More taxes will always result in more debts .
Let's see if von noobie knows what he is talking about... Here is Boeing's 10-K statement for 2013: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/12927/000001292714000004/a201312dec3110k.htm#s9E2108DC114B250DA14F14551692CE69 In which they state that their effective tax rate was (pg 22) Now, how do you arrive at your stated effective tax rate of -2%? I think we should get Smiley some more popcorn...and maybe I will have some myself.
I'll say it again. Corporations do not pay taxes, their customers do by having to pay higher costs for the goods and services produced. If you think you are "sticking it to" a company by raising taxes on corporations, just look at the bottom line of any receipt.
The one that has irritated me once I learned about it was the internatinal agriculture buisnesses. From what I recal they can ship the food out of the US and sell it at a convient places over seas and thus avoid making a "profit" in the US. Apparently there are a number of small Carribean Islands where a lot of food changes hands and tax rates on such exchanges are low to non existant. Corporations do have to make money. If there expenses go up enough to threaten this they will figure out a way to make more money or go out of buisness. Often they can increase their sales prices but not always. Some of the alternatives can be even worse as far as governement reveniews are concerned. For instance reducing cost by moving jobs out of the country.
a -freakin- MEN!! yes, that's all they do....they're in debt, and want more taxes, instead of CUTTING spending!!
Giving more money to the government = giving more drugs to a drug addict:the more drugs he receives,the more he wants . In 1980,Reagan declared war on Washington ,in 1981 he arrived in Washington,in 1989 he left Washington,after losing the war .The reason is that the electors have been accustomed to receive money for free from the government (also a drug),forgetting that this is not correct : pensions are not paid by the government,but by the non pensioners,by the active part of the population. The government has no right on money,not on one dime. In Belgium,the situation is even worse : the government has succeeded into taking away more than 50% of the income of the average taxpayer and in redistributing it to other people who are accustomed to receive money without have to work for it . in Belgium,a visit to the doctor costs 4 Euro,the remainder (21 euro) is paid by social security,nobody knows who is this social security,people think that he lives somewhere and that his job is to pay bills of the sick,etc.This is creating a situation where doctors are asking the patients to return when it is not necessary,saying to the patient : mister social security will pay:the more doctors,the more sick.Youngsters who left school could receive dole money til the age of 65,without ever have worked one day . Why ? The government had a lot of money and preferred to wast it than to give it back to the rightful owner;all this has created a mentality of irresponsability where everyone has only one aim : to abuse the system and to plunder it .
What is and who holds the US National debt? Is it even feasible for a modern developed nation to have zero debt? None do, not even societies rolling in the cash, such as Norway or Saudi. The current total public debt outstanding of the United States is approximately $18 trillion dollars. Of this total, nearly $13 trillion is "debt held by the public", while the remainder (approximately $5.1 trillion) is in the form of "intragovernmental holdings". "Debt held by the public" is debt that has been purchased by pension funds, foreign governments, foreign investors, American investors, etc. If you buy a US savings bond, then this goes into the "debt held by the public" category. Intragovernmental debt holdings represent balances of Treasury securities held by over 230 individual federal government accounts with either the authority or the requirement to invest excess receipts in special US Treasury securities that are guaranteed for principal and interest by the full faith and credit of the US Government. Basically, the government is borrowing from one account with an excess to another account with a deficit, with the lender reaping a profit. I'm not sure it would be entirely healthy for there to be no publicly held debt. The 1.2 trillion dollars of US debt held by China (the largest foreign holder of US debt, by a small margin), indicates a certain faith that the US will continue to abide, and that both parties will to some extent behave. The Chinese have more interest in a stable system, as this sum represents more than 10% of their GDP, and as such represents a considerable investment. China, in it's turn, has nearly 5.2 Trillion (USD) of national debt. But wait! There is a difference: The majority of China's government debt, which is growing faster than the economy and at a greater than exponential rate, is not sovereign debt -- it's provincial debt. Although it is accounted for in national debt comparisons, provincial debt is not guaranteed by the national government or the People's Bank of China (PBOC). So the US Investors that hold roughly 1 Trillion USD in Chinese debt, need to be very clear on what they have gotten themselves into.
If a shopkeeper or a family would operate as the government,they would be bankrupt in a few weeks .Every American has a debt of 65000$ (in Europe everyone has a debt of 50000 $):sooner or later,this debt has to be paid back .The moment arrives when this must happen,and ,if (better when) the government will not be able to do it,there will be one solution left : voluntary bankruptcy.
Not sure how we got here. But I'm game. Like seeing how far we can travel on a tank of gas. Leona Helmsley: "Only little people pay taxes." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leona_Helmsley
US National debt per citizen: 56,521 USD. Average Personal debt (Mortgages (13.4 trillion), student loans (1.3 trillion), credit card debt (880 billion)) per US citizen: 52,343 USD source Federal Reserve. Apparently small businesses and families are operating under somewhat similar circumstances as their federal government. Whether it is sustainable or not, I'll leave to the observer.
big difference, most of the personal debt is for the home, which will be theirs [and is used for good purposes ]...and, it is their money...where as the government's money is the people's, ..the government has no right to use 20,000$ to buy 4000 drumsticks so government workers can play like drummer boy...that is a crime!
We set the system where we say 'govern for us, while we get on with our lives'...so they govern. The system and culture evolves and hopefully improves...
Well, not being an American, I can't comment on drumsticks for government workers, but I'm sure some of the money is put to good use, occasionally. I met an old man once who told me that a country has the government the people deserve. A total of 790 billion USD on "Other" raises some concerns, I guess. If it were me, that'd be an enormous amount of hookers and blow.
This thread has gone off topic and is not a national debt one..... , put it back on track or it'll have to be closed.