Posts by rolling rock

26

Watch Tower Finances

by link in

would anyone like to comment on the following observations?.

the very large majority of the jws that i come into contact with on a regular basis are not wealthy and many have very low incomes, yet they still make substantial contributions to the wbts every month.

because they are firmly lead to believe that it is an organisation that is struggling for its financial survival.. following a recent visit from the c.o.

rolling rock

What would thay do with all that money? Why? To what ends???

142

The State of the Union

by Marvin Shilmer in

jw
friends

i am an american, and so is my president.

this is an iron no speech can hold.

it can only be experienced.

rolling rock

Threre you go Teejay. Make a choice. Good job...

142

The State of the Union

by Marvin Shilmer in

jw
friends

i am an american, and so is my president.

this is an iron no speech can hold.

it can only be experienced.

rolling rock

Teejay Don't get me wrong. You'll never be able to label me as either liberal or conservative because I flip back and forth between different perspectives depending on the issue

That would make you nothing... You said it, not me...

142

The State of the Union

by Marvin Shilmer in

jw
friends

i am an american, and so is my president.

this is an iron no speech can hold.

it can only be experienced.

rolling rock

You 2 are going to love this...

How to ruin American Enterprise...

Forbes 85th Anniversary
How to Ruin American Enterprise
Benjamin J. Stein, 12.23.02

We're well on our way to squelching what gives this country an edge. What would it take to kill innovation altogether?

Ben Stein

As a casual observer of what makes this country work and what stops it cold, I hereby offer a few suggestions on how we can ruin American competitiveness and innovation in the course of this century. I think the reader will agree with me that we are already far down the road on many of them:

1) Allow schools to fall into useless decay. Do not teach civics or history except to describe America as a hopelessly fascistic, reactionary pit. Do not expect students to know the basics of mathematics, chemistry and physics. Working closely with the teachers' unions, make sure that you dumb down standards so that children who make the most minimal effort still get by with flying colors. Destroy the knowledge base on which all of mankind's scientific progress has been built by guaranteeing that such learning is confined to only a few, and spread ignorance and complacency among the many. Watch America lose its scientific and competitive edge to other nations that make a comprehensive knowledge base a rule of the society.

2) Encourage the making of laws and rules by trial lawyers and sympathetic judges, especially through class actions. Bypass the legislative mechanisms that involve elected representatives and a president. This will stop--or at least greatly slow down--innovation, as corporations and individuals hesitate to explore new ideas for fear of getting punished (or regulated to death) by litigation for any misstep, no matter how slight, in the creation of new products and services. Make sure that lawsuits against drugmakers are especially encouraged so that the companies are afraid to develop new lifesaving drugs, lest they be sued for sums that will bankrupt them. Make trial lawyers and judges, not scientists, responsible for the flow of new products and services.

3) Create a culture that blames the other guy for everything and discourages any form of individual self-restraint or self-control. Promote litigation to punish tobacco companies on the theory that they compel innocent people to smoke. Make it second nature for someone who is overweight to blame the restaurant that served him fries. Encourage a legal process that can kill a drug company for any mistakes in self-medication. Make it a general rule that anyone with more money than a plaintiff is responsible for anything harmful that a plaintiff does. Promulgate the pitiful joke that Americans are hereby exempt from any responsibility for their own actions--so long as there are deep pockets around to be rifled.

4) Sneer at hard work and thrift. Encourage the belief that all true wealth comes from skillful manipulation and cunning, or from sudden, brilliant and lucky strokes that leave the plodding, ordinary worker and saver in the dust. Make sure that society's idols are men and women who got rich from being sexy in public or through gambling or playing tricks, not from hard work or patience. Make the citizenry permanently envious and bewildered about where real success comes from.

5) Hold the managers of corporations to extremely lax standards of conduct and allow them to get off with a slap on the wrist when they betray the trust of shareholders. This will discourage thrift and investment and ensure that Americans will have far less capital to work with than other societies, while simultaneously developing that contempt for law and social standards that is the hallmark of failing nations. Hold the management of labor unions to no ethical standards.

6) While you're at it, discourage respect for law in every possible way. This will dissolve the glue that holds the nation together, and dissuade any long-term thinking. Societies in which the law can be clearly seen to apply to some and not to others are doomed to decay, in terms of innovation and everything else.

7) Encourage a mass culture that spits on intelligence and study and instead elevates drug use, coolness through sex and violence, and contempt for school. As children learn to be stupid instead of smart, the national intelligence base needed for innovation will simply vanish into MTV-land.

8) Mock and belittle the family. Provide financial incentives to people willing to live an isolated existence, vulnerable and frightened. This guarantees that men and women of sufficient character to bring about innovation will be psychologically stifled from an early age.

9) Develop a suicidal immigration policy that keeps out educated, hardworking men and women from friendly nations and, instead, takes in vast numbers of angry, uneducated immigrants from nations that hate us. This, too, leads to the shrinking of our knowledge base and the eventual disappearance of social cohesion.

10) Enact a tax system that encourages class antagonism and punishes saving, while rewarding indebtedness, frivolity and consumption. Tax the fruits of labor many times:

First tax it as income. Then tax it as real or personal property. Then tax it as capital gains. Then tax it again, at a staggeringly high level, at death. This way, Americans are taught that only fools save, and that it is entirely proper for us to have the lowest savings rate in the developed world. This will deprive us of much-needed capital for new investment, for innovation and our own personal aspirations. It will compel us to ask foreigners for ever more capital and allow them to own more of America. It will also promote an attitude of carelessness about the future and, once again, encourage disrespect for law.

11) Have a socialized medical system that scrimps on badly needed drugs and procedures, resorts to only the cheapest practices and discourages drug companies from developing new drugs by not paying them enough to cover their costs of experimentation, trial and error.

12) Elevate mysticism, tribalism, shamanism and fundamentalism--and be sure to exclude educated, hardworking men and women--to an equal status with technology in the public mind. Make sure that, in order to pay proper (and politically correct) respect to all different ethnic groups in America, you act as if science were on an equal footing with voodoo and history with ethnic fable.

My list need not end here. But I stopped at a dozen because I realized that this is already, in large measure, the program of so many of our elected representatives. The debauchery of our tort system is already in place, and the rest of the agenda is under way.

Benjamin J. Stein is a lawyer, economist, writer and actor, and host of the game show Win Ben Stein's Money.

142

The State of the Union

by Marvin Shilmer in

jw
friends

i am an american, and so is my president.

this is an iron no speech can hold.

it can only be experienced.

rolling rock

Like I said I'm a bottom line guy. I'm not trying to be a dick...

142

The State of the Union

by Marvin Shilmer in

jw
friends

i am an american, and so is my president.

this is an iron no speech can hold.

it can only be experienced.

rolling rock

LOL... I farm over 3000 ac of land... Still think you or your friends work harder then me??? I don't think so... You should see my hands...

Edited by - rolling rock on 29 January 2003 0:19:6

142

The State of the Union

by Marvin Shilmer in

jw
friends

i am an american, and so is my president.

this is an iron no speech can hold.

it can only be experienced.

rolling rock

I'm rich. I know lots of rich people. Do you know why I'm rich? I woke harder than you. I work harder than 95% of the people I know. Thats why I have money...

Sorry I don't mean to be such an ass about it but, thats the bottom line...

142

The State of the Union

by Marvin Shilmer in

jw
friends

i am an american, and so is my president.

this is an iron no speech can hold.

it can only be experienced.

rolling rock

Exemptions for dividends: Bush also wants to make dividends tax free to shareholders.

Making dividend income exempt from tax is believed to be a particular benefit to retirees, such as Cleve Baker of Woodland, Calif., who lives primarily off interest and dividend income from his savings.

"I don't have a pension," said Baker. "Taking the tax off dividends will certainly help with my cash flow, which is welcome."

About 34 million Americans pay tax on some dividend income, according to the Tax Foundation. About one-third of those are senior citizens.

This was taken from... http://taxfoundation.org/press-wealthywin.html

Putting a Face on Dividend-Earning Taxpayers

Tomorrow, President Bush will propose a tax break on dividends as part of a larger economic stimulus plan. In years past, the tax treatment of dividends has varied from fully exempt to fully taxable, and they've been fully taxable since 1985. Moreover, dividends are taxed as income to corporations before they're ever issued to shareholders, then taxed as income to the individuals who receive them. It is widely acknowledged that this double-taxation causes companies to issue far fewer dividends than they would in the absence of the tax.

The most immediate effect of eliminating the double tax on dividends would be a redirection of investment into firms that pay dividends. Many economists believe that investors who receive dividends put less pressure on companies to achieve short-term increases in share prices, and that this change will be a positive development in the effort to improve corporate governance.

According to the most recent IRS data, 34.1 million tax returns contained some dividend income in 2000. This represents 26.4 percent of total tax returns. Dividend income in 2000 totaled $147.0 billion, or 2.3 percent of total income reported by all taxpayers in that year.

Despite widespread belief to the contrary, dividend income was earned by taxpayers across the income spectrum. In fact, of all taxpayers that claimed some dividend income in 2000, nearly half (45.8 percent) earned less than $50,000 in adjusted gross income (which includes dividends). [See Figure below]. Moreover, 63.8 percent of those taxpayers claiming dividends earned less than $50,000 in just wages and salaries.

Another important factor to remember is that a tax return is a piece of paper that can represent a single person, a family, or even a business. Therefore, it is important to look at the number of people affected by a change in tax law, not just the number of returns affected. While "only" 34.1 million tax returns claim some dividend income, these returns represent 71.0 million people. Also, 13.1 million returns with some dividend income also had some self-employment or small business income reported.

taken from... http://taxfoundation.org/DividendIncome.html

You don't even want me to start on the death tax buddy...

142