A thread dedicated to Real School's political opinions.

[chriswebber]

Real School-

You seem to have all the solutions to today's problems, yet you lack the maturity to communicate them to your audience without crude insults. I challenge you, in this thread, to write what you perceive as the USA's problems, biggest challenges, and the ways to overcome them.

Now, here are a few guidelines I wish you could follow. Please cite all information from a legitimate news source. Please refrain from using the dailykos, foxnews, or nyt.

Use debating logic of any sort to build your ideas. Do not use insults. Do not use general terms that might mislead the user. Please, no us versus them without the definition of us and them. This will be a mature discussion that college graduates who are well read, well educated, would partake in over a scotch.

Thanks ;)

[RealSchool]

The biggest problem I see today is grown me that come on a sports website defending their relationships with their fathers. Weirdos.

[amazinblue]

RealSchool,

CWebb raises a fair point. Step up... or step out...

[RealSchool]

When someone doesn't consider the NYT as a legitimate newspaper, I see little point in trying to engage them in a debate.

This to me says you are too biased to listen to others and read a newspaper that tells the truth even if it differs from the republican agenda.

[chriswebber]

When someone doesn't consider the NYT as a legitimate newspaper, I see little point in trying to engage them in a debate.

This to me says you are too biased to listen to others and read a newspaper that tells the truth even if it differs from the republican agenda.

No, I disqualified the NYT, FoxNews, and the Daily Kos to remove the vast right and left wing conspiracies both produce, but seeing you're incapable of an adult discussion, I'll help.

Let's start with something the economy, in this stale recession should we do nothing, raise taxes, lower taxes, remove taxes, raise taxes on the rich, raise taxes on corporations, or raise taxes on the poor?

[RealSchool]

No one gets their taxes raised until we are out of this thing. I also support lowering taxes for corps and small business.

I also 100% believe that we need to do everthing possible to put an end to houses being lost, and yes this includes helping those who over extended.

As Warren Buffet said last night on CNBC, we are all in this together now, and pointing fingers now won't solve the problem. He had a great line, blaming the Navy for Pearl Harbor and then the Army, Airforce, and Marines not willing to step in would not solve that greater issue. Not exact words but close.

Would also like to see my sister inlaw pay federal taxes. She makes about 23k a year a pays zero federal taxes. I mean really?

[chriswebber]

No one gets their taxes raised until we are out of this thing. I also support lowering taxes for corps and small business.


But once this is over, you would fully support raising taxes? Wouldn't that eventually lead to growth going stale? How can a company plan for the future if taxes keep changing?


I also 100% believe that we need to do everthing possible to put an end to houses being lost, and yes this includes helping those who over extended.

As Warren Buffet said last night on CNBC, we are all in this together now, and pointing fingers now won't solve the problem. He had a great line, blaming the Navy for Pearl Harbor and then the Army, Airforce, and Marines not willing to step in would not solve that greater issue. Not exact words but close.


Ok, lets propose this, the US Government helps everyone out that is over extended. Let's say they bought a house for $250,000. These poor people keep their houses for another 15 years. 15 years from now these people are in good financial shape and sell their house for a $50,0000 profit. At the same time, there are people like my sister. She could have purchased a $250,000 house, but chose to buy a $100,000 house so she could easily make the payments. Let's say in 15 years her house is worth $125,000. Now she sells the house for a profit of $25,000. Yes, both individuals make the same percentage on their return. Yet, one needed government assistants and the other didn't. Either way the responsible individual is at a disadvantage since they followed the rules. For 15 years, the responsible person lived in a smaller, less desirable house. Yet, she required no government assistant. On the other side, the irresponsible lived in a nicer house at no sacrifice to themselves. Actually, my sister is support those people in the $250,000 house and paying her payments on her house. How is that fair to anyone?

A house is normally someone's primary investment for wealth, however, that is not a right to have your land appreciate in value. It is only be coincidence that the cost of housing increases. It is really simple supply and demand. The cost of a house is directly related to the amount that someone is willing to pay for it. There is no law stating a 2 bathroom, 2 bedroom home is $200,000. It's a commodity.

Further, banks do not want these houses back since they have lost value. A bank who forecloses on a house will take a hit. The reason foreclosures are slowing down is banks do not want to show these massive hits on their balance sheets. They pretend that their investment is still good. Helping those who over extended themselves is like rewarding your child when they poop their pants. It's counter productive.

Wouldn't it be better to change the rules so the responsible people fix the housing market? For instance, my brother and sister-in-law could easily afford another house. The only problem is that they are married, therefore they get one residence tax write-off. Even though they are two people that could independently afford homes, they got married and live together. They to will be punished for being responsible by being forced to pay for other people's homes. This is not fair. Perhaps, the government should allow married individuals own two homes, with tax benefits? This would start to reduce the empty houses on the market by well established people purchasing property. This movement would begin to drive housing prices back up.

There are a lot of methods to fix this problem, it appears that the most political and easiest is to help irresponsible buyers out. That goes completely against most responsible American's ideals. Bailing out a irresponsible home owner is like rewarding your son for pooping his pants. You're never going to correct the problem. Even as an adult, he will always poop his pants and expect you to help him




Would also like to see my sister inlaw pay federal taxes. She makes about 23k a year a pays zero federal taxes. I mean really?


Why don't we just eliminate the income tax completely? Why isn't their a national sales tax that is collected at say 20%? In the USA, we have a progressive tax, we tax those that make more money. We punish those for being successful. We were all created equal. We have equal rights for equal people. Why can't we be equal in the eyes of tax laws?

[The Michigan Man]

When someone doesn't consider the NYT as a legitimate newspaper, I see little point in trying to engage them in a debate.

This to me says you are too biased to listen to others and read a newspaper that tells the truth even if it differs from the republican agenda.

I think the NYT has a legitimate use - I have a stack of old issues by the toilet in case I run out of toilet paper...

[RealSchool]

I think the NYT has a legitimate use - I have a stack of old issues by the toilet in case I run out of toilet paper...

I knew you were a reader of the times. You even keep old issues. Damn liberal.

[RealSchool]

chrisw,

We have mountains of debt that must be paid off that I feel will hurt this country more than anything else we face. The interest we pay on these loans blows one mind. Can we reduce spending enough to eliminate this? I doubt it. Taxes will need to be raised for everyone.

Regarding your sister, good for her for being level headed and not letting the keep up with the Jones family attitude rule her life. But the thing is, the irresponsible from individuals to Wall Street have fucked us all. The more homes that go under the more we continue to slide, the worse off the banks are etc..... This is complicated stuff, and no one knows what to do IMO. But we are all in this together and I hope we make it out for the better.

[chriswebber]

chrisw,

We have mountains of debt that must be paid off that I feel will hurt this country more than anything else we face. The interest we pay on these loans blows one mind. Can we reduce spending enough to eliminate this? I doubt it. Taxes will need to be raised for everyone.

Regarding your sister, good for her for being level headed and not letting the keep up with the Jones family attitude rule her life. But the thing is, the irresponsible from individuals to Wall Street have fucked us all. The more homes that go under the more we continue to slide, the worse off the banks are etc..... This is complicated stuff, and no one knows what to do IMO. But we are all in this together and I hope we make it out for the better.

Actually, you haven't really studied advanced math have you? This is a simple function of a graph that most people don't understand. Let us pretend we have widget company that pays 40% in taxes because they make $10 million in profits. If they were to make $10,000,0001, they would pay 41% in taxes. Obviously, this is their breaking point, for if they did more business they would begin to lose money. Further, they will not expand for they are operating at optimal profit margin. The only thing holding them back is the 40% tax rate. Now let's pretend Obama reduced corporate taxes to a flat 35% for companies making $10 million. Now the company is profiting more, and expand more. By expanding they begin to sell more items that require a sales tax to be paid. By expanding they hire more workers to complete the work. By expanding they increase their profits. Frankly, lowering taxes can increase tax income. It's simple math that most politicians do not understand. Would you rather have 40% of a dollar? or 35% of a $1.20, plus 20% of the worker's income, plus whatever local taxes are charged to the new employed worker? Wouldn't the increase income cover our debt?

Do not fall for the Obama lie about us being together. That's just political mumbo jumbo that he speaks to get elected. The less educated of society fall for it because it sounds pretty. You have to smarter then to fall for those lines. People screwed up. With dumb actions, come consequences. Yes, they will lose their nice house, but some responsible person will purchase that house at a reduced rate. When gas prices are high, no one celebrates the oil companies making money, yet when they drop we are happy. A house is a commodity that changes in price. A house is something you live in, not really invest in. You purchase a house because you like it, you want it, you love it. You can live in a house that is worth nothing. It's really not an investment. My stock went from $55 to $1.25 a share, I'm not asking anyone to assist because I can no longer afford to buy the toys I want. Why am I responsible for the idiot neighbor. We are all able to make our own decisions. Therefore, we should all deal with our own consequences.