Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Oh, also - a 3 bedroom basic house will cost you at least $500K here in most major city suburbs and mortgage interest is over 6%. Yeah, Australia is expensive. :-(.

On the plus side, the labour market is very tight, especially if you are in IT, and say, working in the Microsoft stack. .Net or Sharepoint developers with a bit of experience make over $1,500 a day contracting.

If it was an MSNBC link you would be fine with that But MSNBC does post facts so I had to look elsewhere.

That right the top 10% are not rich but pay way more of the burden that all else.

having to pay 70% of the total Federal personal income tax is more that enough.

Why should they pay more?

I don't care what gets cut. Cut defense, I don't care. Cut all non social programs by 20% or whatever it takes. I am fine with that.

Cut mortgage deductions and child credits - Fine.

Cut business deductions also.

i ran a rather succesful pizza franchise for a while. i was quite generous with my pay and even in a low-mid income pizza store, i could easily afford to pay $15/hr to all my staff (of 20). Tim Hortons (canada) sells enough volume of coffee at roughly $2 a cup (plus other things) to afford starting wages of $11/hr in my town (plus benefits like basic health care stuff/drug palns blah blah blah) and pay/hour only goes up from there.

big corps have the margins to support this, in theory based on experience, for most low level income areas (10-15k sales a week) have a 10-15% proft margin. thats a week. once the mortgages and other build loans are paid, a business runnings expenses half. and that margin doubles. so in practice, most major fast food chains could easily afford to pay more and the only people who suffer most is the top level. they would raise prices to make the same yearly income. so, yes, an economy could sustain and only really gain from paying its own employees more. happy employees at home means less drama and stress related "mishaps" (food industry is very stressful) in the kitchen, would in theory benefit the company.

primarily, the only real people to suffer is the top level. the guys that skim the left over (profit margin) after expenses are paid.

if a company raised its prices because its employees wanted more wages, and they actually did pay them more and treated them better, i would shop there more often as that is a business i want to succeed. but thats another issue altogether to discuss is the need for people to spend as little as possible, making places like walmart and black friday sales so succesful. in part, we are to blame for what is happening, but we do not ask those companies to treat their staff the way they do to achieve this goal.

um, also good for them, most of those franchises lost thousands in one day due to loss of sales. so remember that if you think this wasn't successful.

This may be the case but it isn't what is going on here.

This initiative is buying distressed debt only, that is, the organisation who gave the loan has decided the cost of attempting to reclaim that loan or the chances of reclaiming a significant amount is futile. So they do sell the actual loan for cheap, to debt collectors, who employ more drastic measures than larger organisations want connected to them. (speculation, I'm not familiar with why these are more attractive to debt collectors).

Rolling Jubilee acts as the debt collector but doesn't collect, it buys the loan and cancels it. Then it hopes these people with cancelled debts, come back and donate a little, now that they have less burden.

That is the general idea, granted when people hear "loan", they think mortgage but this isn't the case here. Rolling Jubilee is unlikely (or never will) enter that area. They will be buying personal loans, medical loans etc. Smaller loans. It is already outlined how better performing loans, such as student loans, are off the table.

However from my understanding, it relies on the IRS remaining co-operative and for the regulations to stay within these bounds that keep it legal and charitable. So the cancelled loans are not counted as profit against Rolling Jubilee, at which point it all crumbles.

It has some merit but it also has a lot of downfalls and it also does jack shit to Wall St or banks, that is misdirected attention to garner support I gather.

(My understanding, could be incorrect)

P.S. Also it should be noted this is hardly for the 99%, it is for a much smaller percentage of the 99% who fail to pay their loans, good loans are not sold off. So really, this is the less troubled 99& bailing out the 99%'s further down on the scale. It basically boils down to a charity, it just abusing some loose regulations.

>> ^Edgeman2112:

Granted, I know little about this and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure they're getting mortgages and mortgage-backed securities mixed up.
The mortgage is a loan. You owe 200,000 on the loan at 4% interest. This is debt.
The mortgage-backed security is a derivative; Theoretically it's a piece of paper whose value is derived based on that mortgage and the credit score associated with it. It's like stock in a company.
When they talk about doing away with debt, that's paying off the mortgage.
When they talk about buying 1,000,000$s worth of mortgages for 50,000$, they think they're also referring to the mortgage, but I'm pretty sure it's actually the leveraged mortgage-backed security. Buying those securities doesn't give you ownership of the loan. There is still 200,000$ that was lent by a bank out there. It doesn't just convert to 50,000$.

Granted, I know little about this and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure they're getting mortgages and mortgage-backed securities mixed up.

The mortgage is a loan. You owe 200,000 on the loan at 4% interest. This is debt.

The mortgage-backed security is a derivative; Theoretically it's a piece of paper whose value is derived based on that mortgage and the credit score associated with it. It's like stock in a company.

When they talk about doing away with debt, that's paying off the mortgage.

When they talk about buying 1,000,000$s worth of mortgages for 50,000$, they think they're also referring to the mortgage, but I'm pretty sure it's actually the leveraged mortgage-backed security. Buying those securities doesn't give you ownership of the loan. There is still 200,000$ that was lent by a bank out there. It doesn't just convert to 50,000$.

apparently, they will set up as a mortgage company and will avail themselves of the margins that banks can get, which is usually 10-1 (money lent to money actually in hand) for regular banks and up as high as 30-1 for investment banks (after glass-steaggal act was killed).

i don't really get it yet, but i understand the strategy of playing their game, and availing themselves of the ridiculously loose regulations and insider advantages that the industry enjoys.

>> ^alcom:

If Reps have a better sense of "how the world works," then why didn't they anticipate the mortgage-backed security crisis? Regulation is necessary, taxation is necessary and the freedom to marry who you want to marry is necessary to build a balanced and prosperous society. The Rep contradictions of "less gov = more freedom EXCEPT for marriage rights, women's bodies and more military spending" have been exposed to the majority as the fraud that they are. Obama endured relentless personal attacks, pointless filibustering and not a small amount of outright racism, lies and disrespect in a futile attempt to make him out to be the "worst president in history."
The people have spoken. Obama still came out on top, consistent to his values and gracious as he congratulated Romney on a hard-fought campaign. Taxing the top earners in the country a little more and cutting spending would be an effective way if paying down the deficit. How is this an illusion?
The Republican party needs to regroup. Their tactic of leaning further and further to the right (except in the last weeks) has soured too many right-of-center voters. If they argue now that they would have won "if only they had someone MORE conservative running," then they will surely lose again and again.



Apparently you have reading comprehension problems. I didn't say anything about republicans having a better sense of how the world works. I said that propaganda dictates how most people in this country seem to think. That if you talk to anyone they have no idea what Obamas real policies are or what they mean. I meant that mostly on the republican sides but it's true for democrats as well.

But go ahead, read what you want.

If Reps have a better sense of "how the world works," then why didn't they anticipate the mortgage-backed security crisis? Regulation is necessary, taxation is necessary and the freedom to marry who you want to marry is necessary to build a balanced and prosperous society. The Rep contradictions of "less gov = more freedom EXCEPT for marriage rights, women's bodies and more military spending" have been exposed to the majority as the fraud that they are. Obama endured relentless personal attacks, pointless filibustering and not a small amount of outright racism, lies and disrespect in a futile attempt to make him out to be the "worst president in history."

The people have spoken. Obama still came out on top, consistent to his values and gracious as he congratulated Romney on a hard-fought campaign. Taxing the top earners in the country a little more and cutting spending would be an effective way if paying down the deficit. How is this an illusion?

The Republican party needs to regroup. Their tactic of leaning further and further to the right (except in the last weeks) has soured too many right-of-center voters. If they argue now that they would have won "if only they had someone MORE conservative running," then they will surely lose again and again.

>> ^Yogi:

>> ^Drachen_Jager:
Actually, far from stupid I found him really on the point here.
Candidate A will "Give them things" ie. make their lives better.
Candidate B says, "Screw you, my rich friends need MORE!" ie. make their lives worse.
Why did anyone vote for Romney again? It's been shown time and again, Democratic Presidents have a better record on the economy, AND debt levels than Republicans. Yet this illusion remains that somehow by focusing 90% of their energy on helping 5% of the population the Republican will magically shrink the debt and make everything work, in spite of the fact that it's been tried numerous times, and it's failed every single time.

If you hear people talk about Obama and his policies they are simply uninformed about them. They're uninformed about everything whether it's what the deficit means to history to how the world even works. The PR industry works hard on producing massive amounts of propaganda and it does work. This is how you do things when you do not have the big stick like in a Totalitarian society, you have to manufacture everyone's consent.

This is an excellent analysis of the sham that the capitalist market economy really is. It does indeed get the west the cheapest products and services. But the purse strings are being pulled by the banks, to whom we are all indebted in one way or another (through a mortgage, second mortgage, car financing, credit card(s), student loans.)

I feel like the system is crumbling, we're all going the way of Greece. Does anyone think the USA can pay its debt any better than the struggling Euro zone countries? If it does happen, who stands to lose out the most? The middle class, of course. The Romney's and Koch's of the world will come out of the collapse more powerful than ever.

And what's the chick @ 2:54 doing? Voiding mortgages?

I've paid some attention to this.

The Republican Maths on Taxes 2012?
-20% Tax Rate
+4% limit tax deductions to $17000/yr cap (charitable contributions, mortgage interest tax breaks)
+?% growth from -20% Tax Rate (a.k.a. magic)
+$ ???
+$ kill funding to states
+$ kill environmental protection agency
+$ kill dept of education
+$ kill dept of uhm... er...
= budget "neutral"?
+ we got shit done in congress(unlike that obama sneer, sneeeeer)
+ purer capitalism?

Unfortunately, even if you LIKE all of these things... Mitt Romney's "positions" are hardly worth believing.

Tired of that $2.6 Million Program that Teaches Chinese Prostitutes to Drink?

by John Ransom


Liberty is about a lot of things; it’s a deep topic. But at its core liberty can be summed up in one simple and reciprocal concept. That concept is respect.

You know the 2010 last election was about many things, but it was mostly about respect.

It was about starting to restore the respect that people have in government, by getting the government to restore the respect that they show to you…by taking liberty seriously.

If you are like me, you think that many of our elected officials from both the right and the left truly believe that what they think of you is much more important than what you think of them.

If you’re like me you’re tired of a trillion dollars in so-called stimulus spending that went to mob-connected asphalt contractors rather than the pockets of working families who own businesses and pay taxes and do all the working and dreaming in this country.

If you’re like me, you’re tired of a $2.6 million program that teaches Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly while unemployment soars across the country.

If you’re like me, you're tired of an arrogant federal government which pays out $47 billion in fraudulent claims in Medicare every year while they lecture the rest of us about healthcare economics.

If you are like me, you’re tired of the US Postal service wasting $30 million on a program that pays 1100 employees to do nothing. Yes, today, the US Post Office sat 1100 employees in empty rooms, as they do every day, and literally paid them to do nothing. They can’t play cards; they can’t watch TV, in fact they can’t do anything at all. To the tune of $30 million per year.


Yet this very same federal government comes to us now and proposes to manage our healthcare, our retirement, the education of our children, the auto industry, the oil industry, pharmaceuticals, the mortgage industry and lectures the American people that they are under-regulated.

If you’re a middle American like me, from the grassroots, I bet you know someone who owns their own business; if you’re like me you probably know someone who has paid employees of that business on time every week, but hasn’t been able to pay themselves a dime. Yet these very same people who provide half the new jobs in our economy, who have lost money over the last few years, still owe the government tens of thousands of dollars in taxes every year. People wonder where our jobs have gone? They’ve been crushed by a system that doesn’t honor job creation; by a system that doesn’t honor liberty; a system that gives no respect.

And if you are like most of the voters I speak to, you are tired of insiders from Washington and Wall Street on both sides of the aisle, and their wasteful spending schemes that don’t even propose to solve the very issues facing Main Street and working families.

Let’s suppose global warming is real; I don’t think it is, but let’s say it's so for the sake of argument. Show me please how the Renewable Electricity Standard-- which will cost American families $1800 per year-- please show me how it’s going to lower the earth’s temperature. They can’t because the Renewable Electricity Standard wasn’t created to combat global warming and it won’t lower the earth’s temperature.

Ok, so let’s suppose the issue is carbon emission; that carbon is really bad and we have to get it out of our atmosphere. Show me please how the Renewable Electricity Standard is going to reduce the amount of carbon in our atmosphere. They can’t. It wasn’t designed to do that and it won’t do that.

The government doesn't write legislation with solutions in mind, but rather with power and control of your very lives. And it is inside of your lives where you will wrestle back that control.

I’m often reminded that it’s with readers just like you where many of the seminal events of our country happened. It’s in rooms just like you’re in right now that a small group of patriots in Massachusetts planned the Boston Tea Party; it’s in groups just like you are a part of today that was born the Mayflower Compact; it’s in the free association of our citizens, for the common good and with common respect, that the greatness and goodness of our country will always be found.

And as long as people like you, freely associate for the common good and meet in respect, our country will always remain both great and good.

But ordinary people are paying attention, actually reading the Constitution; people are actually asking questions about the 10th Amendment, asking: What kind of power does Washington really have over us?

Unfortunately, there aren’t enough people who have been awakened to that yet, that’s why readers like you are so important. Each individual reading this is so incredibly important because the job you have this year as a citizen has never, ever, ever been more important. The 2012 election is going to determine what it’s like to live in this country for a long time. It’s going to be people just like you, having conversation just like this, in rooms across America that are going to make a difference.

This is the chance to turn the tide. The chance we have today is to bury that last vestiges of big government in our country; to reclaim our liberty from a new deal and replace it with a true deal.

I’ve been very fortunate because over the last half dozen years I’ve been able to travel all around the country working with grassroots activists just like you. I understand, I think, better than elected officials, what makes the grassroots so special. It's you and your ability to communicate.

We have all these new tools available for citizens to communicate that just a few years ago we didn’t have. A few years ago readers wouldn’t have been as energized and as informed because we didn’t have the ability to communicate as we do now. We have been so fractured and fragmented all around the country and around the nation that we feel like we can’t do anything, that Washington is so big and out of touch that we can’t do anything.

In fact, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Now is the time we really do have the opportunity. For the first time in our history ordinary citizens have the ability to communicate with one another over the heads of the media in publications like Townhall. We are networked on social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter that expose us to thousands of people for free.

But when I was growing up there were three TV stations and two newspapers in every town that decided what the news was. There were probably a dozen people in any town that picked our news for us.

Those days are over.

This election isn’t about voting for the next person standing in a long line of elites who will rule over us; it’s about what kind of country we want to be in the future.

It’s about preserving the American dream right here right now. Because when they mess with our liberty, they really mess with our ability to dream.

I believe that the ability to dream is worth handing down to our kids.

I believe that it’s our dreams that makes us the most dynamic country in the world.

It’s the dream that brings jobs and prosperity to the US.

It’s a dream that treats promises like they really matter.

And it’s the dreams that are the promise of America.

Because when politicians treat the promises they campaign on like they matter, when they are held accountable to those pledges-- by us-- we will restore the respect they owe us.

>> ^NaMeCaF:

All well and good in theory, but reality is most people will have to put up with doing a job they dont necessarily love in order to live. Otherwise we'd have no janitors, or garbage men, etc.
Not everyone can do their "dream" job but they still have to pay the mortgage, support the family and pay those internet, phone, water, gas, electricity, etc bills.


Very true, but it doesn't mean that no-one can do their dream job. When I hear things like this I think what it's really saying is don't be like everyone else, leave that to them. Yes, most people won't be able to, but it's up to you to try to be not like most people. I wish I was better at it. I'm part way there with a job I fundamentally like. I could earn more doing other things but I've tried to draw my own line in the sand (I'm not quite doing my dream job, my line is certainly a compromise - I still need the money). I think I'm in a lucky position to be able to though (but I think this is true of anyone in the first world).

I think a lot of people would be a lot happier if they sacrificed a bit of money in trade for more happiness at work.

All well and good in theory, but reality is most people will have to put up with doing a job they dont necessarily love in order to live. Otherwise we'd have no janitors, or garbage men, etc.

Not everyone can do their "dream" job but they still have to pay the mortgage, support the family and pay those internet, phone, water, gas, electricity, rates bills etc.

She was not tricked. She did not pay attention.

>> ^Boise_Lib:

>> ^kevingrr:
Tricked by credit cards? Fooled by student loans? Cheated on mortgages?
Seriously?
The only trick is that people want what they can't afford. Good consumers, bad savers.

So very, very wrong.
My mother was tricked by a credit card company. She thought she had an 18% interest rate--until I looked into it and found she actually had 30% interest because they tricked her by changing it.