House of Eratosthenes

In 2007, there were 392,220 tax returns reporting $1 million or more in adjusted gross income (AGI). In 2009, by contrast, there were 233,435 millionaire returns, a drop of nearly 159,000, or 40 percent.

Of the total number of tax returns filed each year, millionaires’ share of returns declined from 0.3 percent to 0.2 percent.
:
The AGI of taxpayers earning over $10 million fell 61 percent, the biggest decline in AGI of any group. Their incomes dropped $342 billion in two years, from $561 billion in 2007 to $219 billion in 2009. Their lost income comprised roughly 33 percent of the overall fall in AGI over those two years.

Help! We here in California have had a very similar situation play out statewide for a long time now, during which time our biggest problem has been: When you just start to explain what’s happening, the lefties think you’re making an aggrieved victim class out of the very rich people, which they simply won’t allow to happen of course. Unfortunately, once they get just so much punch-drunk on liberalism, that’s how they see the world; they lose their ability to notice things that matter, if said things don’t involve some disenfranchised minority being oppressed. Kinda reminds me of the cartoon about Wiley Coyote walking off the end of the cliff and not falling downward until such time as he notices the ground’s gone.

Well, as California’s financial situation can attest, in this case the aggrieved victim class that’s being oppressed is not the rich people who used to be reporting more income than they’re reporting right now, it’s the treasury that used to be taking in more tax receipts. And the problem is real.

It’s universal, too. It works in states, regions, valleys, counties, townships, municipalities, anything you want. A lavish assortment of social programs funded by a “tax the evil rich” nicely sloped progressive-shaped curve in Year N…by Year N+5 you have these newspaper headlines, supposedly original ones, all humming the same monotone of “Oh, dear, budget cuts, revenue shortfalls, deficit deficit deficit!” It’s plain to see the recipe doesn’t work, but it’s only plain to see to those who pay attention.

Also, we’re not Wiley Coyote. Once we run off a cliff, gravity doesn’t give a good goddamn whether we know it or not.

“…but it’s only plain to see to those who pay attention.”

Or who have more on their agenda than making things “fair”.

I don’t have a MBA or even a BA in business, nope. I’ve only got real world experience running a small company. The one thing I’ve learned since..well, since Obama took office and the economy took a nose dive (pure coincidence I’m sure) is that with my declining revenue I’ve had to …wait for, it’s REALLY complicated…cut spending not fucking INCREASE it!

Crazy shit, I know.

Here’s more crazy shit, our Governor, the infamous Mario Cuomo (who was responsible in no small part for the housing collapse), has capped our state property taxes, some of the highest in the nation. (Example, my mortgage is $550 a month and I pay almost another $300 in taxes. Buck knows about this crap). But, here’s the kicker for that shit for brains voters, the state mandates to each county regarding welfare, Medicaid, SSI and the like, didn’t change and will only continue to rise.. So how will the counties make up the difference when they go broke and start laying off police, firemen and DOT workers, etc.? Your guess is as good as anyone’s.

Though another hidden tax on the wealthy is surely just around the block. Then they leave in droves to states such as Florida with no income taxes just like they already have…and revenue will go down…again…and then…*Beep, Beep*…

Stupid things happen when Democrats are in charge.
- tim | 02/08/2012 @ 11:22
If liberals could process cause and effect in a rational, linear way, they would cease to be liberals.

If liberals had the first clue about economics, they would cease to be liberals.

If liberals could do basic math, they would cease to be liberals.

If liberals ever opened a history book, they would cease to be liberals.

I could do this all day (and I just might!). The singularly amazing fact, though — the one that convinces me we are irretrievably boned, even if a Republican wins in 2012 — is that politics consists of anything more than this. In any sane world, GOP candidates from Romney on down to the Toad Lick, Arkansas, dog catcher would have nothing BUT this quote and a huge, brightly-colored graph.

“Abortion? Yeah, we’ll worry about that later. Take a look at this here chart. Israel? No doubt that’s an issue, but first look at this chart. Obamacare? Social security? Declining test scores? The price of rice in China? Chart, chart, chart, chart. Basic math is not racist or sexist. It is not confined to ‘the one percent,’ whatever the hell that means. Just look at the damn thing!”

Do that, and the GOP would post one of those Kim Il Sung-style victories in 2012.
- Severian | 02/08/2012 @ 11:48
I happened to catch a bit of CNN a few days ago on the TV at work. Some anchor was reading some comments sent in by viewers, on the subject of the presidential campaign trail.

One of them referred to Newt Gingrich calling Obama a “food stamp president” and what a racially-charged comment that supposedly was. About how Gingrich’s comments ostensibly aren’t racist, but that it’s a “wink and a nod” to his supporters, who will understand what he really means. Or something.

I turned to my one conservative colleague and remarked that I couldn’t believe people who think like that are allowed to vote. Someone whose thought process, if you can call it that, is that skewed…is not going to be able to grasp a concept like “when you raise taxes on producers, they flee for lower tax jurisdictions and local government revenue goes down, not up. Raising taxes to ‘close the deficit’ simply does not work.” They’re too hung up on racism; even though jobs and the economy should be issue number one in this election (with national defense and energy policies battling it out for second), we’re going to spend another cycle defending ourselves from the absurd, asinine charge that our voters don’t like the president because he is black.

It’s gotten to the point where when I find this written on some blog comment page, I just write, “You keep telling yourself that. That way, you won’t have the deal with the substance of our arguments against the president’s policies.”
- cylarz | 02/08/2012 @ 14:00

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We Need More Millionaires!Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

We Need More Millionaires!
Wednesday, February 8th, 2012