Letter to Feinstein

[sdnerd]

Starting and running a company can be difficult or easy. It totally depends on what you choose to do.

That’s pretty easy to say, if you’ve never run or started your own company.

Give it a try sometime, and I suspect you’ll find it much harder then you might imagine.

[CricketOnTheHearth]

As someone who makes $60,000 a year wage income, I have to comment on several things.

1) My taxes on my take-home pay are a bit over 30%. Back in the day I bought a few shares of stock, sold it recently, and realized some small amounts of capital gains on it. Doing the little math-rigamarole in the tax booklet made it clear that the tax on that stock gain was much, much less than that on my wages.

The downside of “make more money on capital gains” is that you have to have the money to invest in the first place– pretty tough when you are living close to the edge.

2) I do the best I can to save, put money away in my 401K, etc. I save some 8% towards retirement total, which I “hope” will be enough when I get there.

3) I am trying to save up some sort of a down payment, but the choices I am confronted with at $39,000/year max net are, (a) rent a decent-enough place and not save up more than a couple hundred dollars a month, petty change in this housing market, or (b) rent two rooms in a house and save more like $1,000/month, which might bring me a decent down-payment for a condo by the time the bottom rolls around. (I am doing the latter.) I think a house in any kind of decent neighborhood will forever be out of my reach even at the bottom. Meantime I endure cramped uncomfortable quarters just in the hope that I can lock down something and start paying it off so I am not renting when I retire in 24 years.

4)’waiting for bottom’, what the heck are you renting??? What the heck are you eating??? I see a lot of slack in your budget, based on the way I spend my own money. For one, nice 4 BR houses in RB rent for 2400/month. For another, I spend something like $200/month on groceries for myself… if you had kids I could see up to $800/month. Eating out and buying prepackaged foods will boost the monthly grocery bill pretty quickly.

Based on your description, I am guessing that you live in the big 5 bedroom house with the lawn, two SUV/minivans, lots of microwave dinners and the odd visit to Chuck E. Cheese, lots of shuttling back and forth to soccer games and the like. This is the way I grew up, and it is “middle class” in most of Middle America, but yup, you guessed it– in San Diego terms, you are Livin Large. Welcome to the top 5% of San Diegans, the rest of us don’t live that way.

>chirp<

[CricketOnTheHearth]

As someone who makes $60,000 a year wage income, I have to comment on several things.

1) My taxes on my take-home pay are a bit over 30%. Back in the day I bought a few shares of stock, sold it recently, and realized some small amounts of capital gains on it. Doing the little math-rigamarole in the tax booklet made it clear that the tax on that stock gain was much, much less than that on my wages.

The downside of “make more money on capital gains” is that you have to have the money to invest in the first place– pretty tough when you are living close to the edge.

2) I do the best I can to save, put money away in my 401K, etc. I save some 8% towards retirement total, which I “hope” will be enough when I get there.

3) I am trying to save up some sort of a down payment, but the choices I am confronted with at $39,000/year max net are, (a) rent a decent-enough place and not save up more than a couple hundred dollars a month, petty change in this housing market, or (b) rent two rooms in a house and save more like $1,000/month, which might bring me a decent down-payment for a condo by the time the bottom rolls around. (I am doing the latter.) I think a house in any kind of decent neighborhood will forever be out of my reach even at the bottom. Meantime I endure cramped uncomfortable quarters just in the hope that I can lock down something and start paying it off so I am not renting when I retire in 24 years.

4)’waiting for bottom’, what the heck are you renting??? What the heck are you eating??? I see a lot of slack in your budget, based on the way I spend my own money. For one, nice 4 BR houses in RB rent for 2400/month. For another, I spend something like $200/month on groceries for myself… if you had kids I could see up to $800/month. Eating out and buying prepackaged foods will boost the monthly grocery bill pretty quickly.

Based on your description, I am guessing that you live in the big 5 bedroom house with the lawn, two SUV/minivans, lots of microwave dinners and the odd visit to Chuck E. Cheese, lots of shuttling back and forth to soccer games and the like. This is the way I grew up, and it is “middle class” in most of Middle America, but yup, you guessed it– in San Diego terms, you are Livin Large. Welcome to the top 5% of San Diegans, the rest of us don’t live that way.

>chirp<

[CricketOnTheHearth]

As someone who makes $60,000 a year wage income, I have to comment on several things.

1) My taxes on my take-home pay are a bit over 30%. Back in the day I bought a few shares of stock, sold it recently, and realized some small amounts of capital gains on it. Doing the little math-rigamarole in the tax booklet made it clear that the tax on that stock gain was much, much less than that on my wages.

The downside of “make more money on capital gains” is that you have to have the money to invest in the first place– pretty tough when you are living close to the edge.

2) I do the best I can to save, put money away in my 401K, etc. I save some 8% towards retirement total, which I “hope” will be enough when I get there.

3) I am trying to save up some sort of a down payment, but the choices I am confronted with at $39,000/year max net are, (a) rent a decent-enough place and not save up more than a couple hundred dollars a month, petty change in this housing market, or (b) rent two rooms in a house and save more like $1,000/month, which might bring me a decent down-payment for a condo by the time the bottom rolls around. (I am doing the latter.) I think a house in any kind of decent neighborhood will forever be out of my reach even at the bottom. Meantime I endure cramped uncomfortable quarters just in the hope that I can lock down something and start paying it off so I am not renting when I retire in 24 years.

4)’waiting for bottom’, what the heck are you renting??? What the heck are you eating??? I see a lot of slack in your budget, based on the way I spend my own money. For one, nice 4 BR houses in RB rent for 2400/month. For another, I spend something like $200/month on groceries for myself… if you had kids I could see up to $800/month. Eating out and buying prepackaged foods will boost the monthly grocery bill pretty quickly.

Based on your description, I am guessing that you live in the big 5 bedroom house with the lawn, two SUV/minivans, lots of microwave dinners and the odd visit to Chuck E. Cheese, lots of shuttling back and forth to soccer games and the like. This is the way I grew up, and it is “middle class” in most of Middle America, but yup, you guessed it– in San Diego terms, you are Livin Large. Welcome to the top 5% of San Diegans, the rest of us don’t live that way.

>chirp<

[CricketOnTheHearth]

As someone who makes $60,000 a year wage income, I have to comment on several things.

1) My taxes on my take-home pay are a bit over 30%. Back in the day I bought a few shares of stock, sold it recently, and realized some small amounts of capital gains on it. Doing the little math-rigamarole in the tax booklet made it clear that the tax on that stock gain was much, much less than that on my wages.

The downside of “make more money on capital gains” is that you have to have the money to invest in the first place– pretty tough when you are living close to the edge.

2) I do the best I can to save, put money away in my 401K, etc. I save some 8% towards retirement total, which I “hope” will be enough when I get there.

3) I am trying to save up some sort of a down payment, but the choices I am confronted with at $39,000/year max net are, (a) rent a decent-enough place and not save up more than a couple hundred dollars a month, petty change in this housing market, or (b) rent two rooms in a house and save more like $1,000/month, which might bring me a decent down-payment for a condo by the time the bottom rolls around. (I am doing the latter.) I think a house in any kind of decent neighborhood will forever be out of my reach even at the bottom. Meantime I endure cramped uncomfortable quarters just in the hope that I can lock down something and start paying it off so I am not renting when I retire in 24 years.

4)’waiting for bottom’, what the heck are you renting??? What the heck are you eating??? I see a lot of slack in your budget, based on the way I spend my own money. For one, nice 4 BR houses in RB rent for 2400/month. For another, I spend something like $200/month on groceries for myself… if you had kids I could see up to $800/month. Eating out and buying prepackaged foods will boost the monthly grocery bill pretty quickly.

Based on your description, I am guessing that you live in the big 5 bedroom house with the lawn, two SUV/minivans, lots of microwave dinners and the odd visit to Chuck E. Cheese, lots of shuttling back and forth to soccer games and the like. This is the way I grew up, and it is “middle class” in most of Middle America, but yup, you guessed it– in San Diego terms, you are Livin Large. Welcome to the top 5% of San Diegans, the rest of us don’t live that way.

>chirp<

[CricketOnTheHearth]

As someone who makes $60,000 a year wage income, I have to comment on several things.

1) My taxes on my take-home pay are a bit over 30%. Back in the day I bought a few shares of stock, sold it recently, and realized some small amounts of capital gains on it. Doing the little math-rigamarole in the tax booklet made it clear that the tax on that stock gain was much, much less than that on my wages.

The downside of “make more money on capital gains” is that you have to have the money to invest in the first place– pretty tough when you are living close to the edge.

2) I do the best I can to save, put money away in my 401K, etc. I save some 8% towards retirement total, which I “hope” will be enough when I get there.

3) I am trying to save up some sort of a down payment, but the choices I am confronted with at $39,000/year max net are, (a) rent a decent-enough place and not save up more than a couple hundred dollars a month, petty change in this housing market, or (b) rent two rooms in a house and save more like $1,000/month, which might bring me a decent down-payment for a condo by the time the bottom rolls around. (I am doing the latter.) I think a house in any kind of decent neighborhood will forever be out of my reach even at the bottom. Meantime I endure cramped uncomfortable quarters just in the hope that I can lock down something and start paying it off so I am not renting when I retire in 24 years.

4)’waiting for bottom’, what the heck are you renting??? What the heck are you eating??? I see a lot of slack in your budget, based on the way I spend my own money. For one, nice 4 BR houses in RB rent for 2400/month. For another, I spend something like $200/month on groceries for myself… if you had kids I could see up to $800/month. Eating out and buying prepackaged foods will boost the monthly grocery bill pretty quickly.

Based on your description, I am guessing that you live in the big 5 bedroom house with the lawn, two SUV/minivans, lots of microwave dinners and the odd visit to Chuck E. Cheese, lots of shuttling back and forth to soccer games and the like. This is the way I grew up, and it is “middle class” in most of Middle America, but yup, you guessed it– in San Diego terms, you are Livin Large. Welcome to the top 5% of San Diegans, the rest of us don’t live that way.

>chirp<

[Coronita]

LOL, Asianautica. If this discussion keeps up and we get more people to say tax the hell at the $250k+ people, is it possible we might actually see you swing vote for McCain in the coming general election? 🙂 (Please folks, let's keep this discussion up 🙂 )

 

 

[img_assist|nid=5962|title=selfportrait|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80]

—– Sour grapes for everyone!

[Coronita]

LOL, Asianautica. If this discussion keeps up and we get more people to say tax the hell at the $250k+ people, is it possible we might actually see you swing vote for McCain in the coming general election? 🙂 (Please folks, let's keep this discussion up 🙂 )

 

 

[img_assist|nid=5962|title=selfportrait|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80]

—– Sour grapes for everyone!

[Coronita]

LOL, Asianautica. If this discussion keeps up and we get more people to say tax the hell at the $250k+ people, is it possible we might actually see you swing vote for McCain in the coming general election? 🙂 (Please folks, let's keep this discussion up 🙂 )

 

 

[img_assist|nid=5962|title=selfportrait|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80]

—– Sour grapes for everyone!

[Coronita]

LOL, Asianautica. If this discussion keeps up and we get more people to say tax the hell at the $250k+ people, is it possible we might actually see you swing vote for McCain in the coming general election? 🙂 (Please folks, let's keep this discussion up 🙂 )

 

 

[img_assist|nid=5962|title=selfportrait|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80]

—– Sour grapes for everyone!

[Coronita]

LOL, Asianautica. If this discussion keeps up and we get more people to say tax the hell at the $250k+ people, is it possible we might actually see you swing vote for McCain in the coming general election? 🙂 (Please folks, let's keep this discussion up 🙂 )

 

 

[img_assist|nid=5962|title=selfportrait|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80]

—– Sour grapes for everyone!

[Akula1992]

DWCAP,

Thanks, but it isn’t my analogy. I’m not quite that clever.

Now what I think would be a lot of fun is to get a bunch of us in a room together to actually discuss this topic. I’m afraid I make more sense in person than in prose. My undergrad degree is a BS in ECON(how a propos) and I just enjoy discussing Economics in general.

A friend of mine from a few years back had a pretty awesome educational background. She was undergrad at Princeton and got her Masters at Carnegie Mellon. She was hauling down the big bucks working in New York. She decided to give that up and when I met her she was finishing her PhD at Harvard. She mentioned to me at the time that she was dooming herself to a life of poverty by getting the PhD. Seems that while she was very employable with the MS degree she was less so with the more advanced degree. This was borne out by her past doctoral wages, I’m afraid to say.

An associate of mine shared some of his beliefs that seem to fall closely with my own. Since he is much more elegant than me, I will use his words:

“I believe that democracy is the worst possible form of government, except for all the others.

I believe that liberals are builders, and conservatives are defenders. I believe that both are important.

I believe that government’s primary functions should be to defend the borders and deliver the mail in a timely fashion. Everything else is pretty much discretionary, open to debate and subject to revision. People don’t really want to be governed, but they need to be. Still, I believe that government is best which governs least.

I believe freedom is more important than equality. If the only way to make things more equal is to reduce freedom, I’m not interested. Human nature being what it is, equality will have to be enforced, while freedom will have to be defended. I’d rather be a defender than an enforcer.

I believe that taxes are a necessary evil. The fact that they are necessary should not obscure the fact that they are evil. You work to provide for your family, and the government asks a share of the bread wrung from the sweat of your brow. Societies have responsibilities, but only because they collectively choose to. There is a social contract in effect: We do owe our less advantaged brothers and sisters the chance to pull themselves up out of the mire. But they owe it to us to take that chance.

I believe that the taxation system is fundamentally coercive: It may be your money, you may have earned it through your labor, but if you don’t pay, eventually a man with a gun will show up at your doorstep and take you away.

I believe in privacy.

I believe in charity.

I believe in virtue.

I believe that charity is a private virtue.

I believe in personal responsibility.

I believe that choices are actions, and that actions have consequences. If you didn’t pick up on this growing up, you weren’t paying attention.

I believe that a market economy offers the best opportunity to live a good life to the most number of people. If you believe differently, I’d like to see your analysis.

I believe that if I choose to work hard in high school to get to a good college, work hard at my career in pursuit of a better life for my family, and save money for my retirement, that shouldn’t make me a piggy bank to plunder for those who didn’t make those choices. If you choose to teach or “help people,” because that’s important to you, you shouldn’t be surprised if the market disfavors those choices in favor of those who actually make tangible things for other folks to buy. That’s what markets do, and ours is a market economy. You should be content instead with the non-remunerative rewards of your chosen field.

I believe that if everyone took responsibility for those people and those things that they can directly impact (family comes to mind, friends and neighbors come next), that the world would be a far better place. Think globally, act family.

I believe it’s time for another beer.

I believe in sin.

I believe that envy is a sin.

I believe some people should be ashamed.

I believe that legislatures should legislate, executives should execute, and judiciaries should interpret.

I believe that what any of the three branches of government usurp the role of one of the others we have in some measure ceased to be that which we were justifiably proud of having been – a glorious experiment in personal liberty by self-government which is not yet demonstrably and finally a success.

I believe that Roe v. Wade was poorly found. I do not think judges should emanate into the penumbra. I find nothing in the Constitution that permits them to do so.

Notwithstanding the preceding, I believe in stare decisis.

I believe that the principal element in “the freedom of choice” should involve choosing to keep one’s knees together. Get that one right, everything else falls into place.

I believe that humanity is not a birthright, but a testable proposition. I believe that society has the right to defend itself against people who commit horrible crimes, and punish them proportionately. I believe that right includes the ultimate sanction. I believe that there are those who look like us that are not of us, who by their acts of inhumanity have proven that they are not human in that fundamental way that separates us from other mammals. I shed no tears when vicious murderers are put down, pour encourager les autres.

I believe that the DH rule spoils the game.

I believe that not all change is progress.

I believe in the law of unintended consequences.

I believe in learning from those who went before: Quo desiderat pacem, para bellum

I believe in passion.

I believe that rational analysis will always win in an argument with passionate beliefs.

I believe that wrestling with pigs is counterproductive. You just get dirty, and the pig enjoys it.

I believe that people of good will may disagree. I believe the other guy often has a point. I think he probably got there through a valid process. I don’t believe that disagreeing with him necessarily makes me a bad person. I believe that anyone who truly believes that it does is not worth arguing with. If you don’t agree, please see preceding belief.”

I still read that every now and then and I have redacted a couple things that I do not personally believe in, but it still cuts pretty close to home

[Akula1992]

DWCAP,

Thanks, but it isn’t my analogy. I’m not quite that clever.

Now what I think would be a lot of fun is to get a bunch of us in a room together to actually discuss this topic. I’m afraid I make more sense in person than in prose. My undergrad degree is a BS in ECON(how a propos) and I just enjoy discussing Economics in general.

A friend of mine from a few years back had a pretty awesome educational background. She was undergrad at Princeton and got her Masters at Carnegie Mellon. She was hauling down the big bucks working in New York. She decided to give that up and when I met her she was finishing her PhD at Harvard. She mentioned to me at the time that she was dooming herself to a life of poverty by getting the PhD. Seems that while she was very employable with the MS degree she was less so with the more advanced degree. This was borne out by her past doctoral wages, I’m afraid to say.

An associate of mine shared some of his beliefs that seem to fall closely with my own. Since he is much more elegant than me, I will use his words:

“I believe that democracy is the worst possible form of government, except for all the others.

I believe that liberals are builders, and conservatives are defenders. I believe that both are important.

I believe that government’s primary functions should be to defend the borders and deliver the mail in a timely fashion. Everything else is pretty much discretionary, open to debate and subject to revision. People don’t really want to be governed, but they need to be. Still, I believe that government is best which governs least.

I believe freedom is more important than equality. If the only way to make things more equal is to reduce freedom, I’m not interested. Human nature being what it is, equality will have to be enforced, while freedom will have to be defended. I’d rather be a defender than an enforcer.

I believe that taxes are a necessary evil. The fact that they are necessary should not obscure the fact that they are evil. You work to provide for your family, and the government asks a share of the bread wrung from the sweat of your brow. Societies have responsibilities, but only because they collectively choose to. There is a social contract in effect: We do owe our less advantaged brothers and sisters the chance to pull themselves up out of the mire. But they owe it to us to take that chance.

I believe that the taxation system is fundamentally coercive: It may be your money, you may have earned it through your labor, but if you don’t pay, eventually a man with a gun will show up at your doorstep and take you away.

I believe in privacy.

I believe in charity.

I believe in virtue.

I believe that charity is a private virtue.

I believe in personal responsibility.

I believe that choices are actions, and that actions have consequences. If you didn’t pick up on this growing up, you weren’t paying attention.

I believe that a market economy offers the best opportunity to live a good life to the most number of people. If you believe differently, I’d like to see your analysis.

I believe that if I choose to work hard in high school to get to a good college, work hard at my career in pursuit of a better life for my family, and save money for my retirement, that shouldn’t make me a piggy bank to plunder for those who didn’t make those choices. If you choose to teach or “help people,” because that’s important to you, you shouldn’t be surprised if the market disfavors those choices in favor of those who actually make tangible things for other folks to buy. That’s what markets do, and ours is a market economy. You should be content instead with the non-remunerative rewards of your chosen field.

I believe that if everyone took responsibility for those people and those things that they can directly impact (family comes to mind, friends and neighbors come next), that the world would be a far better place. Think globally, act family.

I believe it’s time for another beer.

I believe in sin.

I believe that envy is a sin.

I believe some people should be ashamed.

I believe that legislatures should legislate, executives should execute, and judiciaries should interpret.

I believe that what any of the three branches of government usurp the role of one of the others we have in some measure ceased to be that which we were justifiably proud of having been – a glorious experiment in personal liberty by self-government which is not yet demonstrably and finally a success.

I believe that Roe v. Wade was poorly found. I do not think judges should emanate into the penumbra. I find nothing in the Constitution that permits them to do so.

Notwithstanding the preceding, I believe in stare decisis.

I believe that the principal element in “the freedom of choice” should involve choosing to keep one’s knees together. Get that one right, everything else falls into place.

I believe that humanity is not a birthright, but a testable proposition. I believe that society has the right to defend itself against people who commit horrible crimes, and punish them proportionately. I believe that right includes the ultimate sanction. I believe that there are those who look like us that are not of us, who by their acts of inhumanity have proven that they are not human in that fundamental way that separates us from other mammals. I shed no tears when vicious murderers are put down, pour encourager les autres.

I believe that the DH rule spoils the game.

I believe that not all change is progress.

I believe in the law of unintended consequences.

I believe in learning from those who went before: Quo desiderat pacem, para bellum

I believe in passion.

I believe that rational analysis will always win in an argument with passionate beliefs.

I believe that wrestling with pigs is counterproductive. You just get dirty, and the pig enjoys it.

I believe that people of good will may disagree. I believe the other guy often has a point. I think he probably got there through a valid process. I don’t believe that disagreeing with him necessarily makes me a bad person. I believe that anyone who truly believes that it does is not worth arguing with. If you don’t agree, please see preceding belief.”

I still read that every now and then and I have redacted a couple things that I do not personally believe in, but it still cuts pretty close to home

[Akula1992]

DWCAP,

Thanks, but it isn’t my analogy. I’m not quite that clever.

Now what I think would be a lot of fun is to get a bunch of us in a room together to actually discuss this topic. I’m afraid I make more sense in person than in prose. My undergrad degree is a BS in ECON(how a propos) and I just enjoy discussing Economics in general.

A friend of mine from a few years back had a pretty awesome educational background. She was undergrad at Princeton and got her Masters at Carnegie Mellon. She was hauling down the big bucks working in New York. She decided to give that up and when I met her she was finishing her PhD at Harvard. She mentioned to me at the time that she was dooming herself to a life of poverty by getting the PhD. Seems that while she was very employable with the MS degree she was less so with the more advanced degree. This was borne out by her past doctoral wages, I’m afraid to say.

An associate of mine shared some of his beliefs that seem to fall closely with my own. Since he is much more elegant than me, I will use his words:

“I believe that democracy is the worst possible form of government, except for all the others.

I believe that liberals are builders, and conservatives are defenders. I believe that both are important.

I believe that government’s primary functions should be to defend the borders and deliver the mail in a timely fashion. Everything else is pretty much discretionary, open to debate and subject to revision. People don’t really want to be governed, but they need to be. Still, I believe that government is best which governs least.

I believe freedom is more important than equality. If the only way to make things more equal is to reduce freedom, I’m not interested. Human nature being what it is, equality will have to be enforced, while freedom will have to be defended. I’d rather be a defender than an enforcer.

I believe that taxes are a necessary evil. The fact that they are necessary should not obscure the fact that they are evil. You work to provide for your family, and the government asks a share of the bread wrung from the sweat of your brow. Societies have responsibilities, but only because they collectively choose to. There is a social contract in effect: We do owe our less advantaged brothers and sisters the chance to pull themselves up out of the mire. But they owe it to us to take that chance.

I believe that the taxation system is fundamentally coercive: It may be your money, you may have earned it through your labor, but if you don’t pay, eventually a man with a gun will show up at your doorstep and take you away.

I believe in privacy.

I believe in charity.

I believe in virtue.

I believe that charity is a private virtue.

I believe in personal responsibility.

I believe that choices are actions, and that actions have consequences. If you didn’t pick up on this growing up, you weren’t paying attention.

I believe that a market economy offers the best opportunity to live a good life to the most number of people. If you believe differently, I’d like to see your analysis.

I believe that if I choose to work hard in high school to get to a good college, work hard at my career in pursuit of a better life for my family, and save money for my retirement, that shouldn’t make me a piggy bank to plunder for those who didn’t make those choices. If you choose to teach or “help people,” because that’s important to you, you shouldn’t be surprised if the market disfavors those choices in favor of those who actually make tangible things for other folks to buy. That’s what markets do, and ours is a market economy. You should be content instead with the non-remunerative rewards of your chosen field.

I believe that if everyone took responsibility for those people and those things that they can directly impact (family comes to mind, friends and neighbors come next), that the world would be a far better place. Think globally, act family.

I believe it’s time for another beer.

I believe in sin.

I believe that envy is a sin.

I believe some people should be ashamed.

I believe that legislatures should legislate, executives should execute, and judiciaries should interpret.

I believe that what any of the three branches of government usurp the role of one of the others we have in some measure ceased to be that which we were justifiably proud of having been – a glorious experiment in personal liberty by self-government which is not yet demonstrably and finally a success.

I believe that Roe v. Wade was poorly found. I do not think judges should emanate into the penumbra. I find nothing in the Constitution that permits them to do so.

Notwithstanding the preceding, I believe in stare decisis.

I believe that the principal element in “the freedom of choice” should involve choosing to keep one’s knees together. Get that one right, everything else falls into place.

I believe that humanity is not a birthright, but a testable proposition. I believe that society has the right to defend itself against people who commit horrible crimes, and punish them proportionately. I believe that right includes the ultimate sanction. I believe that there are those who look like us that are not of us, who by their acts of inhumanity have proven that they are not human in that fundamental way that separates us from other mammals. I shed no tears when vicious murderers are put down, pour encourager les autres.

I believe that the DH rule spoils the game.

I believe that not all change is progress.

I believe in the law of unintended consequences.

I believe in learning from those who went before: Quo desiderat pacem, para bellum

I believe in passion.

I believe that rational analysis will always win in an argument with passionate beliefs.

I believe that wrestling with pigs is counterproductive. You just get dirty, and the pig enjoys it.

I believe that people of good will may disagree. I believe the other guy often has a point. I think he probably got there through a valid process. I don’t believe that disagreeing with him necessarily makes me a bad person. I believe that anyone who truly believes that it does is not worth arguing with. If you don’t agree, please see preceding belief.”

I still read that every now and then and I have redacted a couple things that I do not personally believe in, but it still cuts pretty close to home

[Akula1992]

DWCAP,

Thanks, but it isn’t my analogy. I’m not quite that clever.

Now what I think would be a lot of fun is to get a bunch of us in a room together to actually discuss this topic. I’m afraid I make more sense in person than in prose. My undergrad degree is a BS in ECON(how a propos) and I just enjoy discussing Economics in general.

A friend of mine from a few years back had a pretty awesome educational background. She was undergrad at Princeton and got her Masters at Carnegie Mellon. She was hauling down the big bucks working in New York. She decided to give that up and when I met her she was finishing her PhD at Harvard. She mentioned to me at the time that she was dooming herself to a life of poverty by getting the PhD. Seems that while she was very employable with the MS degree she was less so with the more advanced degree. This was borne out by her past doctoral wages, I’m afraid to say.

An associate of mine shared some of his beliefs that seem to fall closely with my own. Since he is much more elegant than me, I will use his words:

“I believe that democracy is the worst possible form of government, except for all the others.

I believe that liberals are builders, and conservatives are defenders. I believe that both are important.

I believe that government’s primary functions should be to defend the borders and deliver the mail in a timely fashion. Everything else is pretty much discretionary, open to debate and subject to revision. People don’t really want to be governed, but they need to be. Still, I believe that government is best which governs least.

I believe freedom is more important than equality. If the only way to make things more equal is to reduce freedom, I’m not interested. Human nature being what it is, equality will have to be enforced, while freedom will have to be defended. I’d rather be a defender than an enforcer.

I believe that taxes are a necessary evil. The fact that they are necessary should not obscure the fact that they are evil. You work to provide for your family, and the government asks a share of the bread wrung from the sweat of your brow. Societies have responsibilities, but only because they collectively choose to. There is a social contract in effect: We do owe our less advantaged brothers and sisters the chance to pull themselves up out of the mire. But they owe it to us to take that chance.

I believe that the taxation system is fundamentally coercive: It may be your money, you may have earned it through your labor, but if you don’t pay, eventually a man with a gun will show up at your doorstep and take you away.

I believe in privacy.

I believe in charity.

I believe in virtue.

I believe that charity is a private virtue.

I believe in personal responsibility.

I believe that choices are actions, and that actions have consequences. If you didn’t pick up on this growing up, you weren’t paying attention.

I believe that a market economy offers the best opportunity to live a good life to the most number of people. If you believe differently, I’d like to see your analysis.

I believe that if I choose to work hard in high school to get to a good college, work hard at my career in pursuit of a better life for my family, and save money for my retirement, that shouldn’t make me a piggy bank to plunder for those who didn’t make those choices. If you choose to teach or “help people,” because that’s important to you, you shouldn’t be surprised if the market disfavors those choices in favor of those who actually make tangible things for other folks to buy. That’s what markets do, and ours is a market economy. You should be content instead with the non-remunerative rewards of your chosen field.

I believe that if everyone took responsibility for those people and those things that they can directly impact (family comes to mind, friends and neighbors come next), that the world would be a far better place. Think globally, act family.

I believe it’s time for another beer.

I believe in sin.

I believe that envy is a sin.

I believe some people should be ashamed.

I believe that legislatures should legislate, executives should execute, and judiciaries should interpret.

I believe that what any of the three branches of government usurp the role of one of the others we have in some measure ceased to be that which we were justifiably proud of having been – a glorious experiment in personal liberty by self-government which is not yet demonstrably and finally a success.

I believe that Roe v. Wade was poorly found. I do not think judges should emanate into the penumbra. I find nothing in the Constitution that permits them to do so.

Notwithstanding the preceding, I believe in stare decisis.

I believe that the principal element in “the freedom of choice” should involve choosing to keep one’s knees together. Get that one right, everything else falls into place.

I believe that humanity is not a birthright, but a testable proposition. I believe that society has the right to defend itself against people who commit horrible crimes, and punish them proportionately. I believe that right includes the ultimate sanction. I believe that there are those who look like us that are not of us, who by their acts of inhumanity have proven that they are not human in that fundamental way that separates us from other mammals. I shed no tears when vicious murderers are put down, pour encourager les autres.

I believe that the DH rule spoils the game.

I believe that not all change is progress.

I believe in the law of unintended consequences.

I believe in learning from those who went before: Quo desiderat pacem, para bellum

I believe in passion.

I believe that rational analysis will always win in an argument with passionate beliefs.

I believe that wrestling with pigs is counterproductive. You just get dirty, and the pig enjoys it.

I believe that people of good will may disagree. I believe the other guy often has a point. I think he probably got there through a valid process. I don’t believe that disagreeing with him necessarily makes me a bad person. I believe that anyone who truly believes that it does is not worth arguing with. If you don’t agree, please see preceding belief.”

I still read that every now and then and I have redacted a couple things that I do not personally believe in, but it still cuts pretty close to home

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