[ocrenter]

[quote=EconProf]Scripps Ranch schools used to be top flight (my kids went there), but have slipped of late. Be especially wary of the high school. Maybe fellow Pigg SD Realtor can opine on it.[/quote]

Can you elaborate on that? SRHS has been advertising that 900 API on their digital sign ever since the score came out. Obviously the API is not everything, but it sure covers up any rumor of “slippage” quite nicely.

[ocrenter]

[quote=SK in CV][quote=ocrenter]The bottom line here remains: the W2 professionals are the easy prey. With no ability to stash their cash outside of the country, yet considered “rich” by the huge and growing underclass, this group is the perfect low hanging fruit for the government seeking funds.[/quote]

huh? Only a miniscule % of w-2 professionals would be hit by a tax hike. The logic in this comment is divorced from reality.[/quote]

Low hanging fruit does not mean high yielding fruit. The truly high yielding fruit is that top one percent. But the gov certainly has its work cut out for it to go after that.

[ocrenter]

At this point I would say yes to anything within your price range from 4s down to clairemont mesa. You seen how bad is it out there. If you want a house now, there is no picking and choosing at this point.

The economy is improving, I’m hearing that sentiment from Walmart clerks to Nordstrom salesladies to car dealers to flippers and Realtors and electricians. Interest rate is staying low, the QEs will devalue the dollar some more, which means housing prices are heading north. (Remember Romney himself was banking on the economy improving, he was just hoping voter impatience at the pace of the improvement would be enough to get him into the WH).

Just get something so down the line you have something to trade up with.

[ocrenter]

The bottom line here remains: the W2 professionals are the easy prey. With no ability to stash their cash outside of the country, yet considered “rich” by the huge and growing underclass, this group is the perfect low hanging fruit for the government seeking funds.

[ocrenter]

[quote=ctr70]25% of the top income earners in the U.S. pay 90% of the income taxes. Isn’t 90% enough??? I just can’t see why Obama wants them to pay MORE and MORE. Isn’t that enough already?
[/quote]

This does seem like an alarming statistics, doesn’t it, ctr?

But the problem here is the top is increasing their income while the bottom is stagnate, so how do we increase the bottom’s share of the tax burden when it is the top that is increasing their income?

For example, if the top 1% increase their income by 10% in the same year that the rest of the 99% grew by 0.2%, how should we increase the tax burden of the bottom?

Here’s another scenario, the top 25% holds 87% of the wealth in this country. So how can we hold the other 75% accountable for that 13% of wealth?

And when a government is trying to go after more revenue, which of the piece of pie should it go after? the 13%? or the 87%.

I don’t have the answer. But seems to me the government is just going after where the money’s at. whether that is right or wrong it is up for debate.

[ocrenter]

seems like Nuance has a monopoly on speech recognition and doing a horrible job of it.

would be nice if there will be a viable open source competition.

[ocrenter]

[quote=CA renter]

Seems to me that the Bush tax cuts and war spending is what largely got us into trouble. If we had kept revenues/taxes at their previous rates (maybe even raised rates in order to make up for the additional costs associated with the wars), we would not have had such large deficits. Without such large deficits, we wouldn’t have had to borrow so much money. Without having to borrow so much money, we wouldn’t have such a large debt service burden.

You’re right about interest rates having the potential to blow us out of the water. I just think that in the absence of the Bush tax cuts and wars, we would be in a much better place today. It’s not always about “spending,” but about making sure that revenues match (or exceed) spending. It really is that simple.[/quote]

While I do agree “Bush” started it. I do think that part of the argument has been settled by the election.

Bottom line is it IS spending and it IS revenue.

I think the end product will be along the line of a compromised 37% top rate, some restrictions on amount of mortgage deduction, and loss of tax exemption on some of the 401k contributions coupled with hopefully some overall reduction in entitlement and defense spending.

personally I don’t think going over the cliff is that big of a deal for the long term. we will of course get a lot of short term effects.

[ocrenter]

[quote=flu]

Only if you don’t mind the high voltage power lines running along parts of the new tract…. Yeah, I’m trying to figure that one out… If I’m gonna be spending $2million on a custom home, those power lines better not be visible…..

The 28 custom homes will be built by pardee I think BTW….

http://www.altadelmar.com/lib/pdf/CommunityMap.pdf%5B/quote%5D

maybe Pardee might be willing to bury the high voltage lines as part of the $2 million per lot cost… or may be not…

[ocrenter]

[quote=flu]FWIW: about those Pardee attached homes in MM that a lot of people said are overpriced… I’m on the mailing list and paid a visit there recently. They’re selling pretty well…Most already sold in the available phases…They must be owner occupied, to my understanding…Didn’t check out the SFH there…

Pardee is probably running of out things to sell… (Just kidding about that…but..)…Guess what Pardee is up to in my submarket?
http://www.altadelmar.com/custom/

28 of them are marked for as “custom homes”[/quote]

oh question, question!!!

will I be able to drive my golf cart from my custom lot down to Grand Del Mar for my daily breakfast? 😉

[ocrenter]

[quote=no_such_reality]
So the real question with CARB is what is the right goal?

CARB’s goal is apparently zero ppm.

What’s our economic cost from the roughly 5 PPM in 1990 to the 2 PPM today and the push toward 1PPM in the future with AB32?

what is the real air quality benefit in smog days we see from the mid-90s to today?

That is the complaint against CARB. Essentially, mission accomplished mid-90s.[/quote]

http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1393589

Pretty powerful evidence of effect of air pollution on autism. We’re looking at 3 times the risk when exposed to higher level of pollution.

Are we sure mission was accomplished in the 90’s?

[ocrenter]

Sales numbers do impress me. If the consumers are out in full force, how is that not impressive or at least a reasonable indicator of the direction of the economy?

[ocrenter]

[quote=moneymaker]Health care is more readily available to the “more statused” however I seem to recall quit a few well to do dying lately at relatively young ages, David Copley, Steve Jobs, pick anyone in Hollywood that has died young lately. So in my opinion being statused may actually make one more unhealthy due to obesity/drug use(yes even the legal kind) and bad habits such as drinking and smoking. Of course I could be wrong as I recall seeing a lot of obese people last time I was at Walmart.[/quote]

Status and health are related, but access the health care plays a minor role.

Just as scaredy’s kid learned in school with apes, it is ultimately access to resources.

The higher status apes have access to plenty of food and the best shelter. This improves their health. For us, it is the access to healthy food that set the upper class apart from the lower class. For the higher class, you have the jimbos and the sprouts and the trader joes where whole wheat bread and brown rice and low salt items and fresh lean meat are the rule. For the lower class you have 99cent stores with white bread and high salt processed meat items and high fat snacks that are filling, cheap, and more addictive.

The lower class usually do not have leasure time to exercise as many have 2 jobs or multiple part time job, while the upper class do have more ability to manage their own time and find time to exercise. To the working poor, exercise seems foolish after 16 hours of cleaning toilets and mopping the floor. Replenishing the caloric supply, actually over replenishing with a meal at over 2000 calories all at less than $5 seem like the logical thing to do.

The dietary differences and approach to exercise ultimately is the difference between the various status groups.

As for access to health care, please remember Steve Jobs managed to survive for 3 years AFTER the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, that itself is a feat related to access to health care. Your average Jose would be lucky to survive 3 months from the diagnosis if he was even diagnosed at all.

[ocrenter]

bump!

this is a great way to help local schools. definitely recommend the link.

flu, what % are you looking at from each purchase?

[ocrenter]

unfortunately, once we got one of these realtor/flipper team going, game over for the rest of y’all.

I was recently talking to a flipper who was bragging about his 11 flips so far this year. how did he get 11 homes to flip when real buyers out there keep getting shot down? yup, this guy gets first dips on everything his realtor gets from the bank. you would think after may be the 5th transaction the bank would wise up to their game…

[ocrenter]

I always allow the technology to age a little before purchasing, allowing for the most dramatic depreciation to take hold first.

for example. one of those Mitsubishi DLP 65″ went for approx $2000 back in 2007. By 2010 we were able to buy it for $1000. Best Buy is still selling it for $900 two years later. I can live with that.

The premium paid to have the newest and latest tech simply isn’t justifiable.

[Author]

Posts