My W123 is 30 years old and I've had people make comments to me about the car that seems to indicate some level of jealousy. If it has a star on the hood, you can count on someone getting jealous. Perception of the brand is that only the rich or the elite class drive Mercedes. This perception is hilarious because in Europe EVERYBODY drives a benz, they are as common as a Ford.

What is your (Federal tax) bracket?

How much more in percentage terms, do you think you should be taxed?

How much of your gross annual income do you personally give away to rectify this situation you've apparently identified?

If you don't, why not?

How about we give all of our monies to the Salvation Army? that way, no child will be left behind......

Really, in NY no one gives a fig unless you're playing drums at 4 am or running a crack lab. Old Mercedes here, but I've heard none other than compliments. (OK, someone stole the hood ornament in a crap area of Brooklyn, but that was a crap area of Brooklyn where I really should not have parked.)

I have often wondered about those folks in your first statement.

I have been well-below poverty level for a couple of years. My unemployment ran out and I couldn't get employed for anything I wanted. So I took jobs I didn't want and they sucked mightily.

Poverty sucks and has no redeeming value. There is no insight gained from poverty. There is no inherent virtue in it. It did my soul no good.

We can always dream...

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1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).

Why would I want to post that here?The tax rates from the 1990s would be a good start, though they were probably too lenient on the rich.Nosy much? I hold up my end when it comes to charity.I do, but that's beside the point. The point is that the lack of government revenue hurts our economy and our country.

Lack of "gov revenue", AKA "Taxes", hurts the economy.

This should be an interesting exercise in logic.

Not really. I think what I'm saying is pretty mainstream economic stuff. That doesn't make it right or wrong, but I don't think I'm proposing anything unusual.

For example: Diamond and Saez: High Tax Rates Won't Slow Growth - WSJ.com

Fact Versus Fiction in Latest Supply-Side Debate | Center for American Progress

Well, because of an absence of necessary information (your Federal tax bracket) to assess your situation you posed, that is why.



So, identify and use your own Federal tax bracket as an example here, to demonstrate why you are not paying enough of your annual gross income in Federal taxes.

I don't see why stating them here is such a big deal? After all, you brought these items up in the first place...

No, not at all. In order to begin to analyze your personal situation, there's no real way to quantify your post without answers to the simple Qs....

So strange. Deeply strange.

Interesting......you bring up your own personal ideas/situation(s), then when asked for simple details, you go into hibernation. That, Honus, is strange.....

Perhaps it is because you have no personal convictions you can back up after all....

You know what grinds my gears...

I see a ton of new town homes and condos being built and all of them are labeled "luxury town home/condo".....

Why the hell cant you just build affordable housing??!?

I know a young couple who just got married and are only a couple years out of high school. They are getting a lot of help from family but without it they would be screwed here in the land of opportunity.

"upward mobility in the U.S. ranks lowest among wealthy industrialized counties"

Because no one seems to want to buy the affordable places -- outside of maybe Miami, FL has a glut of foreclosures sitting on the market...

Besides, everyone calls what they build "luxury" even if it ain't -- what are builders gonna do, call it "proletarian projects"? Or maybe "ghetto garages"? "Shabby shacks"?