taxes
mikethemadbiologist | February 7, 2008While everyone is worried about who is more TEH SUCK, Obama or Clinton, there's a stimulus package working its way through Capitol Hill. One of the arguments revolves around what is the best way to stimulate the economy. But that's the wrong way to pose the problem.
There isn't a single economy; rather, different people experience different economies. For example, this editorial from The Back Bay Sun describes the economy of the Back Bay, Boston (a very wealthy neighborhood):
The nation is feeling an economic pinch and Goldman Sachs chief economists are all predicting a recession but so…
mikethemadbiologist | February 6, 2008A rant in Boston's Weekly Dig lays out why the healthcare problem is a wage problem:
Dearest Governor/ Presidential Candidate/ Botox Abuser,
Thanks for leaving us with the mandatory health insurance law. I really appreciate being told that I'm legally obligated to have health insurance by January 1st (which I don't), and pay $196/month (which I can't afford), or be subject to a $219 yearly penalty (which will soon be $912). To repeat: I can't afford to spend $196/month for health insurance, so somehow I can afford $912 for the year for nothing???
So basically, because of your landmark law,…
revere | February 1, 2008The AP's Margie Mason is a pretty good flu reporter and she has a story on the wires today whose title encapsulates the bird flu history of the last four years: Bird flu continues march 4 years later. The number of human deaths is still not large -- a few hundred -- just a day at the office in Iraq. But the virus just keeps extending its geographic range in poultry stocks and wherever it does it there is a risk of human infections. Fourteen countries so far have officially confirmed influenza A/H5N1 cases. The number of birds killed by infection or slaughtered to prevent the spread of…
mikethemadbiologist | January 20, 2008That bond issue to build a new school or road just became more expensive. Say hello to higher property and sales taxes or cuts in services. Strap on the ol' thinkin' cap and I'll get to 'splainin' it.
Got it strapped on tight? Good.
If you're a municipality and you want to float a bond to build a water reclamation plant, you would want the lowest interest rate possible, just as you yourself would if you were buying a house. Many municipalities don't have good bond ratings (or as good as they would like), so they therefore pay higher interest rates. This opened the way for municipal bond…
mikethemadbiologist | January 11, 2008Ian Welsh makes a very important connection between personal economic incentives and corporate behavior:
What would you do, or rather, what wouldn't you do, if you knew that by working hard for five years you'd have enough money that you need never, ever, work again for the rest of your life? Not just that, but for most executives, you would be rich. Want a house on the Riviera? Want to spend the rest of you[r] life travelling? Have a hobby? Whatever it is, you'll be able to indulge it, because you'll be rich and money is freedom.
So even if, in the end, Merrill Lynch was going to be stuck…
mikethemadbiologist | December 15, 2007At least, that's what the latest CBO data suggest. Paul Krugman summarizes the change in after-tax income between 2003-2005:
Here's what the numbers say about percentage gains in after-tax income from 2003 to 2005:
Bottom quintile: 2%
Next quintile: 2.4%
Middle quintile: 3.9%
Fourth quintile: 3.7%
Top quintile: 16%
Top 10%: 20.9%
Top 5%: 27.7%
Top 1%: 43.5%
It was a boom, all right -- but only for a few people.
Once you get to the top fifth it gets very interesting. Compare the top quintile increase of 16% to the top tenth increase of 20.9%. When you consider that the top quintile contains…
mikethemadbiologist | November 7, 2007Before I get to an excellent NY Times article by David Leonhardt about taxes, I want to say why taxes shouldmust matter to scientists.
Even so often, I get a link or a comment which decries my posts about politics*. But the lay of the political landscape is vital for scientists--and not just for the 'science' issues, such as global warming. Quite simply, taxes are what fund much of U.S. science, especially 'basic' research, which is not only the cornerstone of applied research, but also comprises a lot of the cool stuff we discuss at ScienceBlogs. In a low-tax environment (when combined…
revere | November 4, 2007Australia has a National Health System and, according to some of its doctors, it is crumbling. Aha, say the foes of American Universal Health Care, "I told you so." And I'll have to admit, they did. Fair is fair. So where is Australia's health system heading?
Australia's public health system is crumbling, leading the country toward a US-style privatised health model, doctors say.
Doctors Reform Society national president Con Costa wants federal Health Minister Tony Abbott to say whether he believes it is better to privatise the health system. (Sydney Morning Herald)
John Howard, the George…
revere | November 2, 2007Immigrants traditionally get blamed for a country's ills and historically they have been feared for their ability to bring disease as well. The recent cases of the traveling lawyer (and here, passim)and the Mexican businessman with TB raised concerns that tuberculosis would be brought to the US or other low TB incidence countries by immigrants or travelers from countries where TB was prevalent. Now a new study from Norway suggests this doesn't happen:
Immigrants from countries with high rates of tuberculosis who move to countries of low TB incidence do not pose a public health threat to…
revere | October 13, 2007This is a weird story. It's about a dentist who has claimed he doesn't have to file taxes because he's "Ambassador and Citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven under its King Jesus the Christ" and therefore has diplomatic immunity from federal jurisdiction. That's pretty nutty and this guy is also a militant anti-tax activist. I'm not opposed to paying taxes. On the contrary, I believe there are things that are only possible if we each chip in: public safety (fire, police, health department), access to health care (aka, Universal Health Care), the social service safety net and much more. I detest…
mikethemadbiologist | October 4, 2007...and you listen. maha writes why the U.S. won't do anything to aid the saffron revolution in Burma (italics mine):
...the West flaps about, issuing statements and maybe sending an envoy or two. Please note I don't believe an armed invasion is the only option or even the most desirable option. But I believe the West is too compromised to exercise any option.
One of those compromises: the $420 billion of U.S. debt held by China. Don't the Chinese know that Republican Vice President Dick Cheney declared "Reagan proved deficits don't matter"? Maybe decifits do matter after all....
(and, boy…
mikethemadbiologist | August 14, 2007I try to avoid blogging about 'horse race' politics, in no small part because about nineteen percent of voters don't make up their minds until several days before an election. For a long time, I've been privately telling people that Huckabee is a serious candidate that could pose real problems for Democrats: he's very personable and non-threatening, and he's batshit loony (just the way Republicans like 'em!). So I wasn't surprised by his strong showing in the Ames straw poll in Iowa. What did surprise me was the issue that generated his support.
I thought it would be his wingnut…
mikethemadbiologist | August 5, 2007(from here)
While reading this NY Times article about houses in Newport, RI, I saw the above picture and thought, "That would be a really nice house to live in." Then my head exploded as I read the caption:
Topsy Taylor uses her stone bungalow at a former fishing club on Gooseberry Island, R.I. as a place to entertain and take naps.
Some people have a 'nap chair' or a 'nap sofa' that they like to take naps on. Some people even have a nap room. But Topsy has a fucking nap house.
A house for napping.
Tax her.
mikethemadbiologist | August 5, 2007Much has been said about the bridge collapse, but R.J. Eskow says it best (italics mine):
It's been said before, but let's say it again: If terrorists had bombed this bridge, or destroyed the levees and flooded New Orleans, life in America would change forever. But since it's only our own governmental neglect -- and conservative greed -- nobody seems to give a damn....
Conservatives want "government so small you can drown it in a bathtub." Or the Mississippi River. Or the Ninth Ward.
Ronald Reagan's quips about taxes and bureaucracy don't seem so funny any more, do they?
The next time some…
mikethemadbiologist | July 16, 2007Over the weekend, there was a lot of discussion of those ridiculous conservative faithtank graphs that were rerun in the Wall Street Journal. Several of my fellow ScienceBloglings have debunked the analysis that claims these data support the Laffer curve, although my favorite criticism is by Brad DeLong who points out that to prove something the editorial writers like (the Laffer curve), the Wall Street Journal editors use the the Norwegian data, and to weaken something they don't (increased corporate taxes lead to increased tax revenue), they remove the same data.
Is there any question how…
mikethemadbiologist | June 27, 2007More ridiculous budget cuts in Massachusetts at the local level. This time it's schools, not libraries. According to the Boston Globe, Shoreham, MA has failed to approve a property tax override leading to the following educational budget cuts:
*shutting down the sixth-grade wing of the middle school and sending those students back to elementary school to save money.
*All athletic programs.
*Physical education classes.
*Elementary and middle school fine arts classes.
*Laying off an assistant high school principal.
And what's behind this? Homeowners, particularly retirees:
Override…
mikethemadbiologist | June 13, 2007I'm not the only one bothered by Mudcat Saunders' article about the Metropolitan Opera Wing of the Democratic Party; maha is too. That post is worth a read, but at the end of the post she makes a very good point about preserving culture (italics mine):
Mudcat has slandered opera fans by implying they are elitist snobs. The fiercest opera fans I have ever met have been regular working-class folks -- construction workers, plumbers, clerks. I used to know a lady who worked the counter in a Paramus, New Jersey, department store and who saw every production at the Met. It was her religion. She…
mikethemadbiologist | May 30, 2007Would you pay $728 more a year to keep schools and libraries fully funded? I would, but the voters of Northbridge, MA wouldn't. According to the Boston Globe:
And yesterday, budget cuts and voter indifference in Northbridge finally caught up with the institution officially known as the Whitinsville Social Library. Its doors closed at 2 p.m. And though they will reopen again this week, people in Northbridge, population 13,100, will notice a difference.
The town cannot afford the $200,000 needed to keep the library fully running for another year. Once open 40 hours a week, it will be open…
mikethemadbiologist | May 27, 2007From Monday to Friday, I attended the American Society for Microbiology meeting held in Toronto. Before I get to some of the interesting science, my apologies to all of the people who suggested we meet up. Unfortunately, I never look at the blog (or almost never) while I'm on the road, so I missed your messages (it's best to email me directly). Anyway, here's the list of random things:
The E. coli responsible for the spinach outbreak is found in many feral swine. Hence, feral swine are a possible reservoir of E. coli O157:H7. Of course, feral pigs roaming around California in significant…
mikethemadbiologist | May 10, 2007Remember the old joke that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged? By way of Ed Brayton, I came across this post by Kent Hovind about his time in jail. Both the post and some of the responses are fascinating (in a 'car wreck' sort of way) because they illuminate the authoritarian mind so well. Hovind has reached an epiphany of sorts about the criminal justice system:
At lunch last week, one of the inmates said, "If I could, I would bomb the Christian Coalition. They are the reason we are here." I was shocked by his statement! I love the Christian Coalition, but I understand the…