Eat Wealthy Americans: They’re Cheaper than Food (Inflation)
This is my little rant on rich people. If you're rich, why are you reading my little newsletter? You should be reading the Wall Street Journal.
Amiright?
DUH: Many Wealthy Americans Escape Big Income Tax Bills
Some of the world’s wealthiest executives, including Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg and Elon Musk, pay little to no taxes compared to their wealth, a ProPublica report revealed on Tuesday.
“The tax law is not designed for the wage worker,” said Eric Pierre, an Austin, Texas-based certified public accountant and owner at Pierre Accounting.
Most Americans earn income through their labor, such as wages, salaries or other employer-provided benefits.
However, the top 1% often receive income from interest, dividends, capital gains or rent, from their investments, known as capital income.
CNBC
The problem is that we tax income, not consumption. If we really were to practice conservatism, we would discourage conspicuous consumption with a national sales tax.
Don't want to pay taxes? Don't buy extravagant shit because there's a bigass luxury sales tax applied to it. For example, a yacht may carry a 100 percent sales tax.
Food, on the other hand, bought at a grocery store (i.e., no value add like at a restaurant) – 0 percent tax.
Prices jumped 5 percent in May, continuing inflationary climb. Policymakers say it’s temporary.
Prices rose by 5 percent in May compared with a year ago, the largest increase since the Great Recession, continuing a steady climb in inflation even as policymakers insist on staying the course.
Price spikes often coincide with downturns, and officials from the White House and Federal Reserve have predicted that prices will climb over the coming months, especially compared to a year ago, when the economy was reeling from coronavirus pandemic shutdown. However, the move adds new fuel to the Republican criticism that the Biden administration is spending too much, which could lead to an overheated economy.
The most recent inflation figures, released Thursday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, are not rattling the Biden administration nor the Fed. Both predict that prices will continue to rise until supply chains and consumer demand recalibrate and the economy has time to heal.
WaPo
Yet another reason the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Inflation measures goods and services we all buy, like food and gas and electricity.
There's A Stark Red-Blue Divide When It Comes To States' Vaccination Rates
Less than a month remains until the Fourth of July, which was President Biden's goal for 70% of American adults to have gotten at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
It looks like it's going to be a stretch to get there.
As of Tuesday, nearly 64% of U.S. adults have had at least one shot, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The key issue is that demand has dropped off. After an initial crush, the number of doses being administered daily is on a steep decline from the early April peak.
NPR
But…
- Surveys have shown Trump supporters are the least likely to say they have been vaccinated or plan to be. Remember, Trump got vaccinated before leaving the White House, but that was reported months later. Unlike other public officials who were trying to encourage people to get the shot, Trump did it in private.
- The top 22 states (including D.C.) with the highest adult vaccination rates all went to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
- Some of the least vaccinated states are the most pro-Trump. Trump won 17 of the 18 states with the lowest adult vaccination rates. Many of these states have high proportions of whites without college degrees.
Source: NPR (see above)
Fucking DUH. Trump supporters, anti-(COVID)vaxxers, and anti-maskers are all the same people. And they're really REALLY stoopid.
Biden to lay out vax donations, urge world leaders to join
One year ago, the U.S. was the deadliest hotspot of the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing the cancellation of the Group of Seven summit it was due to host. Now, the U.S. is emerging as a model for how to successfully recover from more than 15 months of global crisis.
In a speech Thursday on the eve of the summit of wealthy G-7 democracies, President Joe Biden will outline plans for the U.S. to donate 500 million vaccine doses around the globe over the next year, on top of 80 million doses he has already pledged by the end of the month. U.S. officials say Biden will also ask fellow G-7 leaders to do the same.
The U.S. has faced mounting pressure to outline its global vaccine sharing plan, especially as inequities in supply around the world have become more pronounced and the demand for shots in the U.S. has dropped precipitously in recent weeks.
“We have to end COVID-19, not just at home — which we’re doing — but everywhere,” Biden told American servicemembers Wednesday on the first stop of a three-country, eight-day trip, his first since taking office. He added that the effort “requires coordinated, multilateral action.”
The new U.S. commitment is to buy and donate 500 million Pfizer doses for distribution through the global COVAX alliance to 92 lower-income countries and the African Union, bringing the first steady supply of mRNA vaccine to the countries that need it most. A price tag for the 500 million doses was not released, but the U.S. is now set to be COVAX’s largest vaccine donor in addition to its single largest funder with a $4 billion commitment.
AP
It's working. The EU is also donating vaccines now. Way to go, good government (it does exist)!
Airline travel horror stories mount as Americans pack the not-so-friendly skies
With Americans rushing to travel now that the end to the coronavirus pandemic is coming into view, flights are packed, ticket prices have soared, airports are bustling, and tempers are flaring.
Laura Ramirez is relieved to be home in New York after what she calls a “nightmarish experience” traveling by plane from Miami this past weekend.
“I was supposed to get back on Sunday morning, and American Airlines at the Miami Airport is a mess,” Ramirez, a reporter at Yahoo News, said. “They don't have enough agents to handle the amount of people traveling, and I missed my flight even though I arrived at the airport two hours [early]. The line to see an agent was a three-hour line.”
When Ramirez finally got to speak to an agent, there were no more flights available for that day. So she rebooked for Monday, only to have that flight canceled as she arrived at the airport. She was left to book another flight at a different airport.
“The airline didn't offer anything — no hotel or food vouchers,” Ramirez said. “It was a terrible experience, and I know I wasn't the only one going through that.”
Yahoo
The wealthy don't have to wait in airport security lines or get on cattle commercial air busses. Just another “jab” at the wealthy who forever haven't paid their fair share for what civilization provides them. (Can you tell I'm on a rant about rich mofos?)
By the way, I hate flying. The airlines are the biggest pricks on the planet.
Where Voters Are Losing Patience With Lauren Boebert
Charles Perko gestured past a vine-covered chain link fence toward a hulking steel facility with massive mills and squat brick office buildings. The 140-year-old complex had forged the iron that built the West, and once was Colorado’s largest employer, with some 10,000 workers. Now, much of the complex sits in disrepair. Some of its cylindrical stoves are rusted and empty—a symbol of an industry that Perko, a fourth-generation steel worker and president of a local union, says is in need of government help.
Lauren Boebert, the controversial pro-gun, Covid-skeptical freshman congresswoman who represents Pueblo, has credited working-class voters for her improbable 2020 victory. But it’s not clear her version of “working-class” includes the steel workers here. Perko didn’t vote for her. And, based on her opposition to President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan, which Perko sees as a lifeline for his struggling industry, he doesn’t think Boebert cares all that much about his union members. He has tried to schedule a meeting with her to discuss these issues, he says. But the door to her local office is often locked, and her staff doesn’t return his calls.
Politico
She is nothing more than a lucky bimbo. There. I said it. Fight me.
The article was originally published here!
Comments
Post a Comment