Hi! I know you don't like Bush, but there was no reason for you to revert my edit. I added AFTER-TAX median household income DATA and you changed it to PRE-TAX one. Don't pretend that you fail to understand the difference. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sasha best (talk • contribs) 13:27, 3 February 2009 (UTC)
: You really want to do this? Fine: You'll note that "Median after-tax real household income isn’t commonly reported. But, it can be estimated by simply running the reported median real household income through each year’s tax tables." Because despite the fact that he's building it up, brushing past Mean Real Houshold income and Real Median Income,both of which many economists consider to be more relevant than After-Tax, so he can brush down to median after-tax because its the ONE number that looks decent, and 2% isn't great its just not negative. In short, After Tax is hardly worthwhile because we use a graded tax scale so not everyone is paying the same amount of taxes, so if you had a 2% increase in post tax income... that's going to help the upper class MUCH MORE than the lower classes, because they had much larger proportional drops in their taxes, and so most credible economists don't use it because its disingenuous, but to explain that properly you'd have to say that the upper classes had a much larger tax decrease than that the lower classes which you don't.
: You'll notice that he doesn't mention much about the wealthy and their tax benefits but does mention the tax breaks to the less well to do. Gee... I wonder why.
: Further, you can't read a census, why did you dig up an economics professor's opinion on the economy? Not because its easier to be certain. And you selectively quoting only the after-tax median income is silly on its face. RTRimmel (talk) 21:35, 3 February 2009 (UTC)
Well, actually Bush lowered taxes not only for upper classes. Here's a quote from the source I gave:"While the Bush tax plan is often demonized as being just for the rich, it also includes substantial benefits for folks in the lowest tax brackets. For example, the low bracket marginal income tax rate was cut from 15% to 10% , the personal exemption allowance has been increased from $2,900 in 2000 to $3,300 in 2006, and the standard deduction has been increased from $10,200 in 2000 to $13,000 in 2006 (for joint filing married couples)." So what you say is just populism. And, finally, I can't understand why this data makes you so nervous.Sasha best (talk) 12:19, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
: Nervous isn't the best word to describe it. More like incredulous. First off, Bush's tax plan's overwhelming advantage was towards the wealthy. "Though tax cuts for the rich were bigger than those for other groups, the wealthiest families paid a bigger share of total taxes. That is because their incomes have climbed far more rapidly, and the gap between rich and poor has widened in the last several years. " [{{cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/washington/08tax.html}}] "Put another way: rich families were the undisputed winners from President Bush’s tax cuts, but people in the bottom half of the earnings scale were not paying much in taxes anyway." Which is fine, but don't get on the high horse of the tax cuts were great for the lower classes. They did not generate the jobs promised. The contributed to the economic crisis. They increased the national debt. And after tax median income isn't really an economics term that is stable. Depending on your math I've seen it be from -3% to +3%, Ken's is 2% I believe. You need to qualify that in the article. RTRimmel (talk) 14:25, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
You should read this article up to the end.[http://townhall.com/columnists/AlanReynolds/2007/01/11/tax_cuts_and_the_rich?page=full&comments=true] Maybe then your opinion about tax cuts will change.Sasha best (talk) 09:12, 5 February 2009 (UTC)
:I prefer to read unbias articles, actually. Tax cuts, at least in Bush's form, seem to have failed pretty badly. I could cite higher unemployment, the wage decay, the concentration of wealth to the upper class or any other assortment of articles that say they aren't all that good. But keep towing the party line while not paying attention to the obvious. Again, in RL we are in a recession and the Bush Tax Cuts didn't prevent that, in fact that amplified its effects significantly. The problem is that if you are right and the tax cuts were good and everyone benefited... what happened? RTRimmel (talk) 12:56, 5 February 2009 (UTC)
So, you didn't even bother to read it. Well,do as you wish. You ask me: what happened? I will answer: crisis of consumption system happened. Crisis of banks that gave money to people who couldn't pay it back for the sake of short-term profits. Crisis of people that took these money without clear understanding of their financial position. Tax cuts don't have anything to do with it. In fact, in many countries situation's now worse without them. Sasha best (talk) 12:36, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
:I bothered to read it. Its another boo-hoo supply side economists who is trying to justify his beliefs when its obvious that his philosophy isn't as spot on as he hoped. I've read dozens of such articles, each omits so many facts that its hard to take them seriously, but Reynolds' head is so far up his ass that its hard to take him seriously. As for your opinions, Crisis of consumption:Giving money to people causes problems? Crisis of banks: Under regulated banks causing problems, which supply side economics doesn't even allow for if you ask Alan Greenspan. Crisis of people: People with too much money spend it on stupid things they can't afford. So giving more people more money causes problems. Tax cuts, under that line of logic, actually cause more problems. And many countries problems are directly related to our economy being in the crapper so that's not a valid comparison either. I'm not saying that high taxes are good, by any stretch, but Bush's tax cuts were badly applied and caused some significant problems... as made obvious by the economy's present state.
By saying "Crisis of people that took these money without clear understanding of their financial position." I meant bank credits to people who couldn't afford to pay it back. Don't blame crisis on tax cuts. They are not the reason of it.Sasha best (talk) 11:58, 7 February 2009 (UTC)
:So banks need to be more heavily regulated, the bane of supply side economics which also prescribes that tax cuts are good most, but yet not all, of the time. I'm arguing that the entire supply side theory is flawed as made obvious by its application to a strong us economy followed by a collapse of a strong us economy. It worked well under regan, but under Bush it died, hence the Bush Tax Cuts failed. RTRimmel (talk) 04:44, 8 February 2009 (UTC)
Your determination to blame tax cuts for crisis seems strange to me. What do they have to do with bank regulation?Sasha best (talk) 12:01, 8 February 2009 (UTC)
:Bush's overall economic policies have everything to do with the crisis. They included tax cuts and extensive deregulation and a hands off mentality that allowed a bad situation to get much much worse. I don't exclusively blame tax cuts, but Bush's economics policy as a whole which included his poorly developed tax cuts. Right now, Republicans are arguing that more tax cuts are needed to save the economy as opposed to spending, arguing with passion that tax cuts are better. The problem is that in every historical case a dollar of infrastructure spending equals about $1.59 worth of economy activity and every dollar of tax cuts only generates about $1.02. Its some sort of crazy Republican tax cuts are the answer to everything disease and it has me worried because the entire supply side argument is failing and they insist on using it. RTRimmel (talk) 13:01, 8 February 2009 (UTC)
Do you know that a lion share of money on infrastructure won't be spent until 2010? It's naive to think that spending money on infrastructure will help the economy.Sasha best (talk) 08:38, 9 February 2009 (UTC)
:Infrastructure development worked every other time it was tried. That's a better record than, say, tax cuts. RTRimmel (talk) 11:26, 9 February 2009 (UTC)
Every time? Don't make me laugh. Examples?Sasha best (talk) 18:34, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
:Hey, I didn't require examples from you when you were spouting out that tax cuts make jobs and are good for the economy. I guess you could go back to the last set of tax cuts passed by Bush which really hel... well, didn't do an... well... probably didn't mostly cause the economy to collapse. And as for examples, New Deal, you can also check out the extensive government spending prior and during WW2, Vietnam and other major conflicts. Plus of course the massive benefits the US gained from the Interstate Highway system, which aside from generating millions of jobs, tied together the US economy like never before allowing us to dominate economically for generations. So ya, like every time a major infrastructure project occurred there has been an economic boon. Notice that Alaska was really trying to get that Bridge to Nowhere? Ever wonder why? 400M = about 13k well paying jobs for 3-4 years, plus you also get a bridge, and the whole economy benefits locally as much of that labor comes from the state. RTRimmel (talk) 05:26, 11 February 2009 (UTC)
New Deal? Yes, it required significant government regulation. But, with all my respect to FDR, I don't believe that New Deal helped our economy significantly. Moreover, spending during FDR years was much less than it is now. I think it's silly to increase it even more.Sasha best (talk) 08:33, 11 February 2009 (UTC)
:Well, that's your opinion and a great number of experts disagree with it. Check out Keynesian Economics, that theory has been revisited recently and appears to be more functional than Supply Side. It recommends low tax rates and infrastructure development for getting out of this. And if you look at history, the New Deal did help out the economy significantly. All of the numbers that sucked during Bush's tenure were pretty good to very good during the new deal, so I think you've been listening to too much conservative talk radio with all due respect. So there are competing theories as to what to do, and all the theories involving tax cuts are really looking at themselves because Bush's economic policy performed so terribly. At that it did is not in dispute at all. RTRimmel (talk) 12:35, 11 February 2009 (UTC)
What numbers were good during New Deal? Do you really think any numbers were good then? And, anyway, Obama program involves much more spending. Sasha best (talk) 11:38, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
:I could quote stats for you but as you've demonstably proven you don't like numbers that disprove you points so I'll just leave it at 73% of economists thought that the New Deal helped,again econmists who mostly thought that Bush's financial policy would cause problems, and the 27% who didn't were mostly supply side economists... you know who said that Bush's Financial Policy would be good for the US economy. I'd mention the Financial Crisis of 2008 or the current labor statistics but again, numbers that disprove you tend to be ignored. And much more spending in absolute dollar terms. As a percentage of GDP no. Good try though. I call that an apples to oranges comparison. 1 dollar of 1930's money being not equal to 1 dollar 2009 money. And we are talking about Bush's policiies, not Obama's. Just because I really dislike Bush and disapprove of how he ran the country does not mean I instantly love Obama. RTRimmel (talk) 15:26, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
You didn't answer my question. "All of the numbers that sucked during Bush's tenure were pretty good to very good during the new deal" No numbers were good during New Deal. If you think otherwise quote numbers that were better in 1930's than they are now. Sasha best (talk) 17:55, 15 February 2009 (UTC)
:You do realize that you haven't answered virtually any of my questions involving hard numbers so I'm not going to bother to answer this one. You can read, go find it out for yourself. RTRimmel (talk) 22:58, 15 February 2009 (UTC)
Do you think I have nothing more to do?Sasha best (talk) 10:56, 16 February 2009 (UTC)
: YOu seem to find plenty of time to post nonconstructive things on my talk page, you could spent that time trying to enlighten yourself instead. RTRimmel (talk) 14:17, 16 February 2009 (UTC)