John Coleman is retired from the Weather Channel, and it's already been taken over by people who disagree with his vision: Far from being intimidated by the political backlash, Dr. Cullen and executives at the channel say they have embraced the issue of global warming. Dr. Cullen is host of the weekly show “Forecast Eart
Personally I am banking on the nanotech industry to keep the average person alive at least a few centuries. I can't wait to get my eyes replaced with optical battle implants! You can have your battle implants, I'm going with the X-ray corneas. Just imagine how far plastic surgery technology is going t
Even if the person only puts in $1,000 a year, a trivial amount (less than the average annual raise people get), Hm. I was going to argue with this saying that it only applies to people who make more than $33,333 or get more than a 3% raise each year... which applies to few people that I know. But t
If Draginol didn't count as an entrepreneur they'd have to take the word out of the dictionary. It turns out that we don't differ on the definition of entrepreneur (both using the economics one) but the composition of the American economy -- whether "most people work for entrepreneurs." I was remembering how my old economics textbook stressed that large employers made up a small fraction of employers, but a large fraction of output. But I misrememb
It's all probably because the signs of climate change are so readily apparent in Australia where they might not be in the US or elsewhere. It's actually been giving us milder winters and cooler summers, according to a chart I saw somewhere.
This thread made me realize that while there is a book called "I'm OK, You're OK," there is none titled, "I'm Right, You're Very, Very Wrong." Off to get my advance before Rush Limbaugh beats me to it! ("See, I Told You So" being the cockiest book title I can think of right now.)
Can someone link to this chat transcript for those who missed it?
This March I started putting 43% of my pay in the 401(k), so my withholding is down to 1/6 of my check for real now... Very smart thing to do. You will be pleased with the resul
Did you know you are the ONLY DAMN PERSON ON THE INTERNET (and those are not ironic capitals, I'm really impressed here) to ever use the phrase "LIBERAL LUNGSUCKERS"? You made a Googlewhack!
Link Coyote Blog is where I get my skepticism about global warming. I think it's interesting that we both have doubts about it. Is it because we're so reasonable and it's really doubtful, or is it because we're part conservative (that's why we hang out at JoeUser) and this is a symptom of that?
OK. Entrepreneur. Someone who makes "new stuff" in the economy. Starts a new Pizza Hut, brings the microwave oven to market, etc. Takes personal risk. Contrast with "labor" -- someone the entrepreneur hires to execute his vision. You're saying most of the wealth in the economy is created by entrepreneurs. In one sense that's very true. Suppose you ascribe all economic growth to entrepreneurs. Then our economy, which is like who knows,
The table I was looking at separated income into wages, capital income, and "entrepreneurial income" -- income from self-employment, small businesses/farming, and partnerships. It's figure 6 at this Link -- I think, I can't check it here at work. We're going to have to hash out our definition of "entrepreneur." I'll be back later...
CAN I JUST POINT OUT that the results of this study PROVE that LIBERALISM is the best philosophy for CAPITALISTS if they'd only realize it?
I was just going by memory. My rule of thumb was that 1/6 of my check went to withholding. I just checked my spreadsheet for how much state, federal, and FICA I actually paid and it's ranged between 17 and 22 percent even with all the deductions I take, so it seems like the withholding should have averaged more like 20%. This March I started putting 43% of my pay in the 401(k), so my withholding is down to 1/6 of my check for real now...</fo
It is clear you do not have the most basic understanding of what drives our economy. Demand is the main driver and when we increase spending that increases demand. What do you think of the saying, "Supply creates its own demand?" As in, I might "demand" a diamond-encrusted keyboard and daily pizza, bu
The majority of the wealth created in the United States is produced by entrepreneurs. That may be true for wealth created but the majority of the income earned is wages, even in the top 0.01%. I'm going off a single table in Piketty and Saez that may not mean exactly what I think it means. But it make
I have a page bookmarked that makes the argument that education doesn't improve economic growth at all. I'm pretty sympathetic. Primary-school education and literacy, of course, are essential. (While looking for that bookmark, I also ran across the Onion article Education Is The Key To Cleaning Up This Apartment
Again, that Washington Post link is to an excerpt of "The Millionaire Next Door." That is not a scientific or representative study of America's wealthy. Here's how they gathered their data: On page 250, the methodology is (sort of) explained by the authors: they sent out 3000 questionnaires to households in neighborhoo
I still don't believe the "losing out on overtime" thing. It's been five years, but I heard this complaint from my coworkers a lot and I saved paychecks with just one hour of overtime and checks with 30-40 hours of overtime. I was keeping like 83% of the no-overtime checks and 75% of the overtime checks, IIRC which I probably don't. Even if the government thinks you make $3,000 every week because you made $3000 this week... you still made $3,000 and
According to the New York Times (that right wing rag..) the richest Americans are: * Mostly self employed * Mostly run businesses Your link isn't to a New York Times news story, it's to some kind of book review of "The Millionaire Next Door." The main conclusions of that book
Gideon, that just doesn't make any sense. For you to end up behind after all taxes are applied, the marginal rates would have to add to a total of over 100%. Even if you are in the 36% tax bracket paying New York's sales tax and city income tax and somehow paying Medicare and SS tax too, you are not going to get up over 80%. Now if you're getting some kind of benefit that phases out with income (the EITC?), those are the kind of situations where you
Let's say Brad was born in Mexico. Is he still a rich successful entrepreneur there? Or is he poor like most people in Mexico? If I can totally distract from your main point, the world's richest man is from Mexico now.
Actually, if you could get government to hold the line on spending, tax increases are good for investment. A $100 tax increase that goes to paying down debt adds $100 to the national savings rate. When you let Brad keep the $100 instead, some of it he'll invest and some of it he'll spend on hamburgers -- any part he spends on hamburgers increases consumption and reduces savings. Less savings, less investment. (Deficits are negative savings, so redu
Good link, danielost. How'd you find that? I didn't see it with the search terms I used. Still, "professionals working in Waco" is a different economic class than Bush. I'd be surprised if Gore or Teresa Kerry had any of those kind of people in their chosen neighborhoods.
Cikomyr, I went to the trouble of looking up each industry's contribution to GDP at this Link on page 8, Table 1. But when I tried to imagine whether it would add anything to the discussion I realized this argument could never possibly go anywhere. But the table was hard to find so I'm giving you the link anyway.
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