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Chicago professor: It's tough to get by on $250K!

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Dick Whitman, Sep 24, 2010.

  1. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    YF -- this brings up a great point: Why do so many on the tax-cut side of the debate just flat-out ignore the indisputable fact that taxes are lower now than they have been previously, and will continue to be lower even if the tax cuts expire?
     
  2. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    To me - and this is just my intuition - there is one major reason for the drop in quality of public education: White flight.

    Nothing else comes close.
     
  3. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    I'm not saying that taxes are too high. I am simply saying there would be consequences, quite possibly negative, for letting that top marginal rate increase at the end of the year.
     
  4. Pastor

    Pastor Active Member

    That is merely your theory. There is nothing that backs it up as any form of actual evidence.

    Your argument before was that the money disappeared. That isn’t the case. It goes somewhere. You may not like where it goes, but it is certainly part of the economy.

    One could even argue that a higher tax on the rich to pay off the debt of the war is adequate given that it wasn’t their labor that provided national assistance. The poor sent the labor. How did the rich contribute?

    Since the war bill is soaked with interest, having that money go to pay down debt isn’t an unreasonable request of the federal government.

    I’ll disagree. The ditch digger that is proficient at his job, makes nice ditches and completes his task in a timely manner is more of a boon to society than a lawyer that can’t bother to assist clients or a doctor that kills her patients.

    The purpose of education is to obtain a better salaried job. That job comes with responsibilities. Like all jobs, if you aren’t very good at your job, you will lose it. As such, an inefficient lawyer and a clumsy doctor will likely be out of work and thus not able to obtain the better lifestyle. Very easily, they wasted the money they spent on all those years studying as they were unable to turn it into anything. Simply spending the time and money at studying doesn’t give you carte blanche to a better lifestyle.
     
  5. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member



    Isn't it highly unlikely that a guy who is a tenured professor at the University of Chicago Law School is a "shitty lawyer"?

    I understand what you're getting at. But in this individual's case, I think you're probably barking up the wrong tree.
     
  6. Pastor

    Pastor Active Member

    Mr. Whickman, I'm not arguing whether or not the individual in this story is good at his job. I'm merely arguing YankeeFans contention that someone that goes to school for a long time somehow deserves to be given a more than comfortable life.

    I doubt that YankeeFan would think that someone going to school to get their Masters in education deserves to make a comfortable living as a public school teacher. That is based entirely on his derision of unions.
     
  7. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Cran, I deal with folks trying to open coffee shops, gelato shops, & small restaurants on a regular basis.

    The permitting process alone is daunting and usually necessitates hiring an expert to negotiate it.

    It also takes too long, especially for a small business owner who needs to open as soon as possible to get some cash flow.

    Then there's the silly stuff. Every espresso machine I install has a built in one-way valve that allows water to flow in and not out.

    Yet plumbing regulations force the owner to install a heavy duty RPZ valve like this one:

    [​IMG]

    It's expensive. You have to pay a licensed plumber to install it. And it's completely unnecessary.

    Talk to anyone who's opened a restaurant, or similar small business, and they'll share dozens of examples like this with you.

    Now, try to hire someone. That's a whole other can of worms.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  8. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Printdust mentioned this on the first page and it's true.

    Rich libs stand for public schools but don't send their kids there and so are not invested in their success.

    My oldest brother is a huge lib, lives in Berkely, and sends his kids to public schools. Nothing pisses him off more than rich, white folks who won't send their kids to public schools & work to improve them.
     
  9. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    Exactly, and we exacerbate the problem with voucher programs that redirect tax dollars into private schools. Blaming public school teachers who work under horrible conditions and with less resources than ever is getting tiresome.
     
  10. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    In regards to the first two sentences. The pie isn't getting bigger, it's just a different pie, due to technology and the global economy. People are still wearing sneakers, only they're made in China for $3 a day instead of at least $7.50 an hour. And the rich people are pocketing the difference.

    And the rich are not baking the pie. They've sent the baking jobs overseas and pocketing the difference.

    In regards to the final sentence: You are correct, in part. Two-parent households double the income, education is needed, etc.

    Problem is, though, is that there are now plenty of people who are doing everything right, and they're not getting ahead. Their jobs have gone overseas, and now all there is is working at the Olive Garden. That doesn't pay the bills.

    It's easy to blame the housing crisis on people buying what they couldn't afford. but throughout history, real estate prices were appreciating, and when people saw the prices skyrocketing, due to the banks giving out mortgages left and right, they figured they better buy in now before they really would never be able to afford it. It's like someone who can afford a $100K house seeing the prices going up to $150K. They know they can't really afford it, but they fear the price will go to $200K, and then they'll be renting apartments for the rest of their lives. Sure, there was stupidity on the part of people buying houses they couldn't afford. But who ramped up the prices and handed out those mortgages? The banks.
     
  11. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Yeah, yeah. I agree. I just meant public school performance, without any thought to the reasons. So really the real culprit may be, for example, divorce rates or the crumbling infrastructure of inner-cities. And bad public school performance is the effect.
     
  12. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    People use districts up and then spit 'em out. They panic sell at low prices. They put their kids into school either in the shiniest new suburb or into private schools. And then poor performance, attendance, etc., etc. just ends up breeding more poor performance, attendance, etc., etc., by the kids left behind.
     
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