EDIT
I want to clarify something right off the bat: the article's words are not mine. I do not agree with every nuance, jot and tiddle (is that a word??) and my posting a link to it should not be construed as such. HOWEVER I think the author makes some valid, important points, if nuanced rather than said outright, that need to be taken into account in the rapidly changing, fluid world around us. Please see the comments for some good discussion on that and please add to the discussion by commenting yourself. Thanks.
I read a really insightful article that's been making its way around the J-Blogosphere, plus the Jewish news sites as well (well, not YWN, naturally, as you'll see if you read the article). I urge everyone to read it. Link to it here.
I'll leave it up to the comments section to spur discussion and thought about the points raised.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Happiness and...Taxes
I haven't posted in a while. Let's get back to business, shall we? People will call me cranky, but somebody's got to recognize these issues and shove them into the limelight, no?
There's an interesting article on the Tax Foundation's website. I like it because it has this to say about taxes and lifestyle. Much of this culled from a Wall Street Journal editorial:
"The study finds that New Yorkers are the unhappiest people in America and their neighbors in Connecticut come in a close second, followed by Michigan, Indiana, New Jersey, California, and Illinois."
Then this:
"...According to the Tax Foundation 2008 analysis, three of the top five unhappiest states—New York, Connecticut and New Jersey—have the highest state-local tax burdens. On the other hand, four of the top five happiest states—Louisiana, Florida, Tennessee and Arizona—are among the states with the lowest state-local tax burdens. True, correlation doesn't prove causation, and high taxes alone don't always make people miserable, but there's something going on here."
So in New York State, we work really hard to make a living. We then see an enormous percentage of that money out the door by spending a disproportionately higher portion of our dollars on state, local, and property taxes, and receive a much, much lower return per tax dollar collected than other states, because of huge budget allocations that behave like Robin Hood. So say you spend like $15-$20K a year on NYS, you get in return... garbage collection, plus sleepless nights wondering about family finances thrown in for free! Maybe a bit of street repair thrown in, too. Maybe. And a bit of schooling. If you're not an Orthodox Jew. Mr. and Mrs Illegal Immigrant spend nearly $0 per year on NYS and receive, say, $20-$25K worth of assistance per year (if you game the system right), if not more. Yay. That makes me... happy??
Rinse, repeat for NJ. At least NJ residents had the good sense to recognize the problems and throw out garbage leadership, while New Yorkers continue year after year after year after year to vote in complete and utter self-aggrandizing grandstanding self-centered avaricious petty idiot nincompoop babies (I can say more but this is a FAMILY FRIENDLY blog!) who treat public office as a profitable enterprise and spy on each other (with state money) and hire nice fancy limousines and drivers (with state money) and grind state activity to a halt and hire prostitutes and get in bed with money launderers and have fun in session engaging in really productive name-calling (all while getting paid with... state money) and spend huge amounts of time and effort in lofty thought on legislation that truly means almost nothing practical or material to nearly everybody (did someone say same-sex marriage?) instead of working together, rolling up their sleeves, and hammering out reforms that materially affect massive amounts of people that most agree on like, uh, for example, TAX RELIEF and SPENDING REFORM.
Something's going on, indeed.
There's an interesting article on the Tax Foundation's website. I like it because it has this to say about taxes and lifestyle. Much of this culled from a Wall Street Journal editorial:
"The study finds that New Yorkers are the unhappiest people in America and their neighbors in Connecticut come in a close second, followed by Michigan, Indiana, New Jersey, California, and Illinois."
Then this:
"...According to the Tax Foundation 2008 analysis, three of the top five unhappiest states—New York, Connecticut and New Jersey—have the highest state-local tax burdens. On the other hand, four of the top five happiest states—Louisiana, Florida, Tennessee and Arizona—are among the states with the lowest state-local tax burdens. True, correlation doesn't prove causation, and high taxes alone don't always make people miserable, but there's something going on here."
So in New York State, we work really hard to make a living. We then see an enormous percentage of that money out the door by spending a disproportionately higher portion of our dollars on state, local, and property taxes, and receive a much, much lower return per tax dollar collected than other states, because of huge budget allocations that behave like Robin Hood. So say you spend like $15-$20K a year on NYS, you get in return... garbage collection, plus sleepless nights wondering about family finances thrown in for free! Maybe a bit of street repair thrown in, too. Maybe. And a bit of schooling. If you're not an Orthodox Jew. Mr. and Mrs Illegal Immigrant spend nearly $0 per year on NYS and receive, say, $20-$25K worth of assistance per year (if you game the system right), if not more. Yay. That makes me... happy??
Rinse, repeat for NJ. At least NJ residents had the good sense to recognize the problems and throw out garbage leadership, while New Yorkers continue year after year after year after year to vote in complete and utter self-aggrandizing grandstanding self-centered avaricious petty idiot nincompoop babies (I can say more but this is a FAMILY FRIENDLY blog!) who treat public office as a profitable enterprise and spy on each other (with state money) and hire nice fancy limousines and drivers (with state money) and grind state activity to a halt and hire prostitutes and get in bed with money launderers and have fun in session engaging in really productive name-calling (all while getting paid with... state money) and spend huge amounts of time and effort in lofty thought on legislation that truly means almost nothing practical or material to nearly everybody (did someone say same-sex marriage?) instead of working together, rolling up their sleeves, and hammering out reforms that materially affect massive amounts of people that most agree on like, uh, for example, TAX RELIEF and SPENDING REFORM.
Something's going on, indeed.
Hodu l'Hashem Ki Tov!
HODU L'HASHEM KI TOV!
We said this at the bris of our son at 8 days old, Daniel Tzvi, born 10 days ago. We actually said it twice, if I'm not mistaken.
And we MEANT it!!
Thanks to everybody for everything!
We said this at the bris of our son at 8 days old, Daniel Tzvi, born 10 days ago. We actually said it twice, if I'm not mistaken.
And we MEANT it!!
Thanks to everybody for everything!
Monday, December 21, 2009
Change
I'm going to be removing the auto-email feature from the blog today - that means that my posts will no longer be automatically sent to the email addresses I specify.
I'll still be posting to the blog, so if you want to follow it, either periodically visit the website (musingsofabaldguy@blogspot.com) or add that web address to an RSS reader like Google Reader or something like that. For the uninitiated, an RSS reader is just a web tool that aggregates items, pages, articles (all referred to as 'feeds'), etc that you want to follow on the web. You can do a search on 'RSS reader' and learn all about it there.
Thanks for reading and continuing to read!
I'll still be posting to the blog, so if you want to follow it, either periodically visit the website (musingsofabaldguy@blogspot.com) or add that web address to an RSS reader like Google Reader or something like that. For the uninitiated, an RSS reader is just a web tool that aggregates items, pages, articles (all referred to as 'feeds'), etc that you want to follow on the web. You can do a search on 'RSS reader' and learn all about it there.
Thanks for reading and continuing to read!
Monday, December 14, 2009
My wonderful wife...
I've got a lot to be thankful for (despite my crabbing!). But nothing more than having a wonderful wife!
I mean, look at what she does for me:
She cooks
She cleans
She carries our baby
She works
She makes calls
She allows me time for my chavrusa
She lets me sit at the shabbos table with slippers!
She tolerates my tech geekiness
She listens politely as I rant and rave about taxes
There are many, many others. But there's one thing that she does do that trumps them all: she allows me ample time on the can so I can write these blogs!!
THANKS DEAR!!
I mean, look at what she does for me:
She cooks
She cleans
She carries our baby
She works
She makes calls
She allows me time for my chavrusa
She lets me sit at the shabbos table with slippers!
She tolerates my tech geekiness
She listens politely as I rant and rave about taxes
There are many, many others. But there's one thing that she does do that trumps them all: she allows me ample time on the can so I can write these blogs!!
THANKS DEAR!!
Taxes and Texas
First things first - everyone must read my response to Anonymous's comment on this post before reading this current post and before posting comments such as "why don't you just move?" Read what I wrote in my counter-comment. Now for the post itself.
Many here know of my excoriations, despite my new place of residency, of the financial and tax burdens of residing in the NYC metro/tri-state area. I stumbled upon this website that I think just solidifies my thinking in my mind.
First. I encourage everyone to click on the 'About Us' link and read what this place is all about. Obviously, this place is Republican (or conservative) funded that advocates a decidedly conservative agenda, and some of us may hate Republicans. But that doesn't mean that the Tax Foundation's mission or list of things they stand for don't make sense. I don't agree fully with everything they stand for (their 'Neutrality' section for one), but I definitely find my thinking generally aligned with theirs.
The Tax Foundation has an interesting concept called tax freedom day, which is an interesting concept that I encourage everyone to read about here. I'll wait a moment until everyone's done.
Finished? Ok, good. Now click on this link to see the Tax Freedom Day for 2009 depending on which state you live in. Note that the higher the rank #, the better, a higher number ranking (47 vs 3, for example) means you have to work less days in order to pay off your federal, state, and local tax bill. Look at New York, New Jersey, and Texas. Notice the difference?
Now look at this link, which shows a Tax Freedom Day trend over time (you have to download an Excel file). Can't be bothered? Well see below for a 10-year trend comparing US average, NY, NJ, and, of course, TX. If you do the math, the differences between the states average out to something like over TWO WEEKS worth of wages. Heck, Texas even beats the US average each year! This may not show properly so I encourage all to download and look at the Excel table to see for yourself. But take my word for it:
Now, check out this link, which ranks states by tax climate for business (basically a measure of how favorable the tax climate is for growing businesses). Again, look at NY, NJ, and, naturally, TX.
Check out this, this, and this for a one stop shop for all that ails NY and NJ.
Do you see anything interesting? I do, if these figures are accurate and correct. Am I going somewhere with this? You betcha. NY and NJ residents have consistently shouldered a possibly (we DO make a bit more $$$ in NY/NJ, after all) disproportionately higher tax burden than do Texans. And what have we got for forking over our hard-earned money to Unca Empire and Garden state? A business drain to states like... Texas. So we in NY and NJ hand over lots of cash to local and state gub'ment and get in return... a loss of one of the greatest drivers of economic growth. Consistently.
Yay!
Many here know of my excoriations, despite my new place of residency, of the financial and tax burdens of residing in the NYC metro/tri-state area. I stumbled upon this website that I think just solidifies my thinking in my mind.
First. I encourage everyone to click on the 'About Us' link and read what this place is all about. Obviously, this place is Republican (or conservative) funded that advocates a decidedly conservative agenda, and some of us may hate Republicans. But that doesn't mean that the Tax Foundation's mission or list of things they stand for don't make sense. I don't agree fully with everything they stand for (their 'Neutrality' section for one), but I definitely find my thinking generally aligned with theirs.
The Tax Foundation has an interesting concept called tax freedom day, which is an interesting concept that I encourage everyone to read about here. I'll wait a moment until everyone's done.
Finished? Ok, good. Now click on this link to see the Tax Freedom Day for 2009 depending on which state you live in. Note that the higher the rank #, the better, a higher number ranking (47 vs 3, for example) means you have to work less days in order to pay off your federal, state, and local tax bill. Look at New York, New Jersey, and Texas. Notice the difference?
Now look at this link, which shows a Tax Freedom Day trend over time (you have to download an Excel file). Can't be bothered? Well see below for a 10-year trend comparing US average, NY, NJ, and, of course, TX. If you do the math, the differences between the states average out to something like over TWO WEEKS worth of wages. Heck, Texas even beats the US average each year! This may not show properly so I encourage all to download and look at the Excel table to see for yourself. But take my word for it:
| State | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
| United States | April 30 | May 1 | May 3 | April 30 | April 19 | April 16 | April 17 | April 24 | April 26 | April 27 | April 21 | April 13 |
| New Jersey | May 14 | May 16 | May 17 | May 15 | May 4 | April 30 | April 30 | May 8 | May 10 | May 11 | May 8 | April 29 |
| New York | May 8 | May 9 | May 11 | May 11 | May 1 | April 27 | April 28 | May 4 | May 7 | May 8 | May 4 | April 25 |
| Texas | April 25 | April 24 | April 26 | April 23 | April 14 | April 10 | April 8 | April 14 | April 18 | April 20 | April 15 | April 6 |
Now, check out this link, which ranks states by tax climate for business (basically a measure of how favorable the tax climate is for growing businesses). Again, look at NY, NJ, and, naturally, TX.
Check out this, this, and this for a one stop shop for all that ails NY and NJ.
Do you see anything interesting? I do, if these figures are accurate and correct. Am I going somewhere with this? You betcha. NY and NJ residents have consistently shouldered a possibly (we DO make a bit more $$$ in NY/NJ, after all) disproportionately higher tax burden than do Texans. And what have we got for forking over our hard-earned money to Unca Empire and Garden state? A business drain to states like... Texas. So we in NY and NJ hand over lots of cash to local and state gub'ment and get in return... a loss of one of the greatest drivers of economic growth. Consistently.
Yay!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
What's wrong with this picture?
I heard a story the other day that is probably of some interest to those of us who work for a living and pay our fair share of taxes.
A woman, we'll call her Shaindy, has one kid, is relatively young (20's I think) and has a husband in kollel. She works at an office job somewhere in the NY metro area. She was complaining to someone I know about how she's tired of working, getting up early, rushing to commute, dealing with the day to day work headaches that all of us working folk deal with. She's just plain tired. She mentioned that she was seriously considering stopping to work and going on Section 8/HUD assistance, Medicaid, and food stamp welfare programs and staying home with the children.
Is something wrong with this picture?
Uh... yes. What she should do is either suck it up like we all do (This is the choice she made when she got married) or encourage and convince her hubby to get a job (or a yob ;-)).
Welfare programs already eat up a massive portion of NYS's and NJ's budgets, and are partly to blame for our (NY/NJ metro area for one) ludicrously high state and local taxes. Welfare programs are there IN DIRE CASE someone NEEDS them, they are not there as an "opt-in" lifestyle. No one has the right to choose to go on welfare to live one's religious ideal, and CERTAINLY nobody has the right to go on welfare just to shirk responsibility. This is one of the many problems with our welfare programs today. Welfare programs are noble and necessary because a nation as rich as ours has the responsibility to ensure that people don't die or live sickly lives from starvation and poverty, and FDR was correct in institutionalizing them rather than keep the Hooverian belief that personal and private charities will "come through". These programs have become bloated though and viewed almost as entitlements! They create perverse incentives to not work and not take risks and not pursue jobs and responsibilities. They easily create an indolent attitude that eschews trying to better one's lot and rise from poverty either for fear of losing benefits or from laziness and a belief that that good ol' Unca Sam should take care of me.
This kind of thinking might just not be limited to one individual, unfortunately. There are many things about government waste from the municipal level on up that make me want to scream. But this really makes me mad - my tax $$$ are continuing to support this! It should make all of us honest, hardworking taxpayers really mad, too! While NY and NJ taxpayers groan under onerous tax burdens, while state budgets are in deficit and state governors declare bankruptcy, these programs get more bloated!
Wow, it's funny how you become politically self aware after buying a house and having a kid! ;-)
Speaking of taxes, stay tuned for an eye opening post regarding that issue, BTW. I found a wonderful website that I just HAVE to share with everyone.
A woman, we'll call her Shaindy, has one kid, is relatively young (20's I think) and has a husband in kollel. She works at an office job somewhere in the NY metro area. She was complaining to someone I know about how she's tired of working, getting up early, rushing to commute, dealing with the day to day work headaches that all of us working folk deal with. She's just plain tired. She mentioned that she was seriously considering stopping to work and going on Section 8/HUD assistance, Medicaid, and food stamp welfare programs and staying home with the children.
Is something wrong with this picture?
Uh... yes. What she should do is either suck it up like we all do (This is the choice she made when she got married) or encourage and convince her hubby to get a job (or a yob ;-)).
Welfare programs already eat up a massive portion of NYS's and NJ's budgets, and are partly to blame for our (NY/NJ metro area for one) ludicrously high state and local taxes. Welfare programs are there IN DIRE CASE someone NEEDS them, they are not there as an "opt-in" lifestyle. No one has the right to choose to go on welfare to live one's religious ideal, and CERTAINLY nobody has the right to go on welfare just to shirk responsibility. This is one of the many problems with our welfare programs today. Welfare programs are noble and necessary because a nation as rich as ours has the responsibility to ensure that people don't die or live sickly lives from starvation and poverty, and FDR was correct in institutionalizing them rather than keep the Hooverian belief that personal and private charities will "come through". These programs have become bloated though and viewed almost as entitlements! They create perverse incentives to not work and not take risks and not pursue jobs and responsibilities. They easily create an indolent attitude that eschews trying to better one's lot and rise from poverty either for fear of losing benefits or from laziness and a belief that that good ol' Unca Sam should take care of me.
This kind of thinking might just not be limited to one individual, unfortunately. There are many things about government waste from the municipal level on up that make me want to scream. But this really makes me mad - my tax $$$ are continuing to support this! It should make all of us honest, hardworking taxpayers really mad, too! While NY and NJ taxpayers groan under onerous tax burdens, while state budgets are in deficit and state governors declare bankruptcy, these programs get more bloated!
Wow, it's funny how you become politically self aware after buying a house and having a kid! ;-)
Speaking of taxes, stay tuned for an eye opening post regarding that issue, BTW. I found a wonderful website that I just HAVE to share with everyone.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Decisions, decisions...
As many people know, I (and my wife) have Verizon Wireless cell service. I've been really disappointed over the last few years or so at Verizon's so-so rate plans and especially disappointed with their pathetic line-up of handsets, the bulk of which you can probably label as 'feature-phones', or phones that look cool but don't really do much.
I've been getting ready to ditch Verizon for Sprint or (gasp) AT&T and the iPhone. But Verizon just launched a game changer a couple of days ago that's making me rethink that decision (sorry, Ben).
By now, everyone must have heard of Verizon's new handset that was just released, the Droid. This device is, IMHO, a very, very serious competitor to Apple's iPhone 3GS. It has a better higher res screen, removable battery, 16-32GB micro-SD card memory, multitasking, free turn-by-turn GPS, physical keyboard, etc. iDon't think it's an iPhone killer, though.
There are three things that I'm on the fence about with the Droid, now that I've used an iPod touch for a while:
iDon't - like Android 2.0's media app, it really looks horrible and pales in comparison to iPhone OS 3.1's app. You can't even mention the 2 in the same sentence. Will Google update this in a later update (Android 3.0, perhaps)? Who knows. But it's important to me, plus there is as of yet no viable syncing software for Android that can compete with iTunes.
iDon't - like the lack of multitouch. Come ON, Verizon, Moto, and Google!! Google, you build multitouch capability into Android. Verizon & Moto, you release the Milestone in Europe (essentially an overseas Droid) with this capability. Palm's Pre has it, Verizon's own Droid ERIS has it; come ON! How did they miss this? My guess is that the Droid CAN do multitouch, but was released without it for some inexplicable reason. I can only hope that it can get 'turned on' through some over the air or software/firmware update. I was playing with the Droid on Friday and found myself instinctively trying to pinch to zoom and not being able to REALLY was annoying. The Droid does have zooming soft buttons onscreen but their functionality is really limited when comparing to the iPhone.
Last, iDont - like the severely limited podcast search and playback options. Note - I just found out about Google Listen, so this iDon't may turn out to be an iDo.
So, I'm sitting on the fence to see what happens in the next 6-12 months with Apple, Motorola, and Verizon. I'll see how the device and OS landscape shakes out before iDecide what to do.
What does everyone else think of these two devices and their respective networks?
I've been getting ready to ditch Verizon for Sprint or (gasp) AT&T and the iPhone. But Verizon just launched a game changer a couple of days ago that's making me rethink that decision (sorry, Ben).
By now, everyone must have heard of Verizon's new handset that was just released, the Droid. This device is, IMHO, a very, very serious competitor to Apple's iPhone 3GS. It has a better higher res screen, removable battery, 16-32GB micro-SD card memory, multitasking, free turn-by-turn GPS, physical keyboard, etc. iDon't think it's an iPhone killer, though.
There are three things that I'm on the fence about with the Droid, now that I've used an iPod touch for a while:
iDon't - like Android 2.0's media app, it really looks horrible and pales in comparison to iPhone OS 3.1's app. You can't even mention the 2 in the same sentence. Will Google update this in a later update (Android 3.0, perhaps)? Who knows. But it's important to me, plus there is as of yet no viable syncing software for Android that can compete with iTunes.
iDon't - like the lack of multitouch. Come ON, Verizon, Moto, and Google!! Google, you build multitouch capability into Android. Verizon & Moto, you release the Milestone in Europe (essentially an overseas Droid) with this capability. Palm's Pre has it, Verizon's own Droid ERIS has it; come ON! How did they miss this? My guess is that the Droid CAN do multitouch, but was released without it for some inexplicable reason. I can only hope that it can get 'turned on' through some over the air or software/firmware update. I was playing with the Droid on Friday and found myself instinctively trying to pinch to zoom and not being able to REALLY was annoying. The Droid does have zooming soft buttons onscreen but their functionality is really limited when comparing to the iPhone.
Last, iDont - like the severely limited podcast search and playback options. Note - I just found out about Google Listen, so this iDon't may turn out to be an iDo.
So, I'm sitting on the fence to see what happens in the next 6-12 months with Apple, Motorola, and Verizon. I'll see how the device and OS landscape shakes out before iDecide what to do.
What does everyone else think of these two devices and their respective networks?
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Like a kid in...
Oh boy. I'm like a kid in a candy store! Look at all these juicy, tasty morsels for me to chew on! Oh my, where will I find the time??
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/the-importance-of-yiddish
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/couples-having-shabbos-guests
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/modern-orthodox-judaism
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/colored-shirts
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/eruv-in-brooklyn
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/college-secular-studies-038-judaism
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/is-the-fbi-anti-semitic
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/jeans
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/the-importance-of-yiddish
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/couples-having-shabbos-guests
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/modern-orthodox-judaism
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/colored-shirts
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/eruv-in-brooklyn
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/college-secular-studies-038-judaism
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/is-the-fbi-anti-semitic
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/jeans
Wonderful speech
Just saw this - thought I'd pass it along. It's the text in full of the Beth T'filoh Rabbi's Rosh Hashana speech in Baltimore, MD.
GREAT speech. And very true. Worth reading through in its entirety.
Hat tip: Cross-Currents.
GREAT speech. And very true. Worth reading through in its entirety.
Hat tip: Cross-Currents.
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