Economic stimulus check

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I am getting my hay and reducing debt...

Sorry Jill and Sonya, you guys much be so rich you dont get any !! Just kidding!! I know no matter how much you make you would always like to have money come ,what a nice surprise...

I know others who make too much and arent getting it either...
 
Hubby is getting his new computer... it's a must for him to continue to work and do the things that he needs to do with our own business. The other part of it is going to geld my boy, change my 4-year-old son's last name to hubby's last name, and pay off some of our debt.
 
Getting all the papers done on the foals and then using the rest on GAS to make sure I can get back and forth to work. At the rate it's going (Has jumped 2 cents every day this week) I wish I was close enough to drive the horses back and forth to work!!
 
Definately paying for the hay AND the gas to go get it since it's 1 1/2 hrs one way just to get it. :DOH!
 
I don't get to buy anything fun with it! We paid our car insurance and my husband is buying the parts he needs to get his model airplane in the air with the rest of it! But, it was my idea, since he is always humoring me and letting me buy more mini's and he is the one always building the stalls for me! So, I think he deserves to get to spend the money the way he wants to!
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I posted this on another thread, but maybe it will be interesting on this one, too.

The way our progressive tax system works, the more successful you are, the more you have to give away (in taxes) to help the people who are not as successful. I am not too happy about it because I work hard and I take a lot of personal responsibility to have the chance to earn what I do...

How many of "you" could or would work 40+ hours a week and have the potential to earn NOTHING? Because I can work hours on end and not make a cent if what I'm working on doesn't "work". While for me the sky is the limit, the floor is negative zero and I do mean negative. Even if I do not earn for a period of time, if I want the potential to earn later, guess what? I have salaries to pay, rent on a swanky office suite, marketing expenses, utilities, E&O insurance, E-T-C...................... I have gone through some really tight times that meant spending from what I've saved (and my father, too, we are partners) to keep things going over rough spots in the business.

The idea of our progressive tax system is based on the fact that those who benefit the most from living in this Nation contribute the most in taxation. A flat tax system would still have the people who earn more paying more but it seems fair for the percentage to be the same in my opinion.

In our Nation, the top 25% of tax payers pay for 84% of the total Federal Tax burden. If your family's adjust gross income is only around $58,000/year, YOU are in the top 25%. How does it feel to be paying most of the taxes?

Anyway, a client sent this to me and I like it so am going to share it (again)
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Bar Stool Economics

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing. The fifth would pay $1. The sixth would pay $3. The seventh would pay $7. The eighth would pay $12. The ninth would pay $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59. So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until on day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20."Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings). The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings). The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings). The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings). The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings). The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, "but he got $10!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!" "That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!" "Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!" The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

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(edit for spelling)
 
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Sorry Jill and Sonya, you guys much be so rich you dont get any !! Just kidding!! I know no matter how much you make you would always like to have money come ,what a nice surprise...
I know you are just kidding, but the $ is not the point. I have worked very hard to get where I am...paid for my own college (still doing so even after 13 years of getting out). I went to college full time while I worked a full time job and a part time job. My family did/does not have money...my parents could not afford to pay for even community college for me or my sisters. I work a high stress job and work my butt off and I get punished for being successful and for all my hard work... I'm paying for others to have this stimulus check, some of which don't even work from what I understand (I'm not directing this to anyone here, just general). It is very frustrating and unfortunately the way our system works. Again, it's not the money, it is the point.

And the amount of money you make is all relative...the more you make the more you spend, and it's not always on "fun things". I pay many of my aging parents bills as well as help my sister out who is a single parent. I am not complaining, I am very fortunate..but it did not come easy and $600 from the govt saying "ok, you've paid enough...here" would be very refreshing.
 
How many of "you" could or would work 40+ hours a week and have the potential to earn NOTHING? Because I can work hours on end and not make a cent if what I'm working on doesn't "work". While for me the sky is the limit, the floor is negative zero and I do mean negative. Even if I do not earn for a period of time, if I want the potential to earn later, guess what? I have salaries to pay, rent on a swanky office suite, marketing expenses, utilities, E&O insurance,
I do it all the time. Being a real estate agent I pay my broker every month, my mls fees every month, my EO ins every month etc etc. I have pay these fees even if I never sell a house. I work with no pay all the time. But I knew that when I got into this. I have also owned and own many businesses and again thats part of it. Its the risk you take by owning your own business. If you want more stability you go work for someone else.

But honestly I have no idea what that has to do with taxes and rebate checks
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How many of "you" could or would work 40+ hours a week and have the potential to earn NOTHING? Because I can work hours on end and not make a cent if what I'm working on doesn't "work". While for me the sky is the limit, the floor is negative zero and I do mean negative. Even if I do not earn for a period of time, if I want the potential to earn later, guess what? I have salaries to pay, rent on a swanky office suite, marketing expenses, utilities, E&O insurance,
I do it all the time. Being a real estate agent I pay my broker every month, my mls fees every month, my EO ins every month etc etc. I have pay these fees even if I never sell a house. I work with no pay all the time. But I knew that when I got into this. I have also owned and own many businesses and again thats part of it. Its the risk you take by owning your own business. If you want more stability you go work for someone else.

But honestly I have no idea what that has to do with taxes and rebate checks
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If your income were like mine, you would. I personally earned too much to get a rebate even though I paid well more than most into the system.

I've been self employed since 1995 and just the overhead is about $400,000 a year, part of which is to pay salaries of my assistants (who at least I hope get the rebates I will not get). I point out the obstacles I deal with before I make my first dollar of personal income as many think if you have a good income, you are just luckier and probably don't really have to work as hard.

My point, as I stated before, is that I think it's kind of lousy that the tax system's best customers, those with good incomes who pay "a lot" in taxes, receive no rebate. Seems a pretty simple and basic point of view to me!
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My point, as I stated before, is that I think it's kind of lousy that the tax system's best customers, those with good incomes who pay "a lot" in taxes, receive no rebate.
I have to agree with you here. And as Sonya pointed out, higher earnings often come with higher expenses. My grandmother grew up the daughter of a farmhand during the Great Depression, worked minial jobs for years, and finally saved up enough to start her own business which she's been running for 40 years. That business is her life, and she's used it to buy quite a bit of land. Now that land values have sky rocketed, assets wise she's a millionaire, and she gets gouged on every side--they even want to take her Medicare away because (as she puts it) she can afford to pay those bills herself. So now my 75 year old grandmother feels compelled to keep working, so she can make all of her mortgage payments, pay her property taxes, and cover the overhead for the business and horses. She did it all on her own, and yet every year she owes more and more on her taxes, so our country can offer an across the board rebate to anyone that made at least $3000 (aka part-timers)...oh wait, except for people like her, you know, the ones that pay in every year. Believe me, she still thinks $600 is a lot of money (she's made me go back into a store before when a cashier shorted her a penny), and I feel bad that the system treats hardworking people this way.

I'm not saying my rebate wasn't nice, but I do see the one-sidedness of it. The irony too is that the people that are more secure would probably be more likely to spend the money and thus stimulate the economy (which was supposed to be the point of these payments) vs. just paying bills.
 
Bills and maybe a commuter motorcycle for my husband.
 
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