Investing 101

Stock

I picked this picture because socks are always better when they are higher and so is money in your pocket, which you make while the stocks are better

Bond

I picked this picture as kind of a joke, James Bond is a great idea and is awesome  as is a bond and the government actually paying their debts, but its just a movie and the government actually paying their debts is simply an idea.

Primary and Secondary Market

Primary is the purchasing of the new stuff, like orange purple and green, and secondary is the purchasing of old and original stuff like yellow red and blue. 

Bulls and Bears

A bull believes the stock/market will rise, a like the bull on top of the bear, and bear believes that it will lower, like it is lower than the bull in the picture.

Selling Short

A used car salesman is like a person who sells their stocks that they don't own and fail to make the money back to get them to the person they owe them too. 

Franchise

Subway is a franchise, they are a major corporation who have businesses everywhere that are each ran a little differently as if they are their own business. 

Underwrite and Underwriters going Public

I chose an open closet to represent coming out of the closet and going public, like the companies do about their policys and regualtions for stockholders. 

Now that I'm 30...

Now that I'm 30, I have time to look back on what the government has done about our deficit. Unfortunately  due to the fact that nothing has changed at all. I was unable to get into college because the taxes that we had prevented my family from being able to put any money away for me, so I live my life just as my parents did. Working three entry level jobs, just barely making it from pay check to pay check. My taxes got so horrible that I was forced to marry my high school boyfriend who also works three entry level jobs that are completely dead end. The reason we married is because then we could put each other on our taxes and hope to get some from of a tax deduction. We also have 8 children, and are paying for medical bills because one is autistic due to the unhealthy food my family is forced to buy with our limited income. Even with all these tax deductions in how our system works, I am still hardly making ends meet with my family. 

I graduated high school in the hopes that something interesting would happen, and by interesting I mean the fact that maybe the government would actually pull their heads out of their butts and try to make things better before the worse is to come. Our government did not do this. The life I am forced to provided my family is one that the baby boomers would originally see as to not possible, and I am here to say I am not lower class of the USA. No, my situation is considered higher-middle class. All the major companies moved their work to outsourcing and there is a huge line between the wealthy and the poor. My children are hungry and I am never home to see them.I have to keep working, same with my husband whom we don't really talk anymore because we simply were not right for each other but the tax deduction was too irresistible for us to not take it. This is the life we have now in the USA. This is what our government has provided us.  

Manifesto 2.0

1. Statement of Belief

I believe that there is no one way of tax form, either it be flat vat national sales tax or progressive  no one way will ever satisfy all the needs of everyone and generate enough money for the revenue to even attack the deficit. It is in my belief, that if we were to form a combination of all four of these would be the best way to go. For income tax, say you have to make an X amount of money before you reach a bracket (or percentage of how much you have to pay for taxes) and then instead of how our system works where everyone gets to pay higher taxes as you make more money, you wouldn't have to pay anymore once you reach the top percentage of how much you pay. It wouldn't matter if you started making billions of money, you would still only have to pay that certain percentage. On top of combining the flat tax with progressive, i believe that all luxury items, such as cars, owning exotic animals as pets, things that are just no necessary to living, should have a national sales tax on them. I also think that if we went by also having a VAT tax, then we could still generate a good amount of money for the government combining all four of these. 

2. Review on where the Government Retrieves from

I do not think that we are taxing major companies enough. I understand that if you tax them too much they will outsource and I wish people weren't like that, but I really don't think that the major companies are paying enough in taxes. Companies are already outsourcing and they should be taxed and punished for doing that to begin with. But that would be for a world where everyone treated each other equally. As for the world we live in today, there isn't really much to argue with and I am in a corner where I have to say that I agree with how we are generating our money. 

3. Review on how the Government Spends

I don't think we should be spending so much money in defense. Congress never said that we were in a war to begin with and the way public relations are, I do not believe that there is any necessary reason to be investing in new weapons of death due to how we can talk things out with the other countries which we have before and continue to do. I don't think that we should be in Afghanistan and that we should spend money in defense only to get our soldiers back home. 

4. What I did to lower the Deficit.

Pretty much I screwed a lot of people. I way lowered the amount of money invested into the defense systems. I cut the mortgages interest rates on houses over the taxes on home. I raised the retirement age. And added a progressive form of medi-care for the more wealthy citizens, as well as I got rid of what ever I thought the federal government should have no investments in, like keeping the one dollar bill around and eliminating any federal government investing in the arts. I didn't think these were important for the government because I believe that the government should just place what is right and what is wrong. This means that they should help out those in need. Not the arts. Or keeping the one dollar bill because it is part of history. So are dollar coins and you don't see many of those around either. The paper says that the total deficit reduction is $6.0 T and that I finished with a $1.0 trillion deficit. So you can see that I really am not trying to be ran for president again haha

5. Symbol

("Peace Symbol History." Peace Symbol History. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2013.) I chose this as my symbol because I believe that most of our money goes to the war that doesn't really exist. I think that shady people working the system are whats wrong with having deductions that are in place to help those in need are why the progressive system isn't working to its fullest potential, and I strongly believe that greedy people are the reason as to why our deficit is so huge and so many people are totally screwed when it comes to their taxes, like the rich. I chose a peace symbol because if everyone just worked with the right intentions and got along none of these problems would be happening. If there were to ever be a way for everyone to just be honest and fair, we wouldn't have any of the problems we are suffering though today. 

Taxes

Hey I jumbled up the pros and cons together in one paragraph because I forgot that it had to be a pros and cons in their own paragraph for each of the topics...sorry mister mcmaniman :(

National Sales Tax
A national flat tax is the idea that there is a specific percentage that everyone pays for taxes. The idea of this it to simplify the tax system that we have in place right now. Those in support say that this way everything that everyone pays is fair and no one is going after the rich's money. Those say the same thing when going against it. They say the problem with this is that it targets the poor because that percentage will have a greater affect on the poor than they will the rich. This tax will be on what people buy. According to Facts on File News Services, those in favor of the national sales tax say, "the current income tax system and the code governing it is far too cumbersome on taxpayers. A national sales tax would eliminate the bureaucracy of the International Revenue Service and make it much easier for taxpayers to comply with the tax code. Businesses who have taken their assets to off-shore accounts because of the federal income tax would return to the US bolstering the economy." I do not chose this as something that I agree with, and the reason is strikley personal. Not knowing exactly how much I am paying for something because the price tag is only the original price, not the price I have to pay because of sales tax, is very irritating. Not to mention, if a store has a surplus in something, and can't sell everything (which happens) the government gets no money for it. Its just wasted space and wasted cash in investing in it.

Taxation and Tax Reform
Income tax is when you are taxed on the money you earn from working. What's happening now is that the rich are having to pay a much higher tax on their incomes than the poor are. Supporters say that this is good because the rich can spare more money than the poor are able too. Opponents say that this is bad because why punish the rich for working hard for their money? If we keep raising taxes on the rich, they are not gonna be able to be financially stable to start making investments like opening up a business that could hire the poor. Not only this, but raising the taxes for the rich is almost like punishing them for working hard and being successful. The idea that the rich can spare more money to help pay for taxes than the poor can is spot on. The wealthy can spare a lot more money than the poor can. But the opposing side to that points out that if you keep taxing the rich higher and higher tax rates (Which is what they are trying to do) then all you are going to do is make the rich have as much spending money as the poor do. And we need the rich to spend their money so that the economy can continue to grow and businesses can keep forming and hiring the poor. According to Facts News Services, those opposing of raising the income tax rate for the rich say, "The wealthy are unfairly force to pay the lion's share of the annual US tax burden. Taxes should be drastically lowered across the board, but especially for higher-income earners, since they drive the economy. It is in the entire country's best interest to tax the wealthy at a lower rate. Income taxes in general are an affront to freedom itself." Supporters of raising the tax rate for the rich say that if they lower the rate to much, the burden will be back on the lower middle class of America which is unfair to those who cannot afford it while the rich can.I agree with this, however, I do see it as the most complicated form of taxation and I do not agree with how much more they charge the rich in taxes. Making everyone the same level will not help the economy in any way. Giving the rich more of a tax break would be good because they can still make investments and help the economy even though they will be paying a slightly more tax amount than the poor. 

VAT (Value Added Taxation) 
VAT is the tax that grows and gets paid as products move along. It's a very small tax that most people don't even notice while they are paying it. This form of taxation is simple and would benefit by helping reduce the deficit by not having to raise taxes. According to GALE learning library, "VAT is not without its disadvantages. Being a tax on consumption, it's a regressive tax, one that is disproportionately burdensome on the poor and middle class . The lower a person's income, the greater the proportion of that income that goes into produces and services. The higher one's income, the greater the proportion that goes into savings and investment." Another disadvantage is the fact that the VAT is less flexible than income tax would be. VAT ends up discouraging consumption and encourages investment. Those in favor, according the GALE learning library, say "..VAT is,in most cases, a neutural tax...,it is often not a decisive issue for investors, whereas corporate taxes are more decisive." I don't agree with this because I do not think that the government will make enough to matter going about using a VAT. Although it is a good idea and maybe they could place this as well as add on income taxes, maybe you will go somewhere with that. But for now I have to pick one of the four options and this is not one that I would choose.

Flat Tax
This is where everyone's income tax is the same number and percentage, despite those that are paying for mortgages; few or no deductions would be available for income tax payers. Mostly Republicans are fond of this flat tax. This is a positive idea because it is the most 'fair' and simple way for people to be paying taxes. Everyone has the same and there is no confusion towards the deductions or what people owe at the end of the year. However, opponents argue this is not fair at all. Although it is indeed simple, having everyone pay the same amount isn't fair to the poor because a 15% tax on income is more drastic for a low income family than a wealthy one. Although, charging the rich more in taxes is viewed as a form of punishment for being successful. I do not agree with this tax because I see it from the poor's point of view. Having no deductions for say single mothers who are paying medical bills because her kids are malnourished due to her unable to buy healthy foods is wrong to me and I do not agree with it.

The Big Picture

My fiances that i view for myself in the decades ahead is those of ones that i work to support the lifestyle that i chose to have. I have no problem paying income taxes or property taxes so long as the job that i have is able to pay for it. I think the government should pull all the troops out of Afghanistan since it was never even declared as a real war and stop spending so much in defense. we are paying huge amounts of money to pay for diffidence and we don't even need to be there. the war on terror? I thought we got the guy already. what is the point in being in a country where the people of said country doesn't even want us there? The chances that we will go out into a huge war with other countries is slim due to diplomatic relations and for tax payers to continue spending unnecessarily large amounts of money is ridiculous.

Manifesto Beta Version

My view on the government is that they should be very black and white. As in, laws should be placed in a way that should help the general public. They should not be based on morals or because of religion. To me, they should be what is right and what is wrong. Not weather something is morally incorrect or unjust. Things like robbery, murder, fraud, assault. Things like these could be dangerous for the general public therefore they make it wrong and are correct to be illegal. However, gay marriage for example should be legal in my eyes because it causes harm to no one other then the two getting married. So what if it makes people uncomfortable  So what if its against someone's bible? The government is in place to protect the general public. Not make sure everyone gets along with each other and sing "Kumbaya". Things that don't come in black and white, like environment issues and social security- sure they aren't as black and white as the problems with laws that form due to people's morals opinions and should be discussed. This land of America should be equal to everyone and in order to keep things equal for everyone-laws should be as black and white as the pen on paper they write them down on, not based on what is morally acceptable and what the religion of the general public feel is an important factor on society.

Economics Powerpoint

Here is the link, just as you said. the word literally is the link.