Sherlocks Posted January 16, 2021 Share Posted January 16, 2021 So, minimum wage is suppose to be bumped up to 14 hourly. Which was exciting since that means I get extra income. However, it seems all that happened was taxes increased enough to make sure I am making the same amount of money. Seriously, why? Nothing has changed. Why are my taxes so much more now? Link to post Share on other sites
Lord Jade Cross Posted January 16, 2021 Share Posted January 16, 2021 Because taxes are measured by the % you earn. That's what the brackets are for. People think that raising minimum wage will solve the issue. It would if you got to keep the taxes at a past bracket while earning the new income. All that is done by raising the wage is just putting a higher digit on the equation, but you're never resolving the equation itself. This has more and worse implications too. Higher wage means higher taxes, higher taxes means more is needed to cover them and more than is needed means less work hours because companies always want a large profit margin, and they will screw the working class to get it as they have so far. And that's just the beginning. Food will become more expensive. Medical help (well if "help" is ever given) will be more expensive, the cost of living will increase and you'll be left screwed over This isn't a new game. It's just more BS to try and gloss the same problem over. Link to post Share on other sites
Sherlocks Posted January 16, 2021 Author Share Posted January 16, 2021 1 minute ago, Comrade Jade Cross said: Because taxes are measured by the % you earn. That's what the brackets are for. People think that raising minimum wage will solve the issue. It would if you got to keep the taxes at a past bracket while earning the new income. All that is done by raising the wage is just putting a higher digit on the equation, but you're never resolving the equation itself. This has moreand worse implications too. Higher wage means higher taxes, higher taxes means more is needed to cover them and more than is needed means less work hours because companies always want a large profit margin, and they will screw the working class to get it. This isn't a new game. It's just more BS to try and gloss the same problem over Well how the hell is anyone suppose to get ahead? I would be better off in prison right now as I would have a market and be able to network to get cash under the table. Literally only made 20 dollars more and than lost it all to taxes anyways. Link to post Share on other sites
Lord Jade Cross Posted January 16, 2021 Share Posted January 16, 2021 2 minutes ago, Sherlocks said: Well how the hell is anyone suppose to get ahead? I would be better off in prison right now as I would have a market and be able to network to get cash under the table. Literally only made 20 dollars more and than lost it all to taxes anyways. You're not. The system isn't built to help a society grow. It's built to keep a few up in the high classes while everyone else is dirt poor and worsening. Really for all the so called democracy and the free world, the economy operates just the same as if we were still back on authoritarian rule. Switch the title of king for CEO and you've basically got the same situation. The rich get richer, the poor, worse off and the "economy" continues. Link to post Share on other sites
Sherlocks Posted January 16, 2021 Author Share Posted January 16, 2021 6 minutes ago, Comrade Jade Cross said: You're not. The system isn't built to help a society grow. It's built to keep a few up in the high classes while everyone else is dirt poor and worsening. Really for all the so called democracy and the free world, the economy operates just the same as if we were still back on authoritarian rule. Switch the title of king for CEO and you've basically got the same situation. The rich get richer, the poor, worse off and the "economy" continues. What am I suppose to do than? I dont even qualify for Obamacare. Meaning somehow I not considered "Low Income" Link to post Share on other sites
Lord Jade Cross Posted January 16, 2021 Share Posted January 16, 2021 Hope you don't get sick or die. I don't mean that in a sarcastic dark humor sense. I mean it genuinely because that's the gimmick of the system. Classify the working class as "capable of taking care of themselves" while simultaneously tieing their hands and cutting their options to non existent. I've been without any medical coverage for years due to the same reason. Not that medical coverage does anything either way. Unless you're rich, the level of help you will get is the bare minimum, if at all. Link to post Share on other sites
Sherlocks Posted January 16, 2021 Author Share Posted January 16, 2021 2 minutes ago, Comrade Jade Cross said: Hope you don't get sick or die. I don't mean that in a sarcastic dark humor sense. I mean it genuinely because that's the gimmick of the system. Classify the working class as "capable of taking care of themselves" while simultaneously tieing their hands and cutting their options to non existent. I've been without any medical coverage for years due to the same reason. Not that medical coverage does anything either way. Unless you're rich, the level of help you will get is the bare minimum, if at all. I dodged death a number of times already. I kind of starting to believe the reaper is placing bets or something. What is a solution to this that is not totally illegal? Link to post Share on other sites
Lord Jade Cross Posted January 16, 2021 Share Posted January 16, 2021 If deaths willing to share, Id like to know mine as well since I've been in several occasions that should have rightfully killed me but here I am still. As for a solution, find people, family, friends, friends of friends, etc, that have medical connections or can pitch in and circumvent rules to help you in a time of need Link to post Share on other sites
J. van Deijck Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 This is life. The more you work, the higher taxes you pay. I live in a country that takes almost 50% of my monthly salary and I'm just a blue collar worker Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 On 1/15/2021 at 10:24 PM, Sherlocks said: Seriously, why? That's just how taxes work. I just got shafted worse the more money I made. The worst bracket would be the one I am in, which is a toe into the next up one, but you're getting hit the same as someone making much more. There are a few legal loopholes to drop your tax rates, but I only know those relevant with Canada. One of the most common ones here, is to pay the difference you make in a higher salary into your retirement savings plan. This drops your tax bracket, and you're not being hurt in the long run as are putting this towards savings. Otherwise if you make enough to save your money, study stocks and investments. Start small, a decade later your few grand become triple that if you invested wisely. The only way to get ahead in a rigged system, is truly learning about money, what rich people already know about it. Western societies only teach people to spend money, and to make it. Money management skills is not known by most, which is a critical skill to growing one's wealth. You invest via a bank you get .5% to 1% whereas they get 8 to 9 if not more % simply for holding your money for you. Truly understanding the concept of money, is the only way out and the beauty is you can start small with it and cumulatively build upon it. One of my friends truly studied money as he got sick of the cycle one puts themselves through for nothing. Enough to drive a person to madness if an end of the tunnel cannot be fathomed. Most are buried in debt in western countries, whereas I go to China and they will happily show me how global foreign exchange markets work. How many have built wealth in the millions by diligently investing and truly studying money. If you don't understand how to lower your taxes legally, and grow your savings by over 10 to 30% annually--start there. Link to post Share on other sites
Sean_Bird Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 When you're doing research Sherlocks, (sounds like you might be looking into a number things based on your chat with Jade Cross) make sure to look at a mix of statistics and anything you read (such as personal stories of certain topics) match those stats. Also make sure that, when you do research (especially for money things) that you check the source for biases. The bigger the company, the better the PR, which makes it hard to get worthwhile information and not get screwed over. For the first (stats vs. stories) I've known a lot of people who fall for common myths because they'll hear a story, assume that story represents over 90% of people from the demographic/situation, and fail to understand that it's not the case. For example, I've known people who will know one person who abuses foodstamps, and despite the fact that the percentage of people who do so are extremely low in number, they'll assume that almost everyone who uses foodstamps is abusing them. For healthcare in the US, a lot of times it's cheaper to physically fly to another country, enjoy a vacation there, and stock up on meds and get treatment there. So if you're struggling with paying for common medications, you can probably look into groups online who drive across the border to Mexico and Canada to get drugs and come back here to sell them. Since its Covid times, vacations aren't a great option. Also keep in mind, taxes this year will be higher than normal from Covid. I dread doing mine soon. For the US, passive income is taxed pretty low, so setting yourself up for passive income in your future is the best way to make (and keep) your money. Link to post Share on other sites
Epitaph Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 I don't know if it'll be relevant to you, but one of the tricks used is if you own a business of some kind. You can write off certain things as business expenses. Under certain conditions, renovating your house and other stuff can be written off without owning a business to lower your bracket. One of the things I usually do to avoid getting charged extra at the end of the year is to determine myself the amount of money I'll be getting charged, so I dump extra money into taxes. I mathematically make sure that I overshoot, so that come tax time, I don't owe anything, and they owe me at the end of the year. Link to post Share on other sites
Epitaph Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 You also have the option to dump money into CCP, if you're US based it'd be something else. A lot of people don't know this it seems, but you can also edit the amount of how much money is withdrawn for your pension. They'll withdraw the absolute minimum, ensuring you get a minimum pension. But if you throw money in yourself, it becomes a beneficial long term play to a degree. As cross said, raising the wages has always been a bad thing. Both companies and governments ajust their prices accordingly. In fact, you could even say that raising the wages makes more money for companies and governments, since a portion of people will get bumped into higher brackets. It's never a victory for the blue collar workers. Link to post Share on other sites
Epitaph Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 And off the top of my head. It depends on the bank you use. Open up a tax free savings account. A TFSA typically has a limit of what money is non taxable, but it helps. Mine is non taxable up to five thousand dollars. So if you've got spare dollars, if you can, hide it in there. Link to post Share on other sites
SorryNotSorry Posted January 21, 2021 Share Posted January 21, 2021 On 1/15/2021 at 7:24 PM, Sherlocks said: So, minimum wage is suppose to be bumped up to 14 hourly. Which was exciting since that means I get extra income. However, it seems all that happened was taxes increased enough to make sure I am making the same amount of money. Seriously, why? Nothing has changed. Why are my taxes so much more now? Two words: Sixteenth Amendment. This is the heart of the problem, because it authorizes income taxes in the first place. It was originally ratified to pay for the Civil War during Reconstruction. I have an idea which isn't new: scrap the taxes on income, and tax consumption instead. There have been proposals by lawmakers to replace the income tax and all the rest of them with a consumption tax, but for some bizarre reason, none of them have mentioned that doing so would mean having to repeal the 16th Amendment. As for me, I got screwed on my taxes this year, too... I learned the hard way that when I pay my property tax, I have to claim it as a homeowner deduction for the year I file my income tax return, because it doesn't carry over as deductible in subsequent years. Link to post Share on other sites
daveb Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 6 hours ago, Woodworker1968 said: Two words: Sixteenth Amendment. This is the heart of the problem, because it authorizes income taxes in the first place. It was originally ratified to pay for the Civil War during Reconstruction. Sources I found say it was ratified in 1913, a bit after Reconstruction. Link to post Share on other sites
Rare Aztec Whstling Chickn Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 13 hours ago, Woodworker1968 said: Amendment. It's funny how people over there make such a fuss over such a word. Like how dare you amend, or make amendments to amendments. How dare you make changes to changes. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 Tax reform, minimum wage increase, and rising cost of living all trace back to one issue in my opinion: the arbitrary system of value we place on everything in our economy. If you double the number of dollars I make while simultaneously doubling the cost of every good and service, then we have gotten nowhere. The same applied to halving every number. It's all relative, and very arbitrary. Suppose that we make 10$ per hour while the cost of living works out to 15$ per hour. We could raise the wage by 50%, or we could force prices to be slashed by 33.3%...either would achieve the equilibrium between wage and cost of living. Our entire system is built on meaningless pieces of paper, metal, and plastic to which we affix numbers. I see no end in sight. Link to post Share on other sites
SorryNotSorry Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 On 1/21/2021 at 11:52 PM, Comrade Tal said: It's funny how people over there make such a fuss over such a word. Like how dare you amend, or make amendments to amendments. How dare you make changes to changes. Yeah, statists seem to believe the US Constitution was divinely authored. Link to post Share on other sites
SorryNotSorry Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 On 1/21/2021 at 5:36 PM, daveb said: Sources I found say it was ratified in 1913, a bit after Reconstruction. Still, the Sixteenth Amendment is the main obstacle. Link to post Share on other sites
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