Thursday, February 26, 2009

On The Road 10

SEARCH BLOG: TAXES

I almost choked when I read this from The New York Times:
The White House says it is unfair for high-income people to get a bigger tax break than middle-income people for claiming the same deductions or making the same charitable contributions.
Let's get this straight: it is fair to pay more taxes per dollar for income made, but it is not fair to get a greater deduction per dollar for charity. And who is this "White House" person and when did he take logic?

I think I heard this White House character once say something like, "What's yours is mine and what's mine is mine." He seemed very pleased with his philosophy.

Moving on....

I know a diet must be working when my wife tells me I have to eat more. It really is difficult to eat 1,800 calories a day when it is comprised of mostly fat and protein with just some fiber thrown in. My stomach won't tell me I'm hungry.

We'll be traveling north soon, but not before some more golf. After a 4 month layoff, my game vacillates between golf and flog.

Moving on to the economy....

I am thinking that the psychology of a recession is similar to that of coping with grief and loss as postulated by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

From Wikipedia, the five stages are:

  1. Denial:
    • Example - "I feel fine."; "This can't be happening, not to me!"
  2. Anger:
    • Example - "Why me? It's not fair!" "How can this happen, I hate this world!"
  3. Bargaining:
    • Example - "Just let me live to see my children graduate."; "I'll do anything, can't you stretch it out? A few more years." I will give my life savings if..."'
  4. Depression:
    • Example - "I'm so sad, why bother with anything?"; "I'm going to die . . . What's the point?"
  5. Acceptance:
    • Example - "It's going to be okay."; "I can't fight it, I may as well prepare for it."
That struck me as what may take us out of this recession more than a government sponsored spending mess. I was talking with my brother who had called to tell me he was going to buy a new boat to replace the one he had bought used 12 years ago. It has seen better days and many days of hard use. He gave two reasons:
  1. He can get a great bargain now.
  2. He has lost many thousands of dollars in his retirement investments and the purchase price of the boat is small potatoes compared with that.
Basically, he has come to accept the present reality and concluded that he is going to go on living despite the loss. As more people do that, the economy will begin to return to normal.

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