Sunday, August 24, 2008

YDPPIES , or young downwardly mobile professionals

“Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess (liberal gifts)
from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, and is always followed by a dictatorship.”


The quote above I believe is attributed to Alexander Titler. As I venture off into the realm of the small business person, I do so with some trepidation. I know I will be attacked by the left and lazy, and a large portion of my income will be confiscated for the "greater good". But at least I know I will go down swinging, filled with the entrepreneurial spirit that once made this country great. I will be able to chose with whom to invest my time and labor, something I have no control over now. And I will be able to tell my children that there once was a time in this country when we valued professionals, entrepreneurs and industrial giants, and people pulled up their own bootstraps. We didn't envy or deride the wealthy, we admired their savvy and determination, assuming they didn't just become that way by marrying ketchup heirs (then thinking they know how to better spend our money than we do). I'll tell them how many of my jobs on the road to my career were created by the poor and lazy (zero). I'll tell them how I worked since I was 15 and paid my way through college and med school to become one of the 5%-10% that pays over 70% of the tax burden in this country, in an attempt to better myself and family and provide a service to others. We weren't always a people consumed with class warfare and envy, and someone from a poor background could become anything they set their mind to, and didn't expect a check in the mail. Heck, you could even become a doctor. (A voice telling the American public this sure would be refreshing, but unlikely to be heard).

I'm sure I will be telling this to my son as we sit on the front porch of his government issued apartment, next to our mandatory copy of the Communist Manifesto, waiting for his government issued salary check to arrive. And we better have a smile on our faces as the savior Big Brother government brings it by, lest we be thought of as rebels.

18 comments:

  1. HALLELUJAH!
    I SAY WE START CALLING KETCHUP 'CATSUP INSTEAD.

    GO CAT.

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  2. I always love your posts and just wished you posted more. I always agree with 100% of what you say.

    But am done with joking about this in my cynical sarcastic way. Whenever I think about Obama becoming President, I have progressed to becoming quietly enraged. I have no jokes anymore. With more and more people receiving entitlements, a larger percentage of our population will be nothing but purchased voters.....puchased by the blood, sweat, and tears of the doers, thinkers, and workers in society.

    Does the average person not realize how radically Marxist Obama is....or do they realize and embrace it? Do they not know that Obama's father advocated seizing all private farm land and stated that if it suited the state's ambitions, individuals could be taxed at 100%. Do they not realize that wealth redistribution in theft pure and simple...or do they not care?

    I have had enough....the laughter has gone out of this for me

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  3. Best of luck in the new Cathouse, Doc...I think the nurses should wear little ears and spandex suits like Catwoman. As should you, of course, under the lab coat.

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  4. Politics aside, my QP question: would Schroedingers cat have two half-lives?

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  5. I've also been subjucated to the "Let them function with what they have" mentality. You have done more with less, you have performed within accecptable levels without the demands "you" requested as necessary, you have performed as required and succeded.

    If there is change to be made it will be by failure. Something that has been indoctrined into the phych as to be so unaccectable as to try to stop breathing...

    I failed on the 20th, I was called for overtime (verboten) and didn't go in as an emergency call in. I concluded that the request for help, overtime, and further pleadings were for not. Of course as my meager abode is not "health related", I do function in an an Administrative vacuum that parallels yours.

    You have my fustration to be bargined with during your next system collapse. I hope it helps.

    Mike

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  6. Don't worry so much we'll win this election. Unless McCain does something really really stupid.
    http://www.thenewconservatives.blogspot.com/

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  7. Amen! Amen! Amen! (I can't go on because I might fall off my soapbox. And my insurance might not cover it.)

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  8. Cat! Good luck with your new enterprise. I'm still dying to find out what.

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  9. Wow, excellent post. I'm glad to know there are people like you left in the world. They're sorely lacking on my colleges campus.

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  10. Sounds like somebody didn't get a stimulus check. Yeah...me neither.

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  11. Snopes Does not like this quote, Bartleby.com's "Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations" says it is unverified.
    I so wanted to use this...

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  12. Best thing you can do for yourself & your family is to find a way out of the money economy.
    Don't doctors work for trade or barter any more?
    Here in rural America we are desperate for good doctors and most of the rural poor don't have any type of so called "health care" or "insurance".

    I have plenty of Amish neighbors who would trade a day's carpentry work for an office visit for their kids, and
    I'd trade you 5 or 6 free range meat chickens or a lamb for my yearly check up.
    Life can be lived without dollars.

    Dolly Freed's magnum opus - POSSUM LIVING might be of interest to you. You can find it online.

    Don't confuse wealth with Federal Reserve notes.
    If you don't make 'em you don't get taxed.

    Also, why overly concern yourselves with the upcoming election?
    It's my opinion we are screwed either way.
    Obama? McCain?
    There's no difference.
    Both men have been bought & paid for.
    It a false left/right paradigm.

    Whichever way it goes we can expect more of the same.
    This Nation crossed the Rubicon awhile back.

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  13. a large portion of my income will be confiscated for the "greater good".

    Dr. Cat, it doesn't have to be. If you get a really, really good understanding of income tax law, you can just about bleed a business dry and still get all of the things you desire to purchase with your money. Anything you can find a legitimate reason to deduct (combine a vacation with medical conference, a trip/mileage to the store for bread with a discussion about a patient with the pharmacist, that new drill you want can be used to make a repair at the office, etc.) will not be taxed. At first, it will be a pain to document and do all of this stuff. (Big, enormous tip for dealing with the IRS: the person with their documentation perfect and detailed is most likely to win a dispute with the IRS.) But eventually it becomes second nature and not as big of a pain because you'll see how much money it will save you.

    One nice thing about this approach is that you can ramp up as you learn more tax law. The more you learn, the more you figure out how to avoid taxes.

    [Someone's bound to respond that I'm proposing that you cheat on your taxes. Let me save us all some time so I don't have to respond to that later. What I am proposing is perfectly legal. There is nothing wrong with a citizen undertaking to understand the tax laws, then using that knowledge to structure his finances to his advantage. I urge documentation, of course, because if the IRS examines you, you need to be able to explain exactly how you are justifying your deductions.]

    You might get audited a couple of times, but there are strange laws on the books that can help with even that. Once I got questioned by the IRS on the same issue 3 years on the row. The third year I notified the IRS that they were no longer allowed, by law (and I quoted the relevant section of the code, I think, in my letter), to question this particular issue because I had answered it and been allowed to do it the previous 2 years. I did not have to supply an answer to the issue that year, and they never questioned me about it again in subsequent years. See, if you know the tax law, you can make even auditing go away.

    I have plenty of Amish neighbors who would trade a day's carpentry work for an office visit for their kids, and
    I'd trade you 5 or 6 free range meat chickens or a lamb for my yearly check up.
    Life can be lived without dollars.


    I'm not tax expert, Granny, but this strikes me as pretty bad advice. I believe that bartering is a taxable activity where income is concerned, and if you don't bring in $$ to cover the income tax, then those $$ have to come from somewhere else. Furthermore, if you are trying to live within the law and are doing the logical thing of exploiting the tax laws as I suggest above, the risk of getting caught at bartering might be fairly high. And it might be viewed as criminal, depending upon the circumstances, if they thought you were deliberately trying to avoid paying income tax, as your comment suggests.

    I've been examined by the IRS probably about a dozen times. And the state a few times, too. To date, I have never yet had to 1) pay the IRS or state revenue department an additional cent of money, or 2) hire an accountant or lawyer to represent me. I hope my luck holds, but of course, it is mostly not luck but that I keep my nose clean, and I do not try to exploit the portions of the tax code I cannot understand.


    Please do not take tax advice from me without verifying what I say; I am not a lawyer or an accountant, I just have more than my share of expertise at personal finance.

    Best of luck to you in your new venture. I'm rooting for you.

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  14. Thanks Teresa,

    Being new to this, I need all the help I can get. But even taking advantage of all breaks and passing through all income, (we are an LLC) eventually a decent portion will be taken.

    CAT

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  15. alas, snopes indeed casts doubt onto the origin of the above quotation posted by 'cat. it is, nonetheless, thought provoking.

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  16. I really liked the quote. I think I'm going to have a post over at my blog about it. Also come by and vote in my VP polls. I need a second opinion.

    http://thenewconservatives.blogspot.com/

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