Many of us who have recently lost jobs due to outsourcing or the economic downturn need penalty-free access to funds in our IRA accounts. What will the Obama administration do to, at least temporarily, remove current tax penalties.
Thank you,
Steve Rosene
Oxnard, Ca.
93036
housing stagnation
Anonymous 7 weeks 11 hours 39 min 22 sec ago
why not offer each buyer of a home 1-2% income tax reduction based on price of house.this may be enough incentive to resurrect the housing market. since housing sales have been stagnant, the stock market and other markets have been in a nose dive.this plan may work.give it some thought. thank you.
armen r.varzhabedian elgin,il.
e-mail address armenvarzhabedian@att.net
AN ALTERNATIVE TO “TAXING THE RICH”
Anonymous 7 weeks 3 days 10 hours 27 min ago
Everything I’ve wished for, hoped for, or thought of in advance, the Obama for President campaign—of which I have been a modest contributor--was one or many more steps ahead of me. Maybe this is no exception.
As a former professor of classics, author of books and articles about ancient Greek democracy, I’ve spent a lifetime comparing how the democracy of Athens handled governing, especially in crises. I suggest the following, from that perspective:
Instead of automatically raising taxes for the most affluent individuals and corporations, we could try the following:
Two meetings at the White House. First, for the 100 wealthiest men and women in America. Ask Warren Buffett to finance the assembly and its attendant infrastructure.
Announce to them that you don’t like taxes anymore than anyone else likes them. What you’re proposing to them instead is volunteering to “give back” to the country that made their wealth possible. On a businesslike basis. You and Warren will provide a White House liaison for each of them, to assist with working out the feasibility of THEIR PROPOSAL for assisting the economy with THEM as the provider of funds, i.e., investor. On a profit basis, with their profit limited to a most amount, say 5%, and matching the profit of the American people.
Let them choose which of the fix or six most troubled sectors of the economy they want to create their new social business in (on the model of Dr. Muhammed Yunus’ social businesses, like the one Grameen Foundation is doing with Dannon, for example). Their investment must equal what they would have paid in increased taxes, but it would be under their control, monitored by the White House liaison. It will put money back into the economy and start a contagion of socially-focused businesses doing the same.
Do the same thing with the 100 most profitable corporations, thanking them for what they’ve already done for society, but asking that they do more—at the level of the equivalent in increased taxes.
Tell both groups that you will give this a 12-month trial period, and promise a moratorium on raising taxes for them during that period. You can revisit the program once you’ve seen signs of progress and impact on the economy.
In ancient Athens, if a war came along, or even time to plan next year’s Great Athenaean Festival, the wealthy assembled in the Agora. One merchant would volunteer to outfit six ships (“as long as I can name them after my family,” etc.), another to front the expenses of the Festival, another to provide prizes, another to provision the army, etc.
It’s the “atmosphere of willing volunteerism” that can turn the economy around and do it in a way that does not make the affluent antagonistic to the incoming administration. In the climate of hope you’ve now created, I believe this will catch on like wildfire and turn the tide.
Ken Atchity
AN ALTERNATIVE TO “TAXING THE RICH”
Anonymous 7 weeks 3 days 10 hours 31 min ago
Everything I’ve wished for, hoped for, or thought of in advance, the Obama for President campaign—of which I have been a modest contributor--was one or many more steps ahead of me. Maybe this is no exception.
As a former professor of classics, author of books and articles about ancient Greek democracy, I’ve spent a lifetime comparing how the democracy of Athens handled governing, especially in crises. I suggest the following, from that perspective:
Instead of automatically raising taxes for the most affluent individuals and corporations, we could try the following:
Two meetings at the White House. First, for the 100 wealthiest men and women in America. Ask Warren Buffett to finance the assembly and its attendant infrastructure.
Announce to them that you don’t like taxes anymore than anyone else likes them. What you’re proposing to them instead is volunteering to “give back” to the country that made their wealth possible. On a businesslike basis. You and Warren will provide a White House liaison for each of them, to assist with working out the feasibility of THEIR PROPOSAL for assisting the economy with THEM as the provider of funds, i.e., investor. On a profit basis, with their profit limited to a most amount, say 5%, and matching the profit of the American people.
Let them choose which of the fix or six most troubled sectors of the economy they want to create their new social business in (on the model of Dr. Muhammed Yunus’ social businesses, like the one Grameen Foundation is doing with Dannon, for example). Their investment must equal what they would have paid in increased taxes, but it would be under their control, monitored by the White House liaison. It will put money back into the economy and start a contagion of socially-focused businesses doing the same.
Do the same thing with the 100 most profitable corporations, thanking them for what they’ve already done for society, but asking that they do more—at the level of the equivalent in increased taxes.
Tell both groups that you will give this a 12-month trial period, and promise a moratorium on raising taxes for them during that period. You can revisit the program once you’ve seen signs of progress and impact on the economy.
In ancient Athens, if a war came along, or even time to plan next year’s Great Athenaean Festival, the wealthy assembled in the Agora. One merchant would volunteer to outfit six ships (“as long as I can name them after my family,” etc.), another to front the expenses of the Festival, another to provide prizes, another to provision the army, etc.
It’s the “atmosphere of willing volunteerism” that can turn the economy around and do it in a way that does not make the affluent antagonistic to the incoming administration. In the climate of hope you’ve now created, I believe this will catch on like wildfire and turn the tide.