Didn't know the Economy effected me till now.

[davidjr74]

The ECONOMY is officially kicking my ass and I'm officially poor......

My father has been fired way too many times so he can no longer do the job that he can do (security) and the company he worked for went under. So now my Dad has no employment and hasn't had a job in a month and still can't find employment.

My mom only cleans houses 2-3x a week. On top of this we have 7 people and 7 pets. (4 dogs, 3 cats)

I can't find employment as well. Starting today I am getting free Lunch at School. My dads gotta meet with some social services guy to talk about getting Food Stamps and collecting welfare.

On top of this..it bugs the hell out of me that I have never had a car (and a freaking TI-83 calculator that I need for Calculus) and my old job won't take me back because my manager doesn't like me (I tried).

So my Parents are thinking about cutting our gym membership to save on Gas and money....this blows hard...

At least I can say there are other people out there that got it harder but still this sucks for the average 17 year old living in the U.S.

 

[acdc554]

I hate to continue the bad news, but I believe it will get worse. I had predicted the stock market would continue to fall about now because Obama's plan to nearly double the capitol gains tax. Furthermore, you will probably see buisness continue to leave America because the Corperate tax is being raised from 35% to 39.5%. Not to mention any small buisness owner who is going to be making a joint income with say his/her husband or wife will be paying 39 percent in fed, plus 4 percent in pay roll and adding state tax which nocks it near 50 to 55 percent. Remember, small buisness is a large portion of employment in America. Not to mention Obama doubling tax on dividend. I fear the worst, man. I just turned 18 this year and, I, personally feel that this tax plan/government bailout/ Congress corruption(and that goes for both sides) is going demolish America.

 

[tonymcclellan]

You want to borrow my calculator?

 

[Littlea]

I will give you a TI83. I have 2 sitting at the house. Sorry to hear about the hard times. Can't a 17 year old find a ****ty job anywhere though? Im 31 now so maybe things have changed/

 

[Littlea]

It's not the responsibility of a 17 year old to work to provide for themselves...

Firefreak, I agree with the first part of your statement but not the latter.

I think a 17 year old should work and pay for himself. At 17 I lived on my own, paid my own way through college and managed to survive just fine. Oh and by the way, my parents were financially well off. They just wanted me to learn to be a man at as young an age as possible.

-My 2 cents

 

[Littlea]

I think we agree, just looking at it from two different angles. My pops was a military doctor and I was raised in the SE United States. So we marched to the beat of a different drummer. At 17 one is expected to be able to fend for themselves where I come from.

 

[Typhon]

Tell you father to stop being a stupid ****head and get out and get a ****ing job. He's been fired too many times from security work? Fine...tell him to go work at a fast food joint flipping burgers. Hey its not much but its something. It's his job to provide for his family. I guess he needs an attitude adjustment too from the sound of things...

It's not the responsibility of a 17 year old to work to provide for themselves...

Are you for real? Life isn't always that straight forward and you don't know their circumstances

I've been unemployed myself in the past, thankfully I got another job pretty quickly but I was lucky. I worked out at the time that taking a low paid job would have denied me benefit payments that would have made me better off

 

[Eric L]

The economy is being hard on the whole planet. Not just you and me. I mean everyone.

There will always be employment opportunities for everyone, when people from north America complain about not having jobs or having trouble finding one, I honestly beleive there is something else going on that we don't know or that they won't tell us.

Security isn't the only thing your dad can do is it?

It's kicking all our asses, all we got to do is adapt.

I doubt there is a business in your area that would not hire neither of you right now...so keep looking and get what you can while you look for something better.

Believe it or not, your future isn't in the economies hands, it's in yours.

When unemployed and unsure about your chances at finding a job you have to put everything on your side, which means: Get rid of the pets, cancel internet service if not required, get rid of Satelite subscription if not required, get rid of everything that isn't required for you right now until you find something, then you save money and pay off what stuff you owe and control yourself on expenses until you finally get a decent job. You control money, money does not control you.

But saying all that, doesn't make me one bit sure about things one way or another. I too am scared as **** about this situation....the economy is crumbling.

 

[firefreak]

Are you for real? Life isn't always that straight forward and you don't know their circumstances

I've been unemployed myself in the past, thankfully I got another job pretty quickly but I was lucky. I worked out at the time that taking a low paid job would have denied me benefit payments that would have made me better off

Yes I am. I despise people that just lay down and not doing everything within their power to make things right.

Now maybe you're right, I don't know the whole situation. maybe there is some outstanding reason why his father should be collecting food stamps instead of trying to find some real way to provide for his family and why his mother can't work more often to make extra $ so they don't have to cancel a gym membership and encourage a healthy lifestyle amongst their children so they can pay for gas.

 

[Typhon]

Yes I am. I despise people that just lay down and not doing everything within their power to make things right.

Now maybe you're right, I don't know the whole situation. maybe there is some outstanding reason why his father should be collecting food stamps instead of trying to find some real way to provide for his family and why his mother can't work more often to make extra $ so they don't have to cancel a gym membership and encourage a healthy lifestyle amongst their children so they can pay for gas.

You have no idea what his parents are doing to sort this out so why do you feel the need to act like such a jerk and start calling his dad names.

You're speaking well out of line

 

[firefreak]

You have no idea what his parents are doing to sort this out so why do you feel the need to act like such a jerk and start calling his dad names.

You're speaking well out of line

That would be why in my previous post I said: "Now maybe you're right, I don't know the whole situation."

and i edited my original post.

 

[Littlea]

sounds like the economy has everyone down.

Back to the point, do you need a calculator, because I am happy to mail you one. Calculous is a whore.

 

[tjl]

I hate to continue the bad news, but I believe it will get worse. I had predicted the stock market would continue to fall about now because Obama's plan to nearly double the capitol gains tax.

Capital gain tax rates will likely be irrelevant for the next several years, since most investors will have capital losses.

 

[tjl]

How well are you doing in school? (if you are taking calculus in high school, you're probably thinking of going to a university afterward, right?)

Some universities are very generous with financial aid. For example:

Building on the success of the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative (HFAI), which eliminated the parental contribution from families earning $60,000 or less, Harvard recently announced major financial aid enhancements to ensure greater affordability for middle- and upper-middle income families.

So if you can get into a university with generous financial aid, you will be able to get an education while removing or reducing the need for your family to support you.

 

[acdc554]

True tjl, but raising the CG tax will continue to discourage the stock market.
Oh, and as for working at 17, hell yeah you should be. I'm 18 now but i started at age 15. When you turn 18 though, you can always join the service. You get paid, fed, and sheltered there and you're doing it for a good cause. Haha, and considering we have a liberal president, you might not have to be worried about war .

 

[i_love_muscle]

True tjl, but raising the CG tax will continue to discourage the stock market.
Oh, and as for working at 17, hell yeah you should be. I'm 18 now but i started at age 15. When you turn 18 though, you can always join the service. You get paid, fed, and sheltered there and you're doing it for a good cause. Haha, and considering we have a liberal president, you might not have to be worried about war .

I agree. Raising capital gains tax is counterproductive. It impacts heavily on the M3/GDP ratio (in laymans terms, the total amount of currency in circulation in relation to the gross domestic product).

FYI, M1 is cash and assets. M2 is M1 plus time deposits. M3 is M1 + M2.

I think North Americans are highly overtaxed. acdc, I agree with you in that I highly doubt we'll be seeing a lot of capital gains being realized any time in the near future.

The global economy is not healthy right now. It's bleeding to death.

 

[acdc554]

I really think we just need to remove all incumbants within the U.S Congress and replace them. I think they're the root to or problem. There are some good congressmen, but it would be worth removing them all and putting new ones in. They just don't do anything to represent us correctly. They're all so darn corrupt haha.

 

[i_love_muscle]

I really think we just need to remove all incumbants within the U.S Congress and replace them. I think they're the root to or problem. There are some good congressmen, but it would be worth removing them all and putting new ones in. They just don't do anything to represent us correctly. They're all so darn corrupt haha.

What is the capital gains tax in the US? For us Canucks, 50% of our capital gains are taxed at our marginal tax rate. Which is about 40% for me. So I pay 20% on the whole kit and caboodle.

Our capital losses can be used to lower the amount of capital gains we have to pay tax on ... and they can be forwarded into future years, albeit discounted.

 

[tjl]

What is the capital gains tax in the US? For us Canucks, 50% of our capital gains are taxed at our marginal tax rate. Which is about 40% for me. So I pay 20% on the whole kit and caboodle.

Our capital losses can be used to lower the amount of capital gains we have to pay tax on ... and they can be forwarded into future years, albeit discounted.

Long term capital gains (assets held more than a year; assets held for a shorter time have capital gains taxed at the same rate as regular income) are taxed at 15% if your marginal tax rate is 25% or higher, 5% if your marginal tax rate is less than 25%. Some specific types of gains are taxed at 25% or 28%. Capital losses offset capital gains; excess capital losses can be used against regular income to a limited amount or carried over to following years beyond that. There are various complicated rules; see publication 550 on .

The regular tax rates at 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, and 35%.

All of these different rates make for a very long form to go through when calculating the tax when some of the income is long term capital gains (look up form 1040 schedule D on ). Having the capital gains taxed at the regular tax rate, but with an exclusion if an effectively lower capital gain tax rate is desired, would make the tax calculation much less complicated.

In 1997-2001, the capital gain tax rate was 20%., which it will return to for 2009 if no new income tax legislation is passed. The top marginal regular income tax rate was 39.6% in 1997-2000, which it will return to in 2011 if no new income tax legislation is passed. In 1987 and 1991-1996, the capital gain tax rate was 28%; in 1988-1990, the capital gain tax rate was the same as the regular income tax rate (28% or 33% for those with high incomes).

See for some historical tax rates in high income people.

 

[i_love_muscle]

At least we have a loophole in Canada starting in 2009. We can open up a tax-deferred plan, purchase stocks, and any capital gains we realize is untaxed. We can contribute up to $5,000 annually (indexed to inflation). Any withdrawals are also tax-free.

That's what I'm doing anyway. I'm tired of paying tax. Temporary war measure my @$$ ...