You can also follow around the state tree trimming trucks and get lots of free shit. They pulled down an very old, very dead something or other in front of my place that left a few tons of wood piled up on my lawn until a dump truck came along to collect it.Dunno what the tree service industry is like up near you, and how close your off grid property is to anything, but you could probably get wood free from tree companies, and they'll drop if off at your property. You'd get a lot of shit wood, but you have the space to make it disappear.
I'm in a tiny rural county, mostly agricultural. Some industry, little other business. Very low tax that only applies to working people, not retired or other. Low property tax also.
Our roads are paved and maintained rather well. Utility lines have been upgraded in recent years and we have few outages.
Paid EMS and sheriff, volunteer fire departments.
It isn't taxes or lack of, it's how the budget is managed.
It's easier to do VAT (sales tax) but rebate the first $x thousand so the poor essentially pay nothing, middle class pays a little and the wealthy pay a lot. Can't tax income on people like Musk because they don't take a huge income, they borrow against their assets.I argue the exact opposite.
I'd be quite thrilled with NO income tax, NO sales tax, but 100% tax upon death (with single* spouse/children under 18 survival exceptions). Imagine your whole life without paying a penny in tax--ever. Only when you die do you pay tax and you won't care then, because, well, you are dead. That can only happen with asset taxes. *Single as in if a husband/wife dies, the wife/husband gets the property, but if the wife then dies it does not transfer tax free to future husbands/wives.
- Income taxes discourage work--harming the economy. Plus, as they currently are structured, they lead to drastic inequalities.
- Sales taxes discourage spending--harming the economy. Plus, they punish the poor who spend all of their money while the rich who spend little of their money are barely taxed. There are complex and costly non-taxed goods systems to help reduce the problem, but no matter how you parse it, the poor will pay a far higher percentage than the wealthy.
- Wealth taxes (such as asset taxes) boost the economy. Want to lower your asset tax bill? Buy some things. Major economic boosts will happen as the ultra wealthy buy all kinds of services to reduce their tax bills. They'd hire nearly every single feasible unemployed person to do more services for them to reduce their taxes.
There's an idea in here. Instead of a 'wealth tax' how about a 'social subsidy recuperation tax' where a percentage of wealth gained is taxed, dependent on the relative subsidy to the relevant industry the person made their wealth through?Your rural area is getting subsidized by urban areas of the state where the majority of revenues come from. That's the funny thing about rurals crowing about their independence, it's all subsidized. It doesn't make financial sense to run all that infrastructure out there, it's not cost-effective. I mean FDR that socialist bastard had to bring electricity to the sticks.
That really depends on the state in question. There are states where that is not true - like my state of NH. Of course we don’t have any large metropolitan areas.Your rural area is getting subsidized by urban areas of the state where the majority of revenues come from. That's the funny thing about rurals crowing about their independence, it's all subsidized. It doesn't make financial sense to run all that infrastructure out there, it's not cost-effective. I mean FDR that socialist bastard had to bring electricity to the sticks.
they borrow against their assets.
We need to do something, but it is easier to tax what we spend. Everyone gets to spend up to $100,000 tax-free per year (or whatever ceiling makes sense) and then start taxing each additional $100K at increasingly higher rates. Easy peasy. $20M yacht? $20M sales tax on top of it.Maybe this is what we need to fix. Tax that money as income. I never realized that was even a thing until a while back when I learned of the concept. If rich people can just set their income to 0 and then make money out of thin air like that then yeah that should count as income and be taxed.
We need to do something, but it is easier to tax what we spend. Everyone gets to spend up to $100,000 tax-free per year (or whatever ceiling makes sense) and then start taxing each additional $100K at increasingly higher rates. Easy peasy. $20M yacht? $20M sales tax on top of it.
Outright ownership (not mortgaged) is almost halved. I'm not surprised.While I assume you mean real ownership and not mortgaged, based on the first google result 65.8% are homeowners. 225k networth vs 6,300 for renters, ouch.
Most people don't buy real estate with cash. Mortgage payments only would count as "sales" or we could make primary residence tax-free. The point is something can be done about that concern.That doesn't sound like a bad way to go about it either. Just don't make it count for certain things, like real estate so it doesn't affect home buyers. Although the logistics of tracking that is what is tricky. Stores would be on the hook for that most likely. Need some way to know the person's purchase history to see if they pay the tax. Sales tax is already complicated enough as it is with all the different jurisdictions that stores need to be aware of if they sell online. A big burden especially on a smaller business. Maybe we could simplify this by making it so stores only need to charge tax in their own jurisdiction.
34% having outright ownership is surprisingly high as well honestly.Outright ownership (not mortgaged) is almost halved. I'm not surprised.
'According to ATTOM Data Research, only "34 percent of all American homeowners have 100 percent equity in their properties — they've either paid off their entire mortgage debt or they never had a mortgage".'
'A 2022 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) study of 28 countries found the U.S. had the third lowest percentage of households that owned their homes “free and clear” with no mortgages, as “outright owners.” '
Those numbers you listed for the gap in net worth between owners and renters didn't surprise me either.
Not surprised. People tend to spend too high a percentage of their income when purchasing a home, as far as I can tell from anecdotal observations. Who needs five bedrooms when they only plan on having 1-2 kids?* Around here we are getting larger houses built on postage stamp sized lots for new construction. These are houses with Hondas and Toyotas parked in the driveway/garage - middle class.'A 2022 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) study of 28 countries found the U.S. had the third lowest percentage of households that owned their homes “free and clear” with no mortgages, as “outright owners.” '
Kinda of surprised by Canada and Australia. Curious what is going on it both countries. American millionaires could be moving to Canada for large land tracts with beautiful vistas; or fashionable and clean cities like Montreal (at least the last time I was up there).I just saw this and found it interesting.....where do the millionaires move to?
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I argue the exact opposite.
I'd be quite thrilled with NO income tax, NO sales tax, but 100% tax upon death (with single* spouse/children under 18 survival exceptions). Imagine your whole life without paying a penny in tax--ever. Only when you die do you pay tax and you won't care then, because, well, you are dead. That can only happen with asset taxes. *Single as in if a husband/wife dies, the wife/husband gets the property, but if the wife then dies it does not transfer tax free to future husbands/wives.
- Income taxes discourage work--harming the economy. Plus, as they currently are structured, they lead to drastic inequalities.
- Sales taxes discourage spending--harming the economy. Plus, they punish the poor who spend all of their money while the rich who spend little of their money are barely taxed. There are complex and costly non-taxed goods systems to help reduce the problem, but no matter how you parse it, the poor will pay a far higher percentage than the wealthy.
- Wealth taxes (such as asset taxes) boost the economy. Want to lower your asset tax bill? Buy some things. Major economic boosts will happen as the ultra wealthy buy all kinds of services to reduce their tax bills. They'd hire nearly every single feasible unemployed person to do more services for them to reduce their taxes.
I expect climate change to warm Canada up significantly over the next few decades. If I were into long term real estate investing I'd probably put a significant amount of my portfolio into Canada.Kinda of surprised by Canada and Australia. Curious what is going on it both countries. American millionaires could be moving to Canada for large land tracts with beautiful vistas; or fashionable and clean cities like Montreal (at least the last time I was up there).
The UK sure is paying the price of leaving the EU.
It might seem high, but maybe it's how they looked at things. There are people who live in their family homes that were paid off decades ago and just handed down.34% having outright ownership is surprisingly high as well honestly.
That’s true, or purchased from parents at below market prices.It might seem high, but maybe it's how they looked at things. There are people who live in their family homes that were paid off decades ago and just handed down.
I taught in South Korea for many years. It was nice to pay 0 US federal and state taxes. The money that I would have had to pay in taxes wentt into my investments.
Imagine that. You actually get to keep most of your money. I paid a 10% VAT tax I believe. Somewhere in that area.