Who cares if gas is $4.00...$6.00... or $26.00 a gallon?
One of the problems of aging humanity is our inability to change our thinking with the times. We do well the first 30 or so years, sometimes 40, then on rare occasions we may find an individual past 50 who is in tune with the world as it evolves into a state of madness and mayhem threatening the sanity of those locked into their assigned time cubicle and unable to live harmoniously with the world as it is.
We find ourselves out of time and tune with modern morals, religion, political goings on, and of course financial matters. We are unwillingly pushed along to a world that is inconsiderate to virtually all the things we oldtimers imagine a perfect or at least acceptable world to be.
Job longevity, relationships, parenting, investments, retirement, health care, aging, death and life itself is all subject to change and will, like it or not.
As an aging baby boomer we are relegated to being the same grouchy, narrowminded, tiresome and out of touch whiners we use to make fun of and tolerate when we were young and they were old. Now they are us.
So, maybe we just need to think about things in a different way and do real comparisons, like this gas situation. If we take gasoline at $3.89.9 and eliminate the ones digit, we have $.38.9 which is the 1968 figure for a gallon of gas. Do the same thing with wages and all of a sudden you realize that with the absence of that pesky ones digit, you're living forty years in the past.
That makes it easier to deal with and a lot easier to understand. Now we understand we're as well off as we were 40 years ago. Hmmmm............... Wait a minute..... there IS something very different ......... IT'S THE TAXES YOU IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In 1969 your entire percentage of withholding from your paycheck was about 16% not to mention sales taxes that were a fraction of the percentage paid now. All told, present day, your annual tax load from your wages sometimes reaches 40% plus for some individuals, and your taxes have just started.
Lots of credible think tanks and thinkers suggest your 'real tax load' is actually in the middle 80% range, from the ground up as a total of your gross income. Hang on for the inflation that you can't imagine either..... it's coming
We find ourselves out of time and tune with modern morals, religion, political goings on, and of course financial matters. We are unwillingly pushed along to a world that is inconsiderate to virtually all the things we oldtimers imagine a perfect or at least acceptable world to be.
Job longevity, relationships, parenting, investments, retirement, health care, aging, death and life itself is all subject to change and will, like it or not.
As an aging baby boomer we are relegated to being the same grouchy, narrowminded, tiresome and out of touch whiners we use to make fun of and tolerate when we were young and they were old. Now they are us.
So, maybe we just need to think about things in a different way and do real comparisons, like this gas situation. If we take gasoline at $3.89.9 and eliminate the ones digit, we have $.38.9 which is the 1968 figure for a gallon of gas. Do the same thing with wages and all of a sudden you realize that with the absence of that pesky ones digit, you're living forty years in the past.
That makes it easier to deal with and a lot easier to understand. Now we understand we're as well off as we were 40 years ago. Hmmmm............... Wait a minute..... there IS something very different ......... IT'S THE TAXES YOU IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In 1969 your entire percentage of withholding from your paycheck was about 16% not to mention sales taxes that were a fraction of the percentage paid now. All told, present day, your annual tax load from your wages sometimes reaches 40% plus for some individuals, and your taxes have just started.
Lots of credible think tanks and thinkers suggest your 'real tax load' is actually in the middle 80% range, from the ground up as a total of your gross income. Hang on for the inflation that you can't imagine either..... it's coming
posted by Bo at 9:37 PM
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