Front Porch Gossip – 1/26/2012

Heyz to all my friends out there off my front porch! Sumone sez, “Ima, why ain’t u writin’ stuff in that-their paper!” I sez back, “I ain’t hearin’ much cuz u ain’t sittin on ur porch no more since it got winter out!” If they think I’m gonna freeze off my lil – well, okay, it ain’t so lil any more – but it still gits cold on the front porch!

My nephew came home the other day. He into all that school sports an stuff! He sez they gonna do away with the two high school teams and put ‘em into one next year. He sez Ford City will be the Junior High school and Kittanning will be the Senior High.

Well I got pretty upset! I ask him how I wuz gonna be able to go to the big Kittanning-Ford City football game an scream out for my team (they ‘spect me do that every year) when next year they all be playin’ on the same team! He sez, “Auntee Ima (that wat he calls me), there ain’t gonna be no Kittanning-Ford City game next year. They all gonna be one team!”

So I ask him wat they gonna do if they take them kids from the Kittanning Junior High and ship ‘em to Ford City. He sez he don’t know but they probably gonna shut down the Kittanning building. So since he think he so smart, I sez, “Then why don’t they just take all them kids and put ‘em in the Kittanning Senior High. I mean, if there is enuf room up there to move all those senior high kids from Ford City up here, then why they be keeping that Kittanning Junior High open anyway?” He sez he don’t know. For a teacher he don’t cipher much!

Then I ask him wat they gonna do wit that new coach fella they hired that wuz in the Kittanning Paper on Wednesday? He sez he don’t know. Now he a really nice boy, but sometimes I think he got his smarts from cousin Mildred! She would read a recipe and when it call for water, she couldn’t finish makin’ the meal cuz she couldn’t decide if it wanted tap water or bottled water. I tell her, “Mildred, you don’t make sense! Everybody know it bottled water!”

Well sumbody let me know wat those sports teams are gonna do! I won’t know whether to wear my purple paint or red paint to next year’s game! My guess is that school board is just as confused as my nephew.  

Now just so you know, I don’t gossip! Everythin’ I sez is TRUE! So if u gonna post some lame comment below, it better be true!

BENNETT: Bar Stool Economics

Let me begin by telling you that the story I am about to relate gives an “every day look” at how the tax system works and explains how a tax break also works and who pays the most gets the most back with a tax cut.  As usual there is a lot of debate as to whether this illustration can be believed as factual.  To check this out (for the reader) I googled the title as above and found two You-tube investigations that are divided (one for and one against) the tax story.  The one against is entitled: Economist Richard Wolff Debunks “Bar Stool Economics”.   The one that supports the story is titled: “Bar Stool Economics and How Taxes Work”.  The man listed as the author of the article declines any knowledge of this supposed writing. 

Here’s the story. Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all of them is $100.00

If they paid the bill the way we pay our taxes, it would be something like this:

            The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

            The fifth would pay $1

            The sixth would pay $3

            The seventh would pay $7

            The eighth would pay $12

            The ninth would pay $18

            The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59

So that’s what was done.  The ten men drank every day in the bar, until one day, the owner gave them a discount of $20.  Drinks for the 10 were now $80 instead of $100.  The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected (still free).   What about the others? How could they divide the $20 so that everyone would get his “fair share”?  They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33.  But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth and sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.  So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:        The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings )

                        The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 ( 33% savings).

                        The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).

                        The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings ).

                        The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings ).

                        The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings ).

Each of the six was better off than before.  And the first four continued to drink for free.  But then they began to compare their savings.  “I only got a dollar out of the $20″, declared the sixth man.  “I only saved a dollar, too.  It’s unfair that he got ten times more that I.  The wealthy get all the breaks!”  “Wait a minute” yelled the first four men. ”We didn’t get anything at all.

The system exploits the poor”.  The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beer without him.  But when it came time to pay, they discovered something important.  They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit in a tax reduction.  Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore.

David R. Kamerschen, PhD. Professor of Economics, University of Georgia, refutes that he ever wrote this article.  Could it really be that simple to understand and fix or is our economic system that broken that we cannot understand it, let alone fix it. 

Here is my bottom line: When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them; and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work, because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.  Friends, get involved before it is too late.

Remember:  All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men and women to stand by and do nothing. 

THIS IS A CALL TO ACTION