What A Great Country

I started to write about the Yale University hunger strike that is going on. Doctoral students are “symbolically” holding a hunger strike demanding the university pay more than the $30,000 a year stipend, full medical coverage, and $40,000 in tuition. $80,000 per year just doesn’t go as far as it used to for one individual.

Oh, and the “symbolic” part, is that the snowflakes leave their sit-in to get pizza and burgers if they get hungry during the hunger strike. One student commented that it’s “still inspirational” even if they eat during the hunger strike.

The $80,000 per year number sent me down the trail to see just what the poverty level is in the United States and at what level does a citizen receive Obamacare subsidies.

From the ACA (Obamacare) website, a family of EIGHT is considered at the poverty level if their income is $40,890. HALF of what a Yale doc is GIVEN. For an individual, the poverty line is $11,880 or 7 times less than what the POOR Yale graduate student is compensated.

Life is hard…

The reason I mentioned at the beginning of this musing that I “started” to write about the poor snowflakes, is that while researching about the poverty level I tumbled across a financial “advice” website that had recommendations to reduce a person’s Adjusted Gross Income to maximize their Obamacare subsidies.

The website had these “tips” for HIGH INCOME EARNERS to reduce their AGI and maximize how much money the government (fellow tax payers who actually pay taxes) gives to them.

Contribute $18,000 to your 401K and $5,500 to your IRA to remove $23,500 from your income level.  This is good advice for anyone.

Have and S-Corporation or LLC to write off all your business expenses. The financial advice about S-Corps is to structure them to provide NO  OR LITTLE PERSONAL TAXABLE INCOME.

Own rental property and deduct all the expenses of managing the properties, as well as the depreciation to reduce or eliminate any income tax.

But here’s the best advice.,,

The website points out that if you have your rental property in say BORA BORA, you are allowed to deduct TRAVEL EXPENSES to check on your property there.  A business class round trip ticket from Los Angeles to Bora Bora is only $6,168. Do that once a quarter and you get an additional $24,672 in deductions.  Of course you’ll need to stay at an over the water bungalow at $2000 per night while your checking on your multi-million dollar rental investment.

And the Progre-sissies who whine about income inequality want to KEEP Obamacare as the law of the land.

As I said in the title “What a great country!“.

Really?

Do we really need all these warnings?

I was looking to buy a chainsaw to take down a dead tree in my backyard.  As I am Mr. Green energy with my electric vehicle I thought that an electric chainsaw would make the most sense.  No hydrocarbon emissions.  No mixing fuel and oil.  No need to worry about storing gas.

What I didn’t realize was the hazard in owning such a device.  Good thing that Amazon gave me ample warning before I bought  a 40V, brushless motor, 16 inch saw.

“NOT for children under 3 yrs.”

You can click on the picture to zoom in.

I will admit that I’m not a parent, but is a chainsaw something that you would give to a toddler as a toy?  Is a chainsaw okay to give to a kid older than 3 years?

Lawyers, bah humbug!

I’d Have Gone For The Throat

I was watching a video of FAILED presidential candidate, Senator Warren, questioning Betsy DeVos during DeVos’s confirmation hearing for Secretary of Education. The junior senator kept hounding Ms. DeVos on what assurance does the “public” have that money allocated to the department of education would not be wasted.

If I was in Betsy DeVos’s shoes I would have answered that question with the following:

I will guarantee that myself and my staff will follow all established guidelines and principles of the Department of Education regarding waste, fraud, and abuse. And along those lines I would punish anyone who falsely claims minority status, especially those pretending to be Native American, who attempt to defraud the American Taxpayer and those minorities that rightly deserve access to those funds.

Thank you for the question Senator Pocohon…, ahem Warren.