<p>I admit that my family would be at the high end of your ranking. Health cost has not changed for us. Energy cost, including gas is taking a bite, but the difference is, we don’t run out for ice cream because we feel like it (better for our health too )</p>
<p>As far as education, our DS has been given incredible scholarships, so it looks like the Universities are picking up the tab. In State universities costs were going up hand over foot in the 90’s and have slowed down.</p>
<p>If we are talking about our public schools, I am paying the same amount of taxes as I did 4 yrs ago, thus, no difference</p>
<p>For my city taxes, my escrow actually went down last yr. $50 a yr, not much, I wouldn’t have complained if they kept and put is to the school system.</p>
<p>So in the end, my life has not followed your theory.</p>
<p>BTW, my children have XBox, cell phones (albeit not the iphone), Ipods, all the gadgets. I think it comes down to competing with the upper income. We have a beautiful home, go out to dinner as often as we want, but we also don’t try to live like we have a money tree in the yard. I do not go clothes shopping weekly, and buy coach purses because I want one. Bullet and I have also explained to our children, that we can’t afford it…typical ??? can we go here on vacation?</p>
<p>I am happy to be middle income, at least my kids aren’t like the Hiltons ;)</p>
<p>Sorry, it wasn’t based on luck. For the first 12 yrs of my marriage I paid back 33K in student loans.</p>
<p>I learned when to say go for it and when not to it.</p>
<p>My kids didn’t go on a family vacation until my eldest was in 4th grade, while I saw other people charging up their credit cards b/c they had to take their 2 yr old to DisneyWorld</p>
<p>My mother is 70 yrs, old and still works, b/c my father was an A**, (he was very successful, thus could hire an attorney and hide the $$)</p>
<p>I am sorry, please do not be condescending to me, that I was lucky. I was financially fiscal…totally different.</p>
<p>I came from a family with those pretty little pink slips from the utility companies. I know how it feels to be crunched. </p>
<p>The basis of our economic premise in this country is that anyone can make the American Dream. I will not throw stones at the wealthy. That is their life and I wouldn’t trade it for my family for a billion dollars.</p>
<p>Our DS is getting not only merit money, but FAFSA, so according to the gov…we aren’t that lucky.</p>
<p>Sorry for my rant, but that was offensive to me</p>
<p>I wasn’t condescending. I’m sure millions of Americans would consider you lucky: low (or declining) taxes, stable health costs, rising gasoline costs not a major issue & scholarships galore. You sound like you have a good life: good for you.</p>
<p>Are you kidding me? McCain’s campaigns against pork barrel spending (which are really a form of corruption) are legendary. People have gone to jail because of his efforts. For years he has stood on the Senate floor and called out the legislators who try to “bring home the bacon” for their districts.</p>
<p>I submit that John McCain has done more than ANY OTHER senator or congressman to clean up politics. As president, I have no doubt that he will operate in much the same way. You couldn’t ask for a more honorable & above-board senator OR president! He’s been “on the job” of cleaning up politics since day one - back in the eighties. It’s thanks to him that the deficit & government spending situation aren’t a lot worse!</p>
<p>It’s nice that there are middle income folks on these boards who are doing well. Really. But we all know that there are plenty of lower and middle income folks who are NOT doing well in this country. People who work hard but don’t have healthcare. They don’t see docs when they’re sick. One paycheck away from disaster. So let’s just ignore them? Let them figure it out for themselves?
Life is a combination of effort and luck. How can we look away at folks who have worked hard all of their lives, only to see their life savings taken away by an illness or medical emergency?
Yes, I think we should all pay higher taxes to help less fortunate souls. Yes, this would mean more coming out of my pocket, but it’s worth it . We need to take care of our elderly and our and less fortunate. There are some things that just don’t mix well with capitalism - education and healthcare come to mind. We are in a very sorry state right now.
Go Obama! Loved the speech…</p>
<p>“We need to take care of our elderly and our and less fortunate.”</p>
<p>Between Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP, we already cover the elderly and less fortunate. Note that Hillary and Obama DON’T want to just cover the less fortunate - they want to cover everybody.</p>
<p>I do give every week, I give at my church. I give to United Way, American Cancer Society, The Leukemia society, our local battered women’s shelter. I just prefer that the money I give goes directly to the organizations, or at least 75%. Do you actually think our govt. can spend the money they collect efficiently? If you do, I have a great hammer I can sell you, I think it cost over 200 for NASA, but you can pick up the exact same one at Lowe’s for 10.</p>
<p>FF is right, every American will be forced to enroll…no if and or buts…at least the report I read about a month ago, this is why it is called universal health care</p>
<p>Please remember those living paycheck to paycheck will be hit the hardest since it s a 44% federal tax increase. Thus, they will be squeezed with a smaller paycheck, for insurance that their employer is already making them pay for. Isn’t that being hit 2x?</p>
<p>The fact is that we’re already paying inefficiently for care - because folks are showing at emergency rooms with no health insurance (after neglecting their health for years). That cost has to go somewhere. The current system is badly broken. Ignoring it will not make the costs go away.
Sadly, I don’t think everyone donating to charity is going to take care of this issue. It’s like putting a little band-aids on a gushing wound. So I believe we should give someone a chance to try find a comprehensive solution to make this work. It affects all of us. We don’t live in a bubble. When the needs of a good chunk of the people in this country are unmet, we all get dragged down.<br>
Bring on those dems…</p>
<p>"The fact is that we’re already paying inefficiently for care - because folks are showing at emergency rooms with no health insurance (after neglecting their health for years). That cost has to go somewhere. The current system is badly broken. Ignoring it will not make the costs go away. "
Fixing what is inefficient or “broken” isn’t the same as doing nothing or as not taking care of the poor and elderly. We do do that, you may not like the how and I don’t either, but we Americans are a generous people. I also think that the perspective of “unmet needs” is an interesting one. Of those people who don’t have health care (which of course they do), how many have cable tv? Cell phones? $200 per pair sneakers? The truly, doing-without, hungry poor are rare in America with the exception of people with serious problems like substance abuse, teen parenthood/broken families, mental illness, and being illegal immigrants. We have to see who needs what and why, then offer the proper help. Not suck away 40% of a family’s paychek to create a bureaucracy that does a whole lot of not much for a lot of people, instead of addressing the real needs of individuals. Which is why I think very few tasks should be performed by the federal government.</p>
<p>A pretty cynical view here. 40 MILLION people in this county do not have health care. I’ve done some work in a food bank and see plenty of hard working people with not enough money to put food on the table. They’re embarrassed to show up but do out of concern for their families. No $200 sneakers there. Yeah, they have tv sets though since most people are throwing them out these days. Scandalous.
These folks are largely invisible. No they’re not out on the streets begging for dimes or dealing drugs. But just because YOU don’t see them doesn’t mean they’re not there.
Have we been addressing the needs of these people? Has cutting taxes for the wealthy “trickled down” to help these folks. Don’t think so.
There’s a reason most industrialized countries guarantee healthcare for their citizens. It’s the right thing to do. Asking our citizens to show up and beg for health care at makeshift clinics originally designed to help third-world countries is a travesty. Yes, we need to fix this. No, charity and all those generous Americans you keep referring to won’t solve the problem.</p>
<p>Toneranger, you think I’m cynical. Fine. I think your view is unserious. As I said, let’s find out who those people are and why they don’t have healthcare. I don’t do some work in a foodbank, I have volunteered thousands of hours for over twenty years to teach literacy. My organization also has a foodbank, and my church grows food for the hungry. I also volunteer with Habitat for Humanity and devote several thousand hard-earned and carefully-saved dollars every year. I am fully familiar with the poor in NYC. I’m also fully familiar with how many of the “poor” actually have $200 sneakers. If you’re not familiar with that, then you aren’t personally familiar with that portion of the “40 million.” What you don’t get, and what is a fundamental difference between us, is that you think we should tax people’s income (which is, by definition, a tax paid by working people) to hand money out. I disagree wholeheartedly. In 2008 America, the enthrenched poor (as opposed to people in transition like kids coming out of college) are people who need more than money. I want to give them what they need, rather than throw money at them and look the other way. This is a wealthy country and full of opportunity. If someone can’t take advantage of that opportunity and provide for his or her family, then money isn’t the answer.</p>
<p>Interesting discussion- about the role of govt vs private sector. I see both sides of the argument. Sure government can waste a lot of money. But those of you who think the private sector is maximally efficient, you are unfortunately mistaken. Plenty of big corporations waste huge amounts of money. That $200 hammer that NASA buys and that you and I can buy in Lowes for $10…let me tell you, there are plenty of private corps that spend maybe $100 for those hammers. I know one private organization that spends about $100 just to generate a $10 invoice. Look at the spectacular losses on Wall Street these days. Ultimately, it is your money and mine that is bailing out those private companies. The people who got bonuses for writing those bad loans and for engineering those risky derivatives… they are not paying back a penny of it. The worst part about it is that govt is at least accountable to the people. If NASA paid $200 for a hammer, we get to know about it and we can create a fuss. With private corps, it is too late by the time we find out how rotten their finances were.</p>
<p>My opinion is that we the people should focus more on maximizing govt efficiency and less on impoverishing our govt by cutting taxes. We need to remember our govt is “of the people, by the people and for the people”. If it doesn’t seem that way today then it is our collective fault and we need to change it, starting with our own attitudes.</p>
<p>Vicariousparent, I agree with almost all of what you posted except this “Sure government can waste a lot of money. But those of you who think the private sector is maximally efficient, you are unfortunately mistaken.” In case you were referring to me in some manner, I want to point out that I specifically referred to the federal government and that’s exactly what I meant. The needs of individuals can best be understood and met at the local level, and having the federal government attempt to do those things is inherently wasteful. That is one of the core beliefs of my personal conservatism.</p>
<p>“My opinion is that we the people should focus more on maximizing govt efficiency and less on impoverishing our govt by cutting taxes. We need to remember our govt is “of the people, by the people and for the people”. If it doesn’t seem that way today then it is our collective fault and we need to change it, starting with our own attitudes.”</p>
<p>If we focused on government efficiency, we wouldn’t need to impoverish working people by taking more of their money than absolutely necessary. I agree that government should be of, by and for the people, which is why I believe that the government has no money, produces nothing, but only acts as a steward of the money earned and wealth created by citizens. Poor stewards at that. The attitude that I believe needs to change is that at every level, government employees and their supporters need to understand whose money they are spending and do so respectfully and frugally.</p>
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