"What do you do, monitor the DR until a thread about income inequality gets posted and you jump in to cheerleader for the wealthy?"

I don't know why you are so desperate to make the rich poorer. It's not like you're going to get anything out of it, other than maybe the satisfaction of making someone poorer.

"Sorry MB, I looked at both things you posted and saw nothing about folks making $47,000 and not paying income taxes."

Yeah...I posted the wrong thing. Table 1.

"Unrealized capital gains should be taxed, past some extreme high threshold that most of us will never surpass."

Out of sheer envy?

Would you stop taxing realized capital gains?

Would the government reimburse people for unrealized capital losses?

Real-World example. I bought Peloton in 2020 at $48 per share. It peaked at $151 per share. Some kid got sucked under a Peloton treadmill, and the share prices plummeted. I sold at $38. Today it trade at $3.84 per share.

Had I bought a million shares at $48 ($48M), in December of 2020 I would have held $151M is what you would refer to as unrealized capital gains. Had I been taxed, let's say 10%, my tax bill would have been $10.3 million. So I pay it. A few months later, the value of my investment is worth $38 million, and I sell. Would I get that $10.3 million I paid in unrealized capital gains back?

And the bill for billionaires would be much larger than advertised. Billionaires don't have billions sitting in a checking account, which means they would have to sell off some of their assets, presumably having to pay taxes on that, since they would now be realized capital gains.

"What "news" outlet told you income taxes don't start until after $47,000?"

'Tis all in the article I posted.

I hear the Russians are bringing oil into Cuba. Buy it from them.

"Every time people point out what percentage of total income taxes are paid by the top 20% it correctly gets pointed out that this country has all sorts of other taxes, including property and sales taxes, that have to be paid."

Dude, wanna know who doesn't pay federal income taxes? It's people making less than $46k per year. The average bracket for that group is 3.3%.

In Sweden, it would be 33%.

Lemme guess, you're one of those idiot fanbois in favor of taxing unrealized capital gains.

"Thanks to tax cuts, creative accounting, off shore holdings, and many other loopholes we couldn't imagine, billionaires pay less in percentage than the middle class does."

You need to educate yourself gurrfrend:

Russia may have some HUMINT game, but the rest of it is very poor considered to what the US IC has. It wouldn't be an even trade. Not by a longshot.

"Gosh, socialist countries with universal healthcare rank at the top of the list again."

"But the 2026 report suggests their success goes beyond the usual explanations of wealth or welfare systems. Social trust, strong institutions and a sense of community all play a role in how people evaluate their lives. "When it comes to happiness, building what is good in life is more important than finding and fixing what is bad," John F. Helliwell, a founding editor of the report, said in a statement. "Both need doing, now more than ever."

I spend a lot of time in Norway. I even considered getting a job up there at one point. They are cool people. Tough as ----.

It's a beautiful country, but it has the worst weather I've ever seen. It's actually not that cold. You're just as likely to see rain in January as you are snow. And lots of wind. And that's inside the Arctic Circle.

My co-workers tell me that the best part of their day is their morning swim in the Norwegian Sea, regardless of the time of year. In summer, I can stand it for about 30 seconds. They're a different breed.

Who knows, maybe if USans started their day with a cold plunge, they might be happier.

You make Cuba sound like an ill-behaved child whose parents stopped paying their bills.

"They are, for oil."

Really?

No one else will sell them oil?

For the record, this is nothing new. Cubans have been risking their lives to float to the US on innertubes, even before the grid collapse. LONG before the grid collapse.

Notice that Haitians don't try to flee to Cuba, even though it is so much closer.

Why do you think that might be?

"The grid didn't just collapse, we've put them under siege and they have no fuel or spare parts."

Umm..what?

Russia can't supply them with spare parts? Or China? Or any of the other 194 countries in the world?

You're almost making the argument that Cuba is wholly dependent on the US.

Is that the case?

"Historically we always strive to give our troops a special meal before they're put directly in harms way."

It was actually relatively common. Maybe once every other month or so, plus major holidays.

"And if you question the billions in luxuries going straight to the top, Trump supporters will accuse you of wanting soldiers to starve."

This went to the troops. There is no realistic circumstance where the DoD could spend millions for steak and lobster for a few hundred people in the DoD. Not unless they were eating it every day for every meal.

Yeah. With the exception of the grand piano, nothing else in this list is weird. $5.3M for Apple devices actually seems low, as now every aviator in the Air Force is issued one. I'm sure that other career fields get them as well. The military has always provided steak and lobster for service members on occasion. It's gross-the military couldn't cook a steak if victory depended on it-but they still try.