Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Mary don't burn down the house.

It’s 9 am and here comes the fire engine, lights flashing, sirens and they stop around the corner at Mary’s house, then I hear the distinctive beep, beep of an alarm system. My neighbor and I walk over to Mary’s house, no flames – good, no ambulance – good, smoke – bad. Well, not too bad it appears Mary tried to boil chicken and forgot and now has pan burned smoked chicken.

Now Mary is a very good cook, so how did this happen. Mary is also a real estate agent. So we jokingly asked her if she is trying to burn down the house and then she can buy a new one and stimulate the housing market. She looks at us and say’s damm that is a great idea with all the expensive foreclosed homes I could move up. No not worth the trouble, but I guess I am going out for dinner tonight. So maybe it was one of the restaurants in the area that drained the water from the pot while she wasn’t looking.

Well I just I might as well go take a nap that was too much excitement.

Oh, by the way, don’t forget buy a smoke detector and if you have them put new batteries in them, I am sure Mary is happy hers worked this morning.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Taxes in Indiana

I guess its not just taxes in Indiana but taxes all over the place. Why did I single out Indiana its because I move here two years ago and have recently found I can’t believe what goes on here.

Many homeowners recently got their property taxes and to their surprise the taxes had in many cases gone up. Well, that is no surprise what is the increase was 200,300 and even 400%. A mistake, it must be a mistake, no mistake. Now people will lose their homes due to a state that has no clue what it is doing. They did in one county; hit the hardest, put a freeze on the tax increase. So elsewhere like where I live most of my neighbors only got hit with 15-25 % increase and no one worries about them. I do.

Back to the subject, most of us understand we have to pay taxes for the common good, for education, for defense of our nation. But taxes should be structured in a way that does cause a negative effect on the citizens, such as losing your home. The state should never force someone to lose their home for a lack of taxes. I kept getting off the subject, I am just mad.

OK taxes should be structured that you pay if you use something or can afford to pay them. For example, the more money you make, the more income tax you pay. Well if you make more, you can afford more and it is not a negative tax. Sales tax is also a positive tax; the more you spend the more you pay. So if you want Rolls be ready to write a big check to the government, don’t have a lot in your account, buy a Ford or Chevy. You know in advance what you will pay and count that into the purchase price.

I called it a positive tax, well what is a negative tax, of course property tax but also its cousin the Inventory Tax, this is a way to hit you twice and to reduce your choice at the store. If a business has to pay a tax on its inventory, it is going to stock less and therefore a negative effect on the consumer, also don’t forget the business has to pass this tax on to the consumer. Yet a business that has to pay an income tax does so with what it makes and it has no effect on the cosumer.

So when you talk about taxes, start looking to see if it positive or negative. Lets get rid of the negative taxes.