Japan has decided to lower its corporate tax rate to 36.8%. Japan previously had the highest corporate tax rate in the world. Now, the United has the highest corporate tax rate--39.2%.
The United States holds the world’s title for highest corporate tax rate, with average combined federal and state profit levies of 39.2%. That's higher than Sweden. Higher than Russia, China, Mexico, Denmark, and even France.
The last four years have seen numerous U.S. economic milestones—four years of trillion-dollar deficits, some $5 trillion in new debt, the loss of America's AAA credit rating, three years of near-zero interest rates (that have not done anything to lower unemployment), postwar records for federal spending as a share of the economy, and now the world's number one corporate tax rate.
To read more about this, go to http://on.wsj.com/AtqNG9.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
The Value of Family
Following is a letter from a 12-year-old girl to her grandfather in the retirement community where Nancy and I live. She wrote the letter on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Only the family name has been changed.
“It is amazing how one little act of kindness or one little thing you do can really benefit someone’s life! You have no idea how happy you can make someone feel just by even visiting them! There are many examples of things I learned from the O’Malley family. They have helped me learn the importance of family and how having a good relationship is very important!
“The importance of family is that family comes first, always! You have to take care of each other so when they have families of their own; they know how to take care of them too!
“You have to spend time together if you want to create memories! Laughing and sharing moments together is good for your soul! Doing things together helps you remember that family is the best of friends that you will never lose, and that will always be right by your side no matter what! The more time that you spend together, the better relationship and the better memories, you will share together!
“I know that the little things that you do for your family and friends, can make them happier than ever before! An example of this is when my whole family went to visit my grandpa on his 80th birthday. We had dinner with him and he opened up presents. That night we talked, laughed, and laughed some more! We made him a book of memories and photos of the family! It was a great way to display such happy and memorable moments! My grandpa was so happy! It was a simple thing to do, and a very easy way to make him happy! This taught me that we should all try to do something nice/kind to make someone happy every day!
“Family is the most powerful love, greatest love that you could ever have! Family encourages you to follow your dreams and to take chances! Family does things for each other that they would not do for anyone else. Family is just, super exciting! There is never a dull moment! Sometimes you lose friends easily, just from something stupid or something that you said. But family will NEVER leave you! They learn to forgive after you make a mistake! Nothing is more important and powerful than family!”
“It is amazing how one little act of kindness or one little thing you do can really benefit someone’s life! You have no idea how happy you can make someone feel just by even visiting them! There are many examples of things I learned from the O’Malley family. They have helped me learn the importance of family and how having a good relationship is very important!
“The importance of family is that family comes first, always! You have to take care of each other so when they have families of their own; they know how to take care of them too!
“You have to spend time together if you want to create memories! Laughing and sharing moments together is good for your soul! Doing things together helps you remember that family is the best of friends that you will never lose, and that will always be right by your side no matter what! The more time that you spend together, the better relationship and the better memories, you will share together!
“I know that the little things that you do for your family and friends, can make them happier than ever before! An example of this is when my whole family went to visit my grandpa on his 80th birthday. We had dinner with him and he opened up presents. That night we talked, laughed, and laughed some more! We made him a book of memories and photos of the family! It was a great way to display such happy and memorable moments! My grandpa was so happy! It was a simple thing to do, and a very easy way to make him happy! This taught me that we should all try to do something nice/kind to make someone happy every day!
“Family is the most powerful love, greatest love that you could ever have! Family encourages you to follow your dreams and to take chances! Family does things for each other that they would not do for anyone else. Family is just, super exciting! There is never a dull moment! Sometimes you lose friends easily, just from something stupid or something that you said. But family will NEVER leave you! They learn to forgive after you make a mistake! Nothing is more important and powerful than family!”
Monday, March 12, 2012
Coming Apart—The State Of White America
Charles Murray has written an important book with the above title. This book has received 3 top level reviews lately, 2 in the Wall Street Journal and 1 in the New York Times.
The book describes the development of two, here to fore, new classes of people in White America, i.e., the new upper class and the new lower class. I’ll make some comments on the new upper class in this blog post.
The new upper class is a group of people who were selected out of the upper middle class by their superior intelligence and by their elite educations at premier universities, such as Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Wellesley, etc. These people are the upper level of our present day movers and shakers in government, business, communications, and education. They are the drivers of the new and important cultural, financial, and social changes we see in our country. They were raised in homes of very affluent parents and born into the baby boom generation.
One characteristic of this new class of people is their isolation from mainstream America. They do not participate in the activities of ordinary Americans to a great extent. They make much more money; they live in their own residential compounds, mostly in the neighborhood of New York, Washington, San Francisco, and Los Angeles; they maintain stable families; they do not smoke; they take different vacations from ordinary Americans; they exercise a lot; they are not overweight; etc., etc.
We have a lot of things in our lives for which we can thank this new upper class. They are the innovators of most of the good material things we have in our lives, e.g., advances in technology and medicine. While the author accurately describes this new upper class of Americans, he fails to assess the value of spiritual life they manifest.
I would imagine that when God looks at this group of overeducated, elitist, snobs, He might not have a very rosy appreciation of them. Nevertheless, they are with us; and we had better understand them—they control our lives more than we, perhaps, know.
The book describes the development of two, here to fore, new classes of people in White America, i.e., the new upper class and the new lower class. I’ll make some comments on the new upper class in this blog post.
The new upper class is a group of people who were selected out of the upper middle class by their superior intelligence and by their elite educations at premier universities, such as Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Wellesley, etc. These people are the upper level of our present day movers and shakers in government, business, communications, and education. They are the drivers of the new and important cultural, financial, and social changes we see in our country. They were raised in homes of very affluent parents and born into the baby boom generation.
One characteristic of this new class of people is their isolation from mainstream America. They do not participate in the activities of ordinary Americans to a great extent. They make much more money; they live in their own residential compounds, mostly in the neighborhood of New York, Washington, San Francisco, and Los Angeles; they maintain stable families; they do not smoke; they take different vacations from ordinary Americans; they exercise a lot; they are not overweight; etc., etc.
We have a lot of things in our lives for which we can thank this new upper class. They are the innovators of most of the good material things we have in our lives, e.g., advances in technology and medicine. While the author accurately describes this new upper class of Americans, he fails to assess the value of spiritual life they manifest.
I would imagine that when God looks at this group of overeducated, elitist, snobs, He might not have a very rosy appreciation of them. Nevertheless, they are with us; and we had better understand them—they control our lives more than we, perhaps, know.
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