Raises?

[Notarealsignguy]

I disagree. Taxation is slavery.

Also, see the Laffer Curve.

Life is slavery. You can't glean what tax rates should be from the Laffer curve, it's just a theory that nobody knows where the peak will actually be. It could be at 2% or it could be 99% and the theory would still hold true. Plus the US tax rates are progressive which further complicates this idea. Nobody likes paying taxes, that's a given but you can look at various blocks of time in history and see that super low interest rates and low tax rates make for a very tumultuous economy with very little expansion. M&A's, offshoring, ghost companies and stock buybacks is what you see in this sort of environment. Look back at the 50's 60's and 70's vs today.

 

[Signarama Jockey]

Life is slavery.

lol... what?

 

[Stacey K]

Real estate/rentals is still the best way to make money.

Oh - this post is about raises LOL I've always gotten raises based on a percentage. It's an election year, I would stay on the conservative side and maybe offer a bonus this summer.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

lol... what?

You have to go to work everyday to make money, to pay bills that never stop coming in right? You're forced to carry insurance if you have a business, drive a car, carry a mortgage, want decent medical care etc. We're all a slave to the dollar. I don't really care, it was just a response to taxation is slavery when really it all is.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Real estate/rentals is still the best way to make money.

I hate real estate, too much maintenance and the damn taxes/insurance are there whether it's vacant or occupied.

 

[Signarama Jockey]

You have to go to work everyday to make money, to pay bills that never stop coming in right? You're forced to carry insurance if you have a business, drive a car, carry a mortgage, want decent medical care etc. We're all a slave to the dollar. I don't really care, it was just a response to taxation is slavery when really it all is.

I do see your point in a more abstract sense, but someone demanding that you give them a share of what you work for is a much more practical example of slavery.

We work, they take. We are not a free people.

 

[Gino]

You wanna be free. Move to a more freedom loving country.

We pay taxes to provide revenue for federal, local, and state governments so they can fund essential services--defense, highways, police, a justice system which benefit all citizens, who can't provide such services for themselves. However, as time moves forward and we allow more and more stupid departments/agencies to find ways to spend money on other senseless things, we go deeper and deeper into debt. We need to get rid of all the freeloaders..... NOW !!!

 

[Notarealsignguy]

You wanna be free. Move to a more freedom loving country.

We pay taxes to provide revenue for federal, local, and state governments so they can fund essential services--defense, highways, police, a justice system which benefit all citizens, who can't provide such services for themselves. However, as time moves forward and we allow more and more stupid departments/agencies to find ways to spend money on other senseless things, we go deeper and deeper into debt. We need to get rid of all the freeloaders..... NOW !!!

The government is staffed for peak workloads and whenever there is slack, they are expected to justify their position so they make more regulations. Then it snowballs. New leadership has to make their mark so they do it by changing things. It's never enough to just keep things running, it's sort of a flaw in the entire system and bureaucracy is expanded. We'd be better off allowing them to sit around twiddling their thumbs in between the peaks rather than solving hypothetical issues. They need to be there but they don't have to busy all of the time, it's government, not a factory.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

but someone demanding that you give them a share of what you work for is a much more practical example of slavery.

We work, they take. We are not a free people.

All I know is when I have a heart attack from working too much, I want someone to answer the 911 call and send an ambulance. Taxes at work.

 

[Boudica]

and fix those fricken pot holes!

 

[JBurton]

someone demanding that you give them a share of what you work for is a much more practical example of slavery.

Sure, of course they helped you do your work, so if you were to not pay taxes, then aren't you demanding services and infrastructure that someone else paid for?

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

You guys have legal weed up there, that's why you have pot holes

 

[Signarama Jockey]

Sure, of course they helped you do your work, so if you were to not pay taxes, then aren't you demanding services and infrastructure that someone else paid for?

I did not request nor did I agree to pay for any government services or infrastructure.

 

[Johnny Best]

Pot holes, Legal weed, clever Tex. I want Notso to read more out of that Economics book and confuse SignJockey some more.
I do not think slaves ever paid taxes, the Masta did that for them.

 

[Boudica]

I did not request nor did I agree to pay for any government services or infrastructure.

Yet you enjoy them everyday. It's part of living within a society. If you don't like it, leave. there are 14 tax-free countries around the world. These include Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, the United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, Brunei, Bahrain, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Monaco, Kuwait, Qatar, Somalia, and Western Sahara. I'm sure they would love to have you.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

TThe

Pot holes, Legal weed, clever Tex. I want Notso to read more out of that Economics book and confuse SignJockey some more.
I do not think slaves ever paid taxes, the Masta did that for them.

The slaves didn't have an income to tax.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

No Taxes = No Laws = Anarchy
Bet you can do whatever you want and not pay taxes in Haiti

 

[Johnny Best]

Nobody works in Haiti.

 

[Signstein]

I always hated when employers didn't give cost of living....

We just lost 2 graphics artists out of 3 because everyone in our area is hiring at $28-30 an hour...

The last company I was at did an annual review of the going rate for wages, it was nice and prevented people from leaving for a few bucks elsewhere. They understood that hiring and training a new employee was more costly than giving an employee a few bucks raise.... So staying competitive with local shops was in their bet interest as well.

We just went through something similar here. My employer has been unable to attract or retain employees for years so they commissioned an outside agency to study our pay rates compared to the rest of our area.
They did this at the same time they rolled out a new merit-based employee evaluation system. The idea made sense - reward the good workers with good raises to retain them.

But guess what? The agency discovered we were underpaid. So, the company had to do a huge pay adjustment for EVERYONE. Some folks got a few percentage point raises, others got larger $2-$3 raises.
So now we're at the end of our first year of the evaluation system - and I'm hearing that foremen, supervisors, and managers are being coached on how to evaluate - how to use wiggle words, and phrases like "often contributes" or "willingness to help" instead of demonstrative statements like "is helpful".
It feels like we're in for a bit of a bait-and-switch. They increased wages to bring everyone up closer to where they should be, but are now figuring out how to weasel out of paying actual raises.
So, if a 3.5% raise is really only a cost of living adjustment, should true raises be more like 5%?

 

[Signarama Jockey]

Yet you enjoy them everyday. It's part of living within a society. If you don't like it, leave. there are 14 tax-free countries around the world. These include Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, the United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, Brunei, Bahrain, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Monaco, Kuwait, Qatar, Somalia, and Western Sahara. I'm sure they would love to have you.

By your logic, I could steal money from your bank account and then use some of that money (I'd have to pay myself, of course) to select and send groceries to your home.

If you didn't like me stealing your money you could move to a different country.