Not sure who wrote this, but it makes sense to me...
Let's put tax cuts in terms that everyone can understand. Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh $7.
The eighth $12.
The ninth $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.
"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20."
So, now dinner for the ten only cost $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes.
So, the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free.
But what about the other six, the paying customers? How could they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share'?The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being 'PAID' to eat their meal. So, the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (29% savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $50 instead of $59 (15% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to eat for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man.
He pointed to the tenth man "but he got $9!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar too.
It's unfair that he got nine times more than me!""That's true!!" shouted the seventh man.
"Why should he get $9 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important.
They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore.
There are lots of good restaurants in Europe and the Caribbean.
My favorite band just wrote a song called "Save the Dogs" and then made this sweet stop motion video for it. Pretty sure they wrote this song for me... hahaha
"Oh Boy" is coming out soon... what I've heard is freaking rad. Can't wait.
Speaking of saving dogs, BARKtoberfest is tomorrow and if you want to save the dogs, you'd best be there to help raise money for Friends for Life. I'll have a Petlane booth there and I'll be selling some great pet items, booking pawties and sponsoring new PUPs! Just doing my part to save the dogs :)
No, I'm not referring to a post about my current political opinions, although you won't have to wait too long for that one. So you can sit back from the edge of your seat now. Haha. I'm talking about pictures of our new baby girl! Along with a picture of her former home (the White Mountains) and a rainbow of God's promise for good measure. She has to be the cutest thing I have ever seen, next to THOR, of course. I thought my mom was just going to drop dead the moment she saw Hanalei, the cuteness is that overwhelming. Currently she's sitting in my lap, looking up at me and panting after a nap because it is SO HOT in this room right now. I have wanted to capture her on film so many different times but my memory will have to suffice to capture those moments for now.
The best is when she is sitting down and tucks in her little butt, and cocks her head at me with her ears all perked up, so I tilt my head in one direction, then the other, and she mirrors me... SO CUTE. Or when she jumps around and spins in the air whimpering because she knows that I am fixing her food in her princess dish (yes, she has a princess dish) and this is so exciting because food is THE BEST THING EVER. Or when she pounces on THOR and he puts the smack down when she tries to nab one of his squirrels. Or when she is so tired that you can pick her up and carry her around and she will stay asleep through anything because she is that determined to sleep. Or watching how brave she is because she actually jumps off the couch which would be like me jumping off a roof, or climbing down the stairs all by herself at a whole seven weeks old. Or maybe the time when she charged under THOR at top speed right as he lifted his leg to do his business on his favorite bush and peed all over her. Or when she accidentally stepped in THOR's dog log and lifted her paw, looking at it in absolute horror after catching a whiff, clearly wondering what she was supposed to do now that her paw was covered in gnarly feces.
She is SUCH a girl. The princess dish fits.
GAAAAAAAAAH! I can hardly stand it.
We got an e-mail from our breeder saying that we can pick up our little girl next weekend! We are so excited. THOR can barely contain himself :)
She's the one on the left. She is a DOLL. As Stacy always says about THOR: "You must have gone to a Build-a-Bear and made him!"
Besides his sheer inexperience, his plans to raise taxes have been among the most infuriating prospects I've encountered.
I really wish I knew what people liked about him besides his "charisma" and the fact that it would be a historical event to vote into office the first black president. Big freaking deal. The only people who make race any issue at all are the people who bring it up in the first place.
I would think that if anyone took the time to research what he actually means by "change" and how it would affect their everyday lives, as well as his political experience, no one would be voting for this guy.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
There are no words to describe how much we all hate moving. Throw the middle of August in Arizona in the mix, and you have quite the debacle ahead of you. Sweaty hands that drop large furniture. A/C working overtime. Stairs. You know the drill. And we're about to embark on a 35-mile move from North Scottsdale to Ahwatukee this weekend.
I'm not gonna lie; I'm totally bummed out about this move. I thought I was prepared for it, but the truth is I'm in avoidance/denial mode. It's Tuesday night and we haven't even started packing- no, scratch that, I haven't started packing. I'm just not ready to turn our lovely apartment inside out and say goodbye to it. I'm a total sucker for being sentimental about stuff- it's tough for me to leave the place Cody and I called home as we began our marriage. But it's not just that- I LOVE our apartment- the layout, the location, the view. The view is amazing! We moved into this apartment a month and a half before my last lease was up just because of that view. And there's so much to do in this part of town. We found a church we loved and we had to say goodbye this past Sunday because it's much too far to attend when we're living that far south. Granted, we didn't get super involved in the ministry there because we knew we would be leaving. But we enjoyed the services and the FPU class we attended there.
I guess we never expected to leave so quickly after we got here. Sad face :(
However, in spite of all that we're leaving behind, we're doing this for far better reasons than any we may have to stay here. We're going to get out from under ALL of our monthly loan obligations... what an incredible relief that will be. We will be able to save money at a much faster rate than ever, and we will be able to put more money down on our future home when the time is really, truly right. And best of all, we will be closer to the family and friends that we love. As beautiful as Scottsdale is, we are so isolated from everyone here. So really, we are gaining much more than we are losing :)
All that to say, I'm still gonna miss this spectacular desert view...
