| Author | Message | ||
     Bikerjim99 |
Thanks Blake Fouled plugs were the problem. Runs great now! Just got back from a nice ride. Almost 60 degrees here in Michigan. | ||
| Pammy |
I don't care for politics at all but I have a niggling little thought. If it is bad for America to outsource labor to other countries to employ human beings to do the job (albeit at a cheaper rate), is it just as evil to outsource labor to a large machine or series of machines to do the work of many human beings? It still amounts to many "Americans" being out of work. Profit being the motivator on all accounts. I see people on this very site looking to get a 'deal' on many of the items/services they purchase. Why? Isn't the "American" way to spend as much as possible to keep company XYZ in business? Yet everyone tries to bypass as many hands as possible to get the deep deal. Sounds a bit hipocritical to me. I get a million(o.k. maybe not a million) phone calls, requesting instruction, from potential customers who would rather not pay my labor rate and would take a chance and do the work themselves. I have folks call me and tell me that their buddy will get tires for them at cost and could Cycle-Rama mount them for cheap?(yeah, bring'em on over) I even have folks who mailorder an item and it comes in wrong but they had plans to ride this weekend so could Cycle-Rama please swap it out for the correct part please? But when a small business(or a larger business)has to close it's doors, people wonder what happened.Please explain the big difference to me, I must be daft...can't see the big hoo ha (must be this big stack of tax forms and payments impeding my view) But you know what? I give that instruction and I mount those tires and I take care of my business as best as I can. I am proud of my American business. And that's all I have to say about that. | ||
| Pammy |
And what about answering machines at businesses?....JEEEFUS! | ||
| Rocketman |
Is the Queen of the Universe back on form or what? Don't ya just love her  Rocket | ||
| Iamike |
XBduck Take out the bulbs and try it. If it doesn't blow the fuse install one at a time. I had a bulb that came loose in the socket and twisted enough to intermittently cause problems. | ||
| Blake |
The outsourcing issue is nothing but a big political scare tactic. Jim, You NEED to do some insurance shopping and/or raise your deductible. I carry only catastrophic health coverage. I pay the first $5K and medications are meagerly covered. Blue Cross Blue Shield - $120/mo. The best health insurance is damn near free. Eat well, exercise, don't smoke, and be fit. | ||
| Wyckedflesh |
BC/BS won't cover me for less then $300 a month. Its a nice thought Blake but it doesn't work for everyone that way. | ||
| Jim_sb |
the job (albeit at a cheaper rate), is it just as evil to outsource labor to a large machine or series of machines to do the work of many human beings? Hi Pammy, I paid for my college education by working construction. Always the dirtiest, hardest job at the bottom of the list of course. Much of what I used to do (hauling 80 pound packs of shingles up ladders onto the roof, shoveling gravel, etc.) has all been replaced by machines. I say good riddance! That job was a daily reminder of why I had to find a way to get through school and I'm sure many people hurt themselves doing it. I was fortunate in that regard although I came close to life threatening accidents a couple times. I support just about all the local bike shops by buying parts and accessories, but I do nearly all my own servicing. It's just not worth the hassle of dropping off the bike. Easier to just buy what I need and do the job myself. Good luck with your biz. Jim in Santa Barbara | ||
| Jim_sb |
Aesquire, Saeng site looks great. I need to call 'em. Thanks. Dino, yeah, I'd like to snag a GPS for the trip just for grins. I've been wanting one too long. I'm a gadget freak. The Garmin V looks like it might do the trick and it's not too pricey. Need to do more research. | ||
| Jim_sb |
preferences, or my agreement/disagreement of tax laws, rather how, not why, the larger corporations are evading taxes. Something the average individual or smaller corporations (which there are many) couldn't possibly accomplish. If you're happy with them breaking the law, then that's your prerogative. Hi, In case you haven't heard (or experienced it) many small businesses often can take tremendous "advantage" of the tax laws as well. Company car, company truck, meals, trips, etc. The more aggressive ones will do jobs for cash that never hits the books. It is *substantial*. *Huge*. It's out there and it's real. Go to the lake sometime on the weekend and see how many "company trucks" are out there putting their ski boats and fishing boats in and out of the water. I'm sure they report it all as personal use though. Uh, not.... Corporations don't do cash deals but they have their own loopholes paid for through political contributions and lobbyists. I didn't make the system and don't care for it, just observing how it works. My commentary? The employee, like many of us, is in the absolute worst spot. Everything we earn is reported to the Gov't by everyone else so unless you want to make things up and risk some serious penalties the employee has to toe the line. Plus your deductions are severely limited. That's not the case with corporations or small business owners. Think about it. Take care. Jim in Santa Barbara | ||
| Jim_sb |
Blake, I enjoyed your write-up on the Global economy. Well said. You made one mistake though. CNN stands for Clinton News Network. Jim in Santa Barbara | ||
| Jim_sb |
The "double taxation" of corporate dividends is an absolute hoax. Let's do a simple example. Say you have $1 million and you use it to buy a business in town. The business is set up as a C Corporation. You do no work at this business, you're the Owner, you have employees who do everything. Yet you still earn a net profit of $100,000 this year. How nice. Your Corporation will now get to pay Income Taxes on those profits. For convenience let's assume the rate is 30%. So now the corporation is left with 70,000. Which the corporation can, if it desires, issue in the form of a dividend to it's shareholder (you). Then you get to pay tax on the 70,000. Let's say you pay $25,000 on that. Now you've only economically earned $100,000 but you had the privilege of paying $55,000 taxes. You only have $45,000 cash left over. This is what motivates business owners to donate substantial sums of money to lobbyists and public officials to try to create loopholes. They feel it's much easier to pay less taxes than it is to earn more money. Double taxation exists and it is real. Yes, there are many corporate tax loopholes, but the fact is the corporations still pay taxes and when they send money to their shareholders in the form of after tax dividends that same income is taxed again. OTOH if you form a Partnership, LLC or S Corporation to own and operate your business, you can earn the same $100,000 and only be taxed once. Such a deal. Jim in Santa Barbara | ||
| Jim_witt |
Jim mentioned: In case you haven't heard (or experienced it) many small businesses often can take tremendous "advantage" of the tax laws as well. Jim, I'm well aware of that fact too. I once had a S Corporation. Never paid myself a dividend but did pay myself very well. Besides paying less taxes than a normal joe, there were numerous advantages via tax write offs that I never had the luxury of having before hand. Such a deal'eo, -JW:>  | ||
| Jim_witt |
Blake, BTW, I have Blue Cross/Shield insurance. -JW:> | ||
| Court |
>>>Go to the lake sometime on the weekend and see how many "company trucks" are out there putting their ski boats and fishing boats in and out of the water. I'm sure they report it all as personal use though. Uh, not.... Very good point. In a deposition, about two years ago, I responded to an alter ego action with regard to my Buell Lap of America trip. The two young JD-ettes inferred that I was "shrouding" the costs of the Buell related things I did. I pulled out the fuel receipts from the cases of documents my legal team had. I laid a $3.15 fuel receipt on the table and asked "if you were going to attempt to "blend" this three dollars into the thousands of dollars of construction fuel we bought a month" why would you write "BUELL LOA - PERSONAL/COURT" on the face of it? The receipts were totaled and the document that showed that total working it's way toward a 1099 with my name on it entered into evidence. I then asked if their principal, one of the bigger names in the KC area, had similar documentation for the Mercedes, Cessna Citation and the boat he shared with Auggie Busch at Lake of the Ozarks? Case dismissed. Settlement reached for holding a malicious prosecution action in abeyance. | ||
| Pammy |
"The employee, like many of us, is in the absolute worst spot. Everything we earn is reported to the Gov't by everyone else so unless you want to make things up and risk some serious penalties the employee has to toe the line. Plus your deductions are severely limited. That's not the case with corporations or small business owners. Think about it." You talk about 'employees' like they are indentured servants and anyone who owns a business is the slave master. I know plenty of 'employees' that work for cash 'on the side' and use company vehicles for personal use. Hell several company vehicles are in my parking lot every day. Small business owners get the priviledge of paying half of employees health ins. We get to match the amount our employee pays into SS/Medicare. We let our indentured servants go home when they choose and stay out when they are sick and even PAY them to stay out and go on vacation if they wish. An employee has the option of NOT working if they don't get paid. A small business owner has the resonsibility to make sure the employees are happy because they can just up and leave the SBO ,in the lurch, and simply move on to the next job. I don't know what sweat shop you worked for or abused you to the point that your views are skewed so greatly. But as the saying goes..."you need to walk a mile in (SBO) shoes" before you cast aspersions. And P.S. I, as a youngster, worked for a roofing/construction company, doing the same thing. I praise technology. But there is certainly someone that would be releived to have a job of any kind...even that one. If I could type faster I would tell you a poignant story about Terry Tolbert...a customer of mine who would be devastated financially if his employer should decide to "automate" his business. I have Terry as a customer(even though I don't work on metric bikes)because Terry is a bit slow and is horribly taken advantage of if he goes somewhere else. I certainly don't make ANY money off of this man and he takes a bit of my time but the pats on the back I can give myself are more than worth the effort. Terry isn't the only customer I have like that. If you wander in here and I can help you...I do. My business does fine. Better than most. Because we are honest and treat our customers fairly. I work 14 to 16 hours a day and rarely get days off and vacations are few and far between. Wes' works even more and hasn't had a vacation in...I can't remember. Our employees on the other hand are requested to put in 40, are only required to notify me when they can't and they do take vacations every year. Most small business' I know are the same. The great part is we LOVE what we do and are priviledged to be able to do it AND make a living. Of course my house doesn't compare with yours...but such is life. And for anyone who may think I was complaining about my customers in my previous post...I wasn't, at all. I am happy to help when I can. I don't mind if you work on your own stuff...I was trying to show comparisons is all. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Amen Pammy. Both my parents owned their own small business while I was growing up. Mom kept it small and had no more then one employee at a time. Dad had a bigger one, with maybe 10 to 15 employees. In hindsight, the most of the employees did far better then the employers. I have had several good opportunities to be a small business owner, almost sure things... I would not touch them with a 10 foot pole... Think about it. How many employers do you personally know that are committing outright fraud against their employees? I mean like telling the employees to work overtime for pay, and then refusing to pay them? Now how many employees do you know personally that are committing outright fraud against their employers? Like saying they worked more hours then they really did and getting paid for it? Who's the victim here? I am not saying there are no dishonest exploitative employers, but I have not seen many that exist for long. | ||
| Court |
Don't get me started. Well said Pammy. I'm gonna bite my tounge. Court | ||
| Henrik |
Just a thought ... now wouldn't a Quick Board topic be a nice thing for such a Political/Taxation/Economy debate Henrik (hint, hint, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, know what I mean ....) | ||
| Bomber |
I tell the folks that report to me at work "I don't work for (name of company) . . .. I work for Bomber & Co . . . Bomber & Co has decided to generate revenue by selling my time and skills to (name of company) . . .. . I'm primarliy concerned about the well being of Bomber & Co, not (name of company) I also consider the relationship between myself and my employer to be that of equals -- if I do not perform as my employer expects, I'll be discharged. This is a long, painful, drawn out process that will take, at a minimum, 90 days -- typically, it takes 6 months, and may likely result in legal action at a later date. However, if I decide that my employer is not performing to my expectations, I can fire my employer, give two weeks notice, be viewed as very cooperative for not talking out the door after lunch, and move on . .. . . . both employees and employers are struggling while our economy tries to figure out what it wants to be when it grows up . .. . . o, and Blake, voodoo economics was not originally a liberal phrase -- quite the contrary | ||
| Choptop |
BikerJim99 - you should probably make a jumper wire, plug it into your wiring harness and see if you are getting any trouble codes reported from your ECM... I forget how to do that right now... will have to look it up in my service manual, can post that later today. Anyone remember how? I just forget which pins to jumper | ||
| Grndskpr |
I was of the impression that the last American made TV was a number of years ago. As of last check, Curtis Mathis was still made in the US, and considered to be the best TV's made, however way out of my price range(this was a few years ago when i had money and was single), same goes for CD players,(California electronics) the best, but again out of the price range, if you want the best and are willing to pay for it, you will end up with US products that are way more than the imports, but you have to look in very high end shops, and thats all i can really do now is look How can you export over seas when the business is as world wide as Coke? You export the tech it takes to make Coke, not coke itself, you take a percentage of the profits made, sell them the equiptment(only some times) and require them to make coke the way coke wants it made, ever wonder why when going to a over seas land you are told to drink coke instead of water(generally south america, africa, and a few others), because its made to the same standards as it is here, funny thing about coke is, one of the largest owners of plants across the world is a Russian company, another is a south american company, and they buy lots of US made parts to keep the machines running as fast as they can, they dont want Mexican made parts(even thought there cheeper), they want US parts because there better( i Saw it first hand ) Oh and China, they buy there parts for filling Coke bottles from the US As for Taxes, flat tax. 11% no deduction, 13% if theres a home owner deduction, reduce spending thats usless(Pork) and allow a watch dog group to over see what is being spent on what, and report it to the people of the US(might work might not, more of a shoot in the dark) Just a question for people who have more wisdom than I, wasn't all of this said when Japan started belting out products, didnt the US change gears, and recover from that, seems like just another economic cycle, but i am luck and have a job, i am sure if i didnt i would be looking at it very diffeently. JMHO as always Roger | ||
| Jim_sb |
Good morning Pammy, Hey, let's don't make this personal, okay? Just a friendly debate. Having said that....... Allow me to clarify my statement. The employee is in the worst spot when it comes to the authorities taxing the earnings he/she makes. I stand by that comment. Sure, you may know some folks that do work on the side, but it pales in comparison to small business owners who can buy Jets, Piston Airplanes, RV's, Humvees, Beemers, Mercedes, Jaguars, condos in Hawaii, etc. and through either perfectly legal or "creative" use of the tax code the Government (meaning the rest of us) ends up paying for about half of all their toys. Pammy, nobody pays for my toys but me (and I've got quite a list, but we don't want to go there). To make matters worse, California taxes the crap out of them (Personal Property tax, don't ya' know). So whereas my friends who own small business can go out and buy a new Range Rover or Mercedes and get the Government to pay half (via tax deductions), I keep driving my '96 Explorer because I have to pay for that all by myself. See? Now, I know owning a small business is no picnic. I understand the issues completely. There are pros and cons to be sure. But, the topic we were on, and the context in which my comments were made, was concerning "corporate America" somehow being the bad guy and not having to pay taxes like all the little businesses have to pay. My point was, and is, that there are substantial tax benefits (some perfectly legal, some "creative" available to a small business owner that put them far ahead of the *typical* employee when it comes time to pay income taxes. Now I can back this up with many factual examples, but that would be an inappropriate breach of trust so I will not do so. So take care, Pammy. Good luck with your business, I hope you do real well. And YES, I agree that Governmental regs and burdens on small businesses have gotten out of hand. PS. Court, LMAO! Nice comeback! Good luck. Jim in Santa Barbara | ||
| Xbduck |
For those I side-tracked with tales of my 1000 mile service, I have posted what I know so far about the short in my signals on the XB Board where it should be. Yes, it should be! This board is for general discussion, going where the wind takes it... Or is it about the discussion of Generals? Damn, now I'm confused. Well, at least it's familiar territory.  P.S. some of this was intended as comic relief, not as a poking stick. | ||
| Jim_witt |
Bill mentioned: Think about it. How many employers do you personally know that are committing outright fraud against their employees? I mean like telling the employees to work overtime for pay, and then refusing to pay them? Hope I'm not taking this out of context, if so, let me know ..... Since you asked, I know of plenty business owners that take advantage of its employees on a daily basis and I'm sure there are tens thousands in Arizona alone that I can't prove at the moment that do everyday. Anyone that thinks otherwise is completely delusional. Even though I’m retired, and teach school too, I’m also on an Executive Board through a local union in my area that over sees issues just like this and it’s difficult to keep up with them all. If you’d like specific examples, just let me know. ...... you went on to ask: Now how many employees do you know personally that are committing outright fraud against their employers? Like saying they worked more hours then they really did and getting paid for it? Same story ...... we watch both sides of the fence. If you need examples, ask away. If I missed you point, sorry about that. -JW:>0 | ||
| Jim_witt |
Jim wrote: The employee is in the worst spot when it comes to the authorities taxing the earnings he/she makes. I stand by that comment. I strongly agree with your statement (realizing that you're not directing it to anyone personally HERE in regards to thier business). -JW:> | ||
| Buellgator |
Check out this video. http://www.radicalsolution.com/vdo/promo.wmv  | ||
| Blake |
Roger, I used to think exactly as you wrt the flat tax. Then I did the math. I found out that for a flat tax to be viable it would have to be well over 20% and would end up raising taxes for all but the rich, who would see a significant reduction in their tax burden. The top 20% of income earners in America provide over half of America's tax revenue and they do so at an effective income tax rate of well over 30%. I ain't rich yet. I like the rate structure as it is.  Court, Great story! Blake (taking note to start saving receipts) | ||
| Jim_witt |
Did you do the math after deductions? Right before I retired, I was working a butt-load of OT in the Republic of California. I was in the 45% tax bracket because of all the OT (not to mention they were with holding CA <-and-> AZ state taxes TOO) I was working. I bet a business owner that made the same didn't pay anywhre NEAR the taxes I did at the end of the year. -JW:> | ||
| Grndskpr |
Then I did the math. In your math did you include the elimination of the IRS??And all the cost associated with running the IRS and making new tax laws on a yearly basis??More of a question than anything else The Way i understood it was that people earning over 300k pay around 50% of the taxes generated in the US, if you lower the income to 200K it goes up to over 65% ANd Jim is correct on one point, eliminate deductions other than interest on a home, and i suspect your figures would change, to bad its not going to happen, i would be very happy paying 13% One note, a couple of years ago, there was an author in the neitherlands(i think) who due to there tax structure, VAT, and other laws which i did not understand, owed more than he earned in the particular year, he actually owed more in taxes than he made, i will try and look it up once spring is past me(maybe our tax structure isnt as bad as some think, especially if you eliminate state taxes) Something to think about, the revolutionary war was in part fought over a 3% tax, 3% that was to be paid to the queen on goods sold out of the US, so they fought for there freedom, what do you think would happen if more people knew or cared enuff to look that up(its really not that simple, but it is one of the reasons, generally not taught) Later Roger |
