2.22.2011

Work!!!

Well as I said I will be doing content management and working with social media platforms, so please feel free to follow Elite Management @elitemgmt on Twitter and you can 'Like' us on Facebook.  If anyone has any advice or tips let me know.

New Job

Hello Friends and Followers!  I have just started a new job at Elite Management Services Group, Inc.  It is good to be working back with property management and I am really looking forward to working here for a long time to come.  It is also exciting that in addition to my responsibilities as Community Manager, I will also be the content/social media manager.  This is very exciting for me to learn the nuances and depth and intricacies that all the different media platforms offer.  I can't wait for whats next.

11.21.2010

No. Six

My dear Mr. Kappus,

          I don't want you to be without a greeting from me when Christmas comes and when you, in the midst of the holiday, are bearing your solitude more heavily than usual.  But when you notice that it is vast, you should be happy; for what (you should ask yourself) would a solitude be that was not vast; there is only one solitude, and it is vast, heavy, difficult to bear,f sociability, however trivial or cheap, for the tiniest outward agreement with the first person who comes along, the most unworthy.... But perhaps these are the very hours during which solitude grows; for its growing is painful as the growing of boys and sad as the beginning of spring. But that must not confuse you.  What is necessary, after all, is only this: solitude, vast inner solitude. ...

- Excerpt from Letters to a Young Poet, No. 6.  December 23, 1903.  Rainer Maria Rilke

11.03.2010

Nov 3

Well, just about across the board, the Democrats lost last night.

Something i want to know.  Say back in the 1930s during the great depressions, we as a nation didn't hit rock bottom.  Say in the 1950s 60s 70s we didn't hit rock bottom when we had white dudes blowing up churches with black kids in them.  I thought that was America's rock bottom.  When I started learning about history I was glad that the whole Rock Bottom Times were behind me and I had the most amazing future to look forward to.  A future with flying cars, cool people passing awesome legislation in Congress.  Man, imagine being a kid in the 90's with an imagination.  Literally, everything was possible.

Now, after the swing of this vote, I fear that America's financial or social rock bottom is not behind us.  I fear for this.

Thanks Boomers.  You had the best, and gave us the worst. 

10.29.2010

Is the flat tax fair?

I came up with this scenario today in response to this post I came across on a blog at the Cato Institute.

Question about flat taxes:

Person 1 earns 25,000 a year. Person 1 pays 500 dollars a month for rent, 200 for food, 200 for utility bills (phone, electricity, heating), 100 for bus pass/train pass, for a total basic expenditure of 1000 per month. A flat tax on his total income of what, 15%, 10%, 12% would be another 257 each month. This leaves Person 1 with less than half of their total income per month, just about 825 dollars. Notice I did not include any costs for spouse, children, clothing, student loan payments, health insurance costs, car payments, car insurance, or savings. Let alone spending money for normal consumer expenditures like entertainment, Christmas shopping, Friday night movies, Monday night football with the guys, getting your nails or hair done with the girls.

Person 2 earns 250,000 a year. Person 2 spends 2250 for a studio apartment in lower Manhattan, however, still probably only spends 200 dollars on food, 200 for utility bills, 100 for the subway pass, apply that same flat income tax (averaged at 12.33%) and he will pay a much greater amount of 2568. This still leaves Person 2 with 15515.33 left over for the month. Again I am not factoring in any peripheral expenses.

So clearly, the 12.33% flat income tax has a much greater impact on Person 1 than Person 2. I think that is discriminatory.

Furthermore, since Person 2 has a greater disposable income, it is likely that Person 2 has a greater ability to use that income to make investments. These investments, if safe, are likely to bring a return. So on top of Person 2′s earned income of 250k you can assume that there are additional incomes collected. Are these additional incomes not earnings that would be taxed as interest, dividends, rental property income, etc? If either Person 1 or Person 2 suddenly earned a windfall inheritance does that count as income to be taxed?

Isn’t it more fair to say that it is discriminatory against Person 1 to charge him the same flat tax as Person 2?

10.24.2010

Oct 24

27 down, X to go.

I have been experiencing the most terrifying recurring dream. The most terrifying aspect of this dream is that I am not totally sure if it actually a dream. I feel completely conscious, I am alert and aware of my surroundings, but I am physically paralyzed. What makes me think I am dreaming is I see this alarm clock next to my bed that keeps reading the same two times: 3:26AM and 4:12AM. I don't have an alarm clock, and this dream-state feels like it is hours long. I keep trying to wake up but my body will not move, and I hear these strange whispering sounds. This morning I woke up from what I know was a dream, but it had the same feeling as the recurring dream with one difference: I actually saw someone else in the dream. I still couldn't move my body and the clock read the same. This is ridiculous.

10.15.2010

Changes

I no longer wish to live in a world of passwords and PIN numbers.

5.04.2010

Four Dead In Ohio

Today is the 40th anniversary of the Kent State University killings. It's okay kids, you totally died in vain.