US Politics Mega-thread - Page 9579

On December 21 2017 01:59 Mohdoo wrote:


Yeah, growing up poor my whole life and only recently "hitting it big", this is how I feel:
+ Show Spoiler +

Gotta admit, getting a free $2700 ain't too shabby. I am definitely going to be dumping that right back into the economy, so props there. Well, I'll be using it for a downpayment on a house, so I dunno if that counts.

On December 21 2017 01:59 Mohdoo wrote:


Yeah, growing up poor my whole life and only recently "hitting it big", this is how I feel:
+ Show Spoiler +

Gotta admit, getting a free $2700 ain't too shabby. I am definitely going to be dumping that right back into the economy, so props there. Well, I'll be using it for a downpayment on a house, so I dunno if that counts.

On December 21 2017 02:08 xDaunt wrote:


It counts. It's also the smart thing to do. I sat down with my financial adviser a couple weeks ago to talk about retirement planning for the first time. My wife and I are definitely above-average savers, but neither of us felt like we were saving as much as we really need to for retirement. It turns out that, by virtue of owning property in an area where people want to live, we are pretty much set. Just an interesting lesson that I thought that I'd pass along: do whatever you can to own some property and get on the equity ladder.

On December 21 2017 02:08 xDaunt wrote:


It counts. It's also the smart thing to do. I sat down with my financial adviser a couple weeks ago to talk about retirement planning for the first time. My wife and I are definitely above-average savers, but neither of us felt like we were saving as much as we really need to for retirement. It turns out that, by virtue of owning property in an area where people want to live, we are pretty much set. Just an interesting lesson that I thought that I'd pass along: do whatever you can to own some property and get on the equity ladder.

On December 21 2017 01:48 IyMoon wrote:


I am looking forward to my projected 2k tax cut and for all the poor peoples services to be cut so I can have it. Thank god for being middle class

On December 21 2017 02:14 Gorsameth wrote:

That sounds like a terrible way to plan your retirement.

If the housing market collapses a few years before you retire off of the cost of your fancy house what are you going to do?

And remember when you pick your new home to live in when you sold your current one, that all the hospitals in the cheap countryside have closed thanks to continues healthcare cuts.

On December 21 2017 02:14 Gorsameth wrote:

That sounds like a terrible way to plan your retirement.

If the housing market collapses a few years before you retire off of the cost of your fancy house what are you going to do?

And remember when you pick your new home to live in when you sold your current one, that all the hospitals in the cheap countryside have closed thanks to continues healthcare cuts.

On December 21 2017 02:18 farvacola wrote:
Long term planning that is reliant on factors with only short-term stability is how bubbles grow and pop.

On December 21 2017 02:25 Danglars wrote:

If you feel bad about not giving the federal government the amount it said you owed before, you can overpay your taxes. That is an option for you.

On December 21 2017 02:25 Danglars wrote:

If you feel bad about not giving the federal government the amount it said you owed before, you can overpay your taxes. That is an option for you.

On December 21 2017 02:29 Plansix wrote:

But land values will just go up forever? Didn't you hear?

On December 21 2017 02:52 Mohdoo wrote:
So wait, are republicans trying to get this thing rolled out such that I would get this tax credit THIS year? Meaning when I do my 2017 taxes next year, I would be getting this bonus?

On December 21 2017 02:45 xDaunt wrote:

They do in top tier cities.

Buffalo bayou’s waters flow east for more than 50 miles from fast-vanishing western prairieland, through Houston’s centre and out to its heavily industrial ship channel.

Long before the city’s tangle of freeways were built, the bayou’s existence helped draw settlers in the 19th century. But after thousands of homes flooded this August as Hurricane Harvey ravaged the city, proximity to water is increasingly seen as a liability.

More than 400,000 homes sit in the watershed of the bayou, which has become a focus of angst regarding how and where to rebuild, and whether Houston’s economic model – which helped it to become the fourth largest US city – is sustainable in the climate-change era.

“I think Houston’s at a turning point in its history,” says Jim Blackburn, an environmental lawyer and co-director of the Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disaster Center at Rice University. “I think it could be on the forefront of the resilience movement of the 21st century and redefining how cities deal with these severe storm events, which are becoming much more commonplace.”

The alternative, Blackburn adds, is “we do nothing and frankly begin to see the economic decline” of this oil and gas hub, where there’s growing scrutiny of the rapacious development – and accompanying jobs – that once meant a chance of the American dream for so many.

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After Harvey, will families and workplaces be safe the next time the rains come?

“Previous generations understood that you came here to make money and that was it,” says Susan Chadwick, executive director of Save Buffalo Bayou, a local advocacy group.

The notion that Houston could be pretty as well as practical came relatively recently to a city where a climate-controlled tunnel system links 95 blocks so that office workers need not venture outside. “People don’t come here for the nature experience – never did. It was not a hospitable place. It was a place you’d pave over,” she says.

I meet Chadwick on the bayou’s south bankon a sunny Sunday morning, and in this particular section, 15 miles west of downtown, it is a secluded and idyllic scene: blue sky visible through a canopy of trees, little noise apart from the puffing of occasional joggers and cyclists and the gurgling of turbid waters, perhaps hiding turtles, alligators, snakes, catfish and river otters.

Yet these wealthy residential neighbourhoods, barely visible from the water’s edge above steep grassy berms, were some of the most devastated when the deluge came at the end of August.

Driving around, it looks as though normality has returned. But a few months ago, it was not untypical to find residents living among salvaged possessions in rooms with stripped-out floors and walls, or a For Sale sign lying in a puddle.

“They should never have allowed people to build so close to the bayou,” says Chadwick.

On December 21 2017 02:52 Mohdoo wrote:
So wait, are republicans trying to get this thing rolled out such that I would get this tax credit THIS year? Meaning when I do my 2017 taxes next year, I would be getting this bonus?

On December 21 2017 03:12 Introvert wrote:


I think it's for income earned next year.

On December 21 2017 03:15 IyMoon wrote:


I was under the impression that it was for now. I believe Sanders said so during a briefing

On December 21 2017 03:15 IyMoon wrote:


I was under the impression that it was for now. I believe Sanders said so during a briefing