That's like 57 years' worth in an hour.
Story here at KyodoNews.com, which is no longer available in full without subscribing!
Time to move on.
Monday, April 18, 2011
The Wall Street Journal's Deliberately Misleading Middle Class Tax Target Graph
The graph above is the subject of a deliberately misleading story in The Wall Street Journal, here.
The graph makes it look like there's a pretty healthy middle in America, and that the population falls more or less neatly into a bell curve.
The truth, however, is otherwise: 4/5ths of the households in America have total income below $100K per year. The whole right half of the graph, in other words everyone at $100K-$200K and up, represents only the top 20 percent of the households, otherwise known as the fifth income quintile.
The people in the middle of this graph are in the upper middle class and the lower upper class, not in the middle class as The Journal states. And the single biggest pile of money is in the hands of the lower upper class, which doth protest too much of its modest circumstances.
The true middle in America is the 20 percent of the population making roughly $38K to $62, and this article doesn't speak for them anymore than Obama does, who fancies that rich in America only starts at $250K. It doesn't. It starts at $100K. And that's a shame. We should have done better than that by now.
The truth, however, is otherwise: 4/5ths of the households in America have total income below $100K per year. The whole right half of the graph, in other words everyone at $100K-$200K and up, represents only the top 20 percent of the households, otherwise known as the fifth income quintile.
The people in the middle of this graph are in the upper middle class and the lower upper class, not in the middle class as The Journal states. And the single biggest pile of money is in the hands of the lower upper class, which doth protest too much of its modest circumstances.
The true middle in America is the 20 percent of the population making roughly $38K to $62, and this article doesn't speak for them anymore than Obama does, who fancies that rich in America only starts at $250K. It doesn't. It starts at $100K. And that's a shame. We should have done better than that by now.
My Taxes! They're Finished! (If My Calculations Are Correct)
But I was hoping that in the future taxes would be a thing of the past!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Why Your Refund Was Smaller If You Received Unemployment in 2010
The share of people paying no federal income tax has dropped slightly the past two years. It was 47 percent for 2009. The main difference for 2010 was the expiration of a tax break that exempted the first $2,400 of unemployment benefits from taxation . . ..
More here.
Nolan Finley: The Bigger Government Gets, The More it Will Waste
Mr. Finley of The Detroit News wonders here why we recently wrung our hands and wrangled over cutting a mere $38 billion when the GAO had already issued a report, now mouldering on a shelf somewhere, detailing how elimination of reduplicative programs could easily have netted the taxpayers $200 billion in savings.
As our fathers used to say: Only government can screw up a two car funeral.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
New Radiation Totals For Namie, Iitate and Minamisoma
Per the story here, for the three week period starting March 23 and ending April 15:
Namie: 17 millisieverts;
Iitate: almost 10 millisieverts;
Minamisoma: 0.5 millisievert.
Annual exposures in the range of 1 millisievert are considered normal.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Fukushima Prefecture Monitoring Post 32 Registering 22.5 Microsieverts Per Hour
Readings north and northwest of the Fukushima Daiichi plant continue higher than elsewhere in the prefecture, but continue to decline with the passing of time.
Monitoring post 32 on this map is the highest this date at 22.5 microsieverts per hour.
Iitate Radiation is 5.26 Microsieverts Per Hour, Fukushima Main Gate is 70.0
Per the latest information available right now.
Radiation Monitoring Posts Inside the Fukushima Daiichi Complex Show Declines
Through 4/13, available at fleep.com/earthquake.
Fukushima Daiichi Main Gate Radiation at 71 Microsieverts Per Hour
At about 3PM on the 14th, Japan time.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
What's the Difference Between the $14 Trillion Debt and the US Congress?
The $14 trillion has only 12 zeroes.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Fukushima Accident Summary From World-Nuclear.org
When the data differ, the on-going summary defers provisionally to the Japanese regulator.
Here is an excerpt dealing with the apparent rupture of the suppression chamber of reactor 2 on March 15 after its cooling power failed on the 14th and its water in the torus boiled.
From the "Fukushima Accident 2011" at World-Nuclear.org, last updated today (here):
After the hydrogen explosion in unit 1, some radioactive caesium and iodine were detected in the vicinity of the plant, indicating fuel damage. This material had been released via the venting. Further I-131 and Cs-137 and Cs-134 were apparently released during the following two weeks, particularly following the apparent rupture of suppression chamber of unit 2 on 15th. The caesium was at low levels (about two orders of magnitude less than the iodine). The hydrogen explosion in unit 4 involving the spent fuel pond on 15th apparently added to the airborne radionuclide releases.
Reactor 2 Suppression Pool Abnormalities Blamed For Bulk of Radiation Release
Over a two day period beginning the morning of March 15.
This according to the Nuclear Safety Commission in Japan, as reported here.
The leak is ongoing, "rising" in fact, even though volume is down, according to the story.
Radiation in Namie Town at 34 Millisieverts in Just 25 Days
From March 11 to April 5.
As reported here:
34 millisieverts of radiation had accumulated over that period at one location in Namie Town, about 24 kilometers northwest of the plant. This equates to about 314 millisieverts per year, more than 3 times the permissible level of 100 millisieverts.
The figure of 314 must factor in some estimate of radiation degradation over a year. 34 millisieverts in 25 days is a rate of 1.36 mSv/day, or 496 in a year, not 314.
The 100 mSv level may be permissible under extreme circumstances, perhaps, but the evacuation standard being used is 20 millisieverts or higher.
Normal average radiation exposure from all sources in the US is 6.2 millisieverts annually. A person living to age 78 would get almost 484 millisieverts in an entire lifetime at that rate. In Namie Town one could conceivably get that same whole lifetime's exposure in a single year.
Nuclear power is safe . . . until it isn't. And then it's unsafe it a big, dirty, relentless and inuring kind of way.
Another Voice for a Sensible Idea: Tax-Free Retirement Withdrawals for Real Estate
The only thing preventing many mortgages from being paid off free and clear for many people is the tax hit and withdrawal penalty they'd take to withdraw the funds from their retirement savings.
John Crudele for The New York Post looks at those funds and sees a kind of housing bailout in the waiting, where consumers might even actually use the dough to buy new or existing homes. Call it a housing stimulus spending bill:
Well, maybe it's time to listen to John (that would be me). Change the rules on retirement plans so the American people can rescue the ailing real estate industry, which, by the way, will take a decade to fix if left on its own.
Let people withdraw a relatively small percentage of the $15 trillion in retirement funds to purchase real estate. Give them a tax break -- maybe even a big one.
More at the link.
John Crudele for The New York Post looks at those funds and sees a kind of housing bailout in the waiting, where consumers might even actually use the dough to buy new or existing homes. Call it a housing stimulus spending bill:
Well, maybe it's time to listen to John (that would be me). Change the rules on retirement plans so the American people can rescue the ailing real estate industry, which, by the way, will take a decade to fix if left on its own.
Let people withdraw a relatively small percentage of the $15 trillion in retirement funds to purchase real estate. Give them a tax break -- maybe even a big one.
More at the link.
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