Recently in the class room we had a pretty heated debate about marrying young. It seemed that everyone had their own opinion about the topic. Some say marrying young has many benefits and it's what God called us to do while others were saying you have a life ahead of you and much more to worry about. Well, to be honest with you I don't have an opinion, after reading the article "Say Yes. What are you waiting For?" written by Mark Regnerus, I still have more questions than answers. The article gave three reasons why you should marry young: it doesn't lead to divorce, women become less attractive and it's easier if you're younger, education doesn't really matter.
I, as much as everyone else, have met divorced couples, widows, couples, and many more. Some married young and have divorced while some married old and are still together. So I'm honestly quite baffled. For example, my parents married in their early 20's were married for a few years and got a divorce when I was a little over a year. My mother and my father both agree that my dad was extremely immature and both agreed they married to young. However, there's this couple at my church that have been married about 60 years, fell in love as teenagers and got married after 3 weeks of knowing each other. That sounds crazy that they're still together but it works. How my parents marriage didn't last and their's did? I have no idea.
The article also talked about how it's harder to find a mate the older a woman gets (sorry for the language) but that's bullshit. There's another couple at my church, their names are Johnny and Shirley, that are well over 70 years old and they got married a few years ago, he thought she was beautiful and I'd have to agree. The age of a woman does not matter, if a girl is beautiful she's beautiful. No matter the age she can find a mate. Woman are naturally more mature and that is a gift to men from God. I apologize for my inner feminist so moving on.
The third point the article gave I can see but don't necessarily agree with. I do believe you should finish college before you get married. Not because "you have your whole life ahead of you" or anything like that but I think you should achieve your goals before settling down. Your partner should be beside you every step of the way yes however it'd make you feel more empowered knowing you achieved your goals. You did it! It's my dream to get a college degree, because if I do then I will be the first person in my family to do so. I don't want a marriage holding me back from that. But at the same time if I get married I have the possibility of being the first person to not get a divorce.
I can't say I need to time to think or need time to get to know each other because I know a couple that knew each other for 3 weeks and got married but I also have my parents. How do I know when it's the right time? How do I know if it's the right one? Will it get in the way of me getting to places I want to be?
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Saturday, January 28, 2017
What will happen after the tax cuts?
Newest president, Donald Trump, has been the center of many controversies lately. Including his trade policy, his response to the riots, and his relationship with Russia. However, one thing no one seems to talk about is his tax cuts. Who will they benefit? How will it effect the debt? Trumps tax plan is expected to be the lowest cut in history. Claiming to be "for the working American". Based on Ronald Raegan's tax plan, Trump expects this to open up jobs and bring back big businesses. He wants to go to a 7 to 3 bracket. "He also wants to end taxes on capital gains and dividends for everyone making less than $50,000 a year." (The balance.com)
It's no news to people when I say Donald Trump is rich. He's a business man and knows his way around taxes. So is his tax cut for people like him? Many studies have shown that his tax cuts will significantly lower for the higher payed worker. It is expected to lower 13.5% for the 1% of wealthy Americans. It is also expected to cut the corporate tax rate to 25% from 30%. Now all that sounds awesome except for when you remember that this all applies to 1% of the American population. So what will happen with the middle class?
The middle class American will receive about a 2% decrease. That seems like nothing compared to the 13.5% cut that the higher class is getting. The Tax Policy Center was quoted as saying, "single parent families would see an increase of their income is between $20,000 to $200,000". Lower class will see a 10-12% increase! And may lose their Medicaid. Overtime this cut will take $1 trillion dollars from Medicaid and 20 million people will be booted off. This tax cut will benefit the ones that do not need it and hurt the ones that do. The rich will not spend fast enough to where the money will end up in the lower classes hands. As for entrepreneurs and small businesses they receive a benefit from the tax cut.
How will all these cuts affect government spending? Well it won't really at all. If Trump does his tax cuts, builds a border wall as he has discussed, and funding, the debt may increase by $2 trillion dollars. Dan Holler, an economist, said "the federal government has a spending problem not a revenue problem". Which really applies to the Raegan presidency. However, according to Trumps plan he plans on spending less on Medicaid and using that money to go to the military. And using the the tax cut money to make the things he desires. No major jump of government spending. Trickle Down Economics theory is that the wealthy will spend spend spend and that money will trickle down to lower wage people. And if that happens we could see a dramatic difference with the national debt.
Coming from a single parent home I was very skeptical about this, however, if everyone does their job in this system I do not see how it could be an issue. The Raegan and Bush years are years people cannot stop talking about. Their systems have been repeated and reused multiple times, so they must have done something right.
It's no news to people when I say Donald Trump is rich. He's a business man and knows his way around taxes. So is his tax cut for people like him? Many studies have shown that his tax cuts will significantly lower for the higher payed worker. It is expected to lower 13.5% for the 1% of wealthy Americans. It is also expected to cut the corporate tax rate to 25% from 30%. Now all that sounds awesome except for when you remember that this all applies to 1% of the American population. So what will happen with the middle class?
The middle class American will receive about a 2% decrease. That seems like nothing compared to the 13.5% cut that the higher class is getting. The Tax Policy Center was quoted as saying, "single parent families would see an increase of their income is between $20,000 to $200,000". Lower class will see a 10-12% increase! And may lose their Medicaid. Overtime this cut will take $1 trillion dollars from Medicaid and 20 million people will be booted off. This tax cut will benefit the ones that do not need it and hurt the ones that do. The rich will not spend fast enough to where the money will end up in the lower classes hands. As for entrepreneurs and small businesses they receive a benefit from the tax cut.
How will all these cuts affect government spending? Well it won't really at all. If Trump does his tax cuts, builds a border wall as he has discussed, and funding, the debt may increase by $2 trillion dollars. Dan Holler, an economist, said "the federal government has a spending problem not a revenue problem". Which really applies to the Raegan presidency. However, according to Trumps plan he plans on spending less on Medicaid and using that money to go to the military. And using the the tax cut money to make the things he desires. No major jump of government spending. Trickle Down Economics theory is that the wealthy will spend spend spend and that money will trickle down to lower wage people. And if that happens we could see a dramatic difference with the national debt.
Coming from a single parent home I was very skeptical about this, however, if everyone does their job in this system I do not see how it could be an issue. The Raegan and Bush years are years people cannot stop talking about. Their systems have been repeated and reused multiple times, so they must have done something right.
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Trump and Trade
Trade is something we've all heard of. It's how we picture thanksgiving, it's what we do with Pokemon cards or candy. But little do people know of the big impact trading has on our economy. It grows, provides jobs and creates foreign policy. It's the basis of how everything starts. Now Donald Trump has some people scared because of his trading schemes. Will it help or hurt America?
Donald Trump and his trading plan has been the headline in the news for a couple of days. The reason being of the uncommonness of it. Starting with the withdrawal of the TransPacific Partnership. Being a controversy since the beginning it seems to spark people's interest even more. It's a trade deal with 11 other countries, including: Australia, Vietnam, Canada, and more. That planned to have free trade starting at Chile and ending with Japan. While if we withdrawal from this partnership its estimated we will gain about 25 million jobs. When Trump was talking about his withdrawal he was quoted as saying, "we must crack down on those nations that violate trade agreements and harm American workers in the process."
North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is another trade agreement set up between Canada, United States, and Mexico. On whitehouse.gov Trump talks about his plan to rewrite NAFTA. "President Trump is committed to renegotiating NAFTA. If our partners refuse a renegotiation that gives American workers a fair deal, then the President will give notice of the United States' intent to withdraw from NAFTA." While this trade has been going on since '94, the trade deals seem to only benefit Canada. The more we improve the more Canada gains. Which as we learned in class, is just how trade works.
As I'm sure we all know, Trump is not the biggest fan of China and the Chinese government. The United States has had a trading system with China for years and has significantly increased since the Obama administration. So with the withdrawal of TransPacific and NAFTA what will happen with China? Well Trump has already declared he wants to label China as a "currency manipulator" in the commerce. And according to a paper written by David Autor, Trump may be right. Trade with China has cause more problems than it has solved. As it is believed China stole American property and violated many other trade laws. And if we stop this trade with China it's estimated to create some 2 million jobs. However, this will take a serious economic toll on China, being trade with us makes up around 1/5 of their economy. Making this critical for China to stay afloat.
I believe that we should stay in NAFTA. Trading systems benefit everyone but it's not going to be balanced. However, if the estimations are correct the withdrawal from TransPacific Partnership may not be all that bad. For China's sake, since we are such a big part of their economy I don't think trade will stop completely. Trump may rewrite some deals to where it's in our favour.
Donald Trump and his trading plan has been the headline in the news for a couple of days. The reason being of the uncommonness of it. Starting with the withdrawal of the TransPacific Partnership. Being a controversy since the beginning it seems to spark people's interest even more. It's a trade deal with 11 other countries, including: Australia, Vietnam, Canada, and more. That planned to have free trade starting at Chile and ending with Japan. While if we withdrawal from this partnership its estimated we will gain about 25 million jobs. When Trump was talking about his withdrawal he was quoted as saying, "we must crack down on those nations that violate trade agreements and harm American workers in the process."
North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is another trade agreement set up between Canada, United States, and Mexico. On whitehouse.gov Trump talks about his plan to rewrite NAFTA. "President Trump is committed to renegotiating NAFTA. If our partners refuse a renegotiation that gives American workers a fair deal, then the President will give notice of the United States' intent to withdraw from NAFTA." While this trade has been going on since '94, the trade deals seem to only benefit Canada. The more we improve the more Canada gains. Which as we learned in class, is just how trade works.
As I'm sure we all know, Trump is not the biggest fan of China and the Chinese government. The United States has had a trading system with China for years and has significantly increased since the Obama administration. So with the withdrawal of TransPacific and NAFTA what will happen with China? Well Trump has already declared he wants to label China as a "currency manipulator" in the commerce. And according to a paper written by David Autor, Trump may be right. Trade with China has cause more problems than it has solved. As it is believed China stole American property and violated many other trade laws. And if we stop this trade with China it's estimated to create some 2 million jobs. However, this will take a serious economic toll on China, being trade with us makes up around 1/5 of their economy. Making this critical for China to stay afloat.
I believe that we should stay in NAFTA. Trading systems benefit everyone but it's not going to be balanced. However, if the estimations are correct the withdrawal from TransPacific Partnership may not be all that bad. For China's sake, since we are such a big part of their economy I don't think trade will stop completely. Trump may rewrite some deals to where it's in our favour.
Saturday, January 7, 2017
Where Does it Go?
It comes to no surprise when I say America is in debt. In fact, that was a debate topic in the 2016 Presidential Debate. It proves to be a big problem and concerns many citizens. They pay all this money in taxes but they don't have a clue on where it goes. Most would say it goes to welfare or social security, but it goes to far more places. Places you wouldn't even think of. Also, how can we solve this national debt? The National Priorities Project, created an article called, "Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go?". it goes into detail about the government spending and how much goes to where.
Another no-brainer is that America has quite the large budget, $3.8 trillion dollars to be exact, and as of right now America is roughly $19.5 trillion dollars in debt. How can we afford to spend that much? "The US Treasury divides all federal spending into three groups: mandatory spending, discretionary spending, and interest on debt." The first two categories make up almost all of the spending while the last makes up less than 15%.
The discretionary spending goes more towards the interest groups and as of 2015 the government spend $1.11 trillion dollars towards military, education, health, etc. All the charts below came from the article mentioned above:
Another no-brainer is that America has quite the large budget, $3.8 trillion dollars to be exact, and as of right now America is roughly $19.5 trillion dollars in debt. How can we afford to spend that much? "The US Treasury divides all federal spending into three groups: mandatory spending, discretionary spending, and interest on debt." The first two categories make up almost all of the spending while the last makes up less than 15%.
The discretionary spending goes more towards the interest groups and as of 2015 the government spend $1.11 trillion dollars towards military, education, health, etc. All the charts below came from the article mentioned above:
Mandatory Spending goes more towards government stability programs and makes up 2/3 of the spending all together with $2.45 trillion dollars.
Federal Spending all together looks like this:
So now we know where the money goes, but how can we solve the national debt? Well starting with any kind of debt, you need to cut costs of your own. Now since this is the government we can't cut any and all spending, but you can sure limit. There's some (certainly not all) people that have been on welfare/unemployment for 5+ years. The original creation of welfare and unemployment was to create a stepping stone, not to create a living. Say you just lost your job and you're a single parent with 3 kids. Yes register for unemployment/welfare until you can get back on your feet. Do not sit there on your butt and just wait for your monthly check. So for starters we should limit the people. We spend over $1.3 billion for people to sit on their butt, there's no excuse for those people to not be looking for employment and getting a steady income, not from tax payers.
Step two would be stop relying on other countries to keep our country afloat. This country is well over 18 years old, we should be on our own and independent. We owe trillions of dollars to China, Brazil, China, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, and that's just to name a few. Why is that so necessary?
The Debt Ceiling was originally created as a limit to how much America could borrow from other countries, smart right? Well it has been raised over 140 times since it's creation and over 12 times since 2000. The chart only goes to 2014, and the national debt has only grew. As stated earlier, the national debt is over $19 trillion. Making the Debt Ceiling increase with it.
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