Showing posts with label fiscal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fiscal. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Monday, July 19, 2010
Unprecedented Global Fiscal Environment Presents Significant Challenges
What’s worrisome about the current global fiscal situation is that it’s unprecedented in peacetime for so many large economies to be under such extreme fiscal duress and indebtedness. And part of the reason they are in such a fiscal black hole resides in the explosion in their structural, age-related liabilities.
According to the IMF, the net present value of pensions, health care and long-term care out to 2050 dwarfs the costs of the banking crisis everywhere.
Based on policy commitments in mid-2009, it is over 600% of GDP in Spain and Greece, 500% GDP in the U.S., 335% in the UK, and between 200% and 300% in other major EU countries. The precise numbers are less important than the orders of magnitude, and the implications for public policy.
It is no accident that this year, in Greece, Spain, France, the UK, and several U.S. states, for example, budgetary pressures have forced governments to implement or consider a variety of demographically driven policies.
These include an increase in the retirement age, a temporary freeze on pensions, higher public employee contributions to pension schemes, and schemes to get citizens to pay more towards health care, or to specific conditions.
According to the IMF, the net present value of pensions, health care and long-term care out to 2050 dwarfs the costs of the banking crisis everywhere.
Based on policy commitments in mid-2009, it is over 600% of GDP in Spain and Greece, 500% GDP in the U.S., 335% in the UK, and between 200% and 300% in other major EU countries. The precise numbers are less important than the orders of magnitude, and the implications for public policy.
It is no accident that this year, in Greece, Spain, France, the UK, and several U.S. states, for example, budgetary pressures have forced governments to implement or consider a variety of demographically driven policies.
These include an increase in the retirement age, a temporary freeze on pensions, higher public employee contributions to pension schemes, and schemes to get citizens to pay more towards health care, or to specific conditions.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Monday, November 30, 2009
40.9% of the Cost of Your Thanksgiving Dinner is Brought to You Courtesy of the Government
Courtesy of the Americans for Tax Reform Center for Fiscal Accountability
Because Thanksgiving is a celebration, for our calculations, we also factored in five bottles of wine at an average price of $7.35, which brings the total cost of the average Thanksgiving feast to $79.67.
But not all of that reflects the actual cost of your meal – a large chunk of it is taken by the government in some form or another:
On top of the direct excise taxes on the wine, there are taxes paid by the farmers, winemakers, manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and shippers, retailers, warehouses.
To be more specific, out of what the consumer pays, the producers and sellers must pay federal income taxes, state income taxes, federal payroll taxes, unemployment insurance taxes, workmen’s compensation taxes, state franchise taxes, local property taxes and any local income taxes.
All told, for a Thanksgiving feast for a family of ten, the government takes a bite of 40.9%, or $32.59.
And that is only if your family does not have to drive or fly to get to the Thanksgiving party, or stay at a hotel for the duration of the festivities, as domestic airfare, gasoline, and hotel stays have their own “tax bites” which are even higher than the bite the government takes out of your Thanksgiving meal.
http://www.fiscalaccountability.org/point-percent-cost-thanksgiving-dinner-brought-a1039#
http://www.fiscalaccountability.org/tax-bites
According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, the average cost for a Thanksgiving feast for ten lies at $42.91 in 2009. The menu items for a classic Thanksgiving dinner used for their survey include turkey, bread stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter, peas, cranberries, a relish tray of carrots and celery, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and beverages of coffee and milk.
Of that, of course, the turkey is the largest cost factor at an average price of $18.65 for a 16-pound bird.
Because Thanksgiving is a celebration, for our calculations, we also factored in five bottles of wine at an average price of $7.35, which brings the total cost of the average Thanksgiving feast to $79.67.
But not all of that reflects the actual cost of your meal – a large chunk of it is taken by the government in some form or another:
On top of the direct excise taxes on the wine, there are taxes paid by the farmers, winemakers, manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and shippers, retailers, warehouses.
To be more specific, out of what the consumer pays, the producers and sellers must pay federal income taxes, state income taxes, federal payroll taxes, unemployment insurance taxes, workmen’s compensation taxes, state franchise taxes, local property taxes and any local income taxes.
All told, for a Thanksgiving feast for a family of ten, the government takes a bite of 40.9%, or $32.59.
And that is only if your family does not have to drive or fly to get to the Thanksgiving party, or stay at a hotel for the duration of the festivities, as domestic airfare, gasoline, and hotel stays have their own “tax bites” which are even higher than the bite the government takes out of your Thanksgiving meal.
http://www.fiscalaccountability.org/point-percent-cost-thanksgiving-dinner-brought-a1039#
http://www.fiscalaccountability.org/tax-bites
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