New Year, New Plan

Last year I set out to lose 100 pounds.  I ended up losing 33.  Were I a first baseman, this type of success rate could land me a $240 million deal.  While I am disappointed I didn't reach even 50% of my goal I also realize I didn't give even 50% of my available effort.  Half-assing your effort to halve your ass leads to disappointment.

Last year I sought to have less of me around.  This year I seek to have less around me.

I have entirely too many "things".  I am overwhelmed with an abundance of things I have used once and never touched again.  I condemn billionaires for spending their 8 figure bonus checks on vacation homes and luxury yachts but at least they use those lavish purchases and reap continued enjoyment from them.  Meanwhile, I'll buy a $60 video game, play it for 10 hours, and then never touch it again.  In that perspective, my actions are more wasteful than purchasing a third vacation home.

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My home became a cable-free household last summer.  Paying $80/month for ignorant tripe to be spewed at me and my family just sounded crazy when we stepped back to think about it.  There are many entertaining, intelligent, and worthwhile things on television that provide enjoyment and education.  But I don't think we were getting anywhere near $80 worth of that every month.  And once you decide that the product you receive is not worth the price you pay it becomes extremely difficult to continue justifying the purchase.

It started as a money-saving experiment.  It has evolved into a liberating experience, at least for me.  Keeping up with shows I enjoy no longer feels like an obligation.  Our main sources of visual entertainment have become Netflix and Hulu Plus.  These cost us a combined $15.98/month and I think we get more than our money's worth from each.

It has not been without complications, however.  I have always had cable and therefore have always had access to sports coverage.  In previous years, I estimate I would watch no less than 100 football games a season, between college and NFL.  This year I may have watched ten.  Being a Cowboys fan, I got to tune into four of their games this year via NBC's streaming of their Sunday Night Football coverage...and see them lose all four.  Such is the life of a Cowboys fan.

Having less to watch gave us more to do.  This is the basic foundation of my goal for this year:  I want to get rid a large portion of my things.  I was inspired by Sean Bonner and his "Year of Less".  His goals are to limit purchases to one per month and to get rid of one thing every day this year.  This sounds intoxicating to me.

In this spirit, my wife and I spent a few hours going through our closet last weekend.  It was....messy. (I don't even know how to describe it.  Picture the trash compactor from A New Hope and add hanging clothes to the walls.)  We ended up filling six garbage bags with clothes to donate.  And we only stopped because we didn't want to start on the drawers that day.  We didn't even start with the kids' clothes.

Two humans gave away six garbage bags full of clothes and we still had 3 times as much as we needed.  I was extremely angry at myself for having so many things that I neither wanted nor needed yet kept.  I estimate at least 100 items were in those bags.  Some with tags still on them.  Many more never actually worn.

I will be joining Mr. Bonner in his quest to eliminate one thing everyday.  Because of the children, I will have to modify the one purchase per month rule to apply only to things for myself.  But I intend to stand by that as well.

I am going to let the clothes count for the month of January.  Starting February 1st I plan to eliminate one item from my life everyday for the rest of the year.  Computer parts, books, movies, more clothes, or whatever else is taking up space but not being used.  Theoretically, I will keep track of these items, since I obviously tracked my weight goal so well last year.  And throwing away broken things doesn't count, but it will be a nice bonus to get rid of that crap, too.

I am hoping this will alleviate some of the clutter around the house and help me appreciate and enjoy the things I choose to keep.

Bankers and Imbeciles 2.0

The Thursday before Christmas I posted a blog dealing with Bloomberg's report of various bankers and billionaires' comments about the surging 99% vs. 1% sentiment growing across the nation.  Their arrogant and dismissive attitudes enraged me.  In my attempt to show how their "1%" continues to grow while our "99%" steadily declines I did an examination of average household income vs. inflation rate from 1979-2007.  This showed that while average household income increased 62% during the 28 year period, the inflation rate rose a staggering 318%.

Along the same lines, this morning I came across a report from The Society Pages detailing the relationship between the minimum wage and the nominal value of that wage.  It compares a workers' actual hourly rate of pay versus the value of that dollar after many factors, including inflation, are taken into account, determined by the purchasing power of a dollar earned in 2010.  It's a pretty dramatic look at how wage increases are not keeping up with inflation increases.


(http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/01/07/the-minimum-wage-and-capitalism-2/)

If you look at the chart you'll see that a dollar's purchasing power appears to be greatest between from 1964-1980.  If you match that up with the tax rates during those years you'll see some correlating numbers.

From 1950-1963, the 14 years prior to the highest purchasing power, the tax rate on income above $400,000 was 91%, with the exception of 1952-53 when it was actually 92%!  The chart above shows a dramatic upturn in the purchasing power of a dollar during this 14 year time span.  I believe the high point of purchasing power I highlighted early, 1964-1980, is a direct result of this sustained tax rate.  It insured reinvestment into the infrastructure that facilitated the enormous growth of the United States.  It also prevented wealthy Americans from reaping financial benefits on their climb toward wealth and then "cashing out" and denying that chance for the next generation.  Without this continued reinvestment of tax dollars it would have been impossible to maintain the governmental investments and incentives for the creation of new businesses and opportunities.

The tax rates, for the lowest and highest income brackets, for those 17 years of high purchasing power are as follows:

Tax Rates
Bottom bracket			Top bracket
Calendar Year	Rate (percent)	Taxable Income Up to	Rate (percent)	Taxable Income over

1964	16	1,000	77	400,000
1965-67	14	1,000	70	200,000
1968	14	1,000	75.25	200,000
1969	14	1,000	77	200,000
1970	14	1,000	71.75	200,000
1971	14	1,000	70	200,000
1972-78	14	1,000	70	200,000
1979-80	14	2,100	70	212,000
1981	13.825	2,100	69.125	212,000

This appears to be a time of great prosperity for the American Dollar.  So what happened to push it toward our current dysfunctional system?

Well, inflation rates were above 10% each year from 1979-81.  That meant that, on average, goods cost 39% more at the end of 1981 than they did at the beginning of 1979.  So to combat this our government surely sought to revert to our more prosperous techniques of the past, with respects to tax rates, by asking wealthy Americans to pay a little extra so that the people who needed money to afford things like food and shelter were able to keep a few more dollars each month, right?

They actually did the opposite.  Here's the data from the same chart for the rest of the 1980s:

Tax Rates
Bottom bracket			Top bracket
Calendar Year	Rate (percent)	Taxable Income Up to	Rate (percent)	Taxable Income over

1982	12	2,100	50	106,000
1983	11	2,100	50	106,000
1984	11	2,100	50	159,000
1985	11	2,180	50	165,480
1986	11	2,270	50	171,580
1987	11	3,000	38.5	90,000
1988	15	29,750	28	29,750
1989	15	30,950	28	30,950

These charts show only the bottom tax bracket and the top tax bracket.  Most years there are several brackets in between with gradual increases in rates but some years these represent the only two brackets.

So, let's try to make sense of this and compare apples to apples.  Brace yourself.  An abundance of numbers will be used.  I will be using tax rates for a single man with no children from this chart.

Let's take a single man making $40,000 per year and assume he maintained this wage from 1981-1989 with no raise.  His tax liability, not including deductions or credits, in 1981 would be $12,000, at a rate of 30%.  That same man's tax liability in 1989 would be $11,200, at a rate of 28%.

Take-home pay 1981: $28,000.
Take-home pay 1989: $28,800.

Hey, way to go!  This fortunate man got to keep $800 more of his money.

But keep in mind, the inflation rate over this nine year period works out to just over 50%.  So if this man's monthly bills in 1981 were $1000, his same bills in 1989 would be $1500.  Sorry, pal.  It doesn't look like that $800 drop in annual tax liability is going to offset the extra $6000 ($500 * 12 months) you'll be paying on your bills.  You actually come out $5200 worse.  Let's hope you got annual raises enough to cover this.

IF(!) he got a 2% annual raise EVERY year, his 1989 wage would be $46,866.  Factoring in inflation and tax rate changes, he comes out $1666 better in 1989, after bills and taxes, than he did in 1981.  Assuming this guy has a generous employer, and hasn't added any expenses (like children), he's not doing too badly.



Now let's look at a man making $1,000,000 per year over this same period.  His tax liability in 1981 would be $691,250, at a rate of 69.125%.  The same man would pay taxes of $280,000 in 1989, at a rate of 28%.

Take-home pay 1981: $308,750.
Take-home pay 1989: $720,000.

Wow!

Let's say his bills are TEN times the previous man's bills.  That means that monthly bills of $10,000 in 1981 would be roughly $15,000 in 1989, after factoring in inflation.  Meaning he would pay $411,250 LESS in taxes and $60,000 ($5,000 * 12 months) more in expenses.  With no raise at all, this man comes out $351,250 better in 1989.

If you factor in an annual 2% raise (new salary $1,171,659), this man comes out $522,909 better in 1989, after bills and taxes, than he did in 1981.



That's a lot of numbers but here's what it boils down to:  After bills and taxes, the first man increased his yearly income by just over 4% while the millionaire increased his yearly income by just over 52% during the same time period.

Wait.  28% tax rate in 1989?  Isn't that the same rate as the guy making $40,000?  Yes, it was.  The tax rates for the wealthy from 1988-92 and 2003-2011 were literally HALF what they were from 1936-1981.  The rates from 93-2002 were merely 44% lower.  AND, from 1988-90 anyone making over $19,450 paid the same tax rate.  A person making $20,000 paid the same tax rate as a person making $20,000,000.  That sounds absurd to me.

Fun Fact: Prior to 1987, the last time tax rates for the top bracket were below 50% was 1925-1931.  Check those years, and their aftermath, if you need help figuring out what broken policy can create.



My point is this:  Our current system is completely unsustainable.  If we continue to allow inflation to rise much faster than wages we will end up with a country full of people completely dependent on their government for assistance.  If we simultaneously allow millionaires and billionaires to hide their income and pay unbelievably, historically low tax rates, then the government will be in no position to offer any help to those who have slowly been robbed of their financial security, their buying power, their self-sufficiency, and eventually their dignity.




I don't want socialism.  I don't want to rob from the rich and give to the poor.  I want a country with sustainable policies.  And we don't have that right now.

Web/Life Design

It's funny how a person's desires change over time.  Well, not so much funny, I guess. More like, random.  If high-school me could see how late-twenties me is living he would be pretty pissed.

I'm not rich.  I'm not famous.  I haven't written a song in nearly a year.  I work 8-5 and sometimes go to bed before 10 o'clock.  Through the week, I spend more waking hours at work then at home.

But high-school me was a predictably naive idealist.  Late-twenties me is a slightly less naive cynic.  Whatever those words mean.


The desire for worldwide fame and fortune was supplanted by marriage and children.  I may not be internationally renowned for my songwriting but I am easily the most kick-ass daddy that my children have ever known.  And my wife laughs at my terrible jokes.  Even when they are only semi-riotously hilarious.


I miss writing music a great deal.  But I was only good at writing two styles: Whiny, mopey bullshit and self-righteous diatribes.  Don't get me wrong.  I am extremely proud of nearly 37% (!) of the lyrics I have written.  Ironically, it sounds to me like both of these writing styles have meshed into the current hipster "It's cool because it's stupid" movement.  If that's true, then I have a goldmine of terrible lyrics and fashion choices aimed at the post-adolescent angst-stricken crowd with a laser beam focus.


Bedtime.  The bane of adolescents everywhere.  At one point in my life I never wanted to sleep.  Fuck tomorrow.  Tomorrow is tomorrow, after all.  I know it's 3 AM but I need to reorganize my MP3 collection by average combined birth year of artist and producer, immediately.

I've spent a large chunk of time trying to pinpoint the exact moment a human becomes an adult.  It very well may be the first time said human chooses to go to bed early, not because of any impending event, but solely because they don't want to be tired the following day.  That may be the exact moment when childhood dies.


But the only one of those afore mentioned teenage gripes that is ALSO a post-teenage gripe is the time spent at work.

Let's do a bit of math for a typical human.  Alarm set at 5:30, leave for work at 7:30, get back home at 5:30, sleep at 10:30.  That makes 17 waking hours, 10 of which are outside the house.  Multiply this by 50 weeks (allowing for potential vacation time) and we get 150 more annual weekday hours spent away from home then actually at home.  I could go on a rant about the distribution of wealth in contrast to actual hours worked in this country but I'm not feeling very rant-y today.

Today, I feel hopeful that I have found a new professional/life direction.

I have recently discovered a love for web design.  A few months back, I saw the website for a friend's new business.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't being updated and I didn't think that accurately represented the people involved.  On a whim, I started looking up HTML and CSS tutorials and decided I would make a new website for my friend.  This would be similar to me deciding that I wanted to build an extension on my house made entirely of unobtainium.  I knew so little that I didn't know what I didn't know.

But I am obsessed with learning about interesting things.  Being able to use text to make design elements look, move, and behave according to my desire is an intoxicating feeling.  I'm assuming this is what it feels like when an artist looks upon an empty canvas and wants to make it his own.  I feel completely unencumbered by any preexisting design templates.  If I want a column of ads in the center of the page and two content columns flanking either side I can damn well do it.  I have the technology.

(I used http://www.w3schools.com/ for my foray into web coding.  I have since seen several places that discourage that particular site but most complaints seem to be semantically driven.)

This potential new professional direction has given me fits of unbridled euphoria as well as days of mental turmoil brought on by frustrating design elements.  Anytime you wake up at 5 AM on a Saturday morning with an idea in your head and have 50 lines of code written before anyone else wakes up you know you have become passionate.

I am hoping to harness this passion of the Christ and progress enough in my coding knowledge to land a job, freelance or contract, in web design. Employers like to say that passion for a job and desire to learn are worth more than degrees and test scores.  I aim to prove my worth to potential employers.

Hide yo child nodes!  Hide yo floating elements!  I'm coming for you Internet!