Where dis?

This is the classic “Why not both?” scenario. There are people for whom price is the most important. There are also people (like my wife) who want their next car to electric. Programs like this hit both constituencies.

The tax rate in NJ is very high. A lot of middle class people will hit that mark.

Low hanging . . . dingleberries.

How does the IRS keep track of this? I phased out of Roth contributions because of income limits but I kept contributing what I could. I think my math was right but in case I was wrong, how does the IRS double check this?

I grew up in a house with an open floor plan and it sucks if your mom cooks a lot. The exhaust fan noise basically requires you to jack up the TV volume, which makes everyone who is talking talk even louder. No one can hear anything.

I’m just waiting for the day that F trucks get front-facing cameras.

That’s not the case in NYC, where cars make turns at the same time pedestrians have the walk signal. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen pedestrians scoot out of the way of cars that make turns thinking they have the right of way.

I bought a new phone 3 weeks ago. I decided not to get a case for the first time ever and I dropped it last week. Completely cracked screen.

Because you are an old. Like most of the commenters.

Car enthusiast here. I moved from Manhattan to the ‘burbs two years ago but made sure to move to a town with a train station. Turns out, towns that have a train station are much more expensive than the ones without one (with the exception of the towns in really high crime areas). I suspect most people would love to…

I’m aware of that. But I can pick flights that are in my favor, such as a red-eye on Saturday night. I’ve flown first class a few times during odd hours and once I had the entire section to myself. It never happens on domestic flights, but then again, those are not the flights where first class makes that much…

Actually, it doesn’t. Next time, read the study underlying the article.

The study cited in that article lumps in all healthcare deductions regardless of income when it concludes that U.S. “social spending” is just a few percent lower than Europe.

It’s much more common on international flights. A lot of business travelers take the red-eye to Europe so they can work as soon as they land. Lot of empty business and first class seats on those flights.

I would never pay for another first class ticket if I knew that I could get one just for being a rewards member.

“For some reason” is because the cost of a ticket has gone down considerably in the last 30 years when you factor in inflation. I remember paying $300 for NY-LA 25 years ago. You can still snag that price today.

Now you’re changing the goalposts. Medical spending is not “social welfare” spending just because a taxpayer can take a tax deduction. Neither is the mortgage deduction. None of those are means tested. Social welfare is government spending on those who otherwise might go without. 

It’s funded separately in the sense that only taxes collected for SS are used to pay for SS. That won’t be true in 12 years, and the U.S. has “borrowed” the SS surplus, but that doesn’t change the fact that other sources of revenue are not used to pay for SS right now.

“Most of the US budget is spent on social services.”