balthazar

^ Another term that bears definition ("exorbitant"). govsalaries.com states the average salary in my county in 2018 was $66K. 1677 employees = $110 million on average (plus benefits). Average salary in my Township is $79K.

Time wears down all things- only so much one can do RE maintaining perfection, esp once the miles add up. Otherwise, you are investing steady money re-doing things in the later years. - - - - - Changed my oil today (awl by mineself!), so as usual I gave things a look-over underneath- something the grease monkeys don't care to do. 203K miles and my truck is getting TERRIBLE below decks. Rockers I knew were bubbling... but there's a major crack from the rocker/floor seam heading toward the door jamb, and at least the 2 body mounts on that side are looking bad. What is someone expected to do- once you see corrosion coming around around the body bushings; pay to have the body lifted off the frame and scrape/repaint all the mounts, then replace the bushings? Who does that on a daily driver?? Answer: no one. Mechanically it's great. Checked the trans fluid and it was down about a half quart- this is the first time I've EVER added fluid to it (other than filter changes). Pan is a little damp on the outside- maybe the gasket is seeping. But the body is getting too rough. Behind the rear axle is super scaly. I'm going to cancel my KBB evaluation for Tuesday. It's about 25 mins north of me, and my regular dealer is 0.8 miles away. I just don't want to waste their time- truck wouldn't even going to a wholesaler. I'll get what I can get for it privately. Meanwhile, the new truck ordering is a GO!

Can’t effect on what went on 50 years ago, either way. 100 years ago there was NO income tax. I guess one big takeaway is; how does one define the oft-lobbed “fair share”?? If the top 5% pay 53%... should it be 60%? 80%? Where do we put the pin in at? And IF they pay markedly more, is everyone else’s taxes going to go down? At ALL??

Oh yeah!

There are 2 categories involved: tax evasion (illegal) and tax avoidance (legal). 'Loopholes' fall under tax avoidance, which is permissible via the IRS. And some evasion dollars are inadvertent errors rather than intentional (and some of that gets corrected via audits / tax owed corrections). The only truly damnable scenario is intentional under-payment; tax evasion. In 2008-2010, Individual tax evasion were 44% of revenue shortfalls, and payroll / self-employment tax evasion came in at 39%. Corporate-level income tax evasion accounted for only 9% of tax revenue in the same period. (~Brookings Institute).

I like ST just fine, but I tend to think of my vintage vehicles like various serial killers. I see a self-proported 'fast' car and I want my vintage iron to rip it apart.

Municipalities that waive property taxes to lure businesses in are engaging in (legal) bribery. Which should be illegal. It only shifts tax burdens onto private citizens in exchange for a couple of jobs. But municipalities crave new revenue streams and fattened tax coffers like a meth addict, so they allow themselves this misappropriation of law (and it starts in D.C.). Then they pay themselves exorbitant salaries with basically no oversight or accountability. ’Evil corporations’ at least engage in commerce and supply consumerism. Gov’t only engages in fees, fines & taxation and galactic-level waste.

“Textured”...??

^ So does everyone else.

Have an appointment Tuesday at a nearby dealer to have a KBB evaluation on my 2500HD. Prep work for New Truck Time.

Another B&W photo someone painted over, but a BEAUTIFUL Binder :

It's not 'my' assessment, it comes from the Dept of the Treasury. Here's older info, but not that markedly different than now, I believe. >>"In 2001, the top 5% of taxpayers paid more than one-half (53.3%) of all individual income taxes, but reported roughly one-third (32.0%) of income. Taxpayers who rank in the top 50% of taxpayers by income pay virtually all individual income taxes. In all years since 1990 {to 2001], taxpayers in this group have paid over 90% of all individual income taxes. In 2000 and 2001, this group paid over 96% of the total."<< What that last point leaves you with is, the bottom 50% paid about 4% of all taxes. I love the narrative that 'the rich "don't pay taxes", corporations "don't pay taxes", we KNOW the bottom 50% don't pay taxes... yet somehow the IRS takes in 4 TRILLION / yr. Somebody is lying. Something from Pew Research, if you like their POV :

Un-identified, from a 'neglected' FB group; I don't recognize it :

What's the story on that building, ccap? Just curious... - - - - -

The top 1% pay a 27% tax rate. They also pay 37% of ALL income tax, when the bottom 90% pay 30%.

Ahhh; the wiley ways of the Percentage Symbol!

The guy driving it looked exactly like you are picturing he did.

If this was verbally described to me, I think I would say it would be horrific. But... I like this, and for the life of me I couldn't explain why.

^ I know you know that, but the way it was worded ("overhead") implied to me that the 10 dealers were somehow connected. Maybe just the way I read it. My local dealer has Chevy-Cadillac, Buick-GMC and Ford-Lincoln. The Chevy dealer was a new Lincoln store (then they built the newer F-L store), but a couple years ago they built a stand-along Cadillac dealer on the same property. I haven't been in it. Personally, I think the 'dealership experience' is vastly overrated. Do I care if the floor is vinyl tile or marble? I do not. In fact, if the floor IS marble, I figure THAT overhead reduces their ability to bargain on the vehicle price. I have zero ambition to spend time in the dealer's showroom, other than the rare occasion of buying a new car. It can be shag carpet & paneled walls- give me a decent deal. I can't take the marble flooring home... Not surprisingly, I'd rather buy from a dealer like this:

^ Gotcha. Kinda doubt with today's mega-gear trans that anything would actually turn in the neighborhood; my B-59 with a 3-spd auto and 3.73 gears will be doing about 2520 RPM @ 60 (and I was contemplating an OD unit because of that).

If GM ends a franchise agreement, I can understand some sort of compensation. If a dealership ends a franchise agreement, I hope that's not also the case.

Is it "beautiful"?

'All highway miles' is actually worse; higher RPM = more wear. Start/stop sequences are also high-wear scenarios. Lots of 'heat up / cool down's also not ideal. Not sure if there's an answer here.

Cadillac doesn't run any dealerships; GM hasn't had corporate stores in like 50 years. What is GM's financial outlay for a dealership franchise?