Want to have some fun this summer, while you and I are sweating like underpaid grunts trying to make ends meet? Look for what I call “vacation stories” to appear in media.
The LA Times story “Park service to thing out Yosemite growing crowds – of trees” is well written and all, but begins with “Reporting from Yosemite national Park…” Hmmm…
Nice time of year to head for Yosemite? No question about it. A little work, a little…er….well, let’s not speculate.
But I did talk to our consulting tax lawyer last week and mi consigliore said something to the the effect “Oh, sure, since you wrote a column every day from those places you and Elaine visited, you can write off some portion of the trip.”
How much? Out with it!
“Oh, I wouldn’t be comfortable defending more than say a third of the trip cost.”
I feel the need for a vacation coming on. Wonder what local angle needs to be covered in Tahiti?
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The International Business Times has a dandy article on seeing the Grand Canyon. Wonder if they need another photographer?
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Seems to me the story about the “Family finishes Great America coaster vacation in Gurnee” would be a plum of a summertime story assignment. I’d have been on the coaster just in front of the family, shooting pictures in tight corners.
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We’re 31weeks into the year and vacation time just isn’t long enough. In fact, UPI reports workers are taking more time off in lieu of other job benefits when the choice is offered.
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This all gets around to a serious point. If Congress, as part of their misshapen budget madness, really does cut back on the deductibility of mortgage interest but wants to really do something for America, why not make vacation travel tax deductible?
I can’t tell you how many corporate “sales meetings” I’ve attended in places like Hawaii, Florida, and so forth, and as an editor myself, I often looked for press releases which would get me out of the office and on to new and exciting places. The Desert Inn opening back in the early 70′s, for example.
So why not extend the perk to everyone? It would result in massive hiring, and besides, if everyone taking one of these vacations could be fingerprinted (like they do at Disneyworld) I bet even Homeland Security would be in favor of it.
Money doesn’t do much good sitting still. And while I understand how the “hard money” interest-dealers want their piece (hence the mortgage deduction) if you want to really kick growth in the ass, you need to get people spending again.
10% deduction for buying a US-made car, write off 33% of a family vacation, and apply Section 179 (single year write-offs) to home improvements.
The problem with economic depressions is not that money disappears, so much, as it’s a velocity problem. If the velocity of money goes to zero, America is in the flusher no matter how balanced the budget is.
But with an incentive to spend, the money goes around and around, faster, and faster and spins off tax revenues at every step of the way.
Oh, and it creates jobs and that means job security for the political and the American Aristocracy.
But I suppose no one will listen, which is why the pending Crash will be such a mess. But, it’s not like we didn’t have a chance. Even with the free lunch crowd.
Tomorrow: Nostradamus and Elenin…
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Deconstruction Sunday
Seems like the only common thread in this weekend’s work around here is the theme of “deconstructing” things. Big things (comet Elenin, for example) and small things (like the debt ceiling) and in between things – like the Standard of Living. I’ve often been heard “Ask George what time it is and he’ll build you a watch.” Except, time is short so we’ll skip right to sight reductions on celestial objects first…and before we’re done, we’ll get into the roasting and toasting of our Saturday report on the debt ceiling being the wrong thing to attack. Let’s not stop at the ceiling, though: “Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s an Internet comet!” ought to be a good starting point….
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If your computer runs slowly, you may have a problem with cookies. These little code snippets are how some websites (and spyware) recognize you, track your movement on the web and so forth. Here lately, as new class of super cookies has been evolved by the admen (and worse) that are resistant to normal cookie deletions through your browser’s interface. Flash cookies, persistent cookies, and super cookies…all easily managed with the Maxa Research Cookie Manager.
Take it for a test drive by clicking here – and it you like it, activation is easily done. If you’re a heavy web user (who ain’t?) you may find like I do that you’ve accumulating a hundred or more cookies per day. Only a handful need to be white-listed, like your brokerage account or your bank. The rest? Software designed to spy on you that robs you of computer performance. Been using it for several years and pleased as the Dickens with it.
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