Rich pay more taxes...duh!

Some brief thoughts about the environment, why are large international companies planning for man induced climate change? Why is the US military in their long range plans that they publish every year planning for man induced climate change? And especially why are insurance companies also planning for man induced climate change?

If, as the deniers claim, there is no such thing as man induced climate change, why then are all these groups planning for it? Do they know something the deniers don’t know?

Taxes

A lot of people get confused when doing the math concerning who pays the most in income taxes. On the right the argument is that the wealthy pay the majority of income taxes. Well duh i say.

If you have the top 1% making more money than 150,000,000 million people at the bottom end of the pay scale of course they will pay more, even when taxed at a lower rate because they make more than all those people combined. Remember that salient fact…they make more money than all those people combined.

The real problem is that the middle class pays more in taxes than those making over $1,000,000 a year and that just isn’t right which is why the Buffet Rule is so popular with 73% of the country according to Public Policy Polling. Even middle class Republicans like this rule.

Loopholes in our tax code allow the super wealthy who can afford to take advantage of them get away with paying a lower percentage in tax.

Example…the rich guy makes $1000 and pays $100 in taxes which equals 10%

                   The poor guy makes $10 and pays $2 in taxes which equals 20%

Who pays a higher percentage of their income in taxes?

To make the percentages equal the rich guy should be paying $200 in taxes and yes it looks like more money but percentage wise it isn’t.

Some will argue that 40% of the population pays no Federal income tax at all. i’m not sure if those statistics are true but let’s look at it. All those workers are paying payroll tax (paid by those making less than $106,000/year), sales tax, state tax etc. They are not getting off scott free. In fact the bottom 40%(120,000,000 million Americans) own a mere 0.3% of the wealth while the top 20% own 85% of the nations wealth.

In 2008, only 19% of the income reported by the 13,480 individuals or families making over $10 million came from wages and salaries. (See Norris, 2010, for more details.) They only get taxed the same as the rest of us on that 19% the other 81% is taxed at a lower rate.

One of the problems with taxes and the arguments about who is paying more(which is really a non issue) is each individual’s deductions and use of loopholes varies according to how savvy you are. Like so many of these "articles" that discuss taxes they all totally ignore what is actually paid – because in the end they can’t take into consideration loopholes, exemptions, deductions, capital gains and shelters.

So when you hear that 40% pay no taxes don’t believe it, they pay more than you think just trying to exist.

C'sted, VI Steeple Bldg. Views

i'm pretty prejudiced when it comes to St. Croix and its historical beauty compared with other islands through out the Caribbean. We were very fortunate to have the  Danes layout Fredericksted and Christiansted and throughout our history to have concerned citizens that fought to preserve and renovate important historical structures.

In 1952 The Christiansted National Historic Site was created to preserve the Fort, Customs House, Steeple Building, Danish West India and Guinea Company Bldg., and Government House. These structures located within walking distance of each other have been re-done many times since their original construction in the 1700's and are a small representation of how the Danish economy churned from then until they sold the islands to the United States in 1917.

Today some of these buildings are getting a lot of loving TLC from contractors hired to do some needed renovations. After too many hurricanes passing through the buildings were looking stressed and the Park Service put in their requests to the Feds for funds to do some much needed repair on all the buildings.

The Customs House is the biggest part of the project, its getting rotten wood that had been impacted by water and termites replaced and or repaired. Park Service personnel and government architects have put a lot of effort into maintaining the integrity and antiquity of
all the buildings even down to reproducing the lime plaster that goes on the outside of the structures.

They are repairing windows and doors, the gallery roof, replacing shingles, repainting and putting the weather vane back on top of the Steeple Building. The Scale House, the bathrooms and both of the Guniea House kitchens are getting attention. The Fort was tended to first and the project overall is scheduled to be complete sometime in April.

But the reason i wanted to write this piece is more about the views that can be had from the top of the Steeple Building. Christiansted is beautiful, people from all over the world photograph it from all angles and lighting conditions. It is a never ending study in architectural beauty across all the ages.

Access to the tippy top of the Steeple Building has been cut off for a long long time. When i heard they were doing repairs up there i asked if someone could take a camera along and snap a picture out of all eight sides.
Since access is limited and timing for the lighting was not going to happen i had to be satisfied with what ever results were obtained. The day of the shoot it was cloudy but i think St. Croix shines even on a cloudy day.

Enjoy the spectacular views from a building your government is renovating because it wouldn't be happening without them!

Potpourri

Originally this weeks edition was going to focus on local architecture and the continued support for its preservation but the pictures i wanted to publish aren't available right now so its on to other things.

There is a contest going on in England to develop a new design for Pylons(electrical wire support structures) that grace countrysides everywhere. England has decided to update theirs so they solicited the help of designers from all over the world through a contest. The contest closed in July with 250 entries but is now down to the final 6. Over at http://www.ribapylondesign.com/shortlist you can view the finalists and comment if you so desire. i kind of fancy number 4 because it keeps the lines in a vertical configuration and looks esthetically pleasing. i do wonder if it will hummmm in high winds and also how easy or difficult it will be to climb if repairs are needed.

Guess where this is.

This is a new one for me. Apparently in Cameroon women in the mistaken belief that they are protecting their daughters from advances by men will iron their daughters breasts to make them unattractive. The Association of Aunties has been trying to educate rural women about their sexual health and how to teach their daughters to protect themselves without doing physical damage. A study has found that 1 in 4 girls are affected by this practice. All of the 200 ethnic groups in Cameroon use some form of breast ironing.

This mornings moon and clouds

So i was reading an article on psychology that had researchers studying students at Columbia University by asking them a series of questions that would divulge their confidence levels and how that affected their overall grasp of reality. The study revealed that if you were 100% confident that your view of the world was correct you were less likely to absorb factual information that would challenge that view. The article claimed that if you didn't want to be stupid you should not let emotion drive your intellect.

Did you know that Google Maps has opened up their editing to volunteers from around the world? If you have been upset by misleading map features you may want to check out their policy and send in your fixes.

Green Heron thinking he's hidden!

Hope the Whimbrel, who was fitted with a satellite transmitter in May of 2009, and that some of us here on St. Croix have been following since she landed here in August of 2009 finished her Northern migration and took off for St.Croix a few days ago. Before the final push she had attempted to fly home in August but got caught up in Tropical Storm Gert and used the slingshot effect to fly back to Massachusetts at 92 miles per hour. She rested up and moved south to Virginia where she was originally caught and fitted. She sat out Hurricane Irene and then tried again a few days ago flying straight into Tropical Storm Maria. Her transmitter is still working and the last location showed her at sea but closing in on us so we are hoping she makes it home maybe today. If you'd like to watch her you can learn more about her travels at http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/index.shtml?tag_id=88043 
and even sign up to get e-mail alerts.

i don't recall if i updated you on the Kingbirds that had been building nests in our West Indian Cedar tree. i think when i last left off they were working on their third nest. Well they failed again and gave up. i'm hoping next season they will do it again and have more luck. The one i called the Protector still comes and sits on the railing or visits for a bit on his old outpost, i think he learned that we were Ok to hang around and is not skittish like the other Kingbirds.

See ya next week!

Sharks Oh My

Sargasso seaweed  and fishermen

By 2012 sharks that have been facing extinction will now have a sanctuary. In July the governors of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Marshall Islands, Republic of Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia signed a resolution to create the worlds first marine protected area for sharks.

Sharks have had a bad rap but the on going slaughter of sharks for their fins forced the islands to band together in order to protect the biological diversity of their marine environments. The area created (2,500,000 square miles) will be larger than the United States and will ban the possession, sale or offer for sale of any shark fins. The islanders claimed in their resolution that the lack of full scientific certainty about the size of the remaining populations of sharks was no reason to delay action.

Manta Rays will be protected in all the waters of Yap state.

People working together

Here in the Atlantic NOAA and France have recently partnered to protect the Humpback Whales that migrate each year from Massachusetts’ Stellwagen Bank to the French Antilles Agoa Sanctuary. The agreement will strengthen the relationships, monitoring and management of the whales between the two marine sanctuaries’s and help to preserve the species.

Our East End Marine Park here on St. Croix is part of a larger trend around the world to create areas of protection that are managed by local governments. Managing locally means the needs of fishermen, residents and those being protected are mutually compatible. Our park provides a host of allowable activities unlike the shark sanctuary. Some fishing and recreation is allowed in the turtle nesting areas; while on the underwater banks, no-take areas have been developed to protect spawning fish and their nursery’s freeing them from human predators.

Ready for visitors at Rainbow Beach

St. Croix’s other protected areas include the Buck Island National Park, Sandy Point National Refuge, Jacks and Isaacs run by the Nature Conservancy and Southgate managed by the Environmental Association. All these protected areas add to the rich environmental diversity St. Croix offers to its residents and visitors.

But is that enough, have we protected enough or are we just scratching the surface? On St. Croix environmentalists have been working on an Area of Particular Concern out at Great Pond. Great Pond is regularly visited in the spring and fall by migratory birds going back and forth between North and South America. We are a refueling stop for most species of sandpipers and some warblers. The endangered Least Terns nest at Great Pond over the summer and a small group of Whimbrels one of which has been tracked to Alaska spend the winter there feeding before they make their great migration back to the Hudson Bay area and further points west. Although we aren’t the biggest land mass compared with other islands we are just as important in the over all scheme of things. Every preserved step along the way of a migratory path for marine animals and birds means a greater chance for survival.

Sunrise

As more and more trans boundary endangered species face extinction nations have to come together to create safety zones where these species can reproduce and grow unhindered by commercial concerns. We share whales, sharks, dolphin, turtles, game fish and other migratory species such as birds with many countries. It is imperative that we cooperate with other nations and amongst ourselves to preserve their habitats so they can continue to thrive and be available to enjoy and cull for future populations.

There can never be too much preservation.

See ya next week.

Sunset