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Saturday, January 24, 2015

Day eight and nine results and predictions of future tax rates

Day eight and nine were completed just fine. I did notice that during the first set, normal bench 225 at 6 reps, I was having some challenge completing the 5th and 6th rep. I completed them just fine but it didn't feel as easy as I wanted it to be.

Tomorrow, I'm starting week 4, and the first set is normal bench 245 at 4 reps. I've done it before, I just hope I can get it tomorrow.

In the last couple of days, I've been seeing advertisements for different tax preparations companies such as H&R Block, Liberty Tax Service, and Jackson Hewitt. When I see these advertisements, I get reminded of some key economic indicators such as our national debt. As it stands today, the national debt is over $18 trillion. This wouldn't be a problem if we had a gross domestic product that was much greater than our debt but as it stands today, our gross domestic product is only more than $17 trillion dollars.

Our national debt keeps going up because, each year, we keep on running budget deficits. Each year, our government keeps spending more money than it takes in tax revenue.

For the government to start paying off the national debt, it has to stop running budget deficits each year. Unfortunately, there are only two ways to do this. Either cut government spending or increase taxes. Neither one of these is popular and there are people on both sides fighting tooth and nail to prevent one or the other from happening.

If the national debt keeps increasing, more and more money needs to be created to keep our economy from falling to pieces. With more and more money being created, this indirectly leads to an increase of prices for most everything.

An increase of prices makes it more difficult more the average American to sustain a certain quality of life. The difficult economic conditions of the past 10 years is one of the factors that have been putting pressure on couples getting married and/or staying married. Extra pressure to marriage has been leading to a decrease in the number of married couples in this nation.

With fewer couples being married, less production occurs in the economy and the government has less tax revenue to take in.

It is for these reasons I believe that that government may start providing incentives to get more people married. And by provide incentives, I mean implement punishments for men being single and not getting married.

In the future, the government may increase the tax rate for men who file tax returns as single. I look to Japan, which has significant problems with an again population. Ideas of bachelor taxes float around in Japan.

This is how the government will try to deter men going their own way. A near invisible and gradual increase to tax brackets for single individuals. This will not significantly push men into marriage. It is just a way for the government to suck more of our blood. Our life. And it is only the first step the government will take.

It is for this reason that I believe, in the next 10 years, there will be more teenagers and single men in their 20's adopting the streamlined life approach.

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