Aren't you disgusted when you look at your gross income vs net income?

imagine if we WEREN'T running a huge federal deficit. you would be paying almost twice as much in fed taxes.

calculations wrote:

imagine if we WEREN'T running a huge federal deficit. you would be paying almost twice as much in fed taxes.

No, I wouldn't. I would say "see ya" and head sast.

I'm not disgusted. I've always had enough to live on and have generally been pretty comfortable. I've never understood people who are living comfortably being bent out of shape because they think they could have a bit of extra money every couple of weeks.

That's what you get for being a lowly 99 percenter.

I am one of a very small handful of medical and rehabilitation professionals who utilize a protocol that has the potential to revolutionize the treatment of back pain. Unfortunately, it's not very well-known because FDA regulations prevent people like me from advertising it. It will not be Americans who get the benefits of this protocol, but Singaporeans, at least until Americans wise up, cut taxes and get the know-nothing politicians out of the way. Until then, millions of people will continue to suffer and billions of dollars will be wasted on useless PT programs and unnecessary surgeries for lack of a proper lumbar strengthening protocol.

Of course I'm disgusted. That's why they call it "gross" income.

f the po-lice wrote:

I am one of a very small handful of medical and rehabilitation professionals who utilize a protocol that has the potential to revolutionize the treatment of back pain. Unfortunately, it's not very well-known because FDA regulations prevent people like me from advertising it. It will not be Americans who get the benefits of this protocol, but Singaporeans, at least until Americans wise up, cut taxes and get the know-nothing politicians out of the way. Until then, millions of people will continue to suffer and billions of dollars will be wasted on useless PT programs and unnecessary surgeries for lack of a proper lumbar strengthening protocol.

oh.

We need all your hard earned taxes to support Obamas lazy voters.

f the po-lice wrote:

Thinking about quitting medicine and opening a clinical exercise business and just reinvesting all the profits in expensive equipment, real estate, advertising, etc. Just because I find the taxes so offensive.

You know what I find offensive? Selfish arseholes like you. You took federal subsidies to get your degree, take federal payment for your patients, enjoyed federal grants for the research into your snake oil science, not to mention the numerous other places you take advantage of monies the rest of us pay the govt. You live in a country with one of the lowest tax rates in the developed world, yet you whine because you want it all for yourself. Shut the fuck up!

Doctors are screwed by Uncle Sam. This is one big problem with healthcare in our country that nobody talks about. They get taxed so much on their skill and hard work that its a barrier to people becoming doctors and it curbs the supply of good doctors.

A doctor in California may be rich in their yearly income but they are not necessarily wealthy. Its the worst of all worlds with taxes. With a high taxable income they don't get the benefits of lower tax rates and generally they get phased out of various deductions and credits for lower middle class earners. And unless they make a huge amount of money per year a large portion of their income is also subject to Social Security. Nor do they get the benefits of having accumulated a lot of wealth. When you have accumulated wealth you reach a point where you can perpetually defer taxes and let you wealth earn ever more wealth.

The best you can say is that you are in position to accumulate wealth through maximizing limits on deferred tax vehicles like IRAs and 401Ks. And you should be able to get a nice mortgage rate on a house. But do you honestly feel confident that your investments will perform the way they did for doctors who practiced throughout the 80s and 90s?

The sad thing is that only Ralph Nader and Ron Paul are sympathetic to your plight. The major parties are both working for the super wealthy and nobody else.

Oh, wah wah wah....poor rich folk.

I might be misunderstanding you, but if I'm not, I am very taken aback at how misguided some of your points seem.

I don't think anyone has ever actively decided not to be a doctor simply because they would be taxed too much. If someone were to honestly say "I wish I could be a doctor, but I would rather pay 25% taxes on a $60,000 than pay 50% taxes on a $300,000 salary" then they are probably far too uneducated to make a good doctor in the first place. I agree that there are barriers preventing more people from becoming doctors, but I wouldn't say taxes are among them. In my opinion, these barriers would include requiring a somewhat unrelated 4 year undergraduate course of study before med school, the incredible cost of med school, and the limited number of spots available in those med schools.

I don't know a huge amount about medicine, but it seems like if there was a shorter, more streamlined way to become a "doctor" of some sort (probably a step below the folks who do the 4years + 4years + a few more years route), then they could practice less expensive medicine for people who can't afford seeing a doctor who charges $1000 to read an MRI because he has student loans to payoff. the quality of the medicine would probably be lower, but it would at least be affordable and more accessible. In effect, we would still have all of the great doctors we currently have, but we would also have a more affordable option for the working poor other than webMD.

That's just my unrelated theory. It could be completely wrong, but I figured we were already on the subject of barriers to the medical field.

This doesn't make much sense to me either. Are you saying doctors are the only professionals that don't get to magically see a large lump of money float into their checking account just by signing on the dotted line? I'm not a doctor, and I didn't get that "lots of wealth" perk that is apparently universal among non-MDs.

Gosh, I can't believe those democrats are just trampling the needy doctors of the world in favor of the super wealthy homeless minorities on foodstamps. Pick a side hommie. If you think Obama is a foodstamp president, stick to your guns. If you think he's in the back pocket of the bankers and oil barrons, then don't say he's a foodstamp president.

I really don't like being mean unsarcastically on LetsRun, but it sounds like you need to think your ideas through before posting them next time.

Its not being selfish, its called getting your fair share. That "selfish arsehole" PM and R doctor has worked his butt off and rocked 20+ hour shifts only to get screwed by taxes. You do realize that EVERYBODY has taken federal loans? If you think that doctors are required to be completely altruistic and live a life of poverty due to their taking of federal loans, EVERYBODY should also be equally altruistic since pretty much everybody has taken federal loans for education. That includes teachers, researchers, dentists, everybody that has taken federal loans.

If you think medicine is snake oil then just don't ever go into a hospital; let's see how you do.

Docs may be part of the "1%" but they are DEFINITELY not as rich as you think. The opportunity cost of becoming a doctor (4 years of college, 4 years of med school and 3-7 years of residency) is very heavy, not to mention the 150-200,000 of educational debt accruing at 6.8-8.5%.

Please tell me what you do for a living. I'd be surprised if you were one of the hard-working folks based on your very ignorant post.

[/quote]

You know what I find offensive? Selfish arseholes like you. You took federal subsidies to get your degree, take federal payment for your patients, enjoyed federal grants for the research into your snake oil science, not to mention the numerous other places you take advantage of monies the rest of us pay the govt. You live in a country with one of the lowest tax rates in the developed world, yet you whine because you want it all for yourself. Shut the fuck up![/quote]

chinocochino wrote:

Please tell me what you do for a living. I'd be surprised if you were one of the hard-working folks based on your very ignorant post.

I'm a physician and not one involved with questionable science like the OP.

You are very ignorant of how and how much doctors get paid. The cost of an MRI is comprised of a technical fee (from 800-1,500 roughly depending on how many views, contrast, and region of the MRI machine) for the actual machine and the professional fee. The professional fee is what the doctor makes, its like 50 bucks for the radiologist.

The technical fee is given to the MRI owner; the MRI can cost over a million dollars so you must analyze the patient volume before buying or loaning such a machine. The MRI owner may be a doctor or anybody, but not everyone can just buy an MRI machine for a million dollars. Due to Stark anti kickback laws, doctors can't refer to any machines that they own. This reduces corruption.

Man, people on letsrun are so anti-doctor and ignorant of medicine. I thought hard-working runners would be sympathetic to professionals that actually make a difference in the world and add more value to people that just throw a ball through a hoop or sing some dumb song. I guess people like their entertainment but don't care for the hard-working chaps that save lives. Doctors are a LOT less wealthy than what you all think.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stark_Law

"a doctor who charges $1000 to read an MRI because he has student loans to payoff."

To answer the question - no, I am not disgusted when I look at my gross income vs net income.

Early on, I realized that my pay check was smaller than my gross pay.

And I would figure what the net pay check would be for subsequent raises.

So to have one cash objective I would need to shoot for a higher pay objective.

I just except that and don't get emotional about it.

The higher my income, the higher of a percent that comes out, but I am still making more money. Making more money gets easier as you go along.

I am not interested in going to a lower pay to get a lower tax rate.

I focus on take home pay and really ignore gross pay.

The question the OP was probably attemting to pose is, "are you disgusted that 49% of americans do not pay taxes". I'm sure he understands how to budget, I'm sure he has at times worked 80 hours per/week to make $300,000 (as someone claimed) while trying to pay off school loans, and to say his medicine is "questionable" tells me that you are not a physician as you cliam.

Moral of the story ...regardless of who is in office, if we continue to reward laziness, reward having children without having a job or insurance, and allow big business to layoff americans and ship jobs over seas to keep their financials strong for wall st., our tax system will remain consistent with current protocol. Our country will never be able to afford a nationalized heathcare system. Not enough people pay into the system to succesfully pay for this.

Personally, I don't paying taxes. What I don't mind is doing so while our politicians perpetuate ignorance and laziness ...all so they can be rewarded at least 30-40% of the votes to get elected. The counrty will never progress until we change policies on terms in office ...no more lifetime politicians. Lifers make decisions based on what keeps them in office, not what is best for the masses.

Great post! To the poster that talked about focusing on net pay and not gross pay, of course, nobody wants to just be in a lower tax bracket. It could be depressing having a lot of money seemingly go to waste, however.To the physician above, I'm sorry for my rude post to you. However, I don't think its fair for physicians to be sacrificial lambs. My point about almost everybody accepting federal loans should be correct, however. If physicians have a special debt to society, then everybody would since they accepted the same loans. There is a really good medical blog that tackled these social issues very well but I can't find it anymore.

Tgfredsde wrote:

You know what I find offensive? Selfish arseholes like you. You took federal subsidies to get your degree, take federal payment for your patients, enjoyed federal grants for the research into your snake oil science, not to mention the numerous other places you take advantage of monies the rest of us pay the govt. You live in a country with one of the lowest tax rates in the developed world, yet you whine because you want it all for yourself. Shut the fuck up!

You know what I find offensive? Envious little parasites like you who believe that their vote entitles them to expropriate the property of others. You force Federal subsidies on people who don't want them, then turn around and demand their gratuity. You destroyed what was used to be the greatest country in history with your rotten cynicism.