Abolish private healthcare insurance

PJ Diaz said:

Everyone's an "independent contractor" these days. You are a business owner, but drive your own nails? Sounds a bit like illegal employment to me. Are you a tax dodger or what?

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My good god you sound positively retarded

most people are hourly employees. They work and get paid under their own name, are entitled to workman’s comp should they get injured on the job, and only pay 7.65% of their wages into fica (6.2% for social security and 1.45% for Medicare). The employer pays the other half of fica taxes

I am an independent contractor. I work and get paid under my business name, am not entitled to workman’s comp, and pay 15.3% into fica.

as an independent contractor, I drive my own nails, not someone else’s. Hence the independent part.

have you Bernie babies never worked a day in your lives? Or are you a russian tard?

UncleBuck said:

My good god you sound positively retarded

most people are hourly employees. They work and get paid under their own name, are entitled to workman’s comp should they get injured on the job, and only pay 7.65% of their wages into fica (6.2% for social security and 1.45% for Medicare). The employer pays the other half of fica taxes

I am an independent contractor. I work and get paid under my business name, am not entitled to workman’s comp, and pay 15.3% into fica.

as an independent contractor, I drive my own nails, not someone else’s. Hence the independent part.

have you Bernie babies never worked a day in your lives? Or are you a russian tard?

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I've been working for approx 36 years of my life to date and have owned two independent businesses. I guess business isn't good for you if you have to drive your own nails as a home building contractor. Most people hire legitimate employees to do that work, since as you've discovered it's a hazardous industry.

I hope that business picks up for you, so that you can hire employees to do that sort of thing for you, and you don't have to put your under-insured ass on the line any longer.

As you likely know there is much "day worker" types of gigs (aka illegal employment) in the construction industry, hence my speculation. I do hope business picks up for you.

PJ Diaz said:

I've been working for approx 36 years of my life to date and have owned two independent businesses. I guess business isn't good for you if you have to drive your own nails as a home building contractor. Most people hire legitimate employees to do that work, since as you've discovered it's a hazardous industry.

I hope that business picks up for you, so that you can hire employees to do that sort of thing for you, and you don't have to put your under-insured ass on the line any longer.

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it Is clear to me and anyone else who has actually run a business that you have no fucking clue what you are talking about. you are lying and lying, and then lying some more

anyone who runs an “independent business”, as I do and you claim to do (but are lying), knows that workman’s comp is the responsibility of the business owner for the benefit of the employees of said business. Furthermore, if you had actually ever run an independent business, you’d know that you have to cover all of your own taxes and half of the employees fica taxes

the fact that you are completely unaware of these basic, entry level facts about running your own business has exposed you as a complete and utter fraud

now go delete your account and start a new sock, moron

UncleBuck said:

it Is clear to me and anyone else who has actually run a business that you have no fucking clue what you are talking about. you are lying and lying, and then lying some more

anyone who runs an “independent business”, as I do and you claim to do (but are lying), knows that workman’s comp is the responsibility of the business owner for the benefit of the employees of said business. Furthermore, if you had actually ever run an independent business, you’d know that you have to cover all of your own taxes and half of the employees fica taxes

the fact that you are completely unaware of these basic, entry level facts about running your own business has exposed you as a complete and utter fraud

now go delete your account and start a new sock, moron

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Many "independent contractors" call themselves such, but do not fall under the definition of independent contractor, nor do they always pay taxes on the work they do. Personally I do understand the rules, and file both w-2's and 1099's with my personal taxes for both my legal employment and small business every year, and I am glad to hear that you also do the same. I only hope that your business picks up so that you can afford to hire workers to do the dangerous stuff. Frankly if you are putting nails in your finger, maybe it should tell you something, perhaps that you're not really up to par to do the job yourself anyway and should hire some employees. Anyway, I do hope business get better for you. Perhaps you should consider putting more money into your marketing department, or simply increasing your bid pricing, so that you can afford to hire employees.

Anyway, I'll think good thoughts for you and hope your business picks up. It must be really depressing to have to do all the hard work yourself as a building contractor, and not be able to hire some strong workers. Good luck!

PJ Diaz said:

Personally I do understand the rules

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No you don’t

workman’s comp and fica taxes are literally the two most basic things any independent business owner needs to understand. you’ve proven that you have zero understanding of either

you claiming to understand the rules at this point is like a blind man claiming to understand colors. That is how badly you have shown your ass

but then again, all of us already knew you were a complete fraud

UncleBuck said:

No you don’t

workman’s comp and fica taxes are literally the two most basic things any independent business owner needs to understand. you’ve proven that you have zero understanding of either

you claiming to understand the rules at this point is like a blind man claiming to understand colors. That is how badly you have shown your ass

but then again, all of us already knew you were a complete fraud

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Perhaps you're missing the point, you don't seem all that bright afterall, since you continually fail to understand.

Many folks in your industry who call themselves independent contractors don't receive 1099's and also don't report wages, so they don't even pay fica. It's pretty common in your industry, I'm surprised to see that you are somehow ignorant of that fact.

I will say I find it very odd that any real construction contractor would be driving their own nails, unless the business was in very poor shape. As I said to you however, I do hope your business picks up. It must really suck to have to drive nails all day. Prolly makes you think about pounding one in the head from time to time, but keep your chin up, I'm sure business will pick up. Afterall the economy is at an all time high. I grossed more than ever last year. I'm sure if you work hard you can do well too.

The good thing for me, is my side-business is for equipment rental, so I don't have to put any labor on the line. Very simple easy money.

Ya independent contractors don't get workmans comp. You file a 1099 and are responsible to file income quarterly or yearly. I've worked construction plenty and most my work was done as a 1099. Most the foremen/owners work right along side. They'll typically drive the equipment. They'd rather hire a 1099 so they don't have to pay workmans comp etc. It's really not very outlandish at all.

ChiefRunningPhist said:

Ya independent contractors don't get workmans comp. You file a 1099 and are responsible to file income quarterly or yearly. I've worked construction plenty and most my work was done as a 1099. Most the foremen/owners work right along side. They'll typically drive the equipment. They'd rather hire a 1099 so they don't have to pay workmans comp etc. It's really not very outlandish at all.

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Right, however what you're describing doesn't fall within the department of labor standards for independent contractors. While the foreman may be a legitimate independent contractor, the day workers simply don't fulfill the standards of definition set forth to be an actual independent contractor. It's basically unenforced illegal employment. Simply issuing a worker a 1099, doesn't magically legitimize their independent contractor status. Here is a bit of clarify on the subject:


Funny story: a business I was employeed by had me do some "hiring" for them, and wanted the workers to be independent contractors. I tried to explain that they weren't really legit independent contractors. They said, "it's fine, don't worry about it, we checked with risk management", so I said ok and hired that way for a couple of years. Then guess what? The IRS audited the company, and it was decided that they could no longer hire that way, and all the day workers became employees from there on. Real world stuff here kids.

PJ Diaz said:

Everyone's an "independent contractor" these days. You are a business owner, but drive your own nails? Sounds a bit like illegal employment to me. Are you a tax dodger or what?

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Dont need to be a tax dodger, the system is set up for "contractors" (sole traders) to pay little to no tax. We can pretty much claim whatever we spend and adjust that to what we earn. Its to encourage spending.
Can also be a fantastic way of life. I work 4 hrs a day 4 or 5 days a week or less. Love it!

PJ Diaz said:

Everyone's an "independent contractor" these days. You are a business owner, but drive your own nails? Sounds a bit like illegal employment to me. Are you a tax dodger or what?

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Lol you're all over the place here.

If its illegal employment, how is Buck a tax dodger? That's the hiring entity dodging taxes, not the employee.

If you provide your own tools and do work for multiple companies, I'd say its perfectly fine to file as an independent contractor. If you're hiring a gofor or a nailer, then those are employees. Real world? Lol that is real world, there's multiple parties involved in completing a construction project, and hiring independent contractors is how much of it is done. Plenty of sole proprietors, not everyone works for a corporation and companies would rather hire 1099s to reduce costs.

It doesn't seem that you're all too familiar with the culture. Owners work. It's the type of person. Sure some don't, but most are frugal and brought up working. Same with farmers ranchers ect. The fact that someone doesn't sit on their behind and watch others work, doesn't mean the business is in poor shape lol some people actually enjoy their work

ChiefRunningPhist said:

It doesn't seem that you're all too familiar with the culture. Owners work. It's the type of person. Sure some don't, but most are frugal and brought up working. Same with farmers ranchers ect. The fact that someone doesn't sit on their behind and watch others work, doesn't mean the business is in poor shape lol some people actually enjoy their work

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You're talking to a Bernie supporter, there's no point in trying to explain what actually working is to him

Fogdog said:

Take care of yourself. Hope the visit went well for you.

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Ya all good, waiting for ablation to control heart rate since Feb as well, they say any day now lol. This was all brought on (they figure) by a excessively fun time in Mexico, to much tequila they say . I don’t normally drink much now unless I’m away with the old team and the doc says it’s not uncommon for this to occur if the body is not accustomed to copious amounts of booze, ok I know that now .

PJ Diaz said:

Everyone's an "independent contractor" these days. You are a business owner, but drive your own nails? Sounds a bit like illegal employment to me. Are you a tax dodger or what?

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Being the astute business man that you proclaim to be I would think you would be up on all of this. Do you not check for this when you hire people, or do you hire tax cheats?

blu3bird said:

You're talking to a Bernie supporter, there's no point in trying to explain what actually working is to him

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Lol well I'm not sure on Bernie, so far he sounds ok to me but haven't really dove in. I'm for a little wealth distribution, coupled with policy change to reduce the gap. I believe most the rich haven't worked a day in their lives either, just inherited daddy's money for generations, though they want to kick and scream today about unjust taxes on the wealth they didn't even contribute to. It's human nature, a baby will steal a toy from another baby without ever being told or shown how. We're greedy by nature. The frustrating thing is that the unwealthy have a huge majority and could change their future for the better in a heartbeat, but they lack comprehension and are herded into voting against their best interest. Too many decisions based on facebook likes and emotion rather than logic.

UncleBuck said:

My good god you sound positively retarded

most people are hourly employees. They work and get paid under their own name, are entitled to workman’s comp should they get injured on the job, and only pay 7.65% of their wages into fica (6.2% for social security and 1.45% for Medicare). The employer pays the other half of fica taxes

I am an independent contractor. I work and get paid under my business name, am not entitled to workman’s comp, and pay 15.3% into fica.

as an independent contractor, I drive my own nails, not someone else’s. Hence the independent part.

have you Bernie babies never worked a day in your lives? Or are you a russian tard?

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I’m beginning to understand the mindset of these Bernie supporters. They seem to have no clue how the actual world works. Anyone who is successful and works hard is, in their mind, a rich prick who should pay their way. It’s becoming quite apparent their all whiners and blame others for their lack of motivation and stupidness ........ sad.

ChiefRunningPhist said:

Lol well I'm not sure on Bernie, so far he sounds ok to me but haven't really dove in. I'm for a little wealth distribution, coupled with policy change to reduce the gap. I believe most the rich haven't worked a day in their lives either, just inherited daddy's money for generations, though they want to kick and scream today about unjust taxes on the wealth they didn't even contribute to. It's human nature, a baby will steal a toy from another baby without ever being told or shown how. The frustrating thing is that the unwealthy have a huge majority and could change their future for the better in a heartbeat, but they lack comprehension and are herded into voting against their best interest. Too many decisions based on facebook likes and emotion rather than logic.

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What’s Rich? A million? 10 million? 100 thousand in personal wealth? To lump “rich” into one big heap can be kind of misleading ..... just sayin.

ChiefRunningPhist said:

Lol well I'm not sure on Bernie, so far he sounds ok to me but haven't really dove in. I'm for a little wealth distribution, coupled with policy change to reduce the gap. I believe most the rich haven't worked a day in their lives either, just inherited daddy's money for generations, though they want to kick and scream today about unjust taxes on the wealth they didn't even contribute to. It's human nature, a baby will steal a toy from another baby without ever being told or shown how. We're greedy by nature. The frustrating thing is that the unwealthy have a huge majority and could change their future for the better in a heartbeat, but they lack comprehension and are herded into voting against their best interest. Too many decisions based on facebook likes and emotion rather than logic.

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I'll agree with you that a lot of people vote on emotions with the beliefs that they're entitled.

As far as inheriting money or whatever, let's say your parents passed away and left you their house. Do you think you should have to give it away to a stranger because you didn't work/pay for that house?

PJ Diaz said:

Perhaps you're missing the point, you don't seem all that bright afterall, since you continually fail to understand.

Many folks in your industry who call themselves independent contractors don't receive 1099's and also don't report wages, so they don't even pay fica. It's pretty common in your industry, I'm surprised to see that you are somehow ignorant of that fact.

I will say I find it very odd that any real construction contractor would be driving their own nails, unless the business was in very poor shape. As I said to you however, I do hope your business picks up. It must really suck to have to drive nails all day. Prolly makes you think about pounding one in the head from time to time, but keep your chin up, I'm sure business will pick up. Afterall the economy is at an all time high. I grossed more than ever last year. I'm sure if you work hard you can do well too.

The good thing for me, is my side-business is for equipment rental, so I don't have to put any labor on the line. Very simple easy money.

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I can only assume you are not being totally truthful here lol. Equipment rental business owners typically work extremely hard to be successful. Long hours maintaining the equipment. Long hours at the distribution Center. Renting to “contractors” you would think would give a better understanding of the world of construction which seems very weak. You seem to be void of this knowledge which would lead me to believe your lying.

ChiefRunningPhist said:

The chart shows 2 groups, 1 is big pharma, the other is the rest of the fortune 500 companies. Compared to the average, it looks lime big pharma is 4x more profitable than the typical industry (16% vs 4%), and is also growing.


Ontop of being ~4× more profitable (profit means money made - money spent) their margin rate is similarly ~4× greater than most industry.

This means that the money spent on R&D which they claim is the reason for high drug prices is false. If the industry wasn't inflated, the cost of R&D would offset profits to realize a closer profitability to other fortune 500 companies.

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I don't see how you can conclude based on the above that R&D costs being the reason for high drug prices is false. Also I was saying reinvestment, that goes into everything to do with the R&D like scientists wages, new labs. But also future costs too, if they get hit with inevitable huge settlements that needs to get paid because they are not likely to be bailed out by the government so need to be sure to cover that stuff out of pocket and with insurance.

ChiefRunningPhist said:

They've lobbied the government to increase publicly funded research (NIH ect, which I'm ok with) and use the discoveries paid for by the tax payer to create the drugs to sell to them, albeit at high prices which they also lobby to maintain. The public subsidizes big pharma while big pharma simultaneously lobbies to keep drug prices high. Winners are Wall Street and big pharma, losers are the sick and unwealthy.

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I think this again is just too easy to say. Things that are true, they do spend a shit load on lobbying and everything else,

I am not trying to stand up for Big Pharma, I am sure there is a ton of good healthy regulations/taxatoin that should be applied to them, but I just push back against the pitchfork and torch mentality of easy villains.

ChiefRunningPhist said:

I'm not discounting the fact that big pharma conducts R&D, but imo the high cost of the drug has more to do with profit than the cost of creation.

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Another measure, Internal Rate of Return (IRR) is even more telling. IRR calculates the sales/cash flows resulting from R&D investments, ties R&D and the returns it generates together, and is a more appropriate metric for biopharma productivity. Deloitte reports that the IRR for biopharma R&D has been steadily falling from 10.1% in 2010 to 3.2% in 2017. Even Wall Street hasn’t bought into the “pharma soaring profits” view. Since February 1, 2014, while the Dow has risen 63%, the stock prices of a number of major pharma companies have been muted with Pfizer and Bristol-Myers each growing by about 15%, and Merck and AstraZeneca by roughly 6.5%. Even Lilly’s growth of 43% still lags the Dow.

I don't know enough about the profit/loss of this industry, but do tend to believe that if there is such an inbalance, other rich people will start to jump into the market to steal that excess profits. If there are entry issues that should be cleaned up with legislation, but it might be hard in a industry that relies on years of hardcore research for each drug and such a high rate of drugs not making it to the market.

Budley Doright said:

I’m beginning to understand the mindset of these Bernie supporters. They seem to have no clue how the actual world works. Anyone who is successful and works hard is, in their mind, a rich prick who should pay their way. It’s becoming quite apparent their all whiners and blame others for their lack of motivation and stupidness ........ sad.

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Exactly 100%

These are people that truly believe working a minimum wage job should buy a house, car and be able to raise a family. They want everything life has to offer, only with minimum effort on their part. If they can't have or achieve what someone else has worked hard for, that's inequality to them.