Tim Nerenz's Blog – August 2010 Archive (3)

Last weekend, we went to one of our favorite tavern-burger joints for the first time since Wisconsin’s smoking ban went into effect. No ashtrays, no smoke, and no customers – nice going, do-gooders.



This was a biker bar, past tense. It is an empty bar now – soon to be a closed-down bar unless there is a federal bailout in the works for dives. It wasn’t the kind of place you would walk into by mistake, not a place to take your kids. Nobody was inadvertently exposed to second-hand…

The magic number is $50,000 – the median compensation rate in the private sector. The math is simple: for every $50,000 of cost laid on business by government, one job must be cut.



Government burdens businesses in three ways: taxes, mandates, and regulations. Ultimately, these costs are passed to consumers in the form of increased prices; but in the short run, increased government burden must be offset with cost reductions elsewhere in the firm, and elsewhere these days almost…

When President Obama returns to Wisconsin this month, you can have your picture taken with him for $10,000. I think I will bring a check for $1,427 to teach him how his new tax rates will impact those of us who actually pay our taxes.



First of all, let’s assume he is a responsible retirement saver and is putting away 8% of his $10,000 earnings into a 401(k) - that is an $800 withholding that we will tax later. His Medicare tax on the balance is $267, Social Security tax is $1,150,…