By Glenn Mollette, Guest Commentator
Some of America's problems can be fixed easily. One of them, voting by mail in the November election, should not be one of them for Americans.
I suggest the polls remain open for at least two days. Every state should open their polls from 6am until 8pm. Some states already have later evening hours like California where residents may vote until 8 PM and in New York where voters can vote as late as 9pm.
Some states allow you to show up at the courthouse and vote early. It should be easy to vote on one of the voting machines like always if you aren't available to vote on November third.
Indiana will allow voters to come in as early as October sixth to cast their ballot. It's called "Absentee in-person voting". This would be a good idea for every state. You will never have more than one or two people in front of you when you vote early. Social distancing occurs, you pick the day and you know for sure your vote has been cast.
The stage for a fiasco is set for any kind of mail-in ballots this year.
It's a big issue. Some people want it and others don't. This is not the year to try it out. People are hollering social distancing and Covid-19. Yet, these same people are walking through Walmart without a mask.
One idea for handling the election day voting is to let Chick-fil-a handle the process.
I've never seen anyone take the orders of fifty cars and have all their food to them in ten minutes like they do at our local Chick-fil-a. Every time I go there, I think, "Wow, this being closed on Sunday is just killing them." I say that as a joke, of course, as their business is better and greater than ever.
The United States post office has timed their demands for money at the right time. They've declared they can't guarantee delivery of mail-in ballots on time because of lack of funds.
Can they ever really guarantee delivery? I mail stuff out priority mail occasionally and sometimes it shows up ten days down the road. The promised delivery time is sometimes much shorter than actual delivery. I would never depend on my vote making it to the courthouse via mail. Oregon uses mail entirely for voting. Washington state has a lot of mail-in votes.
I'm sympathetic with the needs of the post office. I think they should eliminate delivery and close the post offices on Saturday. This should save some money.
Go ahead and raise all the postage costs five percent. Many Americans pay their bills online. Christmas cards are going out online for many.
Oh, and someone needs to make sure Amazon is paying a fair price for delivery of their goods. Free delivery of Amazon products is not really free. Someone is paying the cost.
For seniors over 70 on minimal incomes, give them some free stamps very month to mail their bills. They're already hurting enough.
Some of America's problems can be fixed. Our greatest problem is fixing Congress. They are the greatest obstacle in solving most of our problems.
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Some of America's problems can be fixed easily. One of them, voting by mail in the November election, should not be one of them for Americans.
I suggest the polls remain open for at least two days. Every state should open their polls from 6am until 8pm. Some states already have later evening hours like California where residents may vote until 8 PM and in New York where voters can vote as late as 9pm.
Some states allow you to show up at the courthouse and vote early. It should be easy to vote on one of the voting machines like always if you aren't available to vote on November third.
Indiana will allow voters to come in as early as October sixth to cast their ballot. It's called "Absentee in-person voting". This would be a good idea for every state. You will never have more than one or two people in front of you when you vote early. Social distancing occurs, you pick the day and you know for sure your vote has been cast.
The stage for a fiasco is set for any kind of mail-in ballots this year.
It's a big issue. Some people want it and others don't. This is not the year to try it out. People are hollering social distancing and Covid-19. Yet, these same people are walking through Walmart without a mask.
One idea for handling the election day voting is to let Chick-fil-a handle the process.
I've never seen anyone take the orders of fifty cars and have all their food to them in ten minutes like they do at our local Chick-fil-a. Every time I go there, I think, "Wow, this being closed on Sunday is just killing them." I say that as a joke, of course, as their business is better and greater than ever.
The United States post office has timed their demands for money at the right time. They've declared they can't guarantee delivery of mail-in ballots on time because of lack of funds.
Can they ever really guarantee delivery? I mail stuff out priority mail occasionally and sometimes it shows up ten days down the road. The promised delivery time is sometimes much shorter than actual delivery. I would never depend on my vote making it to the courthouse via mail. Oregon uses mail entirely for voting. Washington state has a lot of mail-in votes.
I'm sympathetic with the needs of the post office. I think they should eliminate delivery and close the post offices on Saturday. This should save some money.
Go ahead and raise all the postage costs five percent. Many Americans pay their bills online. Christmas cards are going out online for many.
Oh, and someone needs to make sure Amazon is paying a fair price for delivery of their goods. Free delivery of Amazon products is not really free. Someone is paying the cost.
For seniors over 70 on minimal incomes, give them some free stamps very month to mail their bills. They're already hurting enough.
Some of America's problems can be fixed. Our greatest problem is fixing Congress. They are the greatest obstacle in solving most of our problems.
Dr. Glenn Mollette is a syndicated American columnist and author of American Issues, Every American Has An Opinion and ten other books. He is read in all 50 states. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily representative of any other group or organization.
This article is the sole opinions of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of PhotoNews Media. We welcome comments and views from our readers.
For the majority of investors, taxation should never be the main driver behind an investment. However, taxation should absolutely be considered in an efficient investment portfolio. At the end of the day, how much money you keep is more important than how much money you earn.
The Internal Revenue Source (IRS) has written a painfully long book called, "The Internal Revenue Code" otherwise known as the tax code. The tax code isn’t painfully long and dense because of the many different ways the IRS can collect taxes. In fact, the collection of taxes is rather simple. If you make “X”, then you pay “Y.” Rather, the tax code is so long because of the many ways you can legally reduce your tax liability.
Individuals are able to reduce their tax liability if they perform actions that the government likes. One of the government’s favorite actions is providing housing to the public; therefore, there are many great tax benefits for real estate investors. One of the great real estate tax benefits is depreciation.
Real estate depreciation allows you to deduct the costs of a property over its useful life (as determined by the IRS) which reduces your taxable income. This is known as a “paper loss” because on paper it looks like the value of your investment decreased when, in reality, the value of your property likely increased due to appreciation and you collected monthly cash flow from the property if your income was greater than your expenses.
The tax benefits of real estate are very powerful and warrant their own article; however, this is how the wealthy stay wealthy. They buy real estate and legally reduce their taxable income, so they keep more of their money and then use that money to buy more real estate. It’s not complicated, and it’s 100% legal.
When it comes to taxation, real estate is the belle of the ball; however, stock market investors are able to place investments in tax efficient accounts and control the timing of their capital gains. The main tax benefit available to stock market investors is the ability to defer taxes through retirement accounts such as 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and IRAs. Additionally, you are able to choose the timing of the taxation by electing the account to be a “traditional” or "Roth" retirement vehicle.
With a traditional IRA, you are able to deduct your contributions in the year they are made, but you must pay taxes on them once you withdraw the funds. This is ideal for someone who thinks they will be in a lower tax bracket once they are retirement age. You contribute after-tax dollars to a Roth IRA, so this is ideal for someone who thinks they will be in a higher tax bracket once they retire. If you hold a specific stock for longer than a year, then you are no longer subject to the highest capital gains tax and this will allow you to keep more of your earnings.
