Monday, March 2, 2009

HENRY's

This is right on. Take twenty minutes to read the article. (via Happy Hospitalist).

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I read this article, and wonder why I'm working so hard to get into exactly this class. After 13 years of education, the privilege I get at the end is giving 40%+ of my income to Uncle Sam? Not much motivation there.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, doctors do decades of training. It should be mentioned that they are paid during residency. Also, they would be very angry if they didn't get any training!

Most people learn on the job Alice. Medicine's well defined career structure means you are going to be very well paid at the top end.

Judging by all the whining doctors articles I've read over the past decade it surprises me doctors are concerned at the >250k tax. I wouldn't have thought any doctors earned that much according to the scare stories.

It's actually one of the easiest and safest ways to make bags of money, being a doctor. Much easier than being in the NBA or being one of those super-rich plumbers you read about in angry doctor articles.

Anonymous said...

I remember reading this article last October and wondering how hard HENRY's were going to get hosed by a Democratically controlled DC. Turns out, it's worse than I thought.

Anonymous said...

Buckeye:
The initial person in this article is a "wealth advisor" at Morgan Stanley who made 375,000. Let's see 375,000 in a year that the stock market went down 50%, that multiple banks went under, that the Big Three are begging for money from congress, that thousands and thousands of homes went into forclosure. Morgan Stanley itself went from being an investment bank to being a "bank holding company" so it could survive. Yeah I can see this clown recommend "investments" to his clients all the time way the stock market went down inthe toliet. After all he has to get his commissions and has a family to support. Think about it, what would you expect to get paid in your profession if you had a similar kind of year this clown did? Maybe Forbes should have picked a first character like a doctor eh?.

HMS said...

Henry's story is unfortunately and alarmingly too common across the states. The back-breaking tax is only the symptom of far worse issues underneath.

Anonymous said...

Survey indicates that Americans have been more bitter, disgruntled, disillusioned and perhaps divided than we have been in recent history.

On the other hand, we're resilient and we will flip back.

Anonymous said...

200K in loans??
I only took out 12K and thats cause they were practically givin it away and I wanted a motorcycle... Go to a State School... unless you enjoy spending 200K for a Diploma in Latin...I only made 21K as an Intern in 88' thank god for the Scrubs craze, nearly doubled my salary...

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you can use a healthy dose of adrenaline, Frank:

The voice actor of Homer Simpson is paid $400,000 per episode.

Grrrr.... can't help but wondering where our societal value going to. Nan, thanks but no thanks; we know better.

CHEER!

Anonymous said...

Interestingly enough, the proportion of taxes paid by family's over 250k actually went up, from 45.8 to 46.4% under the Bush tax cuts. See, now that's progressive, and everybody wins. Too bad Barney Frank thought it's a good idea to subsidize irresponsible people buying homes they cannot afford. Let's not forget what started this mess, Fannie and Freddie. Your local bank is probably doing rather well, actually. A few bumps here and there, but nothing like the national banks. Why, you ask? Because Fannie and Freddie took all their bad loans and sold it the national banks. National banks figured they could spread the risk around; then the house of cards came tumbling down. That is the problem with spreading wealth around. Instead of just one company going down, everybody is going to go down.

Anonymous said...

Alice:

You pay >40% in taxes (or you think you ever will)? I'm willing to bet anything you can't produce a tax return to prove that. Even the article's extreme example of the $250,000 earner slapped with AMT in a high tax state only pays 29% total.

Anon 1:37:

That's because top earners literally ran away from everyone else during the Bush administration market bubble, not because tax cuts for the top 2% of income earners is a progressive tax policy.

Also, your misunderstanding of what Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do is comical.

Anonymous said...

M. Student, I beg to differ. Please take a look at Fannie and Freddie's lending practices and how they bundled and resold their loans to BofA, Citi, and other large banks.
As far as the Bush tax cuts, you can't fault the numbers. They are what they are.

And yes, if Alice cannot; I most definitely can provide a tax return showing over 40% given to the government. Most physicians are self-employed, getting hit with the double-FICA, in addition to state taxes.