2020 by the numbers

[mellowtigger]

It's tax time again, so I'm updating my chart from previous years.

Remember how federal taxes were going to drop under Republican leadership? I'm not seeing it. My income increased by 26% during that timeframe, and my taxes increased by 23%. Maybe that means a slight drop? I can't tell. The only actual drop in federal taxes happened on the tax return that people would have in mind for the next election year.

Year	GrossIncomeUS$	Change	FederalTaxUS$	TaxChange	CreditScore	Mileage	MonthlyMileage
2016	30,500		2,384
2017	33,800	+11%	3,048	+28%	720
2018	36,600	+8%	3,938	+29%	723
2019	37,451	+2%	2,839	-28%	730	128.3Kmi	428mi (overall)
2020	38,458	+3%	2,926	+3%	701	129.8Kmi	125mi (annual)

The credit score is still a useless figure. As usual, they deduct severely for having only a single debt. My previous credit cards have now aged out of the 5-year window, so my credit score dropped noticeably, due to NOT being in debt to multiple lenders. I have only my house mortgage for debt. If I'm reading my bank webpage correctly, my monthly overpayments have reduced my mortgage by 9 years and saved about $10K in interest.  That's money well spent, fueling the exponential economy as little as possible.

The pandemic lockdown reduced my already-low mileage to an even lower annual level. It affected me a lot less than most people. My "overall" monthly mileage is now down to 384 miles (618 kilometers) per month. That number, however, is calculated over the years that I have owned this car, including trips driven to Duluth, Fargo, and elsewhere. Actual mileage during the last year of measurement is only 125 miles (201 km) per month.

My numbers would be even lower, but I am an "essential worker" and still drive to the office one day each week. I'd like to include a complete carbon calculation for my entire lifestyle, but that takes more attention than I'm willing to give it today. Maybe next year.

The median US employee in 2020 earned about $51K/year. Assuming that they're all still employed, which clearly isn't the case.

Comments

[bitterlawngnome]

Remember how federal taxes were going to drop under Republican leadership?

Um, you're not a corporation? You're just a meat-person, not a fiat-person.

[mellowtigger]

Have you ever read "The Unincorporated Man"? It's one of the dystopias that seems just so appropriate for these strange times.

[bitterlawngnome]

It sounds a bit Atlas Shrugged?

[mellowtigger]

Way more interesting. How is it that I've never written about it before in my blog? Reviews tend to see this story as simply Libertarianism versus Corporatocracy. I never read it that way.

I read it as modern libertarianism leading to corporatocracy, and "isn't it obvious why that's bad?" I saw the libertarian slant as just a setup for the hollow utopia with its swelling faultlines. Our modern man protagonist (a man made rich by our current system) is there so we can examine their economic society, to be surprised by the seemingly natural conclusion to his familiar and vaunted libertarian economics, and show us its faults. That storyline is paired with a concurrent story behind a digital veil. There are AI "smartphones" (digital assistants) who are each smart enough to never let humans know they're intelligent. If you thought humans could be cruel to each other, wait until you learn what AIs can do to other AIs during war. By the end of the first book, it's shared interests and communal behavior that promises to save humanity (and AI-ity?).

[bitterlawngnome]

Oh that does sound much more interesting!

[foeclan]

There are elements of all of those, but I'd tend to read it the way you did.

(spoilers ahead, if anyone plans to read it, but mostly this is all setup)

The main character of the first couple of books is dying and uses his billions of dollars to be put into suspended animation. Lots of people do that, but most are killed when the economy collapses and everyone takes it out on the existing cryogenics facilities. After all, why should rich people be spared the consequences of their actions? He, however, saw a collapse coming, and had his pod placed inside an abandoned mine that he owns.

In the aftermath of society's collapse, the 'rugged individualists' of Alaska 'save' society, which eventually leads to individual incorporation, where you sell shares of yourself to pay for things like education. Your job is generally determined by whichever company decides to invest in you and buys your shares. You have to be careful what you do or it might tank your value and they'll divest. If you get devalued enough, you're a 'penny', i.e. penny stocks, and companies might buy you up for very little value and basically control your life.

Their technology advances over the years to the point where nanotech means people won't die of natural causes, they have a space elevator, moon and Mars colonies, settlements in the Belt, etc, and that's where the protagonist wakes up. But he refuses to sign the paperwork that would agree to incorporation when they present it to him, because he doesn't understand it, and he becomes sort of a celebrity and inspiration to the Pennies as 'The Unincorporated Man'.

From his perspective as an outsider, incorporation is a horrifying prospect, and they have the basis for a post-scarcity society. He sort of gets dragged into the conflict between pro- and anti-Incorporation forces.

So, there's some pro-Libertarian stuff in there (the 'rescue' of society by the Alaskans, and the Belters), lots of anti-Corporate stuff (basically the whole series, though incorporation got them to where they were), and it's very pro-Meritocracy (which has its own issues). I wouldn't say it's 100% shared interests and communal behavior that save the day, but getting everyone to work together was a big part of it.

It also has sort of an Elon Musk-like 'peace out, we're leaving' ending, which does suggest there are irreconcilable differences.