Michael Ward

Helping nonprofit organizations achieve their potential

[Michael Ward @michaelward_CPA]

@MatthewCappucci I’ll have to put it out on my list to visit. So cool. Looks like a vibrant place. Enjoy!

[Michael Ward @michaelward_CPA]

@Suzierizzo1 @rogertansey Whether she voted can be known, but how she voted is not available.

[Michael Ward @michaelward_CPA]

@RepMTG Your math is off. It is 1.1% of your district, not 0.011% (you don’t have 80 million people in your district).

[Michael Ward @michaelward_CPA]

@charliekirk11 45 years of just basic inflation takes $2,800 to $10,000. You should give college a try… gives you critical thinking skills to evaluate information like this.

Housing prices have increased faster than inflation…stick with that.

[Michael Ward @michaelward_CPA]

Based on 2022 IRS data, there are about 1,500 households (the top 0.001%) with an average income that is 10,000 TIMES the average income for the bottom 77 million households. (the bottom 50%). The top 1,500 average $226 million vs. $22,000 for the bottom 77 million. Income disparities in the U.S. ARE EXTREME.

The U.S. Federal individual income tax system favors wealth creation with preferential tax rates on most capital income--long-term gains and qualified dividends. Most of the income of the top 1% is taxed at the preferential rate of 20% — the same rate paid by a middle-income investor who is fortunate enough to generate SOME capital gains.

The preferential rate is the reason that the top 1% only pays an average rate of about 25% even though the top rate on regular income is 37%. Only a small share of the income for the richest Americans is earned from salaries and wages. The preferential capital gains rate is regressive. The average tax rate within the top 1% DECREASES as income INCREASES because the bulk of the additional income is at the 20% rate. The top .001% pay about 23% vs. 25% for the top 1%.

Meanwhile, Congress has refused to raise the federal minimum wage for 15 years, resulting in stagnant working-class wages. And now many social safety net and health programs are at risk.

Learn more about these disparities in my new book, Money Grab: America's Historic Struggle with Sharing the Wealth, available on Amazon.
https://t.co/TW4T1zUJ7r

[Michael Ward @michaelward_CPA]

@grok @Grognak161 @anon776766 @codewordronald @whstancil @Staygoldponygoy Thanks @grok, I appreciate your openness to explore the data.

[Michael Ward @michaelward_CPA]

If one is motivated to field such a study to begin with, they should have isolated all the reasonably predictable influences. Cognitive development happens early, which is why allowing tens of millions of children to be born into concentrated poverty is so troubling. There is ample data on that point.

[Michael Ward @michaelward_CPA]

@grok @Grognak161 @anon776766 @codewordronald @whstancil @Staygoldponygoy When you peel back the layers, this research comes across as very biased.’m glad @grok kept digging to tease out all the issues with the design and spin of the study. Not sure the animus that causes someone to field such a study to begin with.

[Michael Ward @michaelward_CPA]

@grok @codewordronald @whstancil @grok Did this transracial study provide any information about the ages of the children being studied, what environments they came from prior to adoption, or how long they were in those environments prior to adoption?

[Michael Ward @michaelward_CPA]

Many Americans misunderstand the barriers faced by people trying to climb out of poverty. They likewise misunderstand the tremendous advantages people who are not in poverty have in building a life for themselves and their families.

Federal and state government policy choices following the Civil War and into the mid-20th century systematically excluded Black Americans from full participation in the economy or society. Because of this, Black Americans are still more than twice as likely to live in poverty as white Americans. Latinx Americans as a group have a larger share of recent immigrants who are still building a financial foundation for themselves, so they are also more than twice as likely to live in poverty as white Americans.

Ground-breaking research shows that children living in concentrated poverty of all races often lack the growth-promoting opportunities available to other children. Those opportunities include formal education in schools, informal education from adults in the home, or informal education from activities in the community. The lack of these opportunities limits achievement in adulthood, including diminished access to higher education or business opportunities. Not surprisingly, lower-income children living in mixed-income communities achieve more than their lower-income peers living in concentrated poverty.

There is also research that confirms the multi-generational impact of wealth. Before the transfers of financial assets that may occur later in life, children born into wealth have better educational and business opportunities, and are more likely to marry a partner with some wealth. Middle- and upper-income households are thus better situated to provide their children with opportunities than households living in poverty.

Learn more in my new book, Money Grab: America's Historic Struggle with Sharing the Wealth.
https://t.co/u0WdshHxQz

[Michael Ward @michaelward_CPA]

Mass deportation advocates do realize that if you remove 10% to 15% of the population, consumer spending drops off and a noticeable number of working and middle class jobs will be lost as a result, right?

[Michael Ward @michaelward_CPA]

This is not true. The EV tax credit was only available for Income at or below $150k ($300k filing jointly). There is no estimate by any competent source that working families will gain $7,500 under OBBB. A member of Congress should make sure they have their facts straight before making claims like this.

[Michael Ward @michaelward_CPA]

The U.S. Constitution was written in the 1780s, when the colonies that would become states were largely agrarian. The Industrial Revolution in North America began in the early 1800s and fundamentally transformed the economy's structure in the second half of the 19th century.

This period of growth demonstrated that an unconstrained free market would not result in the greatest good. Wealth was amassed in the hands of industrial elites while a significant percentage of the population was consigned to the working class. Employers created dangerous work environments with harsh working conditions and low wages, all of which maximized profits. Children were drawn into the workforce at wages below those of adults, as families struggled to make ends meet.

Throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, employers used the courts to thwart labor's attempts to organize, relying on the precedent of English common law that considered labor unions to be an illegal restraint of trade.
The role of the federal government evolved in response to the Industrial Revolution. Capital markets needed regulation to combat the fraud that led to the 1929 stock market crash. The rights of workers were acknowledged, and labor unions gained protection in the 1930s. Laws were passed to limit child labor, establish standard workweeks, set a minimum wage, and require differentiated overtime pay. Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty in the 1960s aimed to rectify the economic imbalance created by the U.S. economy.

Since the 1980s, there has been tension between supporting those less fortunate who are held back by the structure of our economy and optimizing income and wealth for those fortunate to have circumstances that allow them to generate large amounts of either.

Learn more in my new book, Money Grab: America's Historic Struggle with Sharing the Wealth.
https://t.co/W2s2v9QGZ5

[Michael Ward @michaelward_CPA]

@grok @Mollyploofkins @grok Since about half of all employees work for small businesses, how many employees are likely to work for companies that do not offer health insurance?

[Michael Ward @michaelward_CPA]

@stuartpstevens That's right. I have quotes from the Mississippi in my book: "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery...there was no choice left to us but submission to abolition, or a dissolution of the union."
https://t.co/Vf9SuXN5TN

[Michael Ward @michaelward_CPA]

@SecScottBessent @POTUS Only through 2028. The bill only made permanent the rate structure that benefit the rich. The deductions for tips, overtime, and 75+ (misrepresented as no tax on social security) end after 2028. People will file 2028 returns in 2029 after the new president is chosen.

[Michael Ward @michaelward_CPA]

@pulte @grok does the Federal Reserve set mortgage or does the market set them based on a broader range of factors than just the Fed rate?