Michael Fox
Robert ReichLet me get this straight: teachers can only write off $300 in out-of-pocket expenses for school supplies, but “three-martini” business lunches are fully tax deductible for corporations. Hello?
geographile@rbreich it's ridiculous that teachers should be paying for their own expenses at all.
gormster@geographile @rbreich yeah I can see the logic in limiting this to say “hey you are not supposed to be paying for these, if you’re paying thousands OOP for school supplies something has gone wrong”
Gary D Lynne@rbreich It is called the arrogance of self-love --- self-interest only --- without regard for that which the other can go along with, without ethics... Adam Smith saw the problem in the 1700s... and, well, it is still around.
BruceSalaried people vs. business people. Not saying that that is good, but it's standard.
Laws on business expenses have some room for tightening up. I used to watch Mr. Fluor fly in to his office via helicopter and had a limo waiting for the last 100 yards. That didn't come out of his after tax income, but my commuting expenses did.
Bluedepth@rbreich But you’ve chanced upon a solution, a three-martini schoolhouse. ;)
@rbreich Might have something to do with relative lobbying power?
David BarkinMr. Reich fails to understand that Teachers are just Peasants, while Corporate Executives are part of the Supermen predicted by Nietzsche... 😟
Staid Winnow@rbreich The problem here is that a teacher has out-of-pocket expenses to teach. Not that only a certain amount is tax-deductible.
@staidwinnow @rbreich my husband teach 35 year. His class room children is 35 kids . That’s not teaching is babysitting. Something is wrong about the education budget system?
@rbreich teachers need better lobbyists and need to invite politicians to ribbon cutting events
Enrico@rbreich the problem of our western world is that it becomes easier to make money the more you already have. Combined with the fact that we only have a limited amount of money we get the situation we are currently in. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting the poorer. And the middle class is fighting for survival. Capitalism is great for developing wealth in a poor country. Without regulations it fails at keeping people wealthy.
Jo ♀️🐈🐈⬛🛍️🌛🥂@rbreich And yacht's n planes ..... #eattherich
Reach for the Stars 
@rbreich teachers should not be having to purchase school supplies out of pocket. Not even $300 worth.
RonYour main point that teachers should not have to pay for supplies is solid.
But OK, I’ll get you straight. 3-martini lunches lost half of their tax deductibility in 1986. In 2017, they lost the rest.
RodneyPetersonTalentAgencySuch are the ways of this shithole country.
seyifulfilled@rbreich Talk will not change anything as we all must know by now unless there's some kind of profit in just talking.
You will never get someone to stop doing what is wrong just by talking and talking and calling them out.
The only way is to locate, reach, gather and mobilize all who feel the same way about the issue together and actively take action to bring the act to an end.
Anything else is simply a waste of time, effort and resources.
History shows that talk alone isn't enough.
Alfred Poor@rbreich Talk about an underground economy, teachers must spend billions out of their own pockets because their schools can't come up with the funding to provide adequate paper and pencils for their classrooms. It's a disgrace. (And while sometimes the money is available, they often have to requisition the supplies at the end of the prior school year. Getting mid-year spending approved can be a time-consuming challenge, so they just spend their own money.)
The Green Knight@rbreich it's not a bug, it's a feature.
Oppression of education/information is a right of fascism.
How do we expect our bourgeoisie masters to collar us if we keep calling out their methods of oppression?
Army Girl@rbreich and corporate jets!
Mike@rbreich When I worked as a geophysical technician, I was sent to jobs all over Canada. My employer paid for my travel expenses. When I worked for the federal government, my employer paid for my living expenses while on training.
When I was a teacher and sent to a teacher convention, I received no financial help of any kind. I paid my own way.
MistherFrenchFries@rbreich Stop pandering to people afraid to acknowledge that the peasantry, like the nobility, has ZERO interest in a level playing field for their mini me’s.
Ian Ollmann@rbreich
I mean it’s obvious, duh. No IRS auditor is going to believe you ordered 3 martinis each for school children. /s
Realistically, the school should pay for school supplies and the school already doesn’t pay taxes. The breakage is when the school doesn’t pay for the school supplies and the teach feels she has to. A tax break for someone in the 12% marginal tax bracket is pretty meager however you slice it.
Joshua A.C. Newman@rbreich I’m a teacher.
I just had to explain to a potential funder that funding us through reimbursement means asking the teacher to put their own money up front from our miserable paychecks.
Cameron Purdy@rbreich How could that possibly be true? We know that Republicans want to encourage underpaid teachers to subsidize the schools so that the Kochs can keep all of their profits, so the tax deductions teacher's out-of-pocket expenses must be unlimited, right?
عدالة 🇵🇸@rbreich
#Imagine almost every “regular” #citizen and worker (or “only” 30 %) of one major or many (of the more prosperous) countries staying at home and away from #work for a few days, until the rich and powerful get scared enough to make the executive and legislative branches act the way they always should have, i.e. in the interest of the people, including #future generations!
It’s called a #GeneralStrike, it’s #Illegal in many countries, and, frankly, I don’t care anymore!
Those they come after need to get the full #solidarity and support of everybody else to the best of their abilities – i.e., nobody has to die or even get hurt.
Look at the wrecked country of #Libya, for example: total #chaos, terrible, but in light of the shared #calamity, people almost immediately realized that their divisions are smaller than their common needs and challenges and consequently started acting as brothers and sisters, again.
Maybe it’s sad, but I believe it’s the only way to fix our messed up #societies and political systems and ultimately save our #world.
Therefore, as long as we still have a little control left, let’s take a bold chance instead of passively waiting for more major #catastrophes, and possibly a #nuclear world war!
It has to happen soon; this year will be fine! 😉
#Revolution 👊
#Imagine almost every “regular” #citizen and worker (or “only” 30 %) of one major or many (of the more prosperous) countries staying at home and away from #work for a few days, until the rich and powerful get scared enough to make the executive and legislative branches act the way they always should have, i.e. in the interest of the people, including #future generations!
It’s called a #GeneralStrike, it’s #Illegal in many countries, and, frankly, I don’t care anymore!
Those they come after need to get the full #solidarity and support of everybody else to the best of their abilities – i.e., nobody has to die or even get hurt.
Look at the wrecked country of #Libya, for example: total #chaos, terrible, but in light of the shared #calamity, people almost immediately realized that their divisions are smaller than their common needs and challenges and consequently started acting as brothers and sisters, again.
Maybe it’s sad, but I believe it’s the only way to fix our messed up #societies and political systems and ultimately save our #world.
Therefore, as long as we still have a little control left, let’s take a bold chance instead of passively waiting for more major #catastrophes, and possibly a #nuclear world war!
It has to happen soon; this year will be fine! 😉
#Revolution 👊
calvin 🛋️ @rbreich Free three-martinis in the teachers lounge! It’s only fair.
CraftyTeacher91🌹@rbreich and it never seems to make a difference on my taxes. A woman I know writes off all her makeup and hair salon appointments because she sells Mary Kay.
Ω 🌍 Gus Posey@rbreich As an educator, I can tell you that any serious consideration of salaries and taxes has to be avoided at all costs, lest we all suddenly lurch out into the storm, the sound of our chainsaws rising in harmony with the howl of a freezing wind.