spokesNspin

I will forewarn family members before they read further to be prepared to be shocked.  To my sisters, if you don’t want to hear a story about your father that might surprise you stop reading now.  To those who don’t want to read something about their grandfather that they might have preferred not to even think about stop reading now.

If you are of a prudish mindset don’t read this.

When I was a teenager my father would take me and my brother on an extended camping/fishing trip between the first and second cutting of hay.  We looked forward to it all summer.  The annual trip was what kept us motivated to keep hauling hay and moving sprinkler pipe.

The trip normally evolved into a sort of young men’s/boy scout trip with several fathers and sons from our farming community.  We had two places we would go.  We would either pack into the Beckler River in Yellowstone National Park or we would go to the Wind River country of Wyoming.

One year we had been at our base camp for a day in Yellowstone.  On the next day we took the horses and rode a few more miles into the the country and fished along the way.  Eventually we came to some warm natural springs.

My father suggested that we take a dip.  We were proper young men having been raised in the confines  Christian homes with regular instruction on moral behavior.   We explained that we hadn’t brought our swimming attire.

My father and the rest of the adults looked at us like “what’s with these kids”.  They shrugged their shoulders and the next thing we knew there were half a dozen adult men in their birthday suits gaily jumping off rocks into the pool.

“The water’s fine boys come on in!”

Remember these were hard working farmers who spent most of their waking hours in the sun.  They wore jeans, long sleeved Big Mac work shirts and straw hats.  They looked like plucked chickens running around having the time of their life.  After 40 years I still can’t get that vision out of my mind and I have really tried.

We were eventually pursuaded.  We sheepishly removed our clothing while constantly looking over our shoulders.  I swear I saw the devil himself pushing me on.

What this means is that the first time in my life I went skinny dippin’ it was with my father and in Yellowstone National Park!

So what is the point of this post?

Recently I was with a group of people who were commenting on the attire, or lack thereof, of some people engaged in exercise and lamenting the end of society to the ways of Soddom and Gamorrah.   

I have read that in colonial times preachers were much more graphic in describing sin when preaching against it than they are now.

Yes it is true that in many ways people reveal more skin in public now than they did a few years ago.  But in many other ways we are also more prudish.  What would happen in this day and age if a group of adults led young men in an adventure of skinny dippin?

I can’t remember if I have ever been skinny dippin’ since the experience in Yellowstone. I know I am certainly not going to participate in any of those save the world naked bike rides. Ouch! Imagine the chaffing.

Times change and I think we get worked up over stuff that really doesn’t matter.

Last weekend I took a bike ride in Southern  Maryland.  It was a beautiful day with temps in the mid seventies. 

After about fifteen miles the route took a less traveled road.  I was riding between fields of corn and a hay field that had recently been cut.  The sun was shining and it was quiet and peaceful.  Between a corn field and the road was a  wide swath of fresh cut grass.   It looked so soft and inviting.

I couldn’t help myself.  I got off my bike and spent a good fifteen minutes lying on my back in the grass watching the white clouds float by.  The sun was warm on my face and I could smell where the hay had been cut.  A light breeze whispered  through the corn.

I wished I could have spent the rest of the day there.  It was quiet and pleasant.  I think there was only about one car that drove by during that time. Poor suckers in the car had no idea what they were missing. 

This picture doesn’t even begin to capture the surroundings and the moment.

The only downside was an upside.  I was unaware that less than a mile later was a major hill to climb and I had to do it without warming up again.

Later on at the intersection for Route 5 and Route 6 was a farmer’s market.  I think most all of the vendors were Amish farmers.  The market was certainly a going concern.  The colors of this collection of peppers caught my eye.

Happy Friday Foto Fiesta to all of you. 

It doesn’t look like tomorrow will be a repeat of last Saturday.  The forecast is for rain.

Many people start out bicycling with a plan to get a little exercise and have some fun and maybe save some money by riding to work.   That is what I did.  (That is if you discount the riding I did as a college student and as a youngster.  I tell my children that my brother and I invented mountain biking by riding old beater bikes on the trails in the hollows near our home.)

I started with a 6 mile one way ride to work.  Then I found some roads to loop around on my way home and get another 6 or 7 miles before I got home.   I was doing all this in my street clothes on a Raleigh Dash AL Hybrid bicycle.

Early one Saturday morning I decide to go out and ride 30 miles.  That was fun now how many more miles can I do?  I was soon contemplating the idea of riding 100 miles.

That is how it is for many people.  The idea of riding 100 miles seems crazy but soon they know it’s something they just have to do.  If you go out and read the bicycling blogs you will find lots of people training to do their first century bike ride.

I remember when I went bike shopping with my daughter Liz to buy her current bike when she got into bicycling.  She was fit and a runner but the idea of riding 100 miles seemed insane and she swore she wouldn’t do it. 

She did the Seagull Century in a brutal headwind  and driving rain two years ago.  It was her first.

The insanity will get most riders eventually.

I rode with an old guy(60 years old) back when I first started riding who would ride a century on a regular basis even though his riding during the week was minimal.  I wondered how he did it.

Now 13 years, 40 plus century rides, a few double metrics, one double century and almost 80,000 miles later  I can get on my bike and ride a century with very little extra century specific training.  At the end of the 100 miles, I don’t feel like I have really put that much work into it.  It is true that 4 years ago when I was training harder I could do it faster but it is still doable within a 6-7 hour time frame including stops.  I am not bragging just pointing out how things get easier with experience.

It certainly wasn’t that easy when I did my first one.

I set the goal without considering a bike club or any type of organized event.  I trained alone and I did it alone.  I don’t recommend that for anyone.  Riding 100 miles alone is not only more demanding physically but mentally it makes a huge difference having fellow riders on the road.

On the big day my wife was supposed to be my support.  She would drive the van and meet me at designated spots to replenish my food and water and encourage me.  This was before the day of ubiquitous cell phones.

After the first meeting place she got lost and I never saw her again.  Those of you who have ridden in Pennsylvania can understand.  I think I read once that they have more miles of paved road than any other state.

At the 80 mile mark I called home at a pay phone.  The line was busy because one of the children had hung it up improperly.  I wanted to quit but my only choice was to press on.

I thought I was going to die for the last 20 miles.  My butt hurt and my back hurt.  It was all I could do to keep pedaling.  I stopped several times in the last 20 miles.

When I finally pedalled into the driveway I walked into the house and the first thing I said to my wife was, “If I ever say I am going to ride 100 miles on my bike again I want you to take my bike and run over it with the van”.

My average speed was 14 mph and I don’t remember how long the entire ride took but I had reached that century bike ride milestone.  By the next year I had discovered bicycle clubs and organized century events.   Nancy didn’t run over my bike and I had several more centuries with that hybrid bike under my belt before I finally moved up to a better bike.

If you are training for that first century remember that like most other things in life once you have done it the first time it is much easier the next time.

Now I hope to be able to continue to do a century ride in each decade of my life.  And I hope to have a long life.

A few weeks ago we had a discussion on this blog about voters and how they determine who they will vote for.  I mentioned that voting based on specifics regarding a candidate’s proposed policies is difficult and probably not necessary.  Case in point are proposals for income taxes by McCain and Obama.

You can get a 59 page summary of the tax proposals from the Tax Policy Center.  That’s right folks.  If you want to go to the source and read up on it you will find 59 pages.   When you read the document you soon realize that it isn’t easy even for professionals to figure out the tax proposals.  They have to determine what the proposal is.  There are differences between what candidates say and what is in their official positions.

The candidates also tweak the proposals over the course of the campaign.   I will give you the gist of what I see in the document.  

The National Debt

At the end of 10 years Obama’s plan increases the National Debt by $3-$3.5 trillion.  McCain’s increases it by $6-$8.5 trillion.  Both candidates complain that the analysis doesn’t take into account proposed cuts in spending.  The Tax Policy Center assumes(rightly so in my opinion) that cuts are easier proposed than done.

Income Distributional Effects

Here is a table of the changes in taxes for different income groups for 2009 based on the proposals.

You will notice that the quintile limits are different than in my previous post.   That is due to differences in the calculation of income and the units. 

If you are at the bottom rung you will see your taxes go down by a whopping $21 under McCain’s tax proposal.  If you are in the top .1 percent you see your taxes go down by $290,708 under McCain but they go up by $542,882 under Obama. 

How can the Investment banker who will go out with a $200 million golden parachute when the government takes over his business survive if Obama makes him pay another $500,000 plus in taxes?  It’s outrageous.  Poor little rich guy!

One interesting thing to note about the distribution is that under Obama more people in the bottom 60 percent get tax cuts but there are also more people who have tax increases in this group relative to McCain’s proposal.  Does that make sense?  Remember there are winners and losers in any proposal.  Being on the losing or winning side will depend on your personal circumstances.  

The big winners under McCain are those in the top 1 percent.  If you are in that group 7 percent of you will get at tax cut under Obama.  Under McCain, 98 percent of that group gets a cut.

So much for proposals from “say anything to get elected” candidates.

Individual Income Tax Collection 2006

If you would like information on the reality of taxes you can go to the IRS web site. 

Just a couple of notes about taxes from that site.  More than 1/4 of the taxes are paid by about .3 percent of the taxpayers making about 15 percent of the total Adjusted Gross Income.  Even though the system is theoretically progressive, those making over $5 million pay a smaller percentage of their income in taxes than those in the  $1-$5 million category. 

Requiring those individuals to pay the same percentage as those in the bracket below them would increase revenue by over $20 billion trillion .

For those of you who get all excited about a flat tax system take a look at these statistics.  Under a flat tax system, approximately 86 percent of the taxpayers would see their taxes go up significantly.   

For those of you who would like to read my personal tax proposal you can go here.

There is a lot of talk from candidates about what they will do for middle class Americans.  One problem with the talk is defining what is meant by middle class Americans.  That is exactly why politicians and candidates us the term.  

There is no official definition of middle class.  At one time it involved more than income but I believe when people talk about middle class they are talking about income.  So lets look at household income published by the Federal Government.

The median household income in the U.S. was $49,901 2006/2007 average.  That means that half the households have income above that level and half are below.  The table below shows some numbers related to household income by groups of 20 percent of the population and the top 5 percent for 2007.
 

The amount on the upper limit line for the top 5 percent is actually the lower limit to put a person in the top 5 percent of household income.   The third line shows the share of total U.S. income that each group receives. 

The top 5 percent of the population got over 21 percent of the income.  If you look at historical tables the amount going to the top 20 percent gets larger each year and has for many years.  Yes it is really true that the rich keep getting richer.

 Based on the table above what would you consider middle class?

I think there are a lot of people who consider them selves middle class but based on relative income are in the upper tiers of income.  I would say that most households that have two earners who are either professional or skilled labor easily fall into the upper 40 percent and many are in the top 20 percent.

McCain’s flippant response that $5 million is the limit for middle class was obviously just that.  He doesn’t believe it.   But I also believe that many of the people who are in charge are pretty clueless about what life is like for those people who are under the top 20 percent.  Why else do they promote a health care package based on tax credits?

Consider that to purchase health insurance for a family could easily cost $9,000 annually.  If I live in a household with an income of around $50,000 and a couple of children, no tax credit is going to make the difference between having health insurance and not having it.

One of the most interesting things about this table is that I think there are a lot of people out there who are a lot better off relative to the rest of the population than they realize.

My next post will talk about tax policy and income distribution.  Stay tuned.  Then I hope to get back to something more pleasant like bicycling.

In the mean time if you want to look at more information about personal income, and I am sure you do, you can read it here.