Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Reliability Rankings

Re:Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Re... by roenxi on Monday November 11, 2019 @05:09AM (#21503490)

America has a trade deficit of ~600 billion, which roughly equates to every American having $2,000 to spend buying stuff from overseas. Then on top of that there are all the services America exports.

If foreigners are willing to give Americans stuff for paper there is a real pressure for Americans not to bother making stuff and printing more paper instead. That probably influences a lot of the decisions behind American made consumer goods.

> The cheapest studio apartment in Western Europe or Japan ends up with better infrastructure than the $2M duplex in California.

I live a long way from California, but the first stop should always be to check the local tax code, financial incentives and regulations. Most countries I've been to end up having strange tax incentives that influence how much money gets spent on primary residences; and taxes can put a real dampener on what gets done. I speak mainly from experience in Australia where there are massive tax incentives for a person to spend money on their primary home.

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Re:Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Re... by Gravityloss on Monday November 11, 2019 @05:32AM (#21503618)

True. In Finland where taxation is high, you get a certain sum per year that you can hire home improvement work without tax. (Ie you can deduce it from your taxes). Also makes tax avoidance a little less attractive.

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Re:Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Re... by TheSpiceIsLife on Monday November 11, 2019 @05:12AM (#21503507)

I live in Australia.

What are the tax incentives to spending money on my home?

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Re:Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Re... by roenxi on Monday November 11, 2019 @05:20AM (#21503558)

When you spend money on your house the value of that house increases. When you sell your primary residence, it isn't caught by the Capital Gains Tax. So essentially if you are looking for a place to park money you have two choices:

1) Put it in your primary residence. Wealth is stored, no future tax liability, you are more comfortable

2) Buy a productive asset. Wealth stored, you will pay capital gains tax on the asset price rises due to asset inflation.

The most tax-effective place to store money long term is capital improvements to your primary residence, mainly due to how inflation and CGT interact. And the capital value of the property could reasonably rise more than the cost of the work done.

There are risks but there is also a lot of incentive to remodel the kitchen or upgrade something if money is available.

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Re:Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Re... by TheSpiceIsLife on Monday November 11, 2019 @06:04AM (#21503781)

Thanks for clearing that up.

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Re:Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Re... by skissane on Monday November 11, 2019 @05:19AM (#21503552)

roenxi is possibly talking about the main residence CGT exemption.

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