The author discusses their views on the U.S. tax system and feels it is unfair. They were shocked to learn that the poorest fifth of the population pays 4.5% in taxes while the richest 1% only pays 31.1%. They feel our leaders cannot agree on tax reforms that would help the middle and lower classes. The author also discusses their own experiences as part of the lower and upper middle class over time and how their tax burden has changed. They believe the very rich should pay more in taxes rather than middle income earners feeling squeezed.

1. Before reading the article and after reading the article, I still
feel like U.S. tax system is not fair. The rich is still getting
richer because they are not paying their share of taxes and the
poor are getting poor because of the tax bracket we all fall in.
After reading the article, I was shock with the numbers that I
was reading. The poorest is fifth of the population with the
average of annual income of $15,400 pays 4.5 percent in federal
taxes. The middle class with income of $56,300 pays 13.9
percent. The top fifth income is $207,200 pays 25.1 percent and
the richest 1 percent income is $1,259,700 and they only pays
31.1 percent to the federal government, there are something
wrong with this picture. I guess I am little confused with the
legislation by letting this happen. In the article the
Congressional Budget Office (C.B.O) took this data in 2004 and
since then it really hasn’t changed any and here we are in the
year of 2013. (Mankiw, 2007)
In order for me to discuss this form I had to find out the
meaning of positive versus normative economics. It means that
the economics is both positive and normative. Positive means
what is and normative is what it ought to be. Positive economics
does not judge but normative uses facts and the information
offer a value of judgment even if the event is desirable or
undesirable. There is so much fighting among our leaders, they
cannot get no kind of bill passed for the tax payers. President
Obama is trying to have a bill passed so the millionaires and the
billionaires have to pay higher taxes while the middle class does
not have to pay higher taxes, but they cannot see that. It is
really hurting the economics. For the low class and the middle
class, most of our money is going towards taxes. So how can we
continue to put money back into the economy when we do not
have the money and the resources to do it? Sometime I wonder
how other countries think about the United States the way do
business when the government cannot agree on nothing. They
couldn’t even come together with the segregation, now people

2. are losing their jobs; government is going to be furlong. I work
at Lockheed Martin a defense company and we don’t even know
what lies ahead for us. With this being said, I don’t think they
will ever pass a tax bill that will help us, I realize you cannot
please everyone, but our leaders need to come up with
something that will make sense. President Obama was even
trying to raise the minimum wages and that didn’t pass in the
legislation. The minimum wages here in Texas is $ 7.25. If a
person is making minimum wages, majority of their money in
going towards taxes. The taxes here in Texas is currently 6.25%
on the local municipalities and the taxes can be as high as
8.25%. (Board, 2011), (Avalara, 2013)
If I could advise the President I would tell him to keep
on pushing for the middle class and the lower classes so could
get a tax break and continue to try and swain his fellow men and
women to increase the tax on the rich. With most of our money
is going towards taxes, the economy will never grow. President
Obama please does not bow down.
The fairness of taxes paid by the middle class has been a bee in
my bonnet for many years. As a single person it seemed that an
awful large chunk of my weekly pay went towards taxes paid. In
exchange I usually had to pay a sum into the state or federal
government at tax time.
When I was first married we became part of the lower middle
class, as most young couples do. Buy this time we were also
gaining tax relief in the form of children, mortgage and car
loan. During
this time we usually received a nice piece of money on our
returns.
As later years went by it was evident that we were now in
the upper middle class. The dependents are on their own, the
only deduction now is mortgage interest and many items have
been cast off the deduction list. We were now instructed by out
Accountant that one of us had better start putting more of our

3. income in the form of retirement funds. It was explained
to us that if we didn’t, we would “take it in the shorts”.
I absolutely do not agree with the article in the way it states
that we pay about thirteen point nine percent; it is still very
close to thirty percent. Oh we could change our W-4 and pay
less out
of our paychecks, but then we have to pay dearly at tax time.
There are many ways of making tax adjustments but many just
seem to cancel themselves out.
I realize that the very rich who make their money in capital
gains may be paying
about thirty percent on their actual wages that they are paid.
These people should be paying more taxes on the capital gains
instead of other companies that they deal with paying a
portion for them. In my mind income is income no matter how it
is made.
Tax reform in this country would be a wonderful and
proactive step. The majority of people in this country truly feel
that they have been taxed to the limit, while people with
incomes of two
hundred fifty thousand or more skate free. In my opinion there
should be a steadily raising scale to match income as it rises
just as it does in low to middle income. If this were the case the
people of this country would not feel so squeezed with their tax
burdens.
It is pretty obvious that Americans have had it with those
who do not pay their
fair share. During the 2012 election, Mitt Romney put it out
there that he had made millions of dollars and also stated he
may have paid about fourteen percent in tax on it, his rating
dropped real
fast. I truly believe that is why he lost his bid for the top job. In
my opinion the outcome was brought forth by Americans who
are not interested in a millionaire who doesn’t pay his fair share
leading their country.
next one regarding intro to ebusiness

4. Introduction to e-Business
Most businesses tend to specialize in a particular area. Even
large corporations that have interests in multiple arenas
generally separate those interests divisionally. In most cases it
would be considerably inefficient for one business to handle
every step of the development of a product from the harvesting
and transformation of raw materials to the creation of the
finished product. For this reason, business entities interact with
one another in a mutually beneficial arrangement where each
entity accomplishes its own specific function on a path that
ultimately leads to a consumer product. This constitutes a
mechanism called a supply chain. Every step along the way adds
value to the product in some way, but also adds costs in the
form of materials and labor. Supply chain management is an
important part of controlling these costs, maintaining product
consistency and quality, and foreseeing supply related problems
and having contingencies in the event of a problem.
Companies can take significant steps to effectively manage their
supply chains. It is important to maintain good communication
with suppliers so as not to be taken by surprise by foreseeable
changes in supply. Forecasting sales accurately can go a long
way to ensure that you are prepared from a supply chain
perspective (Carter, 2011). As was mentioned earlier,
companies tend to specialize in certain areas. One of these areas
is supply chain management itself. Many companies use third-
party firms to handle their supply chains for them. According to
one of these firms, only about 12 percent of the companies they
surveyed feel that they are managing their global supply chains
effectively (Bain & Co., 2013). These outside firms specializing
in supply chain management can take a broader approach and
bring a wealth of experience to a business’s supply chain
management operations.
Procurement is a process within the supply chain that is usually
outside of a business’s main area operations, that is unless the
business is a supply chain based firm. It is important to follow a
process so that things are not missed and mistakes are not made

5. in the course of procurement. These steps may be slightly
different based on the business, and may also be different based
on the source, but they generally follow the following
framework (Purchasing Insight, 2013):
1. Define a business need – To identify the requirement and
business necessity for the procurement
2. Develop a strategy – So as not to go into the procurement
blind, a strategy should be made ahead of time and followed
3. Evaluate and choose supplier – Costs are important, but
quality and reliability should not be overlooked
4. Negotiation and contract award – An agreement should be
reached between the business and the supplier
5. Induction and Integration – The procurement is complete and
your business puts the procured item into use.
References
Bain & Company. (2013).
Supply Chain Management.
Retrieved April 17, 2013 from
http://www.bain.com/consulting-services/performance-
improvement/supply-chain-management.aspx
Carter, N. (2011, Jun 21).
5 Tips for Managing a Global Supply Chain.
Retrieved April 17, 2013 from
http://www.inc.com/guides/201106/managing-a-global-supply-
chain.html
Purchasing Insight. (2013).
The Procurement Process.
Retrieved April 17, 2013 from
http://purchasinginsight.com/resources/the-procurement-
process/
Heres a respoonse from this guy to what you wrote
While researching for this discussion board I was surprised to
find that although the principles of supply chain management
were around for quite a while, (presumably around the advent of
the assembly line and before) supply chain management as an

6. emphasized concept that was treated more scientifically has
only really been around since the 80's. That seems to suggest a
link between technology and supply chain management that has
become even more obvious with e-commerce. You touched on
the mutual benefit between members of the supply chain, and I
think that's an important point. The more each link in the supply
chain participates in the management and maintenance of that
chain the more they stand to benefit. One thing that you brought
up that I had not considered was how complex the procurement
process must become for a company like Amazon. Not only does
Amazon have an enormous number of suppliers from which it
draws, but it does not have much of a say in which supplier is
used for a given transaction. This must make it difficult to
anticipate the volume each supplier will be faced with. Your
post was really thought provoking. Thanks for a great read.
Supply Chain Management
Supply chain management is the “management of material and
information flow in a supply chain to provide the highest degree
of customer satisfaction at the lowest possible cost” (Supply
Chain Management, n.d.). When it comes to a supply chain in
today’s environment the operative work is operate lean. This is
the concept of creating production techniques to reduce the cost
of production while speeding up delivery. This is making more
with less and accomplishing it faster without impacting the
quality or amount produced (Strategies To Run a Lean Supply
Chain, 2007). Lean supply chain techniques were created and
proofed by Toyota Production System (TPS). The purpose was
to illuminate waste in any form whether that waste is material,
time, less motion on their production line, transit of goods on
the conveyor belt, or poor systems. The even looked at the raw
materials from their suppliers to effectively measure waste
produce from the suppliers delivered materials. TPS directed
their lean efforts on the supply portion of their business first by
correcting these things and then initiated a continued evaluation

7. process. The determined that the value of their product is
defined by the customer’s perception and not the companies
production cost. A second principle is there needs to be a
continuous supply chain and the information that supports it.
They determined “product should be pulled by the customer, not
pushed by the company” (Supply Chain Management, n.d.). It is
easy to see that TPS continually interacts with every aspect of
their supply chain and continually evaluate it for efficiencies.
So now we can look at the
steps that occur during the procurement process and the types of
procurement that occur in business-to-business (B2B) e-
commerce environments
Business-to-business (B2B) E-commerce
The
B2B procurement process when it comes to e-commerce is a
moving target. If we discuss procurement in a big picture we are
talking about supply management broken up into pieces such as
materials management, and logistics. It is the “buying process
of companies of services and goods” (
Procurement Process, n.d). The two forms of procurement
discussed in my research are operative and strategic. The
strategic is the business estimation of the demand, order
placement, and the choice of suppliers. The operative
procurements at the picks up at the end of the strategic
procurement process and finishes with payment, accounting,
receiving the stock, and monitoring orders placed.
(
Procurement Process, n.d). There are five steps in the
procurement process. You first define the business needs and
requirements. This involves your stakeholders. You then
develop a procurement strategy. In this step you establish
timeline requirements and approach to the procurements. Next
you evaluate your suppliers and select the right supplier based
on necessity and cost. The fourth step is to negotiate your
suppliers’ costs then award the contract. The last step is
induction and integration. The final step ensures the supplier

8. can meet your demand, and deliver on the agreed upon contract
base on your performance expectations. One type of
procurement is e-procurement. E- procurement are
electronically performed methods of procurement and there are
three types of e-procurement. The first type of e-procurement is
electronic data interchange. This is where the buyer and vendor
have a well defined way of conducting purchases. This could be
done with quotes, how confirmations are made, data inventories,
and order methods. Keeping in mind this is automated so this is
not by phone or email but by internet transactions or automated
means. The second e-procurement method is online. This
method required an intermediary to the suppliers and buyer.
This process could have costs of its own. This could require
third party software or purchasing through online marketplaces
like EBay. The third method is a mixture of EDI and Online
marketplaces
(
Procurement Process, n.d).
References
Laudon, K., & Traver, C. (2012). E-commerce: Business.
technology. society. (8th ed., p. 11). Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Procurement Process. (n.d). Retrieved
April 17, 2013
,
fromhttp://en.ecommercewiki.info/logistics/procurement_proces
s
Strategies To Run a Lean Supply Chain. (2007). Retrieved
April 17, 2013
,
fromhttp://www.accountingweb.com/sites/default/files/lean_sup
ply_chain.pdf
Supply Chain Management. (n.d.). Retrieved April 17, 2013,
fromhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/supply-
chain-management-SCM.html

9. Re: Phase1(DB2) by Jacqueline.Dudley6 on 4/13/2013 8:55:59
PM