A close friend of mine (I consider her family) who I've known for over 20 years is going through some shit right now related to Bidenomics/Left Leaning Politics, and cars.
She's a software developer who lives in the OKC area, and works remotely, with occasional job related travel when they need her in the office or at a worksite.
About a week before Thanksgiving the engine in her 2008 Durango threw a rod on the 35 between OKC and Dallas.
I used to work in the car business and she asked me for help finding a remanufactured engine at a reasonable price.
The difference between reman and rebuilt engines is a reman meets factory specs, whereas a rebuilt means somebody worked on it and made a judgement call it should be ok. (Both can work depending on the knowledge/skill behind the judgement call.)
I found two Mopar certified engine shops, one in LA and the other in Hialeah, FL. Both had several V6 and V8 Mopar remans ready to ship that would fit her vehicle. Wholesale price out the door between $2.4k and $2.9k including about $380 for standard ground shipping plus a $400 core that's refundable once the old engine is returned. Shipping for core return is $150 to $200 depending on the carrier. (Core shipping is cheaper because the old engine doesn't have to get there right away.)
She was stranded while paying almost $500 a week for a rental car. Because she was in the middle of the country and standard $380 shipping was by ground, estimated delivery time was 7-10 business days.
For her that was a non-starter.
She decided to pay cash a for reman engine ($4k retail price) and hired a local mechanic recommended to her by the manager of a local national parts chain where she bought the engine (the advantage being the local mechanic would have the reman engine in his possession within 24 hrs.)
The mechanic removed the blown engine from her vehicle. But almost three weeks later, with her paying for a rental car the whole time, he hadn't installed the new engine.
At that point she told me she'd had enough, went car shopping online, and paid cash for a new 2023 Kia Telluride from a dealer a few states away.
They delivered it on a flatbed two days later to the parking lot of the hotel where she was staying.
Really nice vehicle. She drove it to New Mexico. I drove over from San Diego, and we spent the Holidays together.
She called me yesterday afternoon. I recognized something off in her voice, part sadness, part shock.
She told me there had been a company wide Zoom call with the CEO of the company she'd been working for the past few years, a healthcare software provider in the Seattle area.
The CEO had tearfully told everybody the Board of Directors (the company is privately held) had voted to do a significant restructuring that involved laying off about half the workforce.
About 20 minutes after the Zoom call the CEO had called her personally and given her the bad news.
She had been laid off.
She told me she had asked the CEO "What happened?"
The CEO had explained one of the contributing factors was the State of Washington's digital sales tax of about 9% which had been cutting into the company's margins.
The CEO had further explained the company had been losing customers when they tried to pass this tax on to them. Customers would decide to shop around and apparently had no trouble finding competitors headquartered in states without a digital sales tax.
She called me again this morning asking for help. She wanted to change the withholding status on her W4 (no state or fed taxes withheld) because she thinks it will probably be a while before she finds a really good paying job again.
It turns out the IRS has new W4 withholding rules for 2024:
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf
Quote:
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Exemption from withholding. You may claim exemption from withholding for 2024 if you meet both of the following conditions: you had no federal income tax liability in 2023 and you expect to have no federal income tax liability in 2024.
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She lost her job yesterday.
A really good paying job at a company that ran into financial trouble in large part over the State of Washington's (roughly 9%) digital sales tax.
This after paying cash for a brand new car a few weeks ago. Something she never would have done had she known her employer was on the ropes.
And because of a new IRS rule, HR at her now former employer has no choice but to withhold the full amount for state and fed income taxes on her final paycheck.
Something tells me she's not the only one out there.
If you an endless parade of government rolling out new and higher taxes can go on forever without consequences:
Think again.
-jp
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