Progressives, part 3...

posted by superman

Why does anyone expect more it of P-town anymore? He is literally just leftist QO. 

Ah yes if I do not adhere to the OC conservative line of thinking, I am therefore a leftist. 

Good logic there. 

posted by ptown_trojans_1

Ah yes if I do not adhere to the OC conservative line of thinking, I am therefore a leftist. 

Good logic there. 

LOL, you're so full of self delusion it's hard to imagine you weren't a Trump supporter

E. Warren introducing the wealth tax bill 

Marxist Witch

posted by QuakerOats

E. Warren introducing the wealth tax bill

I'll be surprised if it makes it out of committee.  "Committee" is a great boneyard for shit you promised your constituents but have no intention of ever bring to light.

Saw where Bernie & his comrades are using Gamestop to justify piling on trading fees again.  I think this idea might be even dumber than Warren's wealth tax.

Something has to give, though.  We're going to get slammed with tax increase at every level of government.  Goodness, already $4.5T in relief and Dems want ANOTHER $3-$4T.  I just have no idea what the markets and economy are going to look like after you effectively erased this recession with the printing press (which are a healthy part of the business cycle).

posted by QuakerOats

E. Warren introducing the wealth tax bill 

Marxist Witch

Why the name?  You worth >$50 mil?

Frankly, we already have a wealth tax; it's called the death tax, and it is rather staggering what the government pilfers from you when you die if you happen to be fairly well-to-do.  

posted by QuakerOats

Frankly, we already have a wealth tax; it's called the death tax, and it is rather staggering what the government pilfers from you when you die if you happen to be fairly well-to-do.  

You have to have an estate north of $5m ($10m if married) to get hit by the estate tax.  That's 0.2% of all households.  So the "you" in your "when you die" statement is not a big population.  I know how you feel about things like this though.  Who's John Gault?

posted by Dr Winston O'Boogie

You have to have an estate north of $5m ($10m if married) to get hit by the estate tax.  That's 0.2% of all households.  So the "you" in your "when you die" statement is not a big population.  I know how you feel about things like this though.  Who's John Gault?

True, but I believe that amount was doubled under W, and Dems have been trying to lower if not practically eliminate it for years.

I do agree $5.7M per individual is too much, and half (where it used to be) is probably pretty reasonable.  My guess is that probably won't change much because most career swamp rats have net worths approaching $5-$10M.

The flipside to the "only 0.2%" argument is that number grows tremendously by the time you cut it in half, perhaps 5% or more (well, $4M is 3.5%).  Now, that pool is a pretty large number, as usual, because you know "the middle class is where all the money is".

And that $11.4M for couples is kind of a joke, because those are exactly the people with the resources to find various loopholes and shelters to avoid the tax.

posted by Dr Winston O'Boogie

You have to have an estate north of $5m ($10m if married) to get hit by the estate tax.  That's 0.2% of all households.  So the "you" in your "when you die" statement is not a big population.  I know how you feel about things like this though.  Who's John Gault?

It's a small number of people, but that certainly doesn't justify its existence IMO.

They could confiscate the wealth of all billionaires and it would run the fedgov for like a month or something stupid.

posted by justincredible

They could confiscate the wealth of all billionaires and it would run the fedgov for like a month or something stupid.

Not to mention putting a whole bunch of companies out of business. No wonder envy is one of the deadly sins.

posted by justincredible

They could confiscate the wealth of all billionaires and it would run the fedgov for like a month or something stupid.

Ehhhhh, US billionaires had a combined net worth of $3.4T as of Mar'20.

But if you include the entire 1% (total wealth starting at @ $11.1M), that number balloons to almost $34T as of Oct'20.  A little more than $100k for every American.  But also consider $30T is something like the estimated cost of "medicare for all" over 10 years.  And then, of course, AOC's Green New Deal has like another $70T for a bunch of other bullshit.

Though I certainly don't disagree if you mandate that no one can be worth more than $10M you're going to do unfathomable economic damage.

What do you guys think of a one-time "Covid tax" for the billionaires that collectively added about $1T to their net worth because of distortions created by govt allowing them to absorb all the small businesses the govt shutdown?

Sure, you already printed the money and handed it out, and at this point what difference would $1T make as we get ready to celebrate the $30T in national debt milestone?

posted by gut

What do you guys think of a one-time "Covid tax" for the billionaires that collectively added about $1T to their net worth because of distortions created by govt allowing them to absorb all the small businesses the govt shutdown?

Sure, you already printed the money and handed it out, and at this point what difference would $1T make as we get ready to celebrate the $30T in national debt milestone?

QO already feels perpetually sorry for these poor guys.  Don't hurt them any further.

posted by Dr Winston O'Boogie

QO already feels perpetually sorry for these poor guys.  Don't hurt them any further.

At what number do you feel stealing from someone is OK?

posted by queencitybuckeye

At what number do you feel stealing from someone is OK?

We all pay taxes, so there is no magic number.  If you consider it stealing, then I don't know what else to say to you. 

posted by Dr Winston O'Boogie

We all pay taxes, so there is no magic number.  If you consider it stealing, then I don't know what else to say to you. 

I believe the government has no more moral authority to take my property than a criminal putting a gun in my ribs. They both get away with it due to power, not for any valid reason.

BTW, half of us don't pay taxes. Sounds fair on that basis as well.

posted by queencitybuckeye

I believe the government has no more moral authority to take my property than a criminal putting a gun in my ribs. They both get away with it due to power, not for any valid reason.

BTW, half of us don't pay taxes. Sounds fair on that basis as well.

I love you tax is theft people. You act like the 16th Amendment does not exist or that the fact that taxation was included in the Constitution does not exist. The Government does have the authority per the Constitution. 

"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration."

Giving the fedgov direct access to our paychecks was the dumbest fucking idea of the 20th century.

The constitution is a shit document, anyway. It either failed to prevent our experiment in limited government to turn into the largest government in world history, or it explicitly allowed for it.