Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Agree w/ GR.
I am all in for a redefinition of the tax base and for redefinition of tax incentives. There are so many things that don’t make much sense. The SALT deduction that Trump’s tax cuts limited is a good example, and cutting it was quite the progressive move, but it pissed off a lot of rich liberals in high tax states.
The problem is this: Every tax code “kink” has a reason behind it. Some are actually good reasons. The Roth IRA was invented so that the government can get current income taxes while providing people an incentive to save. Not a bad thing, but then you have Peter Thiel with a $5 billion Roth IRA. Do you hate the player or the game? Which is it?
The mortgage interest subsidy is another good example. Subsidizing homeownership with tax deductibility of interest makes some sense. But what compelling interest does the government have in subsidizing purchases of million-dollar homes with jumbo mortgages?
Wealth taxes, for me, are a questionable animal. “Wealth” as defined for 90 percent of people is only one of two things… It’s real estate, which is already taxed as a percent of value in almost every jurisdiction, or it is an asset value (think stocks and bonds) based on a valuation of expectation of future payments. Those payments will be taxed when they are made (actually, double taxed). Taxing people for paper valuations of financial assets whose intrinsic value may not be in any way near the actual paper value seems…off to me.
For instance. Elon Musk may be worth Billions at the moment, but he can’t actually cash out the value, so is the value of his Tesla stock really the stated paper value, or some discounted value from that reflecting its illiquidity?
I won’t even get into trying to tax wealth that’s in the form of jewels, art, and other items with intangible value.
The wealth tax makes sense on its face (I actually find Piketty’s theory compelling) – Since returns to capital tends to outrun returns to labor and overall GDP growth, capital holders necessarily become more concentrated over time. Tax the growth of capital and you level the playing field… makes some sense.
The issue is in valuing the tax base.
____________________________________________________________
Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)In all seriousness, Cosby is a dirtbag. But; he also is entitled to due process, and so this outcome is for the best. Now, when’s his next trial in a different jurisdiction for a different instance of his deplorable behavior?
____________________________________________________________
Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)How can the republicans be implicated here? That’s what I want to know.
____________________________________________________________
Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)good point about the lake.
Cyclical phenomena are tricky that way. Can you imagine if the warming trend we experience every year from February to June were extrapolated? We would all be fried by October.
____________________________________________________________
Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)[quote quote=4890]“It is not rational to avoid Covid vaccination at this point. It literally is life insurance.” Easy to say if you have no skin in the game but it is far too early to draw that conclusion. 5000 people have died with the jab. What would you do if forced to have your infant vaxed against your will and best judgement? Or you are a young woman concerned about reproductive consequences yet undetermined? Or are concerned about blood clots in the spleen as my sister in law had after her stick. If I were young I would not get it. I’d go herd.[/quote]
Oh I fully think it’s a choice. I don’t think the gubment ought to force it. That’s why I used the word “suggestion” in my post, which is what the vax goals and ads are.
I don’t believe the government should force it at all, but also think saying things like 5,000 people have died from the vax is needless “information.” It instills fear in the statistically challenged…At this point well over a thousand people a day are NOT dying because of the vaccines.
Are there real child or reproductive concerns, or are those things made up? I have seen some inflammation concerns w kids, but as a father with three of four kids vaccinated (between ages 12 and 17, perhaps you would consider that “skin in the game”), you can see where I stand.
This vaccine is essentially a godsend. I don’t mind if people choose not to take it, but as for me and my house…
____________________________________________________________
Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)It is not rational to avoid Covid vaccination at this point. It literally is life insurance.
however, the populations that are against vaccination tend to have reasons if not good ones. Very few of those reasons are “Republican” or “democrat” reasons. They are “Tuskegee experiment” or “government skepticism” reasons. That’s not to say that those are good reasons, but they certainly aren’t just political party reasons.
there’s a healthy proportion of the population in the U.S. that will refuse to comply with the government’s suggestions for the mere reason of it being the government’s suggestions. I say that’s actually on balance a good thing (‘Merica), but not in the case of Covid vax.
____________________________________________________________
Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)Since this is likely to be the worst non 9/11 building collapse in US history (I think, random memory of mine says that 140 deaths in a hotel walkway collapse in KC years ago was the worst to date) ; it’s likely that answers will be tied up in litigation for a long time. We will have to see.
In any event, I’m betting the concrete rehab and retrofit industry just got a big shot in the arm.
____________________________________________________________
Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)Yeah doc, I saw reports that they were using the underground garage to try to reach people. That does pretty much rule out a foundational issue like a sinkhole if they are working directly under the former structure.
____________________________________________________________
Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)The fed just signaled that rates will rise…
…in late 2023. How the hell do they know?
It sure looks like the fed is more and more political. No rate changes until the republicans retake the house and solidify the senate…then we’ll raise rates… just like last time.
____________________________________________________________
Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)A one-time wealth tax added to a voluntary income tax. What a world.
____________________________________________________________
Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)Rates need to rise, and by a lot. Too much free money out there.
____________________________________________________________
Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)Go figure. What a coincidence.
I don’t want to minimize the real pain of suicide on families and especially children. So it’s an awful story.
But, wow.
____________________________________________________________
Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)Sir Mix-a-lot is smiling somewhere.
Obesity and its metabolic offshoots will be an economic catastrophe and bonanza at the same time.
____________________________________________________________
Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)The money in all this is why it won’t go away. It used to be that extortion was illegal, now it’s just in the form of virtue signaling by spending money on worthless jobs and non-distinctive speakers.
It was W.E.B. DuBois who referred to the need for the “Talented Tenth” of the AA population to lead social change. I think that “Talented Tenth,” while likely broader than a tenth now, gets captured far too often by political interests that would move money and power around for themselves (think “Chief Diversity Officer” at a college) vs. actually becoming beacons of social change for the racial group (think “entrepreneur”).
So, instead of actually having to provide something of value to the world, you get compensated handsomely for either fomenting or for being a symbol of somebody else’s progressiveness.
____________________________________________________________
Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)
