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Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

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Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#241

Post by lmm »

mi_noi_noi wrote: post #61
ethbro wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having worked for some charities, there's sausage being made there too. Just like the government has spots of greater than free market efficiency. I don't think one or the other is strictly better. You point at corruption and waste wherever you find it, then you work to make it less.

You could say charities are better in the sense that: - You at least have more than one choice. If the charity you give to performs poorly by whatever metrics you value, you can give to another one next time. - It is voluntary. Nobody with guns will put you in a cage if you don't donate to a charity, as is the case if you don't pay your taxes.

> - You at least have more than one choice. If the charity you give to performs poorly by whatever metrics you value, you can give to another one next time.

You can vote out your government.

Charities seem more PR-focused, and the press seems less interested in holding them to account. I have a lot more faith in government to spend money effectively than I do in private charity.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#242

Post by rsync »

tinco wrote: post #209
rsync wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind." I think there's an important distinction to be made between two different sorts of "high taxes". One is a high absolute amount of taxes - you made millions of dollars in a year and therefore your absolute tax payment is relatively quite high. The other is a high percentage tax rate. I don't mind paying a high absolute rate of taxes - I think that is the scenario in…

every 60 minutes I work, ~30 minutes of that work product is appropriated by government How about every 60 minutes you work, 30 minutes of that is spent establishing the world around you? From the opportunities you had as a young person, and those of your children, to the safety and security of your adult life. Half of your product is yours to spend freely, the rest goes towards the idea that you don't even have to t…

"How about every 60 minutes you work, 30 minutes of that is spent establishing the world around you?"

I am perfectly happy to look at it that way, and indeed I do.

Please don't deploy the "I'm arguing with the anti-tax guy" toolkit here - I am not that guy.

The problem I have, and that I think many people have, is that fraction:

30/60 = 1/2 = getting a bit silly.

YMMV.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#243

Post by the_gastropod »

rsync wrote: post #240
the_gastropod wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> my effective tax rate is 50% For this to be true, your income must be in the realm of $10 Million / year. If that's the case, congratulations—that is phenomenal. But pardon me for not crying you a river ;-)

"For this to be true, your income must be in the realm of $10 Million / year." No, the threshold is lower than that. Of course I don't count assessed property tax, since that is based on assets, not income. But I do count parcel taxes [1] which occur per-parcel, regardless of value. USA + CA + Marin County. Note, I am not losing sleep over any of this and I don't identify myself as anti-tax, by any means. I just thin…

Ahhh. I'd never ever heard of Parcel Tax. Thanks for the info. I stand corrected!

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#244

Post by mdpopescu »

Thrillington wrote: post #191
mdpopescu wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a general rule, people in the future are richer than people in the past - both individually and at the society level. It is gambling, but history suggests that it generally works out.

Timescales are a bit off for that rule though. People are generally better off in a few years from now, unless they've been paying that extra prosperity to as monthly interest on their debt.

If the interest is larger than the entire gain, sure. However, most people don't do that as far as I can tell from looking around me.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#245

Post by farrisbris »

refurb wrote: post #21
vinhboy wrote: post #17

> Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind. How refreshing. I agree with him. Paying my taxes is a point of pride for me. It's a repayment for all those years I was poor and the government paid for me to live and go to school.

Not sure if you're living in the US, but I do and I have the exact opposite viewpoint. The amount of waste, corruption and poor planning by the gov't makes me feel like I'm throwing money away. I'd rather give it a charity since then I'd know a majority of it had an impact. I think if the gov't was a bit more efficient and could be shown to be good stewards of money I'd probably hate paying taxes a lot less.

The amount of waste and corruption in charities should not be underestimated. Of course a lot of them are doing good work, or at least think they are, but there seems to be an increasing amount of charities existing to enrich its owners/founders/etc by spending a very small percentage of their donations on what they actually say they are doing while the rest goes to the administration of the charity or somesuch.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#246

Post by zymhan »

tinco wrote: post #209
rsync wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind." I think there's an important distinction to be made between two different sorts of "high taxes". One is a high absolute amount of taxes - you made millions of dollars in a year and therefore your absolute tax payment is relatively quite high. The other is a high percentage tax rate. I don't mind paying a high absolute rate of taxes - I think that is the scenario in…

every 60 minutes I work, ~30 minutes of that work product is appropriated by government How about every 60 minutes you work, 30 minutes of that is spent establishing the world around you? From the opportunities you had as a young person, and those of your children, to the safety and security of your adult life. Half of your product is yours to spend freely, the rest goes towards the idea that you don't even have to t…

Especially at an income level where you will be paying 50%, you should be able to save enough for the future/rainy day AND live quite comfortably.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#247

Post by [deleted] »

Draiken wrote: post #238

This is an interesting story and all that, but honestly, he only got to the "debt free nirvana" after becoming rich and famous. I pay my credit card, pay my taxes and my mortgage, but that takes almost all my money away. So if I look at it my net worth it is basically negative. Only way I'll get to the debt free nirvana is if I get rich somehow. It's not a real choice. So the entire premise of the article is pretty w…

[deleted]

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#248

Post by AnthonyMouse »

mfringel wrote: post #235
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So no, it's not a straw man. Some conservatives really do believe this. Weak man vs. straw man. https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/12/weak-men-are-superweap...

You have found a pattern. Do you have a point you want to make?

People frequently say "nobody" when they mean "almost nobody" and it doesn't lead anywhere productive to point out the odd counterexample.

A handful of extremists are not representative.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#249

Post by zymhan »

coredog64 wrote: post #237
costcopizza wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess you could rationalize that with: During my 60 minutes of work I was able to: breath clean air, have potable water, be surrounded by an orderly society, and in the event of danger have access to emergency services.

I'd counter that all of that together represents a very small portion of that 50% overall tax rate.

Well, you also got to wage wars in various countries via drones and residual troop deployments and special operations. That takes up quite a bit.

Also, you got to enjoy having a basic pension after retirement, as well as free healthcare for the elderly and poor. Who wants to live in a country with a bunch of poor and old sick people who can't afford food and healthcare? That sounds depressing as hell.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#250

Post by lmm »

dmichulke wrote: post #129
vacri wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that people would spend as much on charity as they do on taxes is one of the most clearly bunkum libertarian fantasies out there. Private charities come nowhere near modern government levels of welfare, and never have (that's why we have modern levels of welfare).

You do realize that government actually doesn't earn the money but takes it away from others that earn it. It's not as if with government we have more money. So all that matters is efficiency and if a charity is more efficient than a government, why is there no state where you can choose whom to give (at least part of) your taxes?

> why is there no state where you can choose whom to give (at least part of) your taxes?

Many states have tax deductions on charitable donations. They're mostly used by wealthy people to shirk their taxes by "donating" to a "charity" that serves their own interests (e.g. "donating" a valuable painting to an "art museum" they establish next door to their house, open only by appointment with them).

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