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Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

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Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#331

Post by lap42 »

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…

Wrong.

If he pays 50% because he wants, OK.

But he is FORCED to pay.

This is confiscatory payment, it's theft.

Opportunities as a young person costs 50% of what he makes?! Please don't pretend to be naive.

I thought it was common sense by now that this tax money goes to highly payed politicians, corruption, bad public administration, bad public programs, lazy people, etc.

A 10% tax should be the maximum a citizen should pay in any country.

And it will be in the future, distant future, but you can be damn sure that it will be.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#332

Post by lap42 »

jlebar wrote: post #282
rsync wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

The problem I have, and that I think many people have, is that fraction: 30/60 = 1/2 = getting a bit silly. But why ? I mean, are you just rationalizing? "I think 50% taxes is a lot just because I do, therefore I think it's bad policy." Or is there a logical reason that 50% is "a bit silly" but, say, 30% (or whatever your number is) is fine? This is something that Nobel prize-winning economists fight over -- exactly…

Laffer Curve.

10% will be enough in the future, except for those countries in war, like US always will be.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#333

Post by lap42 »

jchrisa wrote: post #261
rsync wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

That's the American right propaganda sinking in. Times of higher tax burden have been economically more productive. It's already the government's money. Redistributive taxation is parsimonious use of funds. Great chart in here about USA tax burden being below average: https://taxfoundation.org/comparison-tax-burden-labor-oecd-2...

Right propaganda or freedom propaganda?

You are entitled of what you've done, period.

Anything above 10% is theft.

"Times of higher tax burden have been economically more productive" -> this is just false, a falacy. Prove it somehow.

Sweden was a very rich nation before high taxes, now it's just rich, net jobs after high taxation in 50 years is ZERO. They are just letting go now, cutting taxes more and more.

I wonder why US economy is booming right now, maybe because Trump is going to cut taxes?!

Oops...

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#334

Post by lap42 »

zymhan wrote: post #246
tinco wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's the problem. You should never be responsible to judge how he spends his money, that's his problem.

You never know. You don't know if it was only 10%, he could use those 40% much better than the "government", oh hell, be damn sure he would.

He could create companies, could fund companies, could put this money in funds, those funds would have to fund companies to earn money, these would generate jobs, education, etc.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#335

Post by lap42 »

zymhan wrote: post #272
Scea91 wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are in high a tax bracket you are actually paying way more to pension than you get back. If you saved the money yourself you would be better off.

Sure, but I believe in a progressive tax structure, so allowing wealthier folk to contribute even more to their retirement isn't anywhere near my top concern. The amount of money you need to live on decreases relative to your income, as your income goes up. A wealthy person doesn't contribute 30%+ of their monthly income to housing, typically, nor could they come anywhere near spending that amount on food. But a poor…

You believe in theft.

You believe in getting other people money in a forced manner and put in what YOU believe is better.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#336

Post by alistproducer2 »

plandis wrote: post #303
alistproducer2 wrote: post #269

> Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind. It's actually amazing how little most Americans pay in taxes yet we complain. This year my effective tax rate was ~8%. Of course this is by using every legal tax shelter available. Considering what I get from the Federal government here in the US, I think 8% is actually fair. If it spent more of my money doing thing like taking care of home and quit with the empire…

8%? You either live very close to (or under) the poverty line or are fabulously wealthy. I'm assuming that you're rich since you mentioned tax shelters. TurboTax put my effective tax rate this year at 26%.

Nope. 2 income, low 6 figures. There are pretty significant shelters for us middle class folks. $36k available in 401k contributions alone.another $6.5 k for HSA. $5k for childcare spending along with credits and deductions for the same thing. The key is to have a cost of living where u can afford to take advantage of them all.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#337

Post by jjtheblunt »

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…

The problem is that those other 30 minutes are _not_ establishing the world around the person, but rather sustaining irresponsible worlds filled by others aggravatingly often, no?

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#338

Post by tinco »

lap42 wrote: post #331
tinco wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Wrong. If he pays 50% because he wants, OK. But he is FORCED to pay. This is confiscatory payment, it's theft. Opportunities as a young person costs 50% of what he makes?! Please don't pretend to be naive. I thought it was common sense by now that this tax money goes to highly payed politicians, corruption, bad public administration, bad public programs, lazy people, etc. A 10% tax should be the maximum a citizen sho…

Wrong, they should be happy it's not 90% or 100% of what he makes. Don't be naieve, why would you deserve anything when there are people who could wipe your life away with the stroke of a pen. Don't pretend you've deserved anything you've worked for. It has been granted to you by those in power as they have seen fit. Your petty idealism has no place in the real world.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#339

Post by patrickg_zill »

rsync wrote: post #194
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.

"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…

I agree and think that total tax rates should be capped at a far lower amount.

At some point in running your own business you realize that large portions of the tax code exist to throttle back the rate of growth of smaller companies while giving away money (tax breaks etc.) to large behemoths.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#340

Post by tptacek »

hueving wrote: post #330
usaphp wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it mean their baby will live without paperwork and no health insurance?

Yes. Some have even made the argument that this makes voter identification requirements racist (due to the higher home birth participation of African Americans).

This would of course be one of many factors that would make voter identification requirements racially biased; far lower rates of possessing compliant ID would be the more important factor.
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