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Pity the Poor Couple Who Make $450,000 Per Year

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Re: Pity the Poor Couple Who Make $450,000 Per Year

#41

Post by thaumaturgy »

houseabsolute wrote: post #23
[deleted] wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

> Please tell me where things went wrong. Among other things, you've failed to demonstrate that Obama believes Capitalism is inherently exploitative. Even if you'd managed that, you'd still need to prove that he also supports the other tenets of Marxism, like the one I called out in my comment. A person is not automatically a Marxist merely for having some affinity to any part of the overall philosophy. Instead, one…

The commenter you were replying to was just a troll, and they were just using the term "Marxist" as an epithet. Here's an incomplete list of other "red-flag epithets":

    communist
    socialist
    liberal
    democrat
    muslim
    islamist
    apologist
etc.

Re: Pity the Poor Couple Who Make $450,000 Per Year

#42

Post by jasonkester »

As somebody who stands to get clobbered by this high tax bracket, I sometimes feel like I'm the only one out here who thinks it's just fine.

I've always been in favor of a flat tax with a lower bound. So, say 50% of all income above $20k. Let the regular folk (like me last during the last couple years of getting a bootstrapped startup off the ground) get off without paying any tax whatsoever. Take up the slack by making those with plenty (like me now that things are going well) pay our fair share.

I mean sure, losing half your income to taxes is a problem, but it's one of those good problems, because to get it you need to be making four times what everybody else is making.

As long as you figure out what your actual means are and live within them, you'll still do fine.

EDIT: 50% -> "high" thanks to the below:

Re: Pity the Poor Couple Who Make $450,000 Per Year

#43

Post by einarvollset »

iamwil wrote: post #27
einarvollset wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You, sir, are an idiot. I can't even be bothered to argue with it.

This is HN. Tell him why he's wrong. No need to call him names. Attack the ideas, not the person. If you think he's just being a troll, just ignore him.

Yes this is HN and I should ignore it.

But sometimes I get so god damn frustrated with the meta-comments ("uh, so this is why you shouldn't discuss politics when attempting to increase your social network influence") and the quiet acceptance of provable idioicy that all I want to do is to tell someone that they are either ignorant, stupid, selfish or evil.

Now, just because the original poster's historically and politically ignorant comment contained more words than mine, doesn't make my expression if exasperation at his (?) idiocy any less valid.

Don't be duped by rambling idiots. c.f. Occam's Razor

Re: Pity the Poor Couple Who Make $450,000 Per Year

#44

Post by jasonjei »

houseabsolute wrote: post #28
lionhearted wrote: post #24

> Perhaps Henderson's outburst should be chalked up to the influence of degenerate white culture This would be unacceptable to say about any other ethnic group - I've got to say, if you're Caucasian you should get upset at general hate speech and slapping "white" on something like it's a bad thing. I keep the company of people of all color and background, I'll do business with anyone I like, but it's time white peopl…

> Any other ethnic group would be up in arms That is because the other ethnic groups are not the dominant ones in society, and are typically disadvantaged on the whole because of their race. My personal view as a White person is that I have enough advantages by my White male-ness that I do not need to demand more, or do anything to offset whatever minor inconveniences might arise from the same. Doing so would seem pe…

I think what houseabsolute is saying has real validity. As a Chinese American, I've been teased at school for having a last name like "Hung," for speaking a language other than English. We haven't reached a world blind to color, and the faction on HN has a much better understanding of different cultures, skin colors, etc. than the average white American, especially of those in the South.

It's a bit of a catch-22 situation. People make generalizations, because it's a very human thing to do; when we write code, we make generalizations when developing our algorithms. And the reason that the White group is at times marginalized is because a large percentage of that group still has a very poor understanding or acceptance of other races. If you go down to Atlanta, Georgia, you will see two worlds: one white (or honorary white, if you're Chinese, for instance), and one non-white.

While it's of course in accurate to say that all people in the White subgroup are like this, a significant number have triggered a Bayesian rule that generalizations about White group are made, and the generalizations are usually made about their lack of sensitivity to non-White culture.

And there is still hate. My girlfriend, for instance, is Japanese. When she was at UNC Chapel Hill, however, someone pooped in her dorm room and wrote, "Get out you dirty Jap!"

Re: Pity the Poor Couple Who Make $450,000 Per Year

#45

Post by loewenskind »

btmorex wrote: post #20
atomical wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at the whole picture. As this man's salary grew he started to add services and dependents and a wife and a lot of other things to his budget. He basically has reached a point where it is unsustainable but now he has convinced himself that he is in a hardship. Not so different from the general public that believes owning a home, having three or four kids, and driving new cars is a right.

Everyone spends more as they make more money. It's pretty much human nature. The difference is that most people keep some bearing on reality and realize that they have it better than almost anyone else in the world (speaking of wealthy Americans here). They can also probably imagine cutting some stuff out if need be without blogging "woe is me".

>(speaking of wealthy Americans here)

You mean wealthy citizens of first world countries, right?

Re: Pity the Poor Couple Who Make $450,000 Per Year

#46

Post by houseabsolute »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #41
houseabsolute wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Please tell me where things went wrong. Among other things, you've failed to demonstrate that Obama believes Capitalism is inherently exploitative. Even if you'd managed that, you'd still need to prove that he also supports the other tenets of Marxism, like the one I called out in my comment. A person is not automatically a Marxist merely for having some affinity to any part of the overall philosophy. Instead, one…

The commenter you were replying to was just a troll, and they were just using the term "Marxist" as an epithet. Here's an incomplete list of other "red-flag epithets": communist socialist liberal democrat muslim islamist apologist etc.

Maybe so. He deleted his comment, which leads me to believe he at least as some capability for shame. Anyway, it'll be nice to have that written down, though, so I can refer my non-troll conservative friends to it when the idiocy builds up. It can be hard being a Republican. :(

Re: Pity the Poor Couple Who Make $450,000 Per Year

#48

Post by davidwparker »

guelo wrote: post #31
lionhearted wrote: post #24

> Perhaps Henderson's outburst should be chalked up to the influence of degenerate white culture This would be unacceptable to say about any other ethnic group - I've got to say, if you're Caucasian you should get upset at general hate speech and slapping "white" on something like it's a bad thing. I keep the company of people of all color and background, I'll do business with anyone I like, but it's time white peopl…

Maybe you're right that this is racist. But I'm pretty sure that well over 90% of people making the argument that $450k is not enough money are indeed white. If the article was about gangster rap I don't know if it would be racist but it would be accurate to call it a degenerate black culture.

"But I'm pretty sure that well over 90% of people making the argument that $450k is not enough money are indeed white."

Citation needed. I'm not sure whether I agree or disagree with your opinion, but stating claims like this without some kind of reference seems questionable.

Re: Pity the Poor Couple Who Make $450,000 Per Year

#49

Post by bpodgursky »

netcan wrote: post #8

Not really saying all that much. We earn over $250k so we're considered superich though that's not fair because we're not really rich because we spend all our money on normal stuff like house and groceries and richer people evade taxes offshore but we're not rich enough to do that and we could evade taxes by pretending to be divorced but we're too moral to do that and if you tax us we'll have to fire our gardener and…

Your money might not be stashed offshore, but your periods and commas seem to be safely hidden.

Re: Pity the Poor Couple Who Make $450,000 Per Year

#50

Post by guelo »

jasonkester wrote: post #42

As somebody who stands to get clobbered by this high tax bracket, I sometimes feel like I'm the only one out here who thinks it's just fine. I've always been in favor of a flat tax with a lower bound. So, say 50% of all income above $20k. Let the regular folk (like me last during the last couple years of getting a bootstrapped startup off the ground) get off without paying any tax whatsoever. Take up the slack by mak…

There is no "50% tax bracket". Obama's proposed plan would raise the 33% and 35% brackets to 36% and 39.6%.
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