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My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

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Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#261

Post by Faark »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #211
astrodust wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you have a profound misunderstanding of what someone with billions of dollars in inherited wealth does with their money. It's not investing in "profitable ventures" that "create benefits", it's tied up in businesses they inherited, it's squirreled away in tax havens, it's spent on lavish properties, club memberships, expensive cars, and tuition for their children. If you're lucky a tiny fraction of that trick…

> it's spent on lavish properties, club memberships, expensive cars, and tuition for their children. All of that is trickle down to workers for those jobs > it's tied up in businesses they inherited That means the sum benefit to humanity is still going! > Then that money generates enough of a return that their kids can inherit billions in turn and the cycle repeats. I cant imagine someone who more deserves to direct…

You are missing the point. For a society to work, it's members have to perceive it as somewhat fair. The naive idealist would demand equal opportunity for everyone born. But we humans want to use the means available to us to directly improve out children's opportunities. Our freedom to do so makes our society inherently unfair. Especially when we expect those "investments" like education to pay for themself...

The interesting question is, like always politics, how to balance those trade-offs for bests outcomes.

Yes, that means both giving parents the chance to help their kids while also not having a disillusioned crowd without perspective demanding to tear down society in favor of whatever promises to be better. And yes, that requires some degree of wealth redistribution like decent public eduction.

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#262

Post by jws »

bradleyjg wrote: post #240
RhysU wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should an estate with $100K worth of appreciated assets pay no capital gains and no estate tax?

Right. I don't see why we need a step up basis at death. If you want to put it at $10,000 or something just to avoid a lot of paperwork for a de minimis tax loss, that'd be fine. But otherwise the tax basis of an asset should be whatever it was bought for, by whoever bought it.

The problem here is that the buyer is dead and knowledge of the basis may be lost. It could be written down in a safe place, but not known to estate's executor.

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#263

Post by TheCoelacanth »

isostatic wrote: post #89
dragonwriter wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe this isn't the right place to ask, but could someone explain the rationale for taxing gifts within a family? Could you explain the rationale for excluding such unearned income, other than privileging generational wealth against wealth earned by personal work and investment? > Ignoring the possibility of using it to circumvent an income tax, etc., my initial thought is that if my dad wants to give me $30,001 t…

> Could you explain the rationale for excluding such unearned income, other than privileging generational wealth against wealth earned by personal work and investment? If I buy a round of drinks, do people have to pay tax? (I assume there's some minimum threshold)

If you bought a round of Dalmore 62, then yes, otherwise, no because only gifts of more than $15k per year per person incur the gift tax (and technically, you would pay the tax, because the tax is on the giver and not on the recipient).

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#264

Post by TheCoelacanth »

tomp wrote: post #182
isostatic wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just rich kids that benefit, and it's not just direct gifts that benefit. If your parents live within commuting distance of London, you can probably take a very low paid job to get a rung on the ladder. Very few outgoings - no rent, no bills. £600/month for season ticket and nights out, and even on minimum wage you'll be saving £5k a year. If your parents live in say Devon or Yorkshire, you can't do that. Yo…

IIRC Switzerland is introducing a "homeowner's tax" - the equivalent to the tax your landlord would be paying on your rent if you were renting instead of owning - essentially, they're considering you're renting to yourself, so you need to pay the tax. Now that's pro-equality (ironically, for Switzerland).

I believe they already have this (it's called "imputed rent") and are considering getting rid of this[1].

[1] https://lenews.ch/2017/08/24/a-swiss-parliamentary-commissio...

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#265

Post by malyk »

sol_remmy wrote: post #114
crooked-v wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider that even well-known black movie stars occasionally get the "shopping while black" treatment. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/19/forest-whitaker-fa... Having even absurd amounts of money doesn't make bias just go away.

or men of any race who get the "walking behind a nervous women while male" treatment when walking around their city at night

Do you think that's unjustified from them?

I, as a fairly non-descript white guy, am always worried when out walking near a single female that she might be afraid of me and what I might do and take steps to help alleviate that (walk slower, etc.).

I mean, it seems like the most reasonable course of action. Sure, I'm never going to confront/assault/rape anyone, but the 5'2", 110 lbs woman walking in front of me on the street? She has no clue. How hard is it for me to slow down half a step and give her some relief?

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#266

Post by DoreenMichele »

crooked-v wrote: post #45
mobileexpert wrote: post #27

A refrain that is very true in NYC. It is a bit off-putting (and just wrong) to read the author talk about white male privilege being a comparable head start to her half a million dollars of family money she’s received. (And 28,000/yr still coming!) For an essay centered on owning up to personal privilege it still has some serious short comings in recognizing how extreme her wealth privilege is versus almost all intr…

Consider that even well-known black movie stars occasionally get the "shopping while black" treatment. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/19/forest-whitaker-fa... Having even absurd amounts of money doesn't make bias just go away.

See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18321672

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#267

Post by darawk »

GuiA wrote: post #257
darawk wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Serious question, I'm wondering, why you, personally, value other people getting MBA/Engineering degrees over arts? Because they increase GDP, and thereby pay back their education in the form of income taxes, and increase the available wealth for everyone.

...buying theater tickets or books also increases the GDP?

Not nearly as much.

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#268

Post by jeromebaek »

refurb wrote: post #251
BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compared to a black person living in the same place and going to the same school and having the same number of living parents with the same jobs and same dedication to success, probably very good. Please remember to keep other factors equal when comparing aspects of demography. Otherwise you've just strayed off into the wilderness of logical fallacyland.

Ok, you’re a white farmer living in South Africa. How’s you’re whiteness helping you now?

You do realize apartheid ended not long ago in South Africa, right? If you chose something like South Korea maybe this would make more sense.

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#270

Post by mberning »

thex10 wrote: post #256
mberning wrote: post #167

First off - I really dislike it when people deal with blocks of people as if they are a monolith. As if all white people have some innate starting advantage, all black people have some disadvantage, etc. It’s a brutally racist mentality that is very common. Secondly, poverty is not a lack of money or material wealth. That is part of it and is definitely a symptom. But actual poverty is a culture and a set of habits t…

> I really dislike it when people deal with blocks of people as if they are a monolith. As if all white people have some innate starting advantage, all black people have some disadvantage, etc. It’s a brutally racist mentality that is very common. Dislike it all you want, but observing realities that are often shared within blocks of people (as opposed to randomly distributed across every slice of every group of popu…

It’s not discussed. It’s casually accepted by many even though there is no evidence for it and evidence against it is ignored or hand waved away.
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