Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't trust capitalists with it.
I can't help but wonder what the hell you are doing on a venture capital firm's website.
Learning about the enemy.
Warren Buffett: Stop coddling the super rich
141–150 of 354 posts
Re: Warren Buffett: Stop coddling the super rich
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is that gifts to charity aren't coercive. I know, it's strange to say that it's a problem if it isn't coercive, and I'd agree that many of the inefficiencies of government stem from the coercive nature of taxes (no need to convince people to give you money if you can just take it by force). But I'm really a moderate in all of this - I personally don't think a modern state can survive on donations, or a "p…
It's not just that - even when we're talking Warren Buffett here, the scale of the US govt is totally different. Buffett's entire fortune ($50B according to Wikipedia) would only cover a few weeks' worth of borrowing and then we're right back where we started only Warren Buffett has no more fortune. It's silly to say we should expect him to do that. What he's saying by advocating tax raises is "I will pay more if I k…
>What he's saying by advocating tax raises is "I will pay more if I know that everyone else will also pay more."
No he isn't. He's saying precisely the opposite:
"I would leave rates for 99.7 percent of taxpayers unchanged and continue the current 2-percentage-point reduction in the employee contribution to the payroll tax...But for those making more than $1 million...I would raise rates immediately on taxable income in excess of $1 million, including, of course, dividends and capital gains. And for those who make $10 million or more...I would suggest an additional increase in rate."
Re: Warren Buffett: Stop coddling the super rich
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
This assumes low to middle income people are single issue voters and that issue happens to be the effective tax rate of billionaires. What's dumbfounding is that there are people who believe that wealth is zero-sum, and that by taking from the rich and giving to the poor, "justice" would be done, never taking into account what produces wealth or the fact that living standards have improved despite the rich getting ri…
living standards have improved despite the rich getting richer. Citation needed. Please explain how the living standard in the US can have improved if real wages have fallen. Oh wait, the answer is an incredible increase in consumer debt. That seems to be working out. Keep calm and carry on.
Please explain how the living standard in the US can have improved if real wages have fallen.
If by "real wages", you mean "wages adjusted for chained CPI" (this is what most people mean), the answer is because the basket of goods used to compute CPI has become larger.
I.e., consider the following scenario. In year 0, there is one good - food. A basket of food costs $100. In year 1, medicine is invented, and the cost of food goes up to $101. Inflation is 1%.
The basket of goods is modified to reflect the invention of medicine, and is now comprised of 50% food, 50% medicine. In year 2, the cost of medicine increases 10%, and food decreases by 2%. Chained CPI now reports an inflation rate of 3.45%. Is life worse in year 2 than in year 0? (This is a combined 2-year inflation rate of 4.5%.)
Of course not. In year 2, you are paying $99 for a basket of food. In year 0, you are paying $100 for food and Medicine doesn't exist.
I have yet to see anyone construct an inflation measurement based on a fixed basket of goods (which is held constant over the years) that shows real wages have gone down.
Re: Warren Buffett: Stop coddling the super rich
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is that gifts to charity aren't coercive. I know, it's strange to say that it's a problem if it isn't coercive, and I'd agree that many of the inefficiencies of government stem from the coercive nature of taxes (no need to convince people to give you money if you can just take it by force). But I'm really a moderate in all of this - I personally don't think a modern state can survive on donations, or a "p…
Even at the current tax rates, Buffet properly pays more than you do. And he certainly pay more than those who are on the various forms of government relief.
More is a relative term, for instance he's not being taxed out of a holiday, eating out one or two times a month, having enough food to support his family, etc.
The utility on that 7million is much lower for him than say 20k a year would be for someone making less than 100,000 a year.Re: Warren Buffett: Stop coddling the super rich
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most decent charities deliver far more per unit donated than the US government could ever wish to achieve. If you're interested in pure charity, you're not going to get much bang for your buck at the federal level.
[citation needed]
Using government data, Robert L. Woodson calculated that, on average, 70 cents of each dollar budgeted for government assistance goes not to the poor, but to the members of the welfare bureaucracy and others serving the poor. Michael Tanner cites regional studies supporting this 70/30 split.
Re: Warren Buffett: Stop coddling the super rich
#146The combined wealth of American's billionaires is only $1.5 trillion. [1] If we taxed them 100%, it would only pay off our budget deficit for one year. We still have around 54 trillion total debt to pay down. Not to mention 115 trillion unfunded liabilities. And which entrepreneurs would be stupid enough to work 14 hours a day and hire workers, knowing that the government will tax them 90%? They would all flee the co…
Stop fabricating numbers. The US National debt is about $14.5 trillion, not anywhere close to 54 trillion. Btw, the Bush tax cuts — costing $1.8 trillion from 2002 to 2009 — are a big reason we got into this deep hole. Buffet: I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.
You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.
By this logic, we should undo the large increases in government spending since 2000 as well. Works for me.
Re: Warren Buffett: Stop coddling the super rich
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not just that - even when we're talking Warren Buffett here, the scale of the US govt is totally different. Buffett's entire fortune ($50B according to Wikipedia) would only cover a few weeks' worth of borrowing and then we're right back where we started only Warren Buffett has no more fortune. It's silly to say we should expect him to do that. What he's saying by advocating tax raises is "I will pay more if I k…
>What he's saying by advocating tax raises is "I will pay more if I know that everyone else will also pay more." No he isn't. He's saying precisely the opposite: "I would leave rates for 99.7 percent of taxpayers unchanged and continue the current 2-percentage-point reduction in the employee contribution to the payroll tax...But for those making more than $1 million...I would raise rates immediately on taxable income…
He's willing to pay more if everyone else at his income level pays more.
Re: Warren Buffett: Stop coddling the super rich
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
TARP is a rounding error all right--compared to the $16 trillion the Federal Reserve has provided to private banks behind the scenes. TARP was just political theater. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/07/21/audit-fed-gave-16-tril...
No. This thread is a font of misinformation. The Federal Reserve lent $16 trillion in total transactions at the primary credit interest rate to banks over years worth of time. This number is clearly cited to provoke populist rage but is completely ridiculous when analyzed intellectually. Look, consider this analogous situation. You're having trouble meeting your short term debts but had a solid line of income so you…
What on earth are you talking about? Where did I or the article claim anything about amounts lent at any given time? A total of ~$16 trillion was secretly lent to failing financial institutions at extremely low rates over 3 years. That's just a fact and it's an enormous sum that dwarfs programs like TARP regardless of how the transactions were divided. If it provokes populist rage, maybe that's because it should.
Re: Warren Buffett: Stop coddling the super rich
#149Voluntary gifts of money can be sent to the U.S. Treasury at this address: http://www.fms.treas.gov/faq/moretopics_gifts.html One has to ask, if any super rich person really considered the U.S. Government a worthwhile investment, why are they donating to various charities instead of to the Treasury?
Most decent charities deliver far more per unit donated than the US government could ever wish to achieve. If you're interested in pure charity, you're not going to get much bang for your buck at the federal level.
Since when is the US government a charity? Taxes are not optional.
Most major donors contribute to things they can put their name on like buildings (see Stanford campus). It's difficult for even most charities to cover operating costs (i.e. labor) with only donations. Most have to apply for grants or do lots of funny numbers to keep their administration costs (i.e. labor) low.
Re: Warren Buffett: Stop coddling the super rich
#150The problem is getting low to middle income people to stop voting against themselves. Good luck with that, they all seem to think they are going to be billionaires someday so better keep those billionaire taxes low. Either that or by bribing the wealthy with low taxes they might only ship out half the jobs overseas instead of all of them. It's just dumbfounding. Election after election, over and over.
They don't. Google 'rich state poor state red state blue state'