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Who died and left the US $7B?

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Re: Who died and left the US $7B?

#151

Post by cycomanic »

dylan604 wrote: post #128
zztop44 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you care? The country has never paid back this debt, will never pay back this debt and no-one expects it to.

That's my point. It is ridiculous to think that $7b is anything but a drop in the bucket. While $7b is a big number to mere mortals, it is chump change in terms of national debt.

What is your point exactly? That's sort of saying the weight of the heaviest man ever alive (>300 kg) is a drop in the bucket if we compare to the total weight of people in the US, which is true but also completely irrelevant (in fact that comparison actually makes it even clearer how out of proportion the $7B are for a single person).

Re: Who died and left the US $7B?

#152

Post by safety1st »

dh2022 wrote: post #143
schneems wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we should probably celebrate gifts to the US government more than we do. I had the idea that we should put a donation box on tax forms. The 100 top donators get on the “US 100” list (like Forbes) but it’s based ONLY on how much you donate, not how much you claim to be worth. It’s one thing to claim to be rich to a Forbes reporter, it’s another to have the (tax) receipts to back it up.

Billionaires flaunt their wealth via yachts, mansions, space rockets and super-PACs. Which to me seems way more fun than getting your name on a tax list…

I think it's a great idea. It would generate good press for the donors and some billionaires care a lot about that. Guys like Buffett would do it. It's basically free money for the government.

Re: Who died and left the US $7B?

#153

Post by juunpp »

iJohnDoe wrote: post #149
BobAliceInATree wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You literally listed all things that are funded by taxes (schools, FEMA, medicare/medicaid). Sigh.

[flagged]

There is really a point to both opinions. BobAlice maybe lives in a place where tax funds are actually well spent.

Re: Who died and left the US $7B?

#154

Post by ip26 »

shusaku wrote: post #42

> There are many complexities, but one popular technique is to put assets into trusts that allow the returns to accrue for heirs without taxation. Nike founder Phil Knight, for example, put his company’s stock in a series of trusts to benefit his children. The trusts pay him a modest return, but the rest of the gains avoid incurring estate tax, including Nike shares that were worth $6.1 billion in 2021, Bloomberg rep…

What are the odds of something like WWII though, compared to the odds it’s all spent by the second generation?

Re: Who died and left the US $7B?

#155

Post by [deleted] »

Jedd wrote: post #94

A fascinating reddit post was mentioned here about a month ago - about the mildly famous (if a little macabre) 'Buy, Borrow, Die' cycle used by the obscenely-wealthy to - multi-generationally - avoid tax obligations. https://old.reddit.com/r/BuyBorrowDieExplained/comments/1f26... HN comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41408772

[deleted]

Re: Who died and left the US $7B?

#156

Post by juunpp »

yughnior wrote: post #66
nomdep wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Peak HN. (I feel comfortable saying that considering the link to a pg article and “you are in the wrong forum”) In the face of calling out someone else’s ignorance by saying we are all ignorant then going on to assume the thing you like is wonderful while assuming the thing you hate is terrible. Classic. PG would be proud.

[flagged]

Re: Who died and left the US $7B?

#157

Post by cycomanic »

missedthecue wrote: post #131
zztop44 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you be sure it’s not wealth trickling up instead?

I don't think you can consume your way to a higher standard of living. The only way to sustainably increase the standard of living is to increase productivity. This can only come from investment into hard capital and into human capital (education). So to me, it would be very hard to make an argument that it trickles up. It has to come from investment. And investment in the private sector is usually done by rich peopl…

Except for the fact wages and middle class wealth has not kept up with productivity for ages in most western countries.

Also considering that the super-rich in developing nations are not that far behind the super-rich in developed nations, why hasn't their wealth trickled down and uplifted those developing nations? The reality is that developing nations have even higher wealth inequality, so refuting your argument.

Re: Who died and left the US $7B?

#158

Post by patwolf »

sdenton4 wrote: post #99
mynameishere wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always wondered if there was a way to effectively "burn" one's entire wealth, creating a small deflationary event that would increase the value of existing dollars. How could one do this? Donate to the Federal Reserve? Or would you literally have to cash everything out and burn it?

In fact, dragons are important stabilizing influences in dungeon economics. The hoard of gold isn't inflationary until the adventurers liberate it and start buying wands and stuff.

Reminds me of something I read years ago about how Ultima Online would create "gold sinks", super expensive items that served no purpose other than help remove gold from the economy and prevent inflation.

Re: Who died and left the US $7B?

#159

Post by rufus_foreman »

Jedd wrote: post #94

A fascinating reddit post was mentioned here about a month ago - about the mildly famous (if a little macabre) 'Buy, Borrow, Die' cycle used by the obscenely-wealthy to - multi-generationally - avoid tax obligations. https://old.reddit.com/r/BuyBorrowDieExplained/comments/1f26... HN comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41408772

Can you explain to me what a post about avoiding taxes has to do with a post about not avoiding taxes?

Re: Who died and left the US $7B?

#160

Post by rKarpinski »

dh2022 wrote: post #144
rKarpinski wrote: post #47

Elon Musk or another person pre-paying some of their future estate tax, don't buy the other angle.

The author certainly makes this a plausible explanation. And yet I am thinking- if this is indeed the case, why we did not see similar payments this size more often?

Tax avoidance strategies aren't exactly advertised so it could be a novel tactic; and it probably would require an absurd liquid net worth to be worth pursuing (it might even preclude Texas billionaires like Michael Dell or Christy Walton)
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