I'm almost certain there there may be flaws in this though but: Isn't there a limited monetary supply at any given time? So the richer I get, the less rich other people become. Even after I pay rents and salaries and everything else, if I'm richer than I was before, then there is less wealth available for everyone else.
Mark Cuban: The most patriotic thing you can do is "get rich"
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Re: Mark Cuban: The most patriotic thing you can do is "get rich"
#22I'm almost certain there there may be flaws in this though but: Isn't there a limited monetary supply at any given time? So the richer I get, the less rich other people become. Even after I pay rents and salaries and everything else, if I'm richer than I was before, then there is less wealth available for everyone else.
You've highlighted one of the most important fallacies in the modern liberal's mindset, in my opinion...
PG touches on this: "The Pie Fallacy" in http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html
My 2 cents on it: Wealth is created. Currency is a limited resource that represents that wealth. The value of a single unit of currency is increased every time more real wealth is created. Wealth is created when goods or services that people actually want are produced.
Re: Mark Cuban: The most patriotic thing you can do is "get rich"
#23"Make a boatload of money. Pay your taxes. Lots of taxes. Hire people. Train people. Pay people. Spend money on rent, equipment, services. Pay more taxes." Don't most wealthy people hire lawyers and lobbyists to help them not pay taxes? Don't they also move jobs overseas to reduce how much they pay to their own economy? Cuban seems to be living in a dreamworld.
They pay much more in taxes despite the fact that they do this. By "pay more taxes" he means that the more money you make, the more taxes you have to pay. I'm sure that if you asked him, he'd say it's also your duty to pay as little tax as required.
They pay much more in taxes despite the fact that they do this.
I'm pretty sure Warren Buffet proved otherwise:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/tax/article1996735.ec...
Re: Mark Cuban: The most patriotic thing you can do is "get rich"
#24"[when that tax bill comes your thought should be]... a recognition that in paying your taxes you are helping to support millions of Americans that are not as fortunate as you." Right, so I bust my ass in school, non-paid internships, contracting as much as possible, and 50 hour work weeks on my startup... and the reason I'm making money is b/c I'm more "fortunate" than the slob who is still playing video games in co…
It always amazes me how americans have the smallest social safety net of the developed world and are always blaming the unfortunate for eating up their taxes.
You also work more hours than workers in other developed nations and yet still can't stop going on and on about lazy people.
Re: Mark Cuban: The most patriotic thing you can do is "get rich"
#25"[when that tax bill comes your thought should be]... a recognition that in paying your taxes you are helping to support millions of Americans that are not as fortunate as you." Right, so I bust my ass in school, non-paid internships, contracting as much as possible, and 50 hour work weeks on my startup... and the reason I'm making money is b/c I'm more "fortunate" than the slob who is still playing video games in co…
Without the infrastructure around you, you would not have the opportunity to succeed. Much of this infrastructure is public - paid for and run by the government. Taxes are not the government stealing your income from you. It's the government pooling resources so the society we live in can continue to function.
There's more to success than making wise choices. It's also have the ability to even have that choice because of your surrounding environment.
Re: Mark Cuban: The most patriotic thing you can do is "get rich"
#26demonizing the productive rich along with the hereditary wealth parasites is a fatal mistake for a civilization IMO.
There's a huge difference between the rich and high income earners. The rich/wealthy often favor higher taxes because their income is from tax-free bonds or from control of assets, where income is deferred and usually part of a one-time transaction, like sale of a company, where taxes can be avoided.
High-income earners, on the other hand, often have negative net worth (school and housing debt). The rich want high taxes on the high-income earners because they don't want the upstarts competing with them for control of assets...they want to make it harder for the next wave of entrepreneurs to build disruptive or competitive businesses.
It is ironic, but taxes on new capital formation directly benefit those who already have capital.
Re: Mark Cuban: The most patriotic thing you can do is "get rich"
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
They pay much more in taxes despite the fact that they do this. By "pay more taxes" he means that the more money you make, the more taxes you have to pay. I'm sure that if you asked him, he'd say it's also your duty to pay as little tax as required.
They pay much more in taxes despite the fact that they do this. I'm pretty sure Warren Buffet proved otherwise: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/tax/article1996735.ec...
You're talking percent, he's talking gross.
Re: Mark Cuban: The most patriotic thing you can do is "get rich"
#28"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." -- Samuel Johnson
"The most patriotic thing you can do is get rich." -- Mark Cuban
Sounds about right.
Re: Mark Cuban: The most patriotic thing you can do is "get rich"
#29"[when that tax bill comes your thought should be]... a recognition that in paying your taxes you are helping to support millions of Americans that are not as fortunate as you." Right, so I bust my ass in school, non-paid internships, contracting as much as possible, and 50 hour work weeks on my startup... and the reason I'm making money is b/c I'm more "fortunate" than the slob who is still playing video games in co…
"Right, so I bust my ass in school, non-paid internships, contracting as much as possible, and 50 hour work weeks on my startup... and the reason I'm making money is b/c I'm more "fortunate" than the slob who is still playing video games in college after 6 years and the idiot who chooses to have kids he can't afford?"
I don't know you, but I consider myself fortunate to be making more money than most because I was given, through no merit of my own, the ability and environment in which I could become educated and work towards goals that ended in lucrative work. As the child of educated, middle-class, white-collar people in a modern industrialized country, I have had thousands of opportunities denied most others in the world. If any of those things changed, for example if I happened to be born 300 years ago or if my community never taught me the importance of education and hard work or if I was born in a place where subsistence-level living is the norm, I would be in a completely different boat. If you have the ability to make wise choices that effect change in your life, then yes, you are fortunate.
On a side note, this sort of disdain for the poor is disturbing to me. Do people really think poor people choose to be so? Nobody wants to be poor.
Re: Mark Cuban: The most patriotic thing you can do is "get rich"
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
People don't move jobs abroad. Corporations (with a legal mandate to make as much profit for their shareholders as possible) move jobs abroad.
"a legal mandate to make as much profit for their shareholders as possible". I have never seen a law that says such a thing. Shareholders get to vote respective to the rights of their share class...That's about it. Other than embezzlement and other forms of fraud, a company can do as they like.
for-profit corporations exist for the sole purpose of advancing their shareholder's interest (profit). period. end of story.
check out any company's s-1 filing. here's google's for reference: http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/pdf/ne/2004/google.pdf
just search through that for the phrase 'shareholder'. here's just a small taste: We will make decisions on business fundamentals... and always with the long term welfare of our company and shareholders in mind
and 'lest you forget, the board of yahoo was actually sued for initially rebuffing the microsoft takeover bid.