Since when is it the job of the government to punish success...

[HOA_KSOP]

If you've been paying attention, you might have noticed a recent regulation has been instituted in the US that charges increased fees and interest for people securing house mortgages that have outstanding credit and savings to subsidize people who don't have good credit so that high-risk people can buy a house. This is the same thinking that caused the housing crash in 2008.

Now California is going to charge wealthy people more money for electricity. Hunh? One more reason for rich people to leave California or not go there in the first place.

The great sucking sound you hear is the US going down the toilet. No longer the land of the free, but of the freeloader.

 

[Bulletpoint]

Seems like a clumsy way of taxing people. Instead of making some people pay more for electricity, and some people pay less, they could just tax the rich a bit more generally and then tax poor people a bit less or send them a check in the mail based on their consumption. The wealth transfer seems less obvious that way.

Over here in DK, gas prices were crazy last year, but everybody paid the same for it. Then the government handed out a relief check to the relatively few people who use gas for heating. Since I don't use gas, that's my tax money going into their pocket.

I didn't feel really angry about it, but if they sent me an extra bill to pay for it directly, I probably would have.

At the end of the day, it's all about the balance of what a state or country offers rich people, and how much they get taxed. I live in a country with very high taxes, but we have plenty of extremely rich people who like to stay here because it's nice and safe and cosy.

 

[HOA_KSOP]

I heard Elon Musk say that he wrote a check to the Internal Revenue Service last year for 11 billion dollars. That's illion with a "b". So when I hear some politicians complain that rich people do not pay enough, I scratch my head a little. Given that Musk's wealth fluctuates by billions on any given day, I am going to go out on a limb and say he pays a pretty salty amount. I wonder if he itemizes?

 

[mTk]

I read that last year he earned 44 billion.
I guess that pays for Twitter.
Good for him!

 

[Bulletpoint]

I heard Elon Musk say that he wrote a check to the Internal Revenue Service last year for 11 billion dollars. That's illion with a "b". So when I hear some politicians complain that rich people do not pay enough, I scratch my head a little.

Politics is not so much about what's fair, but about interests. Poor people have an interest in high taxes, rich people generally want lower taxes. Both sides portray their political aims as just.

But the real issue is not so much tax levels as tax evasion, I think. If Musk actually pays his dues and doesn't just stash away his funds in Panama like so many of the global elite do, then fair play to him.

 

[HOA_KSOP]

But the real issue is not so much tax levels as tax evasion, I think.

Yeah, under Obama the IRS found that 49% of Americans don't pay taxes. I'm in the 51% and it pisses me off to no end. I would like the US Government to levy a 1% sales tax on everything except food, keep the luxury tax on luxury items and charge $50 bucks on every transaction when US currency is being wired to a foreign country. On a Friday at the Walmart grocery store, there is a line of people wiring money out of the country. We should tax them for doing it.

 

[HOA_KSOP]

I read that last year he earned 44 billion.
I guess that pays for Twitter.
Good for him!

I read that last year he earned 44 billion.
I guess that pays for Twitter.
Good for him!

The cost of freedom of speech is high mTk. Look at all the "misinformation" that was banned under the old ownership that has now been shown to be correct information. It stuns me at the number of people that take crap from social media and the media at face value. When you have a country where 21% of your population is functionally illiterate and another sizeable percentage that reads at something like a 6th to 8th grade level, well this is what you get - wholesale ignorance.

 

[Bulletpoint]

I would like the US Government to levy a 1% sales tax on everything except food

Revolutionary thoughts

Over here there is a sales tax on everything, including food, and it's not 1 percent but 25 percent.

Actually it's not on everything. If you buy a car, it's much more.

 

[HOA_KSOP]

My 1% tax would be used to pay down the national debt, exclusively.

 

[mTk]

25%!! Oh, my. I just quit complaining about California's 7.25% rate.