|
Korean Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
|
 Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 2:39 am Post subject: Warren Buffet on taxing the rich |
 |
|
Interesting article by Warren Buffet on why the rich should pay more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html?_r=1
| Quote: |
| While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. |
Nice to see patriotism from the rich.
It's clear from the article that in this financialized economy those who make money in the financial sector are making the biggest profits and paying a lower tax rate than most. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
|
| Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 3:46 am Post subject: |
|
|
WB is clearly a traitor to his class. A patriotic mega-rich American would pack up his gold bars, renounce his citizenship, and move to the Cayman Islands if anyone dared whisper about raising his taxes. 
**
Having said that...Mr. Buffet has said much the same several times before. It would be helpful to the public discourse for him to recruit some of his 'mega-rich friends' to openly say what he has had the courage to say.
What he is saying is parallel to what he and Bill Gates and others have said when they took that pledge to give away vast chunks of their wealth. What I hear them saying is that there are values higher than money and selfishness. What I hear them saying is that they feel a sense of common humanity and a sense of obligation to the whole. (Yes, I know 'obligation' is a dirty 4-letter word to libertarians. Phooey on them.)
There is at least a glimmer of hope for the country as long as we have people like Warren Buffet around. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
silkhighway
Joined: 24 Oct 2010
Location: Canada
|
| Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 5:17 am Post subject: |
|
|
WB is just being forward-looking. Rather than hoarding his share of the wealth and fighting tooth and nail to the end to keep the masses away from it, he realizes economic growth is good for everybody.
This quote taken from the Globe&Mail sums it up:
| Quote: |
Mr. Buffett said higher taxes for the rich will not discourage investment.
�I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone - not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 per cent in 1976-77 - shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain,� he said
�People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off.� |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
visitorq
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
|
| Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 5:26 am Post subject: |
|
|
What a joke. Warren Buffet doesn't pay taxes  One of his most famous investment quotes is "our favorite holding period is forever" (meaning his company Berkshire Hathaway doesn't pay dividends, and thereby avoids taxes). Basically his many billions are tied up in stock (in companies that receive corporate welfare and bail outs from the government, no less) and tax-exempt foundations (like Bill Gates). The ultra-rich have been painting themselves as philanthropists and storing their money tax free in foundations since the Rockefellers and other robber baron families invented the notion a century ago.
Really, if Warren Buffet wants to pay more taxes so badly, then he can go ahead write a check to the IRS. Obviously he would never do that, so we know it's a crock (actions speak louder than words). Basically the rich just want to increase taxes for everyone else who is not a corrupt Wall Street insider or financial oligarch (ie. anyone who owns a company with a few million dollars revenue, as opposed to billions).
Obama et al consider anyone making over $250,000 to be "super rich". Increasing taxes on these people (while giving trillions in bailouts to Wall Street) would do nothing but harm. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
|
| Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 6:42 am Post subject: |
|
|
Well, Buffet is right. Carried interest rates are a disgrace. He ends up paying 15% rate on most of his income, whereas those on his payroll pay 20-30%. It makes very little sense.
| visitorq wrote: |
| Warren Buffet doesn't pay taxes Rolling Eyes One of his most famous investment quotes is "our favorite holding period is forever" (meaning his company Berkshire Hathaway doesn't pay dividends, and thereby avoids taxes). Basically his many billions are tied up in stock (in companies that receive corporate welfare and bail outs from the government, no less) and tax-exempt foundations (like Bill Gates). The ultra-rich have been painting themselves as philanthropists and storing their money tax free in foundations since the Rockefellers and other robber baron families invented the notion a century ago. |
Everything you describe him doing is completely legal and ordinary under the tax code. I don't understand why people complain that the rich take advantage of the language in the tax code. Of course they hire accountants and tax lawyers!
| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| WB is clearly a traitor to his class. A patriotic mega-rich American would pack up his gold bars, renounce his citizenship, and move to the Cayman Islands if anyone dared whisper about raising his taxes. |
No, no. That's what he should do if America resorts to a 91% top tax rate. Why is it when it comes to tax policy you turn into a complete child? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
visitorq
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
|
| Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 11:08 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Kuros wrote: |
Well, Buffet is right. Carried interest rates are a disgrace. He ends up paying 15% rate on most of his income, whereas those on his payroll pay 20-30%. It makes very little sense.
| visitorq wrote: |
| Warren Buffet doesn't pay taxes Rolling Eyes One of his most famous investment quotes is "our favorite holding period is forever" (meaning his company Berkshire Hathaway doesn't pay dividends, and thereby avoids taxes). Basically his many billions are tied up in stock (in companies that receive corporate welfare and bail outs from the government, no less) and tax-exempt foundations (like Bill Gates). The ultra-rich have been painting themselves as philanthropists and storing their money tax free in foundations since the Rockefellers and other robber baron families invented the notion a century ago. |
Everything you describe him doing is completely legal and ordinary under the tax code. I don't understand why people complain that the rich take advantage of the language in the tax code. Of course they hire accountants and tax lawyers! |
My point was not that he's irrational to take advance of his privileged position, but that he's being extremely hypocritical - calling for higher taxes on "the mega rich" (meaning people who earn above $250,000), when he himself has tens of billions in tax exempt foundations and can hire all the best lawyers and accountants to juggle his massive wealth around to take advantage of all the tax loopholes. He's also a hypocrite because he was calling as loudly as anyone for the banker bailouts; and how nice to be able to call on others to pay more taxes when you yourself are liable receive much of that money back in the form of corporate welfare and subsidies (which is paid out to most of the large companies he holds shares in). As a true member of the mega-rich elite, he has access to all the insider info and deals, and the companies he holds stock in get unfair trade advantages while he's calling on small business owners (who actually make up the backbone of the economy and are already overtaxed) to pay more. It all totally stinks.
Beyond that, if he really has a problem with not paying enough taxes, then he should write a check to the IRS (or better yet, contribute a few billion to help some of his fellow Americans pay off their mortgages maybe?) and lead by example instead of just flapping his gums. Until he does so, everything he is saying is hot air and hypocrisy. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
|
| Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 1:30 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Right rejects Buffett's good advice
President Obama twice cited Buffett�s op-ed yesterday to bolster the White House line. The right, apparently, was less impressed. Here�s Fox News� Eric Bolling on the air yesterday:
�Warren Buffett wrote an op-ed in the New York Times today, he said we should be, I think you mentioned it earlier, we should be taxed more. What is this? Is he completely a socialist and he�s playing into Mr. Obama�s hands of, you know, tax anyone who makes money, give it to people who don�t work?�
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_08/right_rejects_buffetts_good_ad031563.php |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
visitorq
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
|
| Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 1:41 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
Right rejects Buffett's good advice
President Obama twice cited Buffett�s op-ed yesterday to bolster the White House line. The right, apparently, was less impressed. Here�s Fox News� Eric Bolling on the air yesterday:
�Warren Buffett wrote an op-ed in the New York Times today, he said we should be, I think you mentioned it earlier, we should be taxed more. What is this? Is he completely a socialist and he�s playing into Mr. Obama�s hands of, you know, tax anyone who makes money, give it to people who don�t work?�
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_08/right_rejects_buffetts_good_ad031563.php |
Well, seeing as Obama and his Wall Street friends consider anyone who earns a few hundred thousand a year to be "mega-rich", it only makes sense they would latch onto the advice of a multi-billionaire financial insider/oligarch who benefits from government bailouts and corporate welfare and pays practically no tax on his massive fortune.
Anyone living in Ya-ta Land, and having such an abysmal understanding of basic economics, as well as political realities, would pretty much have to fully back Obama's raising taxes to bankrupt small business owners (while handing over trillions to Wall Street and pissing the money away on wars). Afterall, MSNBC and Warren Buffett say it's a good thing (even though the latter has no intention of actually giving away any of his wealth, despite the rhetoric), so it must be good. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
|
| |
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
