Recent content by steross

30 years from now, will the bigger embarrassment be that this happened or how it has been handled? I remember in med school learning about the Tuskegee syphilis experiments and thinking "No freakin' way!" No offense to those men who were treated so horribly, but this is worse in many ways...

You are a college football fan. The highest paid public employee in most states is the football coach. Just like "Musk isn't an engineer" a football coach can't really play football. But, the ones that make a ton of money are the ones that can bring in better players and make them play...

They would not become a billionaire then flee. They would flee at the point they thought they might become a billionaire. Plenty of data on lower tax places taking on people. I don't think many would leave because of fear of a little higher tax rates. But, let Mandami come out and say...

I know. I was just saying that if we were going to change the system and get rid of the income tax that there would still need to be a significant gift tax or the death tax would not function.

I think KSUpoke when he was here proposed a 100% death tax to replace the income tax. Other that me, everyone thought it was a horrible idea. Mainly the "they will take the family farm...." type replies. But, it would certainly level the playing field more than anything else. Obviously...

Exactly.

I hear this "tax them out of existence" but not anything specific. Higher tax rates are one thing. Punitive tax rates to make sure they do not exist are another. I would have concerns that would drive entrepreneurship overseas. Is one billion the magic mark? Would someone who is only worth...

This is basically what the "Fair Tax" was but the number as I recall was something like 30% not 5%. they did rebate or "prebate" up to the poverty level to avoid taxation of required things. Billionaires escape this also as can do a lot of spending overseas or as @Stillwaterman mentioned...

If it were that easy, why did some South African immigrant accomplish it and nobody else has? And beyond Musk, there are 900 billionaires. Do we confiscate all their wealth? Is there some sort of test you have come up with to determine who has created that value and who hasn't? How does this...

I think we may be talking past each other. Musk is worth $835 billion. That is a problem. I don't think that means that with the several companies he runs that he should be worth less than one billion. I don't think that is realistic. I have advocated for a long time on here that the system...

Of course. But, these billionaires did not take all the wealth they created. They created (or better said played the major part in creating) much more wealth than they took. Could the split with the other people you mentioned have been more equitable? Maybe, probably, I don't know each...

Moved this here to not muck up the Epstein thread. There is a lot of "it depends" in that question. I think the big ones we know about-Musk, Gates, Bezos etc have certainly created more than a billion in value. Buffet has created other billionaires so has created more than a billion in...

Not sure I would go that far but it makes absolutely no sense to me that the highest bracket is $640K.

And, he flat out lied about it big time in a podcast interview. 2:53 "I was never in a room with him socially, for business, or even philanthropy."

Yes, silly kid. Everyone know Skype is spelled with “y”