One of the hottest tips you will ever here

[Scott250]

yeh, 10% is a good going rate,, thats what I usually charge

[Che Guevara]

The idea you mention though is basically that we need to reinstate an inheritance tax (used to exist in both Canada and the US but it was quietly removed). Note that such a tax would only apply if one person is inheriting a very large sum of money, spreading it out is a valid way to dodge the tax (in fact thats the whole purpose of such a tax).

The main for such measures here is that inheritance of large amounts of money most often simply keeps increasingly large pools of wealth in fewer and fewer hands over time. This has the result of making it increasingly difficult to work/earn your way into wealth since a pesky thing called human nature steps in and has those who have constantly trying to maintain their margin of wealth over those who are aspiring to catch up. The fact remains (in Canada as well as the US) that almost everyone who is currently rich was born into that wealth, yes some elements of increasing the margin of said wealth may be at play but it's almost (statistically speaking) unheard of for someone starting out poor to end up rich despite the populist mythos.

What we can see as a result of both wealth disparity and the dynastic concentration of wealth is an increasing ideological bent towards both plutocratic and fascist (yes if you use a proper definition of the term) ideologies creeping into the discourse of the rich and undermining the democratic institutions throughout the "western world", and I would argue, most visibly in North America.

I believe it is ludicrous to tax inheritance. It's already been taxed when it was earned. The only possible reasoning for this is the "human nature" of trying to tear everyone down to your level. You think it's "unfair" that people are born into wealth and you want that wealth taken away. Go back to 1960's Russia please.

[Scott250]

the last time I ran for office i was trying to get rid of inheritance tax. that tax is a BS tax and people lose there parents or grand parents land when it is passed down becuase of that tax.

[Magn]

the last time I ran for office i was trying to get rid of inheritance tax. that tax is a BS tax and people lose there parents or grand parents land when it is passed down becuase of that tax.

Well, there should be some kind of limitation to the money that is passed from parent to child to prevent the creation of the capitalist equivalent of monarchic dynasties.

In some other thread, you vehemently defended that the wealthy got there by working very hard.

I agree with that when you make your first million or 2, but I think past a certain amount, making wealth becomes too easy and so you should put limitations on it (I'm opposed to venture capitalists making the lion's share of the profits just because they had the capital to invest to start with... the slice of the profits should be redistributed more equally between investors, CEOs and labor).

But put aside this sidetrack for a moment: If you really believe that (that wealth should be earned), then you should have strong reservations about people being born in excessive wealth as it undermines that notion.

[John Snowstorm]

If it gets to the point whereby you can put your money in a bank (or other large investment station) and earn a % on it and have zero risk because the bank is guaranteed by the tax payer, your system is broken and will inevitably lead to an insane rich/poor divide which is exactly what we are seeing occur. The only way for the rich to have skin in the game is for them to have a high tax rate to pay the debts their banking system incurred on the country.

Paper money only represents a certain amount of work performed, when you get free money, without any risk, you lower the work-value of someone who has to work for his living, you either need real risk as is dicatated by a true capitalist free marketplace or the unbalance needs to be redressed through taxation. Unfortunately our system is set up on private corporations like the federal reserve who print the money and expect it to be returned with. lol

[Magn]

Yeah, there is also the fact that there are a lot of smart people coming up with great ideas out there as well as hard working ones.

However, they might not be motivated primarily by income and might not make as much as someone who hyper-focuses on it (like investors for example). They might even due a lousy job at wrestling their fair share of the pie away from those types.

That doesn't make their contribution to society less important.

We give an incredible amount of power and privilege to people who are motivated mostly by making money without worrying too much about whether generating a lot of money correlates to the welfare of society as a whole. The pushers might not see the bigger picture outside of the need to make a buck.

There are a lot of terrible and unsustainable ways to make money (modern economics are pretty lousy at putting a realistic price figure on limited resources and environmental damage for example) and open market deregulated capitalism won't hold these in check.

This needs to be balanced.

Taxes are a way to take some of the power away from the money-minded and into the hands of elected officials.

[Scott250]

If it gets to the point whereby you can put your money in a bank (or other large investment station) and earn a % on it and have zero risk because the bank is guaranteed by the tax payer, your system is broken and will inevitably lead to an insane rich/poor divide which is exactly what we are seeing occur. The only way for the rich to have skin in the game is for them to have a high tax rate to pay the debts their banking system incurred on the country.

Paper money only represents a certain amount of work performed, when you get free money, without any risk, you lower the work-value of someone who has to work for his living, you either need real risk as is dicatated by a true capitalist free marketplace or the unbalance needs to be redressed through taxation. Unfortunately our system is set up on private corporations like the federal reserve who print the money and expect it to be returned with. lol

don't banks, as well as insurance companies envests those moneys into other stocks turing around 10 to 30%?

[John Snowstorm]

don't banks, as well as insurance companies envests those moneys into other stocks turing around 10 to 30%?

or securities, or derivatives, all of which are a fiscal shell game with no risk because if their gambles go bad, then the taxpayer will bail them out.

[Mephistopholes]

How do you have time Scott; with all your political watch groups, public service to troubled kids, legal battles over alliance name copy rights, endless hours of forum rants, your kung fu academy.... back on the meds stud.

[flutterby]

+1 to meph