This feels like yet another good place where Boing Boing would do some good with more pieces about what a regular person can do about this.
I’m informed. I know this. Voting Blue constantly doesn’t seem to fix it as many of the folks on that side also get money from this and are hesitant to change it. The rest have to contend with the brainwashed masses.
So, again, with my 40+ hour a week job, family, and a dozen other things going on, what can I do that doesn’t involve pitchforks and guillotines (and the worst part after)?
I was one of the founders of a tech startup back in the 90s and when we went public I was paid an extra swath of warrants that did not vest for 6 months to a year. This was done so that I would not bail on the company and go start something else. If this “tax loophole” did not exist, I would have had to pay taxes on 1.8 million dollars in theoretical wealth that I was legally not able to liquidate and since the stock tanked before I could vest, never did. Had I been made to pay taxes on that 1.8 million on my $40,000 a year salary I would have been bankrupted and as someone else pointed out, they would not have returned the taxes when the stock tanked. Even though I never actually earned a dime from the stock. I also find it astounding that someone who paid close to a Billion dollars in taxes over the article’s five year period is considered not having paid “their fair share”. That is some grade A cognitive dissidence.
It is so much cheaper to bribe some congressmen to write tax laws that exempt you, or piggyback on others that have done it.
Or hey, threaten to move your business to another state unless your corporate tax is lowered.
I mean, it doesn’t work at MY net worth, and moving my lemonade stand isn’t really worth it, but it’s good to know I can if I want to!
/s
My old man did exactly this. He basically borrowed money against his home and used it to pay for his final years instead of leaving me “his” house. I would not want to take this option away from others.
“The IRS has opened an investigation into apparently leaked tax documents showing that ultra-rich Americans like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and business tycoon Warren Buffett paid very little or no taxes, “
Won’t someone think of the poor billionaires? If they have to pay the same percentage of taxes as the rest of us, what will they have left to live on? Their next super mega yacht with dual helipads might have to be 3 inches shorter
I note you use the word “share,” but you also omit any mention of percentages. So you’re actually ignoring the whole concept of fair share.
When are all those 5-year olds going to start earning their keep?!? /s
(In case it’s unclear, I’m making fun of the notion that there is a set amount an individual should contribute, like you. It’s about how much we have, how much we can safely contribute without harming our own ability to live a healthy and safe life.)
There were definitely sexist aspects to the media’s portrayal of her at the time, but only insofar as the papers would have accepted her inherent awfulness a lot more readily had she been a man.
