I just received the following email on “redistribution” from a friend.
“On my way to lunch I passed a homeless guy with a sign that read ‘Vote Obama, I need the money.’ I laughed. Once in the restaurant my server had on a ‘Obama 08’ tie. Again I laughed—just imagine the coincidence. When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need–the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight. I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful. At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment I realized that the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not have to earn himself, while the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he worked hard for even though the actual recipient needed the money more. I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept rather than in practice.
oh brother.
Well, very often where you stand on any given issue is a matter of perspective not fairness. It should be a valuable lesson to the server, that often having a public opinion is costly as well and there will be unknown consequences to his vote. Overall I think it a good lesson at a very low price.
I hope this nation is so blessed as well in learning that there is no free lunch, no redistribution of wealth that is truly free. No freedom that does not manifest itself without risk and sometimes failure. I hope as well, when this election is over, we can all learn to tone down the rhetoric that has become so polarized and perhaps work together on issues like the Medicare and Social Security problems that threaten our futures as sure as the economic bust in the financial markets. I would rather see us all make judgments based on fairness and liberty rather than rhetoric and sound bite logic.
another republican blast email gotcha story. It’s so much easier to barf this garbage than actually get out the obama tax calculator and see what you’ll get.
Personally, I am looking forward to those companies who have outsourced get their taxes raised unless they give work to US citizens at home. That tax break loophole has to be closed. That’s gone on the entire time that Bush and his bunch have been in office.
There is such a small percentage of people in that upper tax bracket of over $250k, that I cannot imagine anyone who posts at this blog actually makes that kind of money per year. So the bottom line is: Some people will vote against their own self interests and against the Obama plans. IF Obama gets in and you get that needed tax break, then on principle, you should immediately give it back so that you won’t become socialist.
But still, Vixie, don’t you think that waiter is pretty overpaid if he’s actually making a quarter million a year? I mean, come on. A waiter that rich really doesn’t need Larry’s friend’s tip.
Vern,
Who do these message board poseurs think they are fooling? REAL republicans have got money and know how to calculate a tax break that they are being promised. REAL republicans have money that they have invested and understand the real market risks out there and are opposed to wiping out the social safety net of Social Security and making hard working people become amateur investors in the stock market or in high priced managed funds that are suseptible to the ravages of market investing. REAL republicans know that SS is meant as a supplement and they know that retired workers everywhere need and depend on that safety net. REAL republicans know how accounts receivable and accounts payable work- and that is exactly why we should get out of that very expensive and wrong-headed war that George Bush tricked us into. REAL republicans run companies, businesses and organizations and they can easily spot who the most highly qualified candidate in the field and who they will hire for the job. REAL republicans have the character to conduct themselves in a fair and honest way that reaps the best results for any company, family or organization that they are in charge of.
I AM a real republican, just like Powell, Richard Riordan, Charles Fried, Susan Eisenhower, Ken Adelman, and more… WE ARE REAL REPUBLICANS. We know what we are doing. We know it is better to stand up and oppose wrong doing than to just go along with it. We know how to create success and we know that our world is a better place when all workers and all levels of work are rewarded and preserved. We know how to create wealth and we know how to spend carefully. We are NOT fearful. We are not bigoted. We hire the best and the brightest to solve complex problems.
Poseurs post crap that is nonsense. Poseurs hang onto failed policies and practices that have bankrupted this great nation. Poseurs pretend that they don’t want a tax break for themselves and they actually try and pretend that they are making the highest level of income in the country so they can lie and say that they will be getting a tax raise if Obama gets in.
There are a group of losers who insist that they are republicans. But they are not. they are bush supporters. They are losers. they don’t even have the capacity to think critically and clearly about the issues. Poseurs.
Look at my new post, Vix, there’s one good Republican in there – one Congressman who refused to go along with Rohrabacher’s & Abramoff’s rubber stamping of the abuses in the Marianas. I hope the dying breed makes a comeback.
C’mon Larry, you’re better’n that. You know very well what Obama meant by spreading wealth. This country is hell bent for leather heading toward the rich ‘n poor class-based society we shook off in a revolution 232 years ago. Now, if you want to back McCain for president, the honorable way is to highlight John M’s positives, and there’s plenty to highlight — I myself am a charter member of the Straight Talk Express. But, twisting the meaning of Obama’s statements, though a common tactic, is still dirty.
You serious, Teach? Larry knows as well as I that there’s no positives of McCain to highlight, so he’s going with all he’s got – flinging stuff at Obama to see if anything sticks.
You oughtta know as well as any of us, Teach – the Straight Talk Express went off the rails years ago.
SAHS Teacher.
America is, and should remain, the land of opportunity. Look around you at all those who started with nothing and climbed the ladder of success in their field whatever that is, be it entertianment, industry of Google.
Without getting into too much of my life story I worked three jobs at the same time when I was first married. We were not born with silver spoons in our mouths and eventually formed our own successful CA C corporation.
It’s bad enough that we lose our private property rights by the Fifth Amendment and now you wish to remove incentives for hard working businessmen and women who work 80-100 hours per week including Sundays to climb the ladder of success. Others spend almost 10 years in college, plus $100,000 in outstanding loans to become medical doctors and face stiff malpractice fees.
We were in Russia where we witnessed the difference between the former entitlement USSR to becoming free residents of Russia. They told me that as difficult as the transition was they would not trade and go back to the old ways.
Larry, why are tax breaks for the middle class socialism when tax breaks for the wealthy are economic stimulation? Why have Republicans left us with all the risk of their money making schemes while they took all the profit? Yet again its not socialism when rich people or business get government subsidy. Is it only if the working poor get a dime do you cry ‘socialism!’? Dick.
I found the anecdote to be revealing about the impact of Obama’s sham.
By the time a majority of people believe they’re going to be on the receiving side, we know one thing for sure — our system of education has completely failed for so long that the majority cannot do the math or think logically.
SAHS Teacher. Part II
When we first discussed opening our business (in the late 70’s) the local bank officer told us that eight out of 10 new business establishments fail in the first year and the ninth in the second year. Many of the survivors are just that, survivors. So what you are suggesting is to punish those successful small business owners who pursue the American Dream of “risk-reward” by punishing them for the many years spent in growing their business, in which they also were able to create jobs for others. In addition to job creation is contributions to retirement plans and health care for many of these small business employees
To repeat. The American Dream is based on “risk-reward.” Don’t ignore the small entrepenauer for his investment to create jobs along with a well deserved ROI. Look at Steve Wozniak from Apple Computer fame. His efforts, along with Steve Jobs, eventually resulted in the employment of almost 16,000 individuals.
But looking back on his career, Woz remembers far more failure than success. He didn’t cope well at Apple as the company grew. He felt that the talent-rich Macintosh team needed him less and less. He resisted being a manager or a businessperson. He was distracted by his wealth. After he became successful, he has said, “I wound up trapped by the world.”5 He left Apple in 1985 and immediately went searching for something new to invent, hoping to duplicate his earlier success.
Every failure should be seen as part of progress.
— Linda Stone
Instead, Woz made new mistakes. His next company, Cloud Nine, was a failure in many respects. He pinpointed a problem: that the average consumer had too many poorly designed remote controls. But Woz’s invention, a programmable remote control designed to work with any TV or other consumer electronics device, didn’t work well with some equipment, and it was not embraced by manufacturers or consumers.
There are many who did not give up as they stumbled before achieving their success. So what you are now proposing is to punish them by increasing their tax rates? Very un-American logic to my way of thinking.
RV says: “It’s so much easier to barf this garbage than actually get out the obama tax calculator and see what you’ll get.”
Red – Did you happen to calculate the tax relief which Bill Clinton promised to the middle class back in ’92 ? – same dem lie !
Anon #10 said:
“Larry, why are tax breaks for the middle class socialism when tax breaks for the wealthy are economic stimulation?”
Anon – Would those be the same middle class tax breaks promised by Bill Clinton in ’92 – which translated into middle class tax hikes in ’93?
Damn dem lies.
That’s Junior’s refrain this year. Because the Clinton tax cut fell through, necessarily the Obama one also will. Since they’re both Democrats, don’t you see? And Democrats are all liars. And there is also no difference between 1993 and 2009.
Brother Vern. Who said Democrats are all liars? Can you simply debate the writer rather than adding fuel to an imaginary fire where no fire exists?
Brother Larry, that is the connecting logic in Junior’s refrain.
Clinton promised a tax cut that he didn’t deliver (for some reason that I don’t remember); therefore any tax cut Obama promises also won’t happen. He’s said it a few times on this blog.
(Leaving aside the fact that GHW Bush did the same thing.)
I sense that whatever Obama promises repeatedly, he will doubtless do his best to deliver. But then I don’t think all Democrats are liars.
Anon #10 and other Juice readers. For those not familiar with the concept of socialism let me share text from Wikipedia. After reading this explanation think about the Obama economic and health care plans he is proposing for our nation.
“Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and the creation of an egalitarian society. Modern socialism originated in the late nineteenth-century working class political movement. Karl Marx posited that socialism would be achieved via class struggle and a proletarian revolution which represents the transitional stage between capitalism and communism.
Socialists mainly share the belief that capitalism unfairly concentrates power and wealth among a small segment of society that controls capital and creates an unequal society. All socialists advocate the creation of an egalitarian society, in which wealth and power are distributed more evenly, although there is considerable disagreement among socialists over how, and to what extent this could be achieved
Socialism is not a discrete philosophy of fixed doctrine and program; its branches advocate a degree of social interventionism and economic rationalization, sometimes opposing each other. Another dividing feature of the socialist movement is the split on how a socialist economy should be established between the reformists and the revolutionaries. Some socialists advocate complete nationalization of the means of production, distribution, and exchange; while others advocate state control of capital within the framework of a market economy. Social democrats propose selective nationalization of key national industries in mixed economies combined with tax-funded welfare programs.”
As to your second point which you deceptively call “tax breaks for the wealthy.”
How can you call it a tax break when Obama wants to RAISE taxes? At least that’s what I have heard him repeat over an dover again.
Re-read my earlier post about Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer and the 16,000 jobs he created from scratch. Then add on all the cars and homes their employees purchased because of these thousands of jobs created. And what exactly goes into those homes besides the foundation, walls, flooring, air conditioning, roofs, landscape, appliances, furniture and on and on.
How many real estate transactions were conducted involving these very same 16,000 Apple employees and their various purchases.
So by raising the tax rates on the “rich” as you call those who took risks, fell down, started over and continued to chase their dreams, you wish to chase their manufaturing facilities to some lower cost off-shore operations? And how exactly does that provide good jobs and security for the domestic employees who are cut? You can thank organized labor for part of this problem. When labor costs go up, or taxes increase, who do you think pays the eventual price? The consumer, if in fact he or she still has a paycheck to cash to purchase the product or service!
Recently we had texchnical problems with our computer so we called for tech support. You guessed it. The men on the other end of the telephone were both in Bangalore, India servicing both HP and AOL and who knows how many other firms.
If you want to keep jobs in American the first way to begin is to encourage, not punish, those in the private sector who create them.