Quote:
Originally posted by taxwonk
I don't think there is anything per se wrong with wanting to keep what you have. My objection is the people who pay $20,000 a year to put a kid in private school, but vote against a $250 increase in their property tax bill to pay for building a public school.
I think that people, especially people who are born white, middle-class, and professionally trained, who speak of Darwin as a social construct are trying to foool themselves, because they certainly aren't fooling anyone with intelligence. I don't pay more to the gov't than my taxes as due, but I also don't favor taxing dividends and capital gains more favorably than the wages of honest labor.
I don't counsel my clients to take overly-aggressive stances regarding taxes. I follow the law, much like I assume you do. And I think you've got a lot of stones to suggest otherwise.
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In order:
1. I agree with you there. Under that limited hypo, that is greedy.
2. I think people who are born white, middle class and favor wealth redistribution are irrational, and suffering undiagnosed a self-loathing or guilt of some kind I've happily avoided. I also think gains on money already taxed once should be taxed at a discount rate. I do NOT agree with the current taxation of carried interest that Scwartzman and his industry are exploiting. That's a gain on someone else's money. But I do think the gains he makes on his own money which is pooled with the funds of others should be taxed at a lower rate. That's just fair.
By the way, what's "honest" labor? Are your capital gains dishonest? Were your granparents' CSX dividends the fruits of chicancery? Is your 401K a fraud device? And if that's dishonest, what about interest? Are banks dishonestly charging that? Nobody toils in the mines for those monthly interest payments on loans. I guess that's just more dishonest money being made off other money.
3. I didn't say you violated the law. Aggressive and illegal are not synonyms. If they are in your industry, excuse my ignorance on that.
BTW, you know I like you. We just really don't see eye to eye on this.
