Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[UMStan White]

"Cuba and the Castros, left to their own devices, would not have survived. Their regime would have collapsed. "

give me a beak! How many corrupt regimes have the US and its allies kept afloat merely because they give the US a military presence? Ans name ONE (other than an oil producing country) that takes that aid and provides free education, free housing, and free health care? Sorta sounds like the inalieanble rights the Declaration of Independence and the preamble to the Constitution offered us. Still waiting for the payoff.

[UMStan White]

Rocky you would better serve this listserve by going back to posting avatars of women's asses than venturing into political discussions

[Dr. Strangelove]

There's nothing on Drudge's home page about the Trump tax story...LOL

More leaks from inside Camp Trump. Ivanka at odds with Kellyanne Conway (who will probably be on the way out soon). Roger Ailes giving up advising Trump because last debate prep was a fiasco

http://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/sneed-ivanka-not-happy-with-campaign-managers-approach/

[Dr. Strangelove]

Fox just presented a CNN Colorado poll that came out last Monday as "new polling in Colorado shows Donald Trump gaining ground!". The poll was conducted entirely before the debate and like I said, is at least a week old.

[AlabamAlum]

all this talk about Cuba makes me want a pan cubano y cafe con leche.

[froot loops]

"Or Detroit."

Comparing Detroit to Cuba. What a moron! Post after post you display your racist tendencies and total lack of empathy. I thank the Lord every day that I don't share your views.

I know right, that was a terrible post by him.

[Da Geezer]

I don't know why inherited wealth should be given priority treatment over earned wealth.

Because it has already been taxed at least once.

No one has mentioned property taxes in the whole Trump tax debate. The Michigan property tax structure is designed to tax real property at around 2% of true cash value. I don't know how much property the Trump Organization (all 500 entities) owns, but, if Trump himself is worth $10 Billion, then it is reasonable to expect him to have, say, 20% equity. That means his properties would be worth $ 50 Billion and property taxes on that would be around $ 1 Billion.

This is why the Democrats are only interested in Trump's Federal Income Tax. If a person who is constructing buildings pays FIT, then he needs a new accountant. Consider the depreciation and property tax deductions as just the obvious FIT deductions. Then you go on to actual expenses. Trump pays plenty of taxes, just not FIT. I happen to believe ordinary working folks would understand this if Trump would just say it.

Jeff:

By contrast, when the rich are allowed to retain ownership of wealth, much of it becomes the capital that is invested in business enterprises where it provides jobs for non-rich Americans and produces goods and services that uplift society?s standard of living.

I may have to dig around (assuming I'm remotely interested in doing so today) but I'm pretty sure this economic assumption can be proven to be absolutely wrong.

By all means, please do so. What you will find is that in a positive real interest rate environment, capital is the seed-corn for growing an economy. You will also discover why a negative real interest rate environment has produced no real economic growth in countries (like Japan) that have tried it.

[Da Geezer]

My big problem with Paul's take as written above, is that your property rights end at death. Once Rocky dies, he cannot own property. So Rocky should have no right to control property after death.

As I say often, We learned logic in high school, our kids learned logic in college, and youngsters today haven't learned it at all. Because Rocky, as a dead person, cannot own property by law, it does not follow that he has no right to control property after his death. His death is an intervening external event over which he has no control, but he is allowed to make provision for it during his life which you concede. He either dies testate or intestate. In either case, at least in western law, the Probate Court sees to the proper execution of his wishes.

Only the purest form of Marxism believes that all property belongs to the state. You would find this belief in North Korea and Albania in the 70's. The results are predictable.

And, Rocky, keep posting the Von Mises Institute/Austrian School economic analysis. It was Von Mises and Hayek, who, in WWII,
correctly predicted the demise of communism/fascism/socialism/statism while those systems were triumphant worldwide.

[SeattleLionsFan]

I didn't say that someone cannot control his property after death. Current law freely allows it. I take issue with any concept that it is inalienable. If you want your property to go to your kids, give it to em now.

As to the "it's already been taxed" canard, all income has been taxed (over and over). My wages were taxed previously, yet there's no problem with taxing it. Because it is new to me. Just as an inheritance would be new to me.

[Da Geezer]

a confused SLF first wrote:

My big problem with Paul's take as written above, is that your property rights end at death. Once Rocky dies, he cannot own property. So Rocky should have no right to control property after death.

and then he wrote

I didn't say that someone cannot control his property after death.

Yup. That is exactly what you said. You might be able to blow that past the Marxist Twins (Stan and froot), but not by us right-wing capitalist extremists.

And, Twins, when I italicize a word like "hypothetical" in a post, it means that I am talking "make believe". I said, "make believe for a minute" and suppose we take everything from the top producers (Bernie's 1%) and run them off or kill them. We still would have a top 1%, albeit different people. That process, repeated over and again, is what happened in Cuba. And in Detroit.

[froot loops]

Marxist, whatever jerk

[The Oracle]

LeBron endorses Hillary...consider this election over.

[froot loops]

I expect a tweetstorm.

[hack]

Interesting discussion. I think you can have it on two levels: ideological and practical. The values side of me says I need to pay in because this is a social compact and I get benefits from doing so, but I should pay only so much. The practical side of me recognizes that we're all better off when capital is spread around. Left in the hands of too few and we get the bullshit we have now. I can think of very few things for which the concept of a balance of power does not apply.

[SeattleLionsFan]

whatever Geezer. You are an irredeemable and insufferable dick. I'm done correcting your soporific understanding of political theory.