Ballmer, Bezos Fund Effort To Undermine Bill Gates

theodp writes "You know what they say — it takes money to avoid paying money. TechFlash reports that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos have contributed $100,000 each to an effort to defeat an income tax on individuals in Washington state making more than $200,000. The backers of Initiative 1098, which is set for the November ballot, include Bill Gates (Sr.), who has emerged as one of the most vocal proponents of the income tax. Under the proposal, which has drawn the ire of the Bezos and Ballmer-backed Defeat 1098, no tax would be due on the first $200K of income, 5% tax would be owed on income between $200K and $500K, and everything above $500K would be subject to a 9% tax (cutoffs are doubled for joint returns)."

Comments

Whither 9%?

[dazedNconfuzed]

Who will do more to stimulate the economy with that 9%? Balmer or the Obama?

Bingo: less tax = more growth

[dazedNconfuzed]

help them stop being poor! Henry Ford knew it - when he was asked why he paid his workers more than the competition, he said "I want them to be able to buy my cars."

Bingo. Henry Ford's solution to poverty was to employ more people and pay them more as private corporate policy, and not by giving the "extra" money to the state. Ballmer & Bezos can't hire more people, or pay employees more, if they don't have that 9%. The state sure isn't going to create as many jobs or raise pay nearly as much with it.

Re:Seattle COL

[interval1066]

The only reason that you "own" anything at all..."

That, and the fact that this guy earned it. You want to take that route then only reason we live or do anything is because the people around allow us to. I just love idiots like you.

Re:Just pay the tax

[TheRaven64]

1000 years too late

Now I understand where the 'facts' in your other posts come from - a universe in which 2006 - 1898 = 1000.

Re:Cry me a river, billionaires

[boxfetish]

I can't believe that there are asshats like you that advocate income taxes on anyone, regardless of what they're earning. Penalizing people for their success in the market is how you retard growth, savings, and investment. If you want to have the right incentives in place, then tax what people spend, not what they earn.

LOL. The fatal flaw in your reasoning is that you mistakenly assume that the playing field is level and that whatever anyone has, they, by definition, deserve to have. It's an easy mistake to make. I am all in favor of a tax on consumption (state and federal sales taxes) rather than earning (income tax), as long as it's progressive. Most of you "pretendertarians" wouldn't be in favor of any such thing though.

Re:Seattle COL

[hondo77]

They are not people whose throats ought to be slashed by the government simply because they can't control their spending habits.

If you think a 5% tax on income over $200,000 is equivalent to getting your throat slashed, I suggest that you need to get out and get some perspective lest you become even more of a whiny, insufferable twit.

Re:Seattle COL

[interval1066]

Then apparently that would go for BOTH OF US you fuck. So shut the fuck UP.

Re:Question, adjusted, remains

[Sri Ramkrishna]

Trickle-down is bullshit. Let me tell you why. I'm a rich guy, I'm a capitlist. I'm given a some of money or I'm saving a bunch of money. What do I do with it? I want to take that pile of money and make more money. I do give a flying fuck about nationalism or anything. I just want to increase my pile. Labor in the U.S. is expensive. I'm going to take that sum of money and I'm going to invest it somewhere my returns are higher. That means I'm going to go off and I'm goign to invest in China, Vietnam or India or whatever. So yeah, rich guys hire people. Not here though. They'll go find some country they can exploit that have poor labor laws that don't protect their workers.

So at the expense of the U.S. that great pile of money that you think is going to be circulated back in this nation? Not really. So we're going ot keep cutting taxes because that can never be bad , right? Govt gets less money, so social services get shafted, education gets the shaft, because people are poor and desperate they turn into religious wingnuts. (like they do in poor middle eastern countries) Crime rates rise as well. So now most of whatever taxes we have left is towards the police force in order to keep law and order.

So there we are.. our education in the toilet, a highly charged environment filled with bigotry, racism fuled by lack of jobs and increased religious fervor and guns. At least we still have our guns right? That'll help me sleep better.

People who are well off (and I'm well off relatively speaking) should pay their proportionate share of taxes. It's goddam patriotic to pay your share. It's part of being a citizen.. I know I took an oath on it. When you pay your taxes, you're investing in this country. We have a lot of stuff to do to make this country compettive again. China and India are going to eat our lunch, I'm not about to let that happen.

So yeah, it is trickle downl but what's trickling down is not cash it's something else.

sri