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Income Tax Quashed, Ballmer To Cash In Billions
theodp writes "Washington's proposed state income tax not only prompted Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to spend $425,000 of his own money to help crush the measure at the polls, it also inspired Microsoft to launch a FUD campaign aimed at torpedoing the initiative. 'As an employer, we're concerned that I-1098 will make it harder to attract talent and create additional jobs in Washington state,' explained Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith. 'We strongly support public education, but we're concerned by key details in I-1098. This initiative would give Washington one of the top five highest state income tax rates in the country. I-1098 would apply this tax rate to all income, including capital gains and dividends, and would not permit any deductions for charitable contributions.' Nice to see a company take a principled stand, backed by a CEO who's not afraid to put his money where his company's mouth is, right? Well, maybe not. Just three days after the measure went down in flames, Ballmer said in a statement that he plans to sell up to 75 million of his Microsoft shares by the end of the year to 'gain financial diversification and to assist in tax planning.' Based on Friday's closing price of $26.85, the 75M shares would be valued at approximately $2 billion. All of which might make a cynic question what was really important to Microsoft — public education, or a $2B state income tax-free payday for its CEO?"
Boil butterball in his own fat. There's plenty of it.
Someday, he will have Hell to pay - in the very literal, Dantean sense of the term.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Clearly. Many Americans would also be shocked to learn that the "evil" Bush tax cuts for the rich also cut the capital gains tax rate, which happens to apply to any gain any American realizes when they sell their home. "What's that you say? Selling real estate and investing in the stock market isn't just for the rich? Well I'll be damned..."
It's ironic to me that Progressivism is really all about a return to serfdom. Did anyone happen to catch the tone of liberal media stories this past summer (NPR specifically comes to mind), trying to plant the seed in our heads that perhaps the idea of home ownership is past its time and that more Americans really should be renting? So we have a situation where progressives are actually advocating that more people pay more of their hard-earned money into the hands of a few wealthy property owners. Gee, how progressive. That's about as progressive as Prohibition and the eugenics movement (thanks for those gems, btw, Progressives). That doesn't sound like a future that I want any part of.
...something is to be said for unenlightened self-interest. I am just not sure as to what.
So, if giving more money to the government is actually "enlightened self-interest", how much extra do you send out of each paycheck?
If it's zero, you're a whiny, childish hypocrite.
I have an idea. Let's have the government take ALL income from each according to his abilities, and redistribute to each according to his needs.
People don't need any other incentive than contributing to the welfare of others, government will handle all this ethically and without corruption, so let's get to it.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Careful with that. They'll start calling you a racist.
"Racist" has become the all-purpose response when leftists are losing an argument.
What amuses me is how America's system of 'trickle down economics', whereby they keep average wages down whilst all the proceeds of growth are sucked up by a largely non-producing elite, has left it in such dire economic straits that only reckless borrowing (both private and government) keeps the whole house of cards propped up
I find it endlessly more amusing that all of Europe's own house of cards is propped up by Germany.
I mean, annoying Germans - historically that always ends well.
Europeans are the last people who should be proclaiming the wonders of higher taxes with the state of spending and the economy there.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
A corporation is required to maximize the profits for its share holders. Ballmer is a major share holder. Of course Ballmer's profits matter more than public education.
Let me be blunt: Fuck you. I am not a billionaire, millionaire, or even a thousandaire. After all my bills are paid, I'm lucky to have $100 in the bank when my next paycheck comes around.
...and I would still have about $7,000 left over for the rest of the year. In two years, I could pay off a real nice 'field trip bus' (aka minivan), and I could very quickly pay down the mortgage on my house^H^H^H^H^Hbuilding in which I instruct my students.
Let me be blunt again: Fuck public education. It's not more important than educating my children. I care about my family. That's it. My wife, and my children. I will make sure my children are educated because that is my responsibility as a parent. If that means I have to pay out of my own pocket to send them to private schools and/or pay private tutors for certain things, I will do so. (For example, I absolutely suck at anything above basic algebra because I have no interest in math). And I'm not speaking from a position of "poor me, I'm being taxed for public education", I'm speaking from the standpoint that it is wrong for one group of people to pay for another group. People who don't have children shouldn't be taxed to pay for my children to go to school. Taking money from someone to give to someone else is theft. Even if government does it.
I don't want this tax in my state. It's wrong. If you want other people to pay for your kids to go to school, move somewhere else.
For FY 2010, we paid 27.4 billion dollars to schools to cover an estimated 2.5 million children (2008 numbers)
That's just under $11,000 per child per year. I pay a few thousand per year in state and federal taxes--so how do my children get $11,000 per year in schooling? Other people. You poor saps without children are being robbed to pay for my children.
Even worse--a significant amount of that $11,000 goes towards teacher salaries, nice new school buildings, new vehicles for administrators, and gold-plated retirement plans...so in reality when they are bitching about not enough money for kids, they are really bitching that they are spending too much on administrivia and retirement. If I had $11,000 every year for each of my children, they would be getting one hell of an education. If my child was interested in space, I could easily send him to space camp, visit NASA and see a shuttle launch, travel to the Air and Space Museum, and get flight-time with a pilot to do the weightless dive thing.
Taxes are supposed to be laid across the people equally, no sales tax for me also means no sales tax for Ballmer. The government can't start playing 'favorites' by taxing Ballmer and not taxing me.
Why don't socialist retards get this stuff? Is it because you were educated in government-run public schools?
There's no place like
Precisely, comrade!
has left it in such dire economic straits
Yes, such "dire economic straits" that it remains the largest economy in the world, continues to lead most global industries, has an HDI ranking of 4th, and has unemployment roughly on par with Europe (and slowly improving once again). Dire indeed. A true 'house of cards'.
Meanwhile Europe emerged totally unscathed, of course, from the financial crisis --- major European banks didn't collapse, Europe didn't also go into recession and experience major job losses, there was no Euro crisis earlier this year, and the massive 'austerity measures' (and other moves in a more American-style direction) currently being put in place to rescue many major Western-European states from the verge of bankruptcy don't exist. (cf. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10162176 - e.g. "The Chancellor, George Osborne, told parliament that 490,000 public sector jobs would be cut over four years because the country had "run out of money". Experts predict a similar number of job losses in the private sector.")
Your post has all the right crowd-pleasing rhetoric and buzzphrases, but I'm afraid upon analysis it doesn't hold up against reality. But please do continue to be "amused" while you look down your nose at the US and speak, I'll be generous, basically fiction.