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they're winning the rape race

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"In a spirit of Thanksgiving," as they put it, more than 400 U.S. business owners and professionals have signed a petition circulated by a Boston group, Wealth for the Common Good, calling on Congress and President Obama "to allow the Bush-era tax cuts for those with taxable incomes over $200,000 (individual) and $250,000 (couple) to expire on Dec. 31," raising "an estimated $700 billion over 10 years" to invest in "education, health, job creation, renewable energy, transportation," you get the picture.
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The Boston group is making the case local. "It's damaging to the economy, both short-term and long-term, to continue the tax cuts for the top income rates," especially for "unearned" investment income, petition signer Joe Magid, owner of Gryphon Systems, a Wynnewood info tech consultant, told me. "Your hedge fund managers, your Wal-Mart family members, they're paying just 15%," while mid-six-figure incomes are charged more than twice as much. "That's sort of insane."

But don't low taxes promote investment and job growth? "Ridiculous," Magid said. "An S corporation like my business, a limited partnership, PricewaterhouseCoopers, any business organized that way, whatever isn't spent to hire people and improve the infrastructure of my company, goes to me, the owner, as personal income that I'm paying a lower tax on. That incents me not to hire people!

"If the marginal tax rate on the $10 millionth dollar of my income is the same as on my first $1 million, I have no incentive to invest in my company! If I had to pay higher taxes it would be easier to decide I should invest more in my company and make more money".

He cited a 2002 article in Harvard Business Review by scholar Mark Buchanan, subtitled "Wealth Distribution and the Role of Networks," that makes the case. In sum: "The bottom line is, if you tax work over investment, you concentrate wealth. Hello! Look what's happened in this country since Reagan's tax cuts." He's for low taxes on venture capital investments, "under $1 million," and "maybe mezzanine financing, several million. But why should the American taxpayer subsidize wealthy people who are going to use the money for offshoring jobs? That's what we're donig."

Signer Steve Weinberg, second-generation owner of National Foundry Products Inc., a Philadelphia manufacturers' rep agency, agrees. "Out of a basic sense of fairness, we have to invest in our future. I want to see our country succeed. If we don't invest, we're not going to succeed.

"In my work, I go around the world. I know what happens in countries where there's no national infrastructure to support hardworking people. India is emerging. They're moving in the right direction because they have invested in their national infrastructure. Meanwhile, we're cutting back. It's a moral decision, and it's a business decision, and it's wrong."

"It's hard to give more. If you send your kids to private schools it's easy to run up expenses. I have empathy. But we have to invest in education, in energy, in R&D. It makes more sense for people who are a little more able to make due to do their part." http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-phillydeals/Tax_us_more_some_ri
ch_say.html damn, good for them! Speaking the truth--there you have it from the very "mouth" of an extremely wealthy person: "If the marginal tax rate on the $10 millionth dollar of my income is the same as on my first $1 million, I have no incentive to invest in my company! If I had to pay higher taxes it would be easier to decide I should invest more in my company and make more money." That puts the lie to trickle-down right there, from someone who ought to know!

Next time we get the tired old "job creators" argument, remember what he said:

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whatever isn't spent to hire people and improve the infrastructure of my company, goes to me, the owner, as personal income.

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Bingo.

Then there's

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Some wealthy men debated Monday over whether the rich should give Washington state government more money.

Tax us, Bill Gates Sr. and Nick Hanauer said.

“Nothing bad will happen to you as a consequence of me paying a couple, three, four million more in tax,” said Hanauer, a venture capitalist. “I won’t cut back on the number of homes I own. I won’t cut back on the number of investments I make. I probably won’t even cut back on the number of hours I fly in my very own airplane.”

Gates, father of the Microsoft co-founder, and Hanauer are among the biggest contributors to the campaign for Initiative 1098, which asks voters to set up a tax on high earners that would be Washington’s first income tax. The measure would lower property taxes and business taxes if it passes Nov. 2, but still raise more than $2 billion a year after 2012 that would go to state education and health care programs. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/10/12/101938/in-washington-state-some-
rich.html activists everywhere have been loudly arguing for an extension of George W. Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans in the United States. Now a group of millionaires is arguing the opposite.

More than 40 of the nation's millionaires have joined Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength to ask President Obama to discontinue the tax breaks established for them during the Bush administration, as Salon reports.

"For the fiscal health of our nation and the well-being of our fellow citizens, we ask that you allow tax cuts on incomes over $1,000,000 to expire at the end of this year as scheduled," their website states. "We make this request as loyal citizens who now or in the past earned an income of $1,000,000 per year or more."

The group includes many big-time Democratic donors such as Gail Furman, trial lawyer Guy Saperstein and Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. The list remains open to millionaires who want to sign on. http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978709830 following is duplication of the first group, Wealth for the Common Good, but has more info:

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Eric Schoenberg, a Columbia University Business School professor, made his personal case for the tax hike during a July 29 appearance on Fox Business News.

Schoenberg, who earned the bulk of his money on Wall Street, other petition supporters are seeking to bump the top income tax rate from the current 35 percent to 39.6 percent.

That tax increase, say the petitioners, would affect only about 2.5 percent of the country's taxpayers. Even with a 4.6 hike increase, they still would face a tax rate lower than in the early Reagan era. Meanwhile, the increase would raise much needed money for federal programs.

During his TV appearance on Fox Business News, Schoenberg elaborated on why he supports the increase. Some of his comments that particularly caught my attention are:

•There is a moral issue, what do we as a society think is appropriate, and there is a practical issue, at what number do we really start impinging on the incentive to work hard? I suspect it's a lot higher than most people think. Many wealthy people, and others, work because they enjoy what they do.

•I worked in the first Reagan Administration and am cognizant of government waste, but I have seen a lot in the private sector, too. What we ask the government to do is not as easily measurable as it is in private sector, primarily because of the scope of government programs.

•I view this effort as enlightened self interest. I have two young daughters and I care about the society they are going to grow up in.
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To date, 1,162 other taxpayers have joined Schoenberg in adding their names to the Wealth for the Common Good document. Among the prominent names are Chuck Collins, heir to the Oscar Mayer family fortune, and Arul Menezes, a principal architect at Microsoft. http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/dont_mess_with_taxes/2009/08/tax-
us-more-say-some-rich-americans.html

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That last one was in August of 2009; the others in the Fall of last year. I don't know about anyone else, but I never heard a peep about this (I haven't yet found the one group I DID read about).

Ah, another one, from July of last year, regarding estate taxes:

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Some high-profile, high net-worth folks on Wednesday called on Congress to impose a "strong" estate tax going forward.
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"Our country is on an unsustainable fiscal path. [Revenue from an estate tax can] fund deficit reduction, additional public investment, or added assistance to those affected by the economic crisis," said Robert Rubin, who served as Treasury secretary during the Clinton administration and more recently as chairman of Citigroup.
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Moreover, Rubin added, "our nation has always held itself out as a meritocracy and a land of opportunity, and an estate tax helps avoid accumulation of inherited economic and political power that is antithetical to this historical vision of our society."
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Rubin was joined by former hedge fund manager Julian Robertson, Walt Disney’s grand-niece Abigail Disney and AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka on a call organized by liberal group United for a Fair Economy.

United For A Fair Economy describes its mission as “raising awareness that concentrated wealth and power undermine the economy, corrupts democracy, deepen the racial divide, and tear communities apart…supporting and helping build social movements for greater equality.”
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The individuals who spoke out on Wednesday are advocating for an estate tax that is equal to or stronger than what was in place in 2009. http://sweetness-light.com/archive/some-rich-socialists-say-tax-my-est
ate

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(All the dots are because the author was writing AGAINST this, and put in some "cute" comments between the quotes)

So it's not just the French millionaires. So I guess I get to be proud to be half French AND half Yankee! Neat. And of course, Rap & Co. will be right in here saying "they could just give it tot he government", which has nothing to do with people suggesting the wealthy are under-taxed.

There's also this, which is not to the government but shows they're serious about philanthropy:

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America's ultra-rich are queuing to join in a grand gesture of generosity. Forty US billionaires have signed up to pledge at least half of their fortunes to charity under a philanthropic campaign kicked off by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

In an unprecedented mass commitment, top figures including New York's mayor Michael Bloomberg, the hotel heir Barron Hilton, CNN media mogul Ted Turner, and the Star Wars director George Lucas have lent their names to the "giving pledge", an initiative founded six weeks ago to encourage America's richest families to commit money to society's most pressing problems.
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On the face of it, the sums involved are enormous. Among those committing to give away money are the Oracle business software tycoon Larry Ellison, whose fortune is estimated by Forbes magazine at $28bn, the banker David Rockefeller ($2.2bn), oilman Boone Pickens ($1.1bn) and private equity tycoon Pete Peterson ($2bn).

Also on the list are the media entrepreneur Barry Diller and fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, his wife. A former Citigroup banking boss, Sandy Weill, has signed up, as have fellow Wall Street names including David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle private equity group.
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Buffett and Gates have been banging the drum for the initiative by contacting billionaires, one by one, asking them to lend their names. So far, roughly half of the 70 to 80 individuals approached have agreed to pledge money, with some promising considerably more than the minimum 50% of their wealth.

Bloomberg, who amassed $18bn through his eponymous financial information empire, said wealth reached a point where billionaires have so much that they simply cannot spend it. It did not make sense to leave all his money to his children so that they could become members of the "lucky sperm club".

"If you really care about your family, it's best to do something to make the world a better place for your children and grandchildren, rather than just giving them money," said Bloomberg, whose charitable interests include anti-smoking campaigns and road safety.

A clutch of America's top businesspeople have joined the pledge including construction tycoon Eli Broad, former Cisco electronics chairman John Morgridge and hedge fund boss Julian Robertson. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/aug/04/us-billionaires-half-
fortune-gates kinda nice to know there are some out there. I wish there were more.


Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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There were more stories posted on the internet this year on DSK than on Britney, or on Amy Winehouse and Lindsay Lohan put together

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The way that you communicate is very different from the way others communicate. (I often perceive it as condescending and rude, though I don't think this is your intent.) The way that you think is very, very different from the way others think. I am surprised you have not noticed this.

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