Comments on: People Who Steal the Most Money

By: Freethinker

Freethinker — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:25:17 +0000

That’s the cost of society, douchebag. It maintains services vital for a modern society. That’s why you enjoy clean water, public education, free of charge university education, fire department, the police, universal healthcare…

By: michael

michael — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:41:59 +0000

I don’t doubt the Pie Chart…. But You forgot ex-wifes and old lovers …..LOL

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:54:06 +0000

Highways perhaps. Not city streets. Do yourself a favor and look up “public good,” “non-rival” and “non-excludable.”

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:50:25 +0000

Theft is taking something without permission or authority. The Constitution gives the federal goverment the authority to tax. The 10th Amendment says that the states retain their common law powers, including the authority to tax.

Are you saying you reject the Constitution?

By: forge

forge — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 19:12:34 +0000

Cutting taxes from the Eisenhower era’s 90% bracket: good idea

Cutting taxes from the Carter era’s 39% bracket: really bad idea

Yes, revenues went up when we stopped taxing people 9/10ths of their income. And they went right back down again when Reagan got into office and started giving money to the uber-rich so they could take it out of circulation and put it in offshore bank accounts. Not to mention use the extra cash to move jobs offshore.

By: forge

forge — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 19:09:00 +0000

I am SO NOT subsidized by the government. Please stop assuming.

By: forge

forge — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:47:57 +0000

Yup, I agree absolutely. Like I said above, as Bill Gates knows fully, it’s a matter of scale.

By: JC

JC — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 18:34:12 +0000

You forgot “your own bank” or is that represented by the white background encompassing all the others?

By: argv

argv — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:55:37 +0000

It’s obvious you’ve never actually needed any sort of insurance.

“Those who spent it on an insurance which again pays for fighting fires etc” would find that their insurance actually doesn’t cover fires (or anything else). Insurance companies are in the business of not paying, and they’re damned good at it.

Government is the only one that could provide such services, simply because nobody else ever will.

By: argv

argv — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:51:35 +0000

The problem with your theory is that private businesses are no better. They don’t even pretend to serve the public good; they exist only to make their owners richer.

While it’s true that some people do have principles, none of them are in charge of large companies.

By: argv

argv — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:47:59 +0000

No, it’ll just be taken, effectively by force, by massive corporations instead. Those guys don’t even pretend to be accountable.

Maybe serfdom sounds like “better society” to you, but I happen to like having some semblance of freedom, thank you very much.

By: argv

argv — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:45:45 +0000

Your stats are obviously incorrect, almost by your own admission.

By: argv

argv — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:43:06 +0000

50% aren’t paying taxes, you say?

Two words: citation needed.

By: argv

argv — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:41:46 +0000

You seem to be under the illusion that the poor are poor because they are unproductive. This is false. The poor are poor because they are being robbed mercilessly by those that are not.

By: argv

argv — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:37:06 +0000

A government could do it a hundred times more effectively, with the collective economic power of the entire country—and not just a couple of obscenely rich philanthropists suffering from crook’s remorse.

By: argv

argv — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:34:57 +0000

Make that argument again after your house burns down and you can’t pay over $9000, up front, to have some firemen come out and try to save it.

Privatization invites greed. Greed causes suffering.

By: argv

argv — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:31:28 +0000

What exactly are these “benefits of capitalism” anyway? So far, the only “benefits” I’ve seen are that it allows the powerful to become more so, while everyone else is either enslaved to the former or starving on the street.

By: argv

argv — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:28:50 +0000

Please tell me you’re not retarded enough to seriously believe they’re going to try to tax you for exhaling.

By: argv

argv — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:26:59 +0000

Like a private monopoly that depends on the whims and arbitration of the same crooks that brought you the mortgage crisis?

Brilliant idea. Let’s all go play chicken with freeway traffic while we’re at it.

By: argv

argv — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:25:02 +0000

And then you wrong-wing tumors show up and infest the place, much to my dismay. GTFO.

By: argv

argv — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:22:28 +0000

Unless your boss has a golden parachute and an annual income with at least eight digits—which I doubt—we are not talking about him.

The ones making that kind of money don’t work half that hard. All they do is loot their employers while sitting on each other’s boards. Crooks, through and through.

By: argv

argv — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:18:16 +0000

If they paid ¾ of their income, they could still afford it. These are the obscenely rich we’re talking about.

By: Edmund

Edmund — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 05:38:59 +0000

I would be happy to make $45k a year. In fact, if my customers weren’t taxed to the point they are, I might be able to do just that. My business it 3 years old, and has barely afforded me a dime, though that is not uncommon in the first 5 to 10 years of a businesses lifespan. I know how to live frugally, and that is why I was comfortable taking the risk of starting my own business. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, moving to a state where doing business doesn’t cost a ton, and where I can expect customers that are able to afford better things (by way of fewer taxes), is very tempting. I personally don’t end up paying much in taxes, but my customers do. Taxes do not stimulate the economy. Ever. Also, higher taxes don’t even increase revenue to the government. If you look back over the years, you will see that when taxes are raised, governmental revenue decreases, inflation occurs, and the economy declines. The opposite is also true. It’s like clockwork. Right now, we are seeing the single largest spending increase ever known to this country, right in the midst of a terrible recession. Taxes will be raised and our economy will continue to fail. Rational people will not be convinced otherwise. I urge you to file these thoughts away. I know you will not be dissuaded from your current opinion right now, but in ten years, look back at what is happening now, and ask yourself if things really got better. Personally, I am rooting for the American economy. I want the economy to succeed. In order for that to happen, though, the government is going to have to get the hell out of our pocketbooks. Right now, I would be in a much better place financially, as would everyone else with a bit of gumption, if the government would stop making us pay for so much irresponsibility.

And BTW, forge, I don’t know what it is you do for a living, but I am guessing its a teaching position at a public school or some other place that gets its payroll underwritten by Uncle Sam. $45K used to be a lot of money, and now its not. Hard work used to be rewarding, and now its not. Connect the dots.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:56:20 +0000

It’s only a crappy movie because it’s been edited all to hell by a bunch of idiots who couldn’t cut a movie to save their lives.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:54:45 +0000

Dude. Go “Galt,” be my guest, see what the hell it’s like to live on $45K plus or minus instead of whatever it is you make. Get back to me in five years and let me know how you like it.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:52:33 +0000

To say nothing of how we’re going to figure out how to grow food when the climate shifts significantly enough.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:50:58 +0000

And all the while you have rather nice public housing for some of your retired military people. Why not put MPs up in similar housing when they’re at Parliament? Then they’d only be maintaining one house. Not sure how we handle that with our Congresspeople but I suspect they do much the same. Some (former presidential candidate John McCain for example) have half a dozen or more houses, no idea how much he gets to deduct though.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:43:12 +0000

This. Everyone buys stuff and in fact since there are more of them the poor and middle class support the economy more. It has been unequivocally proven that giving giant tax breaks to the insanely rich does not create jobs. Doesn’t. Create. Jobs.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:41:34 +0000

And then by your very own definition above, you then have the choice to not succeed. Because, need I mention this, you weren’t rich. Rich people don’t have to make decisions like that. If you’re broke, it’s different.

Not that I expect you to actually understand this.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:39:41 +0000

No textbook costs $10 to print. They probably cost $2-3 per copy to print and yup, $250 outa your broke-*ss student wallet. Robbery.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:38:22 +0000

And again, defense spending is hundreds and hundreds of times more than spending on “social programs.” Unless you think education is a “social program,” and even then, no, sorry, no.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:36:54 +0000

“Whenever you tell people that they say well SS isnt supposed to be your only source of retirement funds. Ok well if it isnt then we dont need it to begin with.”

And that is the most ridiculous bit of illogic I have ever heard in my life.

Tires aren’t the only thing a car needs. Well if they’re not then we don’t need them to begin with. Boy, you’re just SPECIAL.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:35:10 +0000

The system is currently designed specifically NOT to “create dependence.” You cannot stay on welfare for more than a few years; after that, you either get a job or hope there’s a church that will take you in. You can thank President Clinton for that incidentally.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:33:48 +0000

fyi “irregardless” is not a word

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:28:25 +0000

Besides, good things belong to the ruling class, right Mr. Machiavelli?

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:24:25 +0000

“Eliminating government subsidized schooling will not deprive them of this privilege.”

You don’t think there’s going to be some cost-benefit analysis going on there not unlike the insurance companies, who strangely seem to feel a heart procedure for a poor person is less beneficial than it is for an identical rich person?

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:19:06 +0000

These were not “rewards for being productive.” Lots and lots of people were “productive” but since they were either actual slaves or “the working class,” they didn’t get *jack* for their labor except eating stale bread, drinking filthy water and living in filthy shacks. Then labor unions and Democrats came long and put an end to that. Except they didn’t, of course.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:14:14 +0000

Again, welfare is a tiny, tiny, tiny scintilla of the amount given to giant corporations, defense contractors, oil companies, tax breaks for big pharma, on and on and on. And SSI and Medicare are paid for separately. Please try to live in the same mathematical universe as the rest of us.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:11:27 +0000

Cite, please. The Pentagon and the defense contractors and Iraq and Afghanistan vs. AFDC and Head Start? Yeah, I’m thinking you’re prevaricating rather a lot.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:03:45 +0000

“when a government provides a service for you that you can do yourself the cost is always higher than if you did it yourself.”

Patently untrue. How about you go and try to figure out how to run an interstate highway system or the Post Office any cheaper than it is now? And yes, I know the PO is partly private.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:01:26 +0000

And we didn’t?

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:59:36 +0000

Cuba’s actually only 90 miles from the US, but I imagine a decent spot to put your raft in and prevailing currents make that a little hard to do.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:56:37 +0000

Yeah, ‘cuz there are SOOOOO MANY who are “too lazy to work.” Voluntarily being unemployed just because you don’t want to have a job is SUCH a way to go these days.

You don’t honestly believe that do you? Please say you don’t. Because it’s insane.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:35:29 +0000

Yeah, because being a part of the United States isn’t what MADE them rich. Or their families, or what have you.

If that were true no rich people would live here, since they can live anywhere they like.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:32:25 +0000

“In order to form a more perfect union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence,[1] promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” pretty much covers it.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:30:13 +0000

Yeah, Bear Stearns and Chrysler proved how great business are at being businesses, that’s for dern sure.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:24:37 +0000

Thunderdome wasn’t anarchy, Mama was the charismatic dictator and head of government.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:20:03 +0000

Mods: You can ** out the naughty word if you like, sorry, my bad.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:15:06 +0000

Also? As I said elsewhere, “social programs” have never in the history of the US cost even a significant percentage of what we give to the Pentagon and to companies like Lockheed-Martin and McDonnell-Douglas. Not more than 1 or 2 percent of it. Ever.

By: forge

forge — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:13:42 +0000

I want to see a cite on “50% aren’t paying taxes.” That’s something Hannity and Beck and Limbaugh say all the time and therefore I don’t believe a single syllable of it. If half the people in this country aren’t paying taxes, it’s because half the people in this country can’t afford to pay taxes without starving to death. More likely it’s Limbaugh and Hannity wanting to feel like the entire economy rests on the shoulders of insanely idiotically rich people like them, and that simply is not the case. So, again, put up or please, shut up about that fifty percent.