Political Posts

[thepupil]

I don’t think so. Everyone has a duty to themselves and their families. But collectively we set the rules to pay for things that as a society we value. You can think that the rules should be different while still acting rationally and in a self interested fashion within those rules. 
 

any one of us can renounce, pay exit tax, buy a Caribbean citizenship for $150k get residency somewhere that doesn’t tax cap gains/divvies/ foreign income and live a tax free

life, but the value proposition of US citizenship and living here is + after taxes in my opinion. 
 

 

i don’t really know what you mean regarding privilehed people. Couples can make like $120k tax free from investments and plenty of people enjoy incredibly lowmeffective

tax rates in the US.

 

generally our tax system is very favorable to capital…at all levels of wealth.

 

Edited September 4, 2025 by thepupil

[73 Reds]

9 minutes ago, thepupil said:

 
Why must all investors desire tax cuts? 
 

I’d prefer certain taxes be raised and certain taxes go away. It is not some universal rule that someone interested in investing wants all taxes to go away. 

taxes play a big role in societal stability and infrastructure necessary to invest with confidence. 
 

currency stability, regulation, various legal protection. 
 

some kind of Randian wet dream of a libertarian society doesn’t necessarily favor the small time outside passive minority investor. 
 

and any number multiplied by zero is zero. You need societal stability to invest for the long term.

 

if current taxes don’t provide for all that, then…they may need to be raised (or spending reduced) or a combo thereof. 

People who pay the most taxes are probably more concerned about tax cuts.   Beyond that, how tax dollars are spent matters a lot.  In that sense I'm somewhat less concerned about tax cuts under this administration than the last one.  No one would argue that the government doesn't need tax dollars to function.  But when taxpayers see their tax dollars misallocated or even worse, spent on programs they find personally abhorrent,  tax minimization is most logical.

[Sweet]

28 minutes ago, thepupil said:

Couples can make like $120k tax free

The amount in the U.K. for working couples is 8,000 dollars lol.  It used to be much more generous.

[backtothebeach]

13 hours ago, Parsad said:

 

Because we're not doing such radical things like ignoring the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  Cheers!

 

You gotta be kidding:

 

"The Federal Court has ruled the Trudeau government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act during the so-called “Freedom Convoy” that descended on Ottawa in 2022 violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms."

 

"On January 23, 2024, Judge Richard Mosley of the Federal Court ruled that while the protest itself "reflected an unacceptable breakdown of public order," the use of the Emergencies Act was unreasonable, ultra vires, and had violated Section 2(b) and Section 8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.[485][486] The court found that orders made under the act were "overbroad" infringing on the freedom of expression of protesters who did not intend to breach the peace, and that freezing of bank accounts and collecting of financial information from banks had amounted to unreasonable search and seizure."

[Gregmal]

Yup. I was in Key West when that whole Freedom Convoy thing occurred. Was quite the sight. For those whom dont know what Key West is about, it's very diverse and anything goes, just be happy, type of place. There were trannies on Duval marching with a Canadian flag saying we stand with the truckers. Shops with those Red hats, with the Maple Leaf logo unsigned with "Freedom aint free". People marching with scannable signs promoting donations to the truckers. Was hilarious. They had a moment for sure and then the People's Champ, Soy Boy Trudeau did what he did and y'all got back to jerking off about emissions, masks, prosecuting trucker donations and Orange Man. Was fun while it lasted though. 

[thepupil]

27 minutes ago, Sweet said:

The amount in the U.K. for working couples is 8,000 dollars lol.  It used to be much more generous.

To be clear this is the 0% cap gains and qualified dividend bracket, not ordinary income 

 

 

[dwy000]

1 hour ago, Gregmal said:

Isn’t seeking to avoid taxes counter productive to the ideological notion of “paying one’s fair share”? Especially when using to one’s advantage, loopholes or parts of the tax code that are largely only applicable to…what’s the word they use?…oh…”privileged” individuals? 

This isnt counter productive.  Growing wealth to give away a significantly larger amount at a later date is just time value of money.  The value created by Buffet or Gates during that period is hugely more than the debt the govt undertakes to replace it today. 

[Sweet]

21 minutes ago, thepupil said:

To be clear this is the 0% cap gains and qualified dividend bracket, not ordinary income 

 

 

In the UK it is £22k of income before you get hit by cap gains tax, and you are allowed to get a £6k of capital gains after which gains are taxed at 20% (lower rate) and then 24% (higher rate).  And apparently according the many commentators over here that’s generous.

[Gregmal]

4 minutes ago, dwy000 said:

This isnt counter productive.  Growing wealth to give away a significantly larger amount at a later date is just time value of money.  The value created by Buffet or Gates during that period is hugely more than the debt the govt undertakes to replace it today. 

Sure. Just don’t lecture us about how we should be paying more taxes then….whats the line they like to use? Something about how he should at least be paying more hay his secretary is? Or hey maybe he should be lobbying about how we should all just get a total tax holiday in perpetuity in exchange for a later date IOU if it’s claimed to be for a good cause?
 

Although this is now starting to overlap into another cute area of entertainment for me. There’s many jovial Brookfield fanboys whom love getting IBS like agitated because Trump is sleazy level promotional, skirts taxes, stiffs business partners, and uses lawyers and LLCs to his advantage LMFAO

[dwy000]

9 minutes ago, Gregmal said:

Sure. Just don’t lecture us about how we should be paying more taxes then….whats the line they like to use? Something about how he should at least be paying more hay his secretary is? Or hey maybe he should be lobbying about how we should all just get a total tax holiday in perpetuity in exchange for a later date IOU if it’s claimed to be for a good cause?
 

Although this is now starting to overlap into another cute area of entertainment for me. There’s many jovial Brookfield fanboys whom love getting IBS like agitated because Trump is sleazy level promotional, skirts taxes, stiffs business partners, and uses lawyers and LLCs to his advantage LMFAO

Paying higher levels of taxes is a separate argument from deferring taxes.  Buffet and Gates are fine raising the tax rates on billionaires even if they defer those payments.  

 

Nobody wants to pay more taxes and everybody wants better efficiency of givt spend.  But the deficit and debt need to be dealt with and it simply cant be done thru spend reduction alone (without making depression look like fun times). 

[cwericb]

3 hours ago, 73 Reds said:

Perhaps you'd prefer to sleep next to a different elephant? 

 

Well since the present one is unlikely to move and our next closest neighbour is actually Greenland, our choices are limited.  

[73 Reds]

54 minutes ago, cwericb said:

 

Well since the present one is unlikely to move and our next closest neighbour is actually Greenland, our choices are limited.  

And if you had a choice?

[Parsad]

4 hours ago, 73 Reds said:

Perhaps you'd prefer to sleep next to a different elephant? 

 

You don't tell your wife that do you?    Cheers!

[Parsad]

3 hours ago, backtothebeach said:

 

You gotta be kidding:

 

"The Federal Court has ruled the Trudeau government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act during the so-called “Freedom Convoy” that descended on Ottawa in 2022 violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms."

 

"On January 23, 2024, Judge Richard Mosley of the Federal Court ruled that while the protest itself "reflected an unacceptable breakdown of public order," the use of the Emergencies Act was unreasonable, ultra vires, and had violated Section 2(b) and Section 8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.[485][486] The court found that orders made under the act were "overbroad" infringing on the freedom of expression of protesters who did not intend to breach the peace, and that freezing of bank accounts and collecting of financial information from banks had amounted to unreasonable search and seizure."

 

You are comparing the effect on a few hundred people who were blocking main thoroughfares for weeks to millions of people just living day to day.  By that measure, what happened on January 6th was nearly equivalent to the Holocaust! 

 

Again, before anyone jumps on this...I'm indicating the lack of comparability...not that anything compares to the Holocaust.  Cheers!

[Parsad]

15 minutes ago, 73 Reds said:

And if you had a choice?

 

Australia and New Zealand!  Cheers!

[73 Reds]

2 minutes ago, Parsad said:

 

You don't tell your wife that do you?    Cheers!

That's a complicated issue in a lot of marriages. 

[Parsad]

Just now, 73 Reds said:

That's a complicated issue in a lot of marriages. 

 

Are you a snorer like me?  Cheers!

[73 Reds]

Just now, Parsad said:

 

Australia and New Zealand!  Cheers!

Well, you'd have to create land masses.   And everything will cost you more.

[73 Reds]

2 minutes ago, Parsad said:

 

Are you a snorer like me?  Cheers!

Nah, was contemplating more nefarious things......

[LC]

4 hours ago, Sweet said:

Zip code is a function of behaviour and culture.  Parents that stay together have more money and can live in these better areas. Asian parents stay together more often than others and their kids do better than others - no surprise.  Blacks families are the worse by far with something like 60% of kids living in single parent households.  Outcomes follow behaviour.

 

I’m all for giving people who are disadvantaged help, through scholarships, mentor programmes etc.  But this should be done regardless of race and based on need alone.  I disagree with anyone being given jobs preferentially or having to balance the makeup of a board for any reason.

 

So no, stopping DEI is not cutting of help.  And meritocracy isn’t zip code lottery because it really doesn’t give any credit to what really matters which is behavior of families and the behaviour of the kids of that family.  As others have noted, most millionaires are self-made.

 

Sure, if you want to define it as "meritocracy" being a function of being born into a stable, supportive environment. I would agree quite a bit with that statement. 

 

DEI is a small way to correct for the randomness of that, because as you point out certain groups have a smaller chance of being born into a stable and supportive environment.

 

The other way to look at the argument is recalling what corporate america looked like before wide adoption of DEI initiatives: incredibly homogeneous, and also not fully merit-based. 

[Sweet]

“Why is he more evil than Biden”

 

The fall of Tucker the f**ker has been wild.  He just says the most outrageously stupid stuff regularly.

 

 

Edited September 4, 2025 by Sweet

[Sweet]

2 minutes ago, LC said:

DEI is a small way to correct for the randomness of that, because as you point out certain groups have a smaller chance of being born into a stable and supportive environment.

You don’t need DEI, you just have support for people that perhaps didn’t have a supportive family.  There is no requirement for anything like affirmative action or race or ethnic quotas.

 

3 minutes ago, LC said:

The other way to look at the argument is recalling what corporate america looked like before wide adoption of DEI initiatives: incredibly homogeneous, and also not fully merit-based. 

There is nothing wrong with it being homogenous.  DEI with quotas is just straight up discrimination, nearly always against white or Asian people.

[73 Reds]

7 minutes ago, LC said:

 

Sure, if you want to define it as "meritocracy" being a function of being born into a stable, supportive environment. I would agree quite a bit with that statement. 

 

DEI is a small way to correct for the randomness of that, because as you point out certain groups have a smaller chance of being born into a stable and supportive environment.

 

The other way to look at the argument is recalling what corporate america looked like before wide adoption of DEI initiatives: incredibly homogeneous, and also not fully merit-based. 

This seems like such a straight forward issue:  DEI is fine as long as it never supersedes merit-based decision making.

[John Hjorth]

4 hours ago, 73 Reds said:

Perhaps you'd prefer to sleep next to a different elephant? 

 

1 hour ago, cwericb said:

Well since the present one is unlikely to move and our next closest neighbour is actually Greenland, our choices are limited.  

 

lol! How about the Elephant situated to the West of Canada? - Not! -lol!

[dwy000]

6 minutes ago, 73 Reds said:

This seems like such a straight forward issue:  DEI is fine as long as it never supersedes merit-based decision making.

The question then comes as to who's decision that is.  Tim Cook and Satya have both said that having diverse backgrounds, diverse cultures and diverse points of view are hugely beneficial to the organization as a whole to avoid group think. I fully agree quotas are stupid and counterproductive but having someone with a different opinion or viewpoint that shifts the discussion can make them much more valuable to the organization than having a marginally higher GPA.