Re: shuttle disaster
On Sat, Feb 08, 2003 at 02:17:16AM -0600, DvB wrote:
> Nathan E Norman <nnorman@incanus.net> writes:
>
> > On Sat, Feb 08, 2003 at 12:51:25AM -0600, DvB wrote:
> > > Gary Turner <kk5st@sbcglobal.net> writes:
> > >
> > > > DvB wrote:
> > > >
> > > > >Nathan E Norman <nnorman@incanus.net> writes:
> > > > <snip>
> > > > >> Yeah, after all it's not their money .. they just worked hard to earn
> > > > >> it.
> > > > >
> > > > >You don't "work hard" for stock dividends. You just put your money in
> > > > >stocks and they come all by themselves... although I guess I did word
> > > > >that a little strangely.
> > > >
> > > > Where the hell do you think the money came from?
> > >
> > > Dividends, also called "profit sharing," are monies payed to investors
> > > by companies as encourangement for current investors to continue to put
> > > their money in the aforementioned companies and to attract new
> > > investors.
> > >
> > > > If an investor can't expect a return, why should he put himself at
> > > > risk?
> > >
> > > Since when has the taxation of dividends robbed you of a return on your
> > > investment?
> > > Following that argument. If I don't get a return from my work (in the
> > > form of an untaxed salary), why should I make an effort to earn a
> > > living?
> >
> > I assume you are in favor of a "progressive" income tax scale.
> > Shouldn't other taxes such as payroll taxes (not the same as income
> > taxes!), sales taxes, and even taxes on investment income be
> > "progressive" as well? If not, why not?
> >
>
> I do believe that corporations should pay their fair share of taxes. I
> also don't see why there shouldn't be a "progressive" scale set for them
> (this could even be seen as an incentive program for small businesses, I
> suppose). I also wouldn't be opposed to taxing different goods at
> different levels depending on how "essencial" they are.
> As to investment income. It is income (as its name suggests) and should
> be taxed no differently from any other type of income (be it normal
> income or capital gains).
Uh, but ordinary income and capital gains _are_ taxed differently.
I'll assume you know this and that either I'm tired and don't grok
what you wrote, or you're tired and didn't quite get your point
across.
As far as "essential goods", who decides this? I'd rather not live in
a society where people tell me what I do and don't need based on some
economic model.
By the way, I feel obligated to point out that I quote "progressive"
because I think it's a bogus word when used to describe taxes. What
they mean to say is "oppressive" or "punitive", though the closest
I've heard is "more fair". Just thought I'd warn you so you others
don't think you and I mean the same thing when we quote that word :-)
> > > > What kind of idiot was your economics prof?
> > > >
> > > More of an idiot than your fuzzy math prof, apparently.
> >
> > You must have really hated your economics prof.
>
> I only ever took one economics class and often missed half of it because
> my Numerical Methods prof's tests took two hours to complete instead of
> the one allotted, so I wouldn't really know :-)
> Besides, the class didn't cover much in the way of stock investment.
It's difficult to find good economics professors in my experience. I
had one really good one in college but he was not given tenure, mostly
because he gave honest grades (the school was/is a farce).
--
Nathan Norman - Incanus Networking mailto:nnorman@incanus.net
Q: What's tiny and yellow and very, very, dangerous?
A: A canary with the super-user password.
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