Thread: Why Is Taxing the Rich So Hard?

Originally Posted by Forplay

No, you don't have to print money to have inflation. Anytime you have to pay more for a product or service that is inflation. If I sell a product for 1.00 and next week I sell it for 1.25 that is inflation and if I sell it for .75 that is deflation.

a little econ 101 for you. Inflation is a rise in the general price level( all prices) , not the rise in the price of one thing.

For the general price level to rise the government needs to print more money. That printing is the only possible cause of inflation.

You have inflation or deflation based only on the quantity of money

Originally Posted by lutherf

You're talking about a hedge fund manager?

If so it's because, generally speaking, all of the income generated by the fund is Capital Gains income and his pay is merely a cut of that.

He doesn't have any capital in the mix, he is being paid for providing a service.
The difference is he has enough money to hire lobbyists to get special tax loopholes put in place.

Originally Posted by goober

He doesn't have any capital in the mix, he is being paid for providing a service.
The difference is he has enough money to hire lobbyists to get special tax loopholes put in place.

of course that is absurd. Hedge funds buy and sell stocks which are taxed at capital gains rates

Originally Posted by goober

He doesn't have any capital in the mix, he is being paid for providing a service.
The difference is he has enough money to hire lobbyists to get special tax loopholes put in place.

Actually most hedge fund managers DO have their own money invested in the fund.

Originally Posted by Porras

Most wealthy people inherited their money.

Really? Do you have any reference to support that claim?

Originally Posted by goober

So why should a guy who made over 4 billion dollars in income, pay a 15% rate?
Is it because he wouldn't be productive if he had to pay 35%?

That is a small-minded question. A better question is why should a man not keep the fruit of his labor regardless of the amount of fruit?

Originally Posted by Forplay

No, you don't have to print money to have inflation. Anytime you have to pay more for a product or service that is inflation. If I sell a product for 1.00 and next week I sell it for 1.25 that is inflation and if I sell it for .75 that is deflation.

That is a complete misunderstanding of inflation! Being able to raise prices because demand remains strong is due to The Law of Supply and Demand. Prices finding an equilibrium due to the relationship between changing supply of money and the goods and services is inflation. In other words, the effect may be the same but the cause is different. One cause is due to market forces; the other cause is due to the nature of money, i.e., inflation.

Originally Posted by Brutus

a little econ 101 for you. Inflation is a rise in the general price level( all prices)

Nice fallacious theory but in practice, if you study the CPI you will find "inflation" hardly ever actually effects all prices at the very same time. Go to Commodities - Gold prices, Silver prices and more from CNNMoney.com and compare the different changes of the price of one commodity compared to another.

Originally Posted by Brutus

a little econ 101 for you. Inflation is a rise in the general price level( all prices) , not the rise in the price of one thing.

For the general price level to rise the government needs to print more money. That printing is the only possible cause of inflation.

You have inflation or deflation based only on the quantity of money

Wrong: Econ 101 for you.
Inflation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Originally Posted by goober

He doesn't have any capital in the mix, he is being paid for providing a service.
The difference is he has enough money to hire lobbyists to get special tax loopholes put in place.

More ignorance of how the market works - do you ever tire of being wrong?

Most hedge fund managers have some of their own wealth in their fund.

Maybe he didn't "hire lobbyists" to lower his tax rate, maybe he used a "short squeeze" to drive down his tax rate, eh goober?

Originally Posted by JohnLocke

That is a complete misunderstanding of inflation! Being able to raise prices because demand remains strong is due to The Law of Supply and Demand. Prices finding an equilibrium due to the relationship between changing supply of money and the goods and services is inflation. In other words, the effect may be the same but the cause is different. One cause is due to market forces; the other cause is due to the nature of money, i.e., inflation.

Semantics

The law of supply and demand can raise prices by the shortage and demand for it. Call it what you will but to me that is inflation and when there is too much supply and little demand for it, prices go down, that results in deflation. (deflated prices)

Now if we have an oil shortage and our demand remains the same fuel prices go way up and those high fuel cost make all our goods and services go up as everything in our economy is tied to oil. Thus one commodity can change everything

What Is Inflation - Your Inflation Questions Answered

Originally Posted by jviehe

Bush didnt inherit wealth though. His parents did indeed pay for his schooling and no doubt gifted him money. But, he earned money serving in the national guard, then the oil industry, baseball and politics.

Yeah, but he was bad at all of it. His name got him all of his opportunities. If he'd been born George Smith he would have died an alcoholic by 40.

Originally Posted by chassisman

why is taxing the rich so hard? Better question.......why is imposing tariffs on China imports so hard? And no, they won't kill our economy if we did, we don't need to borrow more from them.

Foreign policy. Trade with China hurts us in many ways, and I say that as an ardent free trade booster. But we give China favorable trade terms to pursue other important foreign policy goals, like integrating China into the world economy. China was a pretty adventurist, aggressive country under Mao and we have high hopes that they'll be responsible world citizens if they are part of the world economy.