Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Dumb Letters: Reaganomics Redux

Here's a pre-translation of the following letter from the LA Times: "I'm a selfish fucking bastard."

I'll take this one piecemeal.
I have employed about 50 people during the last 20 years, and my
family's taxable income is about $300,000. In order to avoid paying a higher percentage of taxes on all of my income, I will decrease output, lay off some staff and still end up keeping the same amount.

Wait a minute. If you're keeping the same amount either way, why on earth would you lay people off? You're saying that if it's all the same to you financially that you'd rather see someone else lose their job than to have more money go to the government in the form of taxes? This may be the most offensive thing I've heard in quite some time.

This person should not be employing anybody. She's like a child who grabs a toy that she doesn't want just to keep another child from having it. And then hits the other child in the head with it. I hope the person who gets laid off robs their former employer's house. And the cops don't come because they had no tax funding.

I have no incentive to hire people or expand my business, because the more I make, the more President Obama will take to expand government. This discourages expansion of the private sector. It will backfire with disastrous consequences for all.

Really? No incentive? None? This is one of the most tired arguments I've ever heard. It is a rare person caught between two tax brackets that will actually lose money by making a bit more money. If you're one of those people, then you do have an incentive to make more money: make more money. If you currently make (and I'm just making numbers up here, for the sake of argument) $300,000 and are taxed at x% but will be taxed at x+(x*0.10)% if you make $350,000, then your incentive is to make $400,000. And don't you want to make $500,000? More really is more, in almost all cases. The idea that higher taxation discourages expansion of the private sector is plain and utter bullshit. Yes, the more you make, the more you will pay in tax. But the more you make, the more you keep for yourself as well.

Oh, and I love how it's about Obama "taking" her money to "expand government". Everyone already gets taxed. The only question is how much. This is nothing new. The supposedly "disastrous" consequences of progressive taxation have never materialized. Ever.

It is repulsive that Obama is being allowed to take this country backward by pickpocketing the very people who run the private sector through their energy, money and creativity.

Kay Santos
Diamond Bar

It is repulsive that a cheap, manipulative dirtbag like yourself is in a position of power over anybody. If there were a tax on being an asshole, you'd be flat broke right now.

The whole idea that people like this are somehow being stolen from is laughable. This person admitted upfront that she would take a job away from someone out of spite, even if she gained no financial benefit from it. And we're supposed to feel bad for her? Fuck you.

Obama is indeed taking us backward. And not nearly fast enough. To a time when Reaganite prevarications like the letter writer's were routinely discredited. To a time when progressive taxation was the norm and we had a pretty robust economy, thank you very much. If this person doesn't like it I won't lose any sleep over it. But at least the person who gets fired by her will have better unemployment benefits.

5 comments:

Kizz said...

Beautiful closing line.

Mrs. Chili said...

This person reminds me of the Limbaugh-ites who publicly state that they WANT our president to fail. For as much as I feared and despised Bush, I NEVER wished him to fail.

I guess this all just proves to me that the assholes are always out there, it just takes certain conditions to drive them out into the open.

Anonymous said...

"Everyone already gets taxed"....really..you probably are too stupid to understand that the top ten percent of earners pay 90% of all taxes in this country. I know this because I make $105k a year and Im in the top ten percent.

Obama will hike my taxes 4% in 2010.....which means I make cuts in spending to adjust. We feed the homeless every weekend, Im a guardian ad litem and I work with recovering addicts....lets hope I dont have to cut my giving there or for my kids prepaid college fund.

But idiots like you dont see how yor beloved "tax the rich" hurts everyone from employees to those we serve.

Since you agree the less fortunate should be helped, why the hell do you own a computer...why are you blogging? If its okay to tax me to death on the premise that there are people to should receive my taxes, then certainly there are people less fortunate than you, right?

Did you cut the IRS some extra money, since you beleive in higher taxes....better yet, sell your PC and give the money to a local program to assist poverty...why do you own such luxury items like a computer...the people I serve cant afford that, why should you?

Sell it, otherwise your just one more hypocrite.

MAB said...

My first troll! I'm so proud.

Actually, if you make $105K per annum your taxes won't be raised. If you're referring to the Bush tax cuts that were scheduled to expire then, well, Obama is just letting the process take its course. He's taking no action. The cuts were sold as temporary. To suggest that not making them permanent is tantamount to a tax hike is a big fat lie.

And I'm well aware of how much each stratum gets taxed. Make all the assumptions you like.

Dude, you have no idea how I live and what I do with my life. Or how much I make, which is none of your business, by the way, but you may be surprised by it.

Your feeble argument that owning any private property means I don't care about others less fortunate them I am is sad and disingenuous. Everyone could give more; that doesn't mean we have to give everything away or be branded a hypocrite by the likes of you.

Progressive taxation has been the norm in the past and it is eminently fair. To suggest that business will grind to a halt if we return to the tax levels of just a few years ago is complete bullshit.

Keep posting anonymously, you coward. And have a nice day! Really. I mean it.

Mrs. Chili said...

Aren't trolls FUN!