I successfully dodged a shoplifting charge today by not stealing anything.
I successfully dodged a shoplifting charge today by not stealing anything.
'Dodging' inheritance tax really is scraping the barrel.
It shouldn't really exist. Certainly on a practical level, possibly on a theoretical one too.
It should be 100%.
As should income tax for those earning more than you, etc.
There shouldn't even be wages to tax. Everyone should just be given rice and clothes by the state, and we could all live in barracks.
How did working in the private sector go for you Lewis? Did you find that your superior intellect and skill got you a foot in the door and ahead once you arrived in it as meritocracy dictates?
I don't think you even know what point you're making there.
All the Kochs and such avoided paying top tax on their inheritances by "donating" the money to various organizations that were either already shells for their wealth or eventually became their playthings. Estate tax is probably a better avenue of attack and really needs to be far higher.
Estate tax is too easy to dodge because it only comes into effect when you've had half a century and more resources than the government to work out how to never pay that money. The answer is stopping people from concentrating that wealth in the first place.
The situation has got so out of hand I'm this close to suggesting that the public sector should just get a vig on everything that happens in the country like they're Tony fucking Soprano. Tax is your protection racket and then a vig to stop us from asking how/why you purchased that third overpriced flat in Canary Wharf.
It's why the Apple/Ireland thing annoys me so much, lads the EU fined them 15 billion (which is probably their incredibly conservative figure), surely you can negotiate yourself to get like 5 to pay for some housing without pissing anyone off.
I really think the current age of extreme political polarisation properly kicked off with the Tea Party/Birth Certificate stuff, and that was transparently-veiled racism of the highest order.
Obviously things don't come out of nowhere, but that really ramped it up to a new level.
American politics 1776 to now is a tale of an ongoing struggle between white supremacists and the rest, this is just the latest iteration. The whole Republican/Democrat thing, or left/right, are just red herrings.
Agreed.
What we're seeing now is the same animosity that's always been there, with the post-war layers of civil pretence being stripped away.
They're only red herrings until one of them absorbs that entire demographic
Given the US political splits, right/left are pretty much just anti/pro-abortion. They'll argue, rationalize, and whinge about other elements of the platforms, but as long as that's there, there's no way the major bloc of either party will ever fail to toe the line at the polls.
Sure, but plenty of other issues are just as solidly partisan as that one. You get rid of that abortion distinction and you’ll still have what you have now. And it’s less the issues that perpetuate the divide and more the nature of the people that affiliate with either group
I've seen enough arguments where people are willing to question some part of their party's dogma before "but they kill babies" comes along.
The problem is that for a huge portion of the US, it is an issue whose moral implication dwarves everything else. "Unborn holocaust", etc. The language and issue has become so inflamed that for many - especially the religious - it is the single driving issue at the polls.
Jesus. Imagine an abortion-free America. It would be like South Africa. Anyway...
Christ, he's so autistic.
I’m not sure who you’re talking about, but you’re right anyway.
lol at the US having to ground a trillion dollars worth of F35's because they can't be trusted not to fucking crash. I'd say they should take the DoD's engineers and have them work on infrastructre instead but they'd probably end up blowing a crater into Hoover Dam or some shit.
Lol just found out the UK bought four of these pieces of shit 3 months ago for at 70 million a pop. Money well spent.
The trillion dollar figure includes about fifty years worth of running costs. But yes they should have gone with the General Electric/Rolls-Royce engine.
Should have stuck to F4Us.
San Francisco, the yuppiest most rent-controlled city on the planet, is considering a California ballot measure to repeal any sort of statewide limitations on rent-control and allow local jurisdictions to expand it at will. Something like 65% of residents seem keen on a Yes vote. Didn’t know that many people enjoy rampant homelessness.
Aren't rents in San Francisco among the highest on the planet anyway?
And isn't the thing you are describing, without knowing anything other than the way you have described it, something which would increase 'rent-control' (which I assume to be capped cost/under market value business)?
I fail to see how there could be more homeless people in San Francisco.
Rent control doesn't increase the availability affordable housing. Who would develop? You're never gonna reap the benefits either as a developer or as a landlord. Existing tenants might like it in the near term, but years down the road you'll have no movement in and out of rent-controlled housing, no improvements being made on existing housing, and people living in non-rent-controlled areas paying exorbitant sums. What SF needs is changes in zoning ordinances, or - more importantly - money from the state of California for infrastructure projjects. But no, not gonna happen, so let's appease the dumbos for the next couple years with more rent control.
Doesn't it also have the most restrictive planning regulations imaginable? NIMBYs mate.
The anti-gentrification crowd are the biggest sub-group of tossers in the entire NIMBY crew. Even more so than the rural wankers. They're like those idiots who complain that Chelsea home games are getting too expensive ten years after they replaced some poor cunt who had been going for thirty years.
San Francisco has a lot of rural wankers. And the ones that aren't wankers don't want people shifting in because they're cooking meth.
Cruz won, but it was super close. Can’t wait for him to perish
The only consistent thread I can see across all the elections is, if you've been found guilty of a crime or are currently being indited for one, you win.
Hasn't President Donald J. Trump done most of his stuff - or at least his DIVISIVE stuff, like the 'Muslim ban' and the tariff bullshit - with executive orders anyway? Alright, no more tax giveaways; but they presumably went large on it first time round because they saw this coming. They should run that judge confirmation again just for a laugh.
Well, at least everything has reverted to the mean?
Tronald can keep taking credit for anything good that might happen in the country, but now he can also blame congress for anything that goes wrong. So much winning.
Ted Cruz might just be the most dis-likeable human being on earth. What a fucking revolting fat pig.
Also lol at the @WHITEHOUSE Twitter uploading and posting a doctored video of the Acosta incident.
'Your campaign had an ad showing migrants climbing over walls and so on...'
'They weren't actors.'
*entire world marks out*
Florida is such a horrible state
That's fun.
And the stuff in France, now.
He's just a stupid shambles.
How many more years until he's gone?
Six.