Buffet yearning for higher taxes.
The other day, the guy who reads my site was complimentary about my Buffet post so I’ve updated it and sharing it with you.
Warren Buffet has copped a bit of flack over an Op-ed in the NYT last week in which he complained about tax breaks for the rich:
Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as “carried interest,” thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate. Others own stock index futures for 10 minutes and have 60 percent of their gain taxed at 15 percent, as if they’d been long-term investors.
These and other blessings are showered upon us by legislators in Washington who feel compelled to protect us, much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species. It’s nice to have friends in high places.
This is a reasonable point in that it’s a bit silly having a higher marginal tax rate for those over a certain income, only to give breaks to those who can afford to play the system. This creates an inherent unfairness in that with the Administration pushing ‘millionaire rates’ for those who earn over $250,000 per year, the lower end of that bracket are going to be slugged much more than the Buffets. Read more »
LP “Statism wrong and unsustainable.”
Prime Minister, you cannot carry on forever squeezing the productive bit of the economy in order to fund an unprecedented engorgement of the unproductive bit. You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt. – Daniel Hannan (Devalued Prime Minister speech)
In Australia our eco-friendly government has massively increased the size of the public service, much of it in the area of environmental authoritarianism. They are forever banging on about ‘sustainability’ and the need for studies to be done on the issue. There has never been an inquiry though on whether the size of the government we have, is in itself sustainable.
The LP’s Wes Benedict, Executive Director of the Libertarian National Committee has raised the issue in reference to the S&P downgrade:
I’m sure you have heard the news about the Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the U.S. government’s credit rating.
I’m not a finance expert, so I don’t know exactly how important the downgrade itself is. I think it’s one more sign of what Libertarians have known for a long time: the Democrats and Republicans have created a giant welfare-warfare state that is beginning to collapse under its own weight. And I see no sign that they are going to change their behavior. Read more »
Counting Jedi.
There has just been another instalment of the old “24 Hr media cycle” lament from Canberra. This time it’s from Julia, who is fretting that that the Internet and pace of the news cycle were working against in-depth discourse. Don’t get her wrong, she jurst lurves the opportunities of the Internet and rejoices in its influence in the “democratization of public space.” (This may put her at odds with Communications Minister, Conroy, who is obsessed with censoring it.)
The gist of these arguments is that the constant need to feed the cycle results in a lack of depth in debate with the result that politicians appear to be shallow and puerile. No explanation is given of why they appeared that way before the rise of the 24 hr cycle which has retaliated by blaming the government’s 24-hour spin cycle.
In an example of the problem, Federal Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten called for Australians to respect the census and not kid around. He feels that the question on religion should only be answered in ways that the government recognizes. He has specifically banned Jedi’s, and Pastafarians, none of whom will be counted. The Jedi faith responded with a press release today: Read more »
Deficit reduction fraud, LP explains.
The latest Libertarian Party newsletter contains this gem in which Mark Grannis and Arvin Vohra explain just how and why the new bipartisan deal on deficit reduction results in Americans being duded again.
Arvin: “I just saved $350,000.”
Mark: “How?”
Arvin: “By not buying a Ferrari in 2016!”
Mark: “Nice.” Read more »
Convoy of No Confidence releases its routes.
The “National Road Freighters Association (NRFA) has organized a “Convoy of No Confidence in the Federal Government,” which will leave from many parts of the country, to converge in Canberra in time for the start of the parliamentary sitting in August. It is expected that its ranks will be swelled as it progresses along the route.
The organizers can feel proud of the effort they have put into it, with eleven routes announced along with timings. It is to be hoped that we will see thousands of vehicles from even the remotest parts of the nation, converge on Canberra on the 22nd of August.
The details can be seen here. Read more »
High Court: Bikies 2, Governments Nil.
News has just come through that the High Court ruled that Hells Angels have succeeded in their attempt to have NSW’s Crimes (Criminal Organisations Control) Act declared invalid.
For two years now governments across Australia have been moving to outlaw bikie gangs. Legislation in all cases tends to follow the pattern of allowing Supreme Court judges to outlaw motorcycle gangs, after a request by the police commissioner, and ban bikie gang members from associating with one another, with stiff penalties for those who disobeyed the ban.
While few Australians have much sympathy for bikies, a point the various states count on while doing this, some of us understand the wider implications of allowing this to happen. Once laws that allow certain groups to be singled out as outlaws, it is a relatively easy matter to extend that to any other group that the state disagrees with. Usually this can be done by executive order.
The law should be there to deal with real crimes, which involve actual coercive acts, not to deny certain groups the right to associate. There are plenty of laws on the books already to deal with any criminals within any group.
The High Court ruled on Thursday that Hells Angels have succeeded in their attempt to have NSW’s Crimes (Criminal Organisations Control) Act declared invalid.
The law was enacted in April 2009 by former premier Nathan Rees following the death of bikie associate Anthony Zervas during a brawl at Sydney Airport several weeks earlier.
Effectively the law allowed Supreme Court judges to outlaw motorcycle gangs, after a request by the police commissioner, and also to ban bikie gang members from associating with one another, with stiff penalties for those who disobeyed the ban. Read more »
-
Recent Comments
Libertarians and ele… on Libertarians and elections (an… 
Dom Vasta on Libertarians and elections (an… 
Shem Bennett on Libertarians and elections (an… 
'Nuke' Gray on Libertarians and elections (an… Dom Vasta on Libertarians and elections (an… 
TerjeP (say tay-a) on Libertarians and elections (an… TerjeP (say tay-a) on Libertarians and elections (an… 'Nuke' Gray on Libertarians and elections (an… Shem Bennett on Libertarians and elections (an… 
Brendan Halfweeg on The Santa Claus Governmen…
Catallaxy Files- Open Forum: February 11, 2012 February 10, 2012 Sinclair Davidson
- Not all recessions are caused by the Fed February 10, 2012More middle of the night blogging. My economics is classical. The almost perfect overlay of my own book can be found in a series of notes taken by Nicholas Kaldor at the LSE in 1927-29 from lectures delivered by the great American economist, Allyn Young. These notes were only published around a decade ago but [...]Steve Kates
- Where’s Romney? February 10, 2012It is quite extraordinary to watch the American political process up close. Now, I admit I have been busy and I don’t watch much of the television and do not read a lot of the press. But before I arrived the thing I did want to do was see more of Mitt Romney since from [...]Steve Kates
- inCISe
- More on PHI rebate means test February 10, 2012When I wrote in Incise yesterday, ‘Rebate should not be means tested,’ I did not expect events to move quite as quickly as they have. The government seems confident it has the numbers to get the means test through. I wouldn’t be surprised if Rob Oakshott and Andrew Wilkie have indeed swallowed the government’s nonsensical arguments, but it will be interestin […]Robert Carling
- Quiggin versus Carling and Kirchner February 9, 2012John Quiggin accuses Robert Carling and I of ‘an appalling breach of elementary standards of research’ for not acknowledging that Alberto Alesina’s work on the effectiveness of fiscal stimulus and consolidations is ‘highly controversial.’ In fact, we referenced Alesina’s work precisely because it has featured so prominently in public debate, including in the […]Stephen Kirchner
- Police going too far February 9, 2012According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, police are lecturing parents for letting their children walk to the shops or catch a bus on their own, with senior police saying such incidents will be reported to the Department of Community Services (DOCs) if a child is considered at risk. But when is a child ‘at risk’? One mother was told it was inappr […]Sara Hudson
- More on PHI rebate means test February 10, 2012
- IPA news
- Let European dogs lie February 9, 2012Australians will be surprised to learn that, apparently, the federal government now has responsibility to help the city of...
- It's time to bring back the thrift February 9, 2012Ted Baillieu plans to shave 3600 jobs from Victoria's bloated public service. The state of Wisconsin in the US, with a...
- We'll huff, we'll puff, we'll blow the budget into surplus February 8, 2012Bill Clinton famously said, "It's the economy, stupid". So it is. Unsuccessful politicians might be inclined to argue,...
- Let European dogs lie February 9, 2012
