[quote]pookie wrote:
rainjack wrote:
According to this site, there are a lot (A LOT) of poor people who think that the money the rich guy is making should be theirs, and have no problem supporting a presidential candidate who will help them even things out.
The poor want to be rich without working for it. What can we do to help?
It’s not that simple.
I’m not a big fan of taxes, nor of giving people money so they can sit on their asses.
But there are abuses at the other end of the scale too. Billionaires CEOs who do very little to improve - or sometimes just maintain - their company; “gaming” the system so they can dump their stock options and pad their coffers, then leave with a golden parachute after putting some company or another in jeopardy, endangering the livelyhood of all it’s workers (along with their pension and health care benefits).
Look at GM. How could no one in the company foresee the rising oil prices? Who thought it would be a good idea to bet the future on pick-ups and SUV? Why are they playing catch-up on hybrid technology when they had the EV1 years ago (before they went and killed it). I’m sure none of the CEOs or high-level executives will feel any pain if GM goes bankrupt (which it won’t, since the govt. will throw money at it to save it.)
How is it any better that your tax dollars go to reward incompetence and lazyness at the high financial level instead of directly to some single mom on welfare? If anything, it almost encourages large multinationals to be reckless and short-sighted (as long as profits roll in short-term) because they know that if some unexpected downturns hit them, the taxpayers will foot the bill of the rescue.
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Bad business is bad business.
GM has little place in this discussion. There are 10 honest, profitable businesses for every GM.
But - what does GM have to do with the notion that the government should take from the rich to reward the poor for being poor?
All the talk of golden parachutes, and ungodly exec salaries whould be in a separate discussion.
There will be a shit ton more honest hardworking people hurt by the punitive taxes than the corrupt rich ones you want to go after.