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President Trump doesn't have the power to implement these tariffs and he's making a massive mistake with them...

In principle, I think most of us would agree that some folks accumulate enough money that it's got to be enough. If you gave me what Tee Higgins is making next year, I'd call it a day and spend the rest of my life as a missionary and that's after giving probably half of it away.

That being said, I would urge you to consider thinking about it from a different angle. If you take someone like Elon Musk as an example. He's created a lot of great things. He does a lot for mankind. He doesn't actually have his billions. He has ownership in very valuable companies that he's worked tirelessly to create and build. In the process, he's provided great products, tremendous wealth to a lot of people and he's the primary source of income for tens of thousands of families. What's so wrong with that? If Tesla went out of business tomorrow, Musk would probably go under too. He's not sitting on this pile of money.

I worked for Chase a long time ago and at that time, they were a bank in decline. Jamie Dimon came onboard and he's turned that bank around. I'm not 100% sure about this but I think Chase is the largest bank in America now? They provide wealth for millions of Americans. He gets paid an absurd amount of money and it does bother me how much it is but then, he also took something that was not growing and led it to great heights and tremendous prosperity. How is that a bad thing?

In principal I agree with you. I do have major issues with Musk, or anyone who has such a vested financial interest being so closely involved with the government and oversight of his businesses.

One thing I've seen be absolutely true, is that publicly traded businesses are focused on profit and sales growth. Full Stop. They don't care about safety, employee welfare,etc unless they are forced to buy government oversight. I've seen it, and been complicit in it if I'm honest to myself, since they pay me to do it. I've had to really do some soul searching, and it led to me changing careers and companies.
 
It's also very nice to have actual policy discussion with adults. We don't have to agree on everything, but it is nice that we can discuss without insult or playing gotcha, so thanks to all in this thread.
 
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In principal I agree with you. I do have major issues with Musk, or anyone who has such a vested financial interest being so closely involved with the government and oversight of his businesses.

One thing I've seen be absolutely true, is that publicly traded businesses are focused on profit and sales growth. Full Stop. They don't care about safety, employee welfare,etc unless they are forced to buy government oversight. I've seen it, and been complicit in it if I'm honest to myself, since they pay me to do it. I've had to really do some soul searching, and it led to me changing careers and companies.

That's not exactly true in my experience. Publicly traded companies have to be safe, care about employees, etc. because they must compete for the top people and produce a great product. If they don't then they won't be as profitable and they will be sued for substandard practices and next thing you know the stock plummets and they are out of business. It's only when the government gets involved that we end up with chronic abusers of people who are considered too big to fail. It's a horrible thing for everyone involved.

There are absolutely bad actors everywhere out there. My view is lets feed them to the wolves and then it will get sorted out in the long run. If we value the right things then those values will ultimately triumph. It's always been my view that any system absent of Christ centered morality is ultimately doomed to failure because He gave us everything we need to be who we have it in us to be.
 
That's not exactly true in my experience. Publicly traded companies have to be safe, care about employees, etc. because they must compete for the top people and produce a great product. If they don't then they won't be as profitable and they will be sued for substandard practices and next thing you know the stock plummets and they are out of business. It's only when the government gets involved that we end up with chronic abusers of people who are considered too big to fail. It's a horrible thing for everyone involved.

There are absolutely bad actors everywhere out there. My view is lets feed them to the wolves and then it will get sorted out in the long run. If we value the right things then those values will ultimately triumph. It's always been my view that any system absent of Christ centered morality is ultimately doomed to failure because He gave us everything we need to be who we have it in us to be.

I would push back some that the reason they care about it is that they are forced by regulations to care about it.

I would also state that while I am a Christian and value my faith, I don't believe that Christianity is required to be a moral person who cares about others. I've seen professing Christians treat people terribly, and Ove seen atheists be great people who truly cared about people.
 
I would push back some that the reason they care about it is that they are forced by regulations to care about it.

I would also state that while I am a Christian and value my faith, I don't believe that Christianity is required to be a moral person who cares about others. I've seen professing Christians treat people terribly, and Ove seen atheists be great people who truly cared about people.

That may be true but the morality that causes them to be that way comes from Him. He gave us the path. There's tons of people who claim to follow it that couldn't find the path if they wanted too. When a society has no values, it's hard for it to value anything that is of value.
 
Totally agree. We should probably just fully agree to disagree when it comes to Education lol. I do appreciate that you care about it and want to do the best for kids as do I.

We are actually home schooling our youngest now. It is so much fun and very rewarding. He's learning like crazy now and I am so thankful for the ability to do that.
 
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We are actually home schooling our youngest now. It is so much fun and very rewarding. He's learning like crazy now and I am so thankful for the ability to do that.

And I am glad you have that right, I'm sure you guys are doing a great job. I mean that truly, not being snarky, since I think you've said she was a certified teacher.

You definitely aren't the norm unfortunately when it comes to Home Schooling.
 
That's not exactly true in my experience. Publicly traded companies have to be safe, care about employees, etc. because they must compete for the top people and produce a great product. If they don't then they won't be as profitable and they will be sued for substandard practices and next thing you know the stock plummets and they are out of business. It's only when the government gets involved that we end up with chronic abusers of people who are considered too big to fail. It's a horrible thing for everyone involved.

There are absolutely bad actors everywhere out there. My view is lets feed them to the wolves and then it will get sorted out in the long run. If we value the right things then those values will ultimately triumph. It's always been my view that any system absent of Christ centered morality is ultimately doomed to failure because He gave us everything we need to be who we have it in us to be.
When a company is sued for substandard practices, is that not evidence of and support for government involvement?
 
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Libertarian, opinion disregarded on taxes. I think billionaires are sinful and shouldn't exist.

The flow of drugs is not worse over the northern border and on the whole canada is a valuable ally and trading partner

It’s like clockwork. Why every time taxes are mentioned, do Democrats bring up billionaires? Your proposal during the presidential campaign was to raise taxes on everyone making over $400,000 per year. There are a shit load more people that are nowhere close to billionaires in that group.

You just believe in big government and want somebody else to pay for it.
 
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As Trudeau pointed out, Canada and the US already have joint drug enforcement stuff going on, including large investment from Canada. Fentanyl seizures dropped 97% from December to January to 0.03 pounds. Trump doesn't give a crap about fentanyl deaths. If he did he'd work with Mexico to shut down the flood of American guns going to the cartels
That was thanks to Obama and Holder but trust me, the cartels can get guns and ammo from many more sources than the US gun manufacturers.
 
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It’s like clockwork. Why every time taxes are mentioned, do Democrats bring up billionaires? Your proposal during the presidential campaign was to raise taxes on everyone making over $400,000 per year. There are a shit load more people that are nowhere close to billionaires in that group.

You just believe in big government and want somebody else to pay for it.

Agreed, that $400000 is too low. What are you thoughts on the Tariffs?
 
It’s like clockwork. Why every time taxes are mentioned, do Democrats bring up billionaires? Your proposal during the presidential campaign was to raise taxes on everyone making over $400,000 per year. There are a shit load more people that are nowhere close to billionaires in that group.

You just believe in big government and want somebody else to pay for it.
I must have missed where York was the author of Biden’s tax plan? Everyone on here agrees $400k/year is too low. Also, the hope, at least my hope, was for that rate to change once it went through the house for critiquing.
 
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I must have missed where York was the author of Biden’s tax plan? Everyone on here agrees $400k/year is too low. Also, the hope, at least my hope, was for that rate to change once it went through the house for critiquing.

Whether it’s $400k, $1m or $2m, the point still stands. Someone making $1m per year has nothing in common financially with a billionaire. A billionaire makes $100m per year just with 10% gains (investments, business valuation, etc). They own private jets. They have staff. Totally, totally, totally different level of wealth.

It is intellectually dishonest to associate tax increases anywhere close to those income levels with billionaires.
 
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Whether it’s $400k, $1m or $2m, the point still stands. Someone making $1m per year has nothing in common financially with a billionaire. A billionaire makes $100m per year just with 10% gains (investments, business valuation, etc). They own private jets. They have staff. Totally, totally, totally different level of wealth.

It is intellectually dishonest to associate tax increases anywhere close to those income levels with billionaires.
Well, yeah, billionaires are in their own little world - which I think was his point. There just so happens to be like 3k of them on the planet and taxing them is damn near impossible. You can think billionaires need to be taxed more, but also think the Harris $400k tax plan bracket was too low - as I expect damn near everyone on this forum would agree.
 
Well, yeah, billionaires are in their own little world - which I think was his point. There just so happens to be like 3k of them on the planet and taxing them is damn near impossible. You can think billionaires need to be taxed more, but also think the Harris $400k tax plan bracket was too low - as I expect damn near everyone on this forum would agree.

Exactly. So why bring them up every time the concept of higher taxes is raised? It’s not just York. It’s a core democrat talking point to associate higher taxes with billionaires instead of the hard-working families they really intend to tax. It’s dishonest and intended to mislead people.
 
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Exactly. So why bring them up every time the concept of higher taxes is raised? It’s not just York. It’s a core democrat talking point to associate higher taxes with billionaires instead of the hard-working families they really intend to tax.

It's a talking point that must work with the base. Personally, I would be open to higher rates for the ultra rich, but it needs to be a much higher number than $400k.
 
Exactly. So why bring them up every time the concept of higher taxes is raised? It’s not just York. It’s a core democrat talking point to associate higher taxes with billionaires instead of the hard-working families they really intend to tax. It’s dishonest and intended to mislead people.
I think there's a difference between what a couple of guys on a forum are talking about, and Democratic strategy writ large. 98% of the country makes less than $400k/year - I'm sure some dipshit consultant came up with that magic number after talking with focus groups.
 
I think there's a difference between what a couple of guys on a forum are talking about, and Democratic strategy writ large. 98% of the country makes less than $400k/year - I'm sure some dipshit consultant came up with that magic number after talking with focus groups.

And a similar dipshit consultant told democrats to talk about billionaires to generate bitterness and mislead their constituents.
 
Exactly. It's whatever metric he claims proves he wins. It doesn't have to be true,or verifiable, or be from legitimate source. Just say he's winning.
Will you tell us how you would measure his success? What yardstick would be a FAIR measuring tool?
 
In principal I agree with you. I do have major issues with Musk, or anyone who has such a vested financial interest being so closely involved with the government and oversight of his businesses.

One thing I've seen be absolutely true, is that publicly traded businesses are focused on profit and sales growth. Full Stop. They don't care about safety, employee welfare,etc unless they are forced to buy government oversight. I've seen it, and been complicit in it if I'm honest to myself, since they pay me to do it. I've had to really do some soul searching, and it led to me changing careers and companies.
Do you think it would be beneficial to change financial reports to a semi-annual or annual reporting as opposed to quarterly reporting to discourage focusing to much on the short term?

I’m not sure who proposed that idea, but I’m thinking Buffet?
 
Do you think it would be beneficial to change financial reports to a semi-annual or annual reporting as opposed to quarterly reporting to discourage focusing to much on the short term?

I’m not sure who proposed that idea, but I’m thinking Buffet?

I'm not opposed to it. What's hard about the reporting is that it's parsed so heavily for political hit points, particularly by people who have no idea how business and financial reporting works.
 
Will you tell us how you would measure his success? What yardstick would be a FAIR measuring tool?

Thats a good question. I would like to see a reduction in the deficit. That would be a welcome improvement. But I just don't see how you actually do that without reductions or changes to Medicare or SS. I am not opposed to an audit for government expenses, but I hate how it's currently being done with Musk tweeting every single item for the most effect, oftentimes wrong or slanted for political points.

What Is really like to see I just don't think he is capable of, which is to be Presidential. We can disagree on what happened in the Oval Office, but if you are being honest, it's not how the leader of the most powerful country on the planet should act. I hate the pettiness he has and his need to constantly belittle people
 
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