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To be honest, I trust a democratically run government orders of magnitude more than I trust business owners. I think top owners/ earners often buy luxury goods

To be honest, I trust a democratically run government orders of magnitude more than I trust business owners. I think top owners/ earners often buy luxury goods, invest overseas, buy land (switching ownership of land does nothing to increase capital), and otherwise aggrandize themselves rather than the community/ nation. I think this is especially true when said capitalists invest in enterprises with which they have no personal stake -- e.g., buying Ford stock because it has X rate of return and Y risk, not because they actually want to make cars. One note -- socialist like myself hold the highest criteria to be the good of the collectivity, not an individuals' benefit. On this point I can't really argue, except to say it is my belief -- maybe merely because I don't come from a family of successful capitalists.

matwood 16y ago
The OP said business owners and top earners. Wikipedia says that in 2006 the median income in the US was $32,140. I'm going to guess that most here on HN are making more than that (and some probably much much more). It's easier to look up towards the people making millions of dollars and miss that statistically you could also be considered one of those top earners. Are you ready to give up huge portions of your income to the government and let them decide how to spend it? I think the recent hoopla over the financial reform bill and how it shut out small investors from investing in a startup shows how disconnected the policy makers are with reality. Are those the people you want making decisions on the next startup to fund? Even though they revised the bill, they kept the net-worth requirement of $1M excluding ones primary residence. http://www.angelcapitalassociation.org/resources/public-policy/federal-policy-issues/highlights/ http://www.angelcapitalassociation.org/resources/public-poli...
jquery 16y ago
> To be honest, I trust a democratically run government orders of magnitude more than I trust business owners. There is a direct line between government interference in business and our current recession/depression. One can argue about the color of the drapes, but the trillions of malinvestment came straight from the Fed, Fannie, and Freddie. To blame the bankers for taking advantage of bad policy is like throwing a wad of cash into a crowd and expecting them not to pocket the money.
protomyth 16y ago
Who builds those luxury goods? Do some searching on the luxury taxes ( http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,973305,00.html http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,973305,00.h... , http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/21/nyregion/new-luxury-tax-trimming-boat-sales.html http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/21/nyregion/new-luxury-tax-tr... ) and find out how normal people make money off people who are rich.

matwood 16y ago

The OP said business owners and top earners. Wikipedia says that in 2006 the median income in the US was $32,140. I'm going to guess that most here on HN are making more than that (and some probably much much more). It's easier to look up towards the people making millions of dollars and miss that statistically you could also be considered one of those top earners. Are you ready to give up huge portions of your income to the government and let them decide how to spend it? I think the recent hoopla over the financial reform bill and how it shut out small investors from investing in a startup shows how disconnected the policy makers are with reality. Are those the people you want making decisions on the next startup to fund? Even though they revised the bill, they kept the net-worth requirement of $1M excluding ones primary residence. http://www.angelcapitalassociation.org/resources/public-policy/federal-policy-issues/highlights/ http://www.angelcapitalassociation.org/resources/public-poli...

jquery 16y ago

> To be honest, I trust a democratically run government orders of magnitude more than I trust business owners. There is a direct line between government interference in business and our current recession/depression. One can argue about the color of the drapes, but the trillions of malinvestment came straight from the Fed, Fannie, and Freddie. To blame the bankers for taking advantage of bad policy is like throwing a wad of cash into a crowd and expecting them not to pocket the money.

protomyth 16y ago

Who builds those luxury goods? Do some searching on the luxury taxes ( http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,973305,00.html http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,973305,00.h... , http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/21/nyregion/new-luxury-tax-trimming-boat-sales.html http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/21/nyregion/new-luxury-tax-tr... ) and find out how normal people make money off people who are rich.