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What a moron. The idea Amazon is the problem... is he too much of a wimp to take on the actual subsidy recipients (ie Agriculture - particularly in livestock, F

What a moron. The idea Amazon is the problem... is he too much of a wimp to take on the actual subsidy recipients (ie Agriculture - particularly in livestock, Finance, and Oil/Gas). Bezos is rich because he had a huge position the company he started and presided over taking to a $1T market cap. He pays himself relatively little in salary and stock grants on an ongoing basis. You might as well go after Warren Buffett. Oracle stands out among tech companies, if anyone wants to create a cutely acronymed bill for them: https://www.asyousow.org/reports/the-100-most-overpaid-ceos-2018-are-fund-managers-asleep-at-the-wheel https://www.asyousow.org/reports/the-100-most-overpaid-ceos-... edit: "This brings me great sadness, as Sanders' career has been to improve the lives of his constituents, and American people as a whole. I think this is uncalled for." It brings me great sadness, too, because I think it's opportunistic grandstanding on his part, and far beneath the standards he has set. And what saddens me more is that it appears to be part of a trend for him in the past 3 years.

toomuchtodo 8y ago
> What a moron. This brings me great sadness, as Sanders' career has been to improve the lives of his constituents, and American people as a whole. I think this is uncalled for. > Bezos is rich because he had a huge position the company he started and presided over taking to a $1T market cap. He pays himself relatively little in salary and stock grants on an ongoing basis. Then tax his stock grants at wage based levels. Your argument is that there are "bigger fish to fry". There's no reason not to start with a trillion dollar company.
- throwaway5752 8y ago
  Do you give him a refund if AMZN drops, then? Taxing change in mark-to-market wealth is a huge change in tax code and probably shouldn't be done reactively. His grants are probably taxed as W-2 income, as is his salary. Maybe he has accounting tricks for it and I won't speculate, but at issue is his longstanding, large position in AMZN that goes back decades because he was the sole founder and they only took two funding rounds.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - anothergoogler 8y ago
    > Do you give him a refund if AMZN drops, then? I hope you're aware that investors already get to write off their losses.
    - throwaway5752 8y ago
      Unless you know something I don't, this is when they sell a position. If you tax the delta in wealth on the way up (absent an exit that creates a taxable gain), what do you do if wealth decreases? I.e. If I hold 100 shares of AMZN at $1,000 and it doubles to $2000 without me selling, and I owe taxes on the increase in net wealth from $100k to $200k.. what happens if AMZN drops by 25% the next year. Also, what does this do to the predictability of tax receipts for federal budgeting?
- madengr 8y ago
  Stock grants, yes, as that would be income. Capital gains, no. The whole point of lower capital gains tax is that the principal has been taxed already, and it also encourages investment (risk).
  - toomuchtodo 8y ago
    Disagree. Capital gains should be taxed at wage levels. Also, I don't care for incentivizing investment in enterprises that rely on abusive labor practices.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
madengr 8y ago
Get rid of those mentioned subsidies, and the price of food and fuel will jump. It will only screw the working poor. I could care less about the price of fuel (electric car) and food (small % of my income), but others it is a large amount. I was initial against Trump's tariffs, but after reading what other countries have in place, I think he is justified. Other countries subsidize and tariff the shit out of certain industries.

toomuchtodo 8y ago

> What a moron. This brings me great sadness, as Sanders' career has been to improve the lives of his constituents, and American people as a whole. I think this is uncalled for. > Bezos is rich because he had a huge position the company he started and presided over taking to a $1T market cap. He pays himself relatively little in salary and stock grants on an ongoing basis. Then tax his stock grants at wage based levels. Your argument is that there are "bigger fish to fry". There's no reason not to start with a trillion dollar company.

throwaway5752 8y ago
Do you give him a refund if AMZN drops, then? Taxing change in mark-to-market wealth is a huge change in tax code and probably shouldn't be done reactively. His grants are probably taxed as W-2 income, as is his salary. Maybe he has accounting tricks for it and I won't speculate, but at issue is his longstanding, large position in AMZN that goes back decades because he was the sole founder and they only took two funding rounds.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- anothergoogler 8y ago
  > Do you give him a refund if AMZN drops, then? I hope you're aware that investors already get to write off their losses.
  - throwaway5752 8y ago
    Unless you know something I don't, this is when they sell a position. If you tax the delta in wealth on the way up (absent an exit that creates a taxable gain), what do you do if wealth decreases? I.e. If I hold 100 shares of AMZN at $1,000 and it doubles to $2000 without me selling, and I owe taxes on the increase in net wealth from $100k to $200k.. what happens if AMZN drops by 25% the next year. Also, what does this do to the predictability of tax receipts for federal budgeting?
madengr 8y ago
Stock grants, yes, as that would be income. Capital gains, no. The whole point of lower capital gains tax is that the principal has been taxed already, and it also encourages investment (risk).
- toomuchtodo 8y ago
  Disagree. Capital gains should be taxed at wage levels. Also, I don't care for incentivizing investment in enterprises that rely on abusive labor practices.
deleted 8y ago
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madengr 8y ago

Get rid of those mentioned subsidies, and the price of food and fuel will jump. It will only screw the working poor. I could care less about the price of fuel (electric car) and food (small % of my income), but others it is a large amount. I was initial against Trump's tariffs, but after reading what other countries have in place, I think he is justified. Other countries subsidize and tariff the shit out of certain industries.