7 ms·

Stephen King: Raise My F***ing Taxes Already

10 points by hachiya 14y ago

sigzero 14y ago
Raising taxes on the Rich will do precisely zero to alleviate anything.
jhnewhall 14y ago
He could just give the money to a cause that matters, instead of expecting others to buy weapons to enslave the weak and luxuries for the banksters.
- sarvinc 14y ago
  I think he already does this http://www.stkfoundation.org/ http://www.stkfoundation.org/
- GiraffeNecktie 14y ago
  Maybe the cause that matters is universal health care.
  - rsanchez1 14y ago
    Then start a foundation. Taxation, or the lack thereof, didn't stop Bill Gates. He didn't sit on the sidelines complaining. He saw a problem and did something about it. He found his cause that matters.
bunderbunder 14y ago
A tangent on the whole "job creators" thing: Being rich is not the same thing as creating jobs. In a sense, it's the opposite: Every full-time equivalent's worth of income brought in is a full-time equivalent's worth of money that someone else didn't make instead. In a way, wealth is better thought-of as a measure of how many jobs the owner of a company could have created, but didn't.
- simplefish 14y ago
  I'm not sure what you said you be any less true. You seem to have no understanding of how a modern economy works, or how the banking system works, or what a salary represents, or what wealth is, or what the determinates of unemployment are, or what it means for a job to be "created", or, hell, even what a "job" is. There are so many flaws here, it's hard to even figure out where to start. You will be unable to find a single economist, economics textbook, or economic model which agrees with your premise.
  - bunderbunder 14y ago
    Care to elaborate, rather than simply posting a flame?
    - simplefish 14y ago
      There's not much to elaborate on; the argument literally makes no sense as presented. You say "wealth is better thought-of as a measure of how many jobs the owner of a company could have created, but didn't." It isn't. Apple has $100b in cash. Are you going to seriously tell me that if Apple gives $10b back to shareholders via a dividend that, regardless of what those shareholders do with the money, total employment for the economy as a whole will be lower? And that, further, if those shareholders had never invested in Apple at all total employment for the economy would be the same? In other words, that dividends from an alternate-world Apple would not both be a sign that the possessor had created jobs in the past, as well as a potent mechanism with which to create jobs in the future? Because, that's exactly what you're saying, and there isn't an iota of evidence in your favour. Or to take another tack, the internet has been all atwitter about asteroid mining recently, funded by, among others, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt. You're going to sit here and say that it's clearly the case that, if we care about unemployment, the money they're sinking into the venture should have stayed with Google. That, somehow, if Google had decided to go into asteroid mining, rather than the founders of Google, it will magically create more jobs? Because...what? Again, there is no theoretical basis or empirical evidence for this notion. I could go on forever. Your argument is lunacy on its face, and when we unpack it, it is based on levels of misunderstanding and mistakes all the way down. I'm sorry, but if you want more than a contemptuous flame, you're going to need to do better.
kevin_morrill 14y ago
Write a check to the treasury anytime you like and stop telling the rest of us how we should spend our money. 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20220
- brettbender 14y ago
  So you did not read the article which actually addresses people who make this argument?
tyisathome 14y ago
Link to actual op-ed: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/30/stephen-king-tax-me-for-f-s-sake.html http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/30/stephen-kin...
emilv 14y ago
Why is this showing up in the Hacker News feed?
rsanchez1 14y ago
If he's so anxious about it, why doesn't he just write a check out to the Treasury? Nobody is stopping him from giving more of his money to the government.

10 points by hachiya 14y ago

Raising taxes on the Rich will do precisely zero to alleviate anything.

He could just give the money to a cause that matters, instead of expecting others to buy weapons to enslave the weak and luxuries for the banksters.

sarvinc 14y ago
I think he already does this http://www.stkfoundation.org/ http://www.stkfoundation.org/
GiraffeNecktie 14y ago
Maybe the cause that matters is universal health care.
- rsanchez1 14y ago
  Then start a foundation. Taxation, or the lack thereof, didn't stop Bill Gates. He didn't sit on the sidelines complaining. He saw a problem and did something about it. He found his cause that matters.

bunderbunder 14y ago

A tangent on the whole "job creators" thing: Being rich is not the same thing as creating jobs. In a sense, it's the opposite: Every full-time equivalent's worth of income brought in is a full-time equivalent's worth of money that someone else didn't make instead. In a way, wealth is better thought-of as a measure of how many jobs the owner of a company could have created, but didn't.

simplefish 14y ago
I'm not sure what you said you be any less true. You seem to have no understanding of how a modern economy works, or how the banking system works, or what a salary represents, or what wealth is, or what the determinates of unemployment are, or what it means for a job to be "created", or, hell, even what a "job" is. There are so many flaws here, it's hard to even figure out where to start. You will be unable to find a single economist, economics textbook, or economic model which agrees with your premise.
- bunderbunder 14y ago
  Care to elaborate, rather than simply posting a flame?
  - simplefish 14y ago
    There's not much to elaborate on; the argument literally makes no sense as presented. You say "wealth is better thought-of as a measure of how many jobs the owner of a company could have created, but didn't." It isn't. Apple has $100b in cash. Are you going to seriously tell me that if Apple gives $10b back to shareholders via a dividend that, regardless of what those shareholders do with the money, total employment for the economy as a whole will be lower? And that, further, if those shareholders had never invested in Apple at all total employment for the economy would be the same? In other words, that dividends from an alternate-world Apple would not both be a sign that the possessor had created jobs in the past, as well as a potent mechanism with which to create jobs in the future? Because, that's exactly what you're saying, and there isn't an iota of evidence in your favour. Or to take another tack, the internet has been all atwitter about asteroid mining recently, funded by, among others, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt. You're going to sit here and say that it's clearly the case that, if we care about unemployment, the money they're sinking into the venture should have stayed with Google. That, somehow, if Google had decided to go into asteroid mining, rather than the founders of Google, it will magically create more jobs? Because...what? Again, there is no theoretical basis or empirical evidence for this notion. I could go on forever. Your argument is lunacy on its face, and when we unpack it, it is based on levels of misunderstanding and mistakes all the way down. I'm sorry, but if you want more than a contemptuous flame, you're going to need to do better.

kevin_morrill 14y ago

Write a check to the treasury anytime you like and stop telling the rest of us how we should spend our money. 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20220

brettbender 14y ago
So you did not read the article which actually addresses people who make this argument?

tyisathome 14y ago

Link to actual op-ed: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/30/stephen-king-tax-me-for-f-s-sake.html http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/30/stephen-kin...

emilv 14y ago

Why is this showing up in the Hacker News feed?

rsanchez1 14y ago

If he's so anxious about it, why doesn't he just write a check out to the Treasury? Nobody is stopping him from giving more of his money to the government.