baursak

21 ms·

151.
by baursak 9y ago
Not sure what you mean by "Kurds". Why is PKK still a designated terrorist group?
152.
by baursak 9y ago
This literally started a couple of months ago under Trump, along with ending CIA's weapons running program. Here Trump truly deserves credit and outshines Nobel Peace laureate Obama. If he removes PKK from the US list of terrorist grou
153.
by baursak 9y ago
At this point, they are trying to support a secular and a relatively liberal (relative to an alternative) regime against ISIS and other jihadis, yes. To see an alternative, take a look at Libya after Gaddafi where there are literally slave
154.
by baursak 9y ago
The US is literally sponsoring Al-Qaeda and its affiliates in Syria to fuel the proxy war against Russia and Iran and to hinder their fight against ISIS and other jihadi groups. It's 1980s all over again and a 16th anniversary of 9&#x2
155.
by baursak 9y ago
I don't get your point and your focus on inherited wealth vs. entrepreneurial wealth. Even if most wealth in America is not inherited, a wealth tax wouldn't inhibit entrepreneurship. If you have, say a $200K minimum threshold to s
156.
by baursak 9y ago
And yet it's the US where wealth inequality is higher.
157.
by baursak 9y ago
I guess it is. Haven't read Piketty, but from hearsay I thought he argues for wealth tax too.
158.
by baursak 9y ago
Consumption tax is very regressive. We should tax wealth, not income. Eliminate income tax and extend property tax system to all assets, not just real estate.
159.
by baursak 9y ago
Sales tax is overwhelmingly regressive. Instead, having "wealth tax only" would do a lot of good.
160.
by baursak 9y ago
Oh wow, thanks! Apologies to GP.
161.
by baursak 9y ago
Why did you change the original NYT title, which is "Silicon Valley’s Politics: Liberal, With One Big Exception"? What on Earth is "Far Left"? Surely Silicon Valley's politics are nowhere near Marxist or anarchist.
162.
by baursak 9y ago
I wouldn't start taxing any wealth below a certain threshold at all. Like $200K or something. If you buys a bigger house, if equity portion of that house is above a taxable threshold -- say a $1M house, and you have $200K equity, then
163.
by baursak 9y ago
Why would they liquidate their business? I'm not advocating for a 100% rate. If they continuously lose money year after year, then the wealth tax would just be an additional incentive for them to shutdown, yes.
164.
by baursak 9y ago
If you're an owner of an asset, and your primary residence is in the country of wealth taxation, you pay a wealth tax on the value of that asset, no matter where that asset is located. Another problem though is valuation of that asset.
165.
by baursak 9y ago
There's a simple solution to it, no? Abolish all taxes on income, dividends, or capital gains. Introduce a single tax on wealth. Every year tax a certain percentage of one's capital holdings, whether capital gain is realized or no
166.
by baursak 9y ago
> I disagree. I simple flat tax rate where everything is taxed at a single rate would close every single one of the loopholes above, if only by making it moot. Flat tax rate has nothing to do with the loopholes, those are completely orth
167.
by baursak 9y ago
You seem to imply that the government and laws cannot be evil and enforce evil policies.
168.
by baursak 9y ago
As much as I like NPR, my politics have slowly drifted left over the years, and it's amazing how differently the same shows and hosts now sound to me through a more critical filter. To see what I mean, I recommend browsing through htt
169.
by baursak 9y ago
Western guilt about imperialism is not even a mainstream thing. The U.S. media and pundits routinely celebrate American imperialism without calling it so. There are U.S. military bases all over the world, and not many feel any guilt about i
170.
by baursak 9y ago
With existence of antitrust laws, or government regulations in general, it's not really a free market. Both IBM and Microsoft were hit with antitrust issues. Standard Oil or even AT&T are some examples that come to mind. I bet ther
171.
by baursak 9y ago
The bright neoliberal future is here!
172.
by baursak 9y ago
This is very different from what I understood about Vancouver tech jobs. Do you have concrete examples of positions/companies that pay this?
173.
by baursak 9y ago
You're right, capitalism is not a fundamental law of the universe.
174.
by baursak 9y ago
> I don't know what a better way would be, but I'd sure like to see some innovation in that space. Something less cold, something more human. It might help to remember that fundamentally, modern corporations are top-down totali
175.
by baursak 9y ago
Post WW2 the US took over from the UK as the world's empire and a muscle man. That has significant additional costs. If you're arguing that we should cut military spending by 90% to decrease the tax burden, I'm in agreement.
176.
by baursak 9y ago
Any actor that gets powerful enough to influence the government will seek to influence the government to its advantage, such as passing new regulations to prevent competition. If the government is too weak to be of any use the powerful corp
177.
by baursak 9y ago
Your own link disproves your claim that it's now higher than ever before. It was much higher than now up until Reagan neoliberal era that we're still in now.
178.
by baursak 9y ago
You should check out this video: https://youtu.be/TDL4c8fMODk
179.
by baursak 9y ago
Counterpoint: it's not. I can substantiate my counterpoint after you substantiate yours.
180.
by baursak 9y ago
> You can witness the same again when he more recently shrugged off 9-11 because he said, oh, well, the US committed similar atrocity by bombing a pill factory in the Sudan. Citation required. As far as I remember, he clearly called 9&#x

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