JW
2K posts
JW
@Alf53_361
Reasonable man, usually. Doing what it takes.
North America Katılım Ağustos 2023
71 Takip Edilen94 Takipçiler
Live webcast of Starship's twelfth flight test starts now
SpaceX@SpaceX
Watch Starship's twelfth flight test twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…
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@AIandDesign @Meta You'd have to acknowledge the possibility that some of those people weren't actually delivering value commensurate with their costs.
Good managers never say "ah we have massive margins and record profits, we can afford to waste money on underperformers."
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I'm not gonna lie, the @Meta layoffs are some of the most dystopian I've ever seen. They got told to work from home, they were sent the emails at 4AM in the morning. Those who weren't impacted have software on their computer that tracks their every move, preparing AI to take their job as well. They're literally training the AI that will eliminate their position as well.
Meanwhile, Meta is raking in RECORD PROFITS.
I am a massive, unapologetic AI enthusiast. Yet, this is NOT the future I had in mind.
I wish for Meta to crash and burn. This is not the way. Literally nobody benefits from this.
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Educated people don't lead with "I don't like (person) because he sucks".
Rational thinkers, when judging someone, try to look at a person objectively, look at his effect on the systems he's involved in, look at the quality of alternatives and their potential effect on the systems involved.
If you believe most US government systems are high functioning right now, efficiently serving the people they work for, and wish to continue the status quo, then by all means condemn the disruption to those systems that Trump has brought.
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Have you considered the possibility that all the educated people oppose Trump because he actually sucks???
Evan 🏛️🪶🌹@Grand_Ole_Evan
I don’t think people realize what an existential threat to civilization this is.
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You will make 50% of voters pure consumers of government welfare programs. Whatever government does for them comes at a perceived cost of zero (because other people pay for it). For them, government welfare programs become a limitless resource, a money fountain. To increase it, they will vote for politicians who promise to increase the amount of money they get. And government efficiency falls off because the pressure from the public to be efficient with tax dollars is lessened by 50%. Now, if voting were restricted to only net tax paying citizens, you might have something, but that's unlikely to ever get passed.
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I would tax folks under $75k at 1%, so they were still tossing in half a week's paycheck… and felt like they were part of the American process.
… but Jeff is correct overall, let the bottom half of earners spend their money and crank the progressive taxation system one or two more turns
Also, it wouldn’t hurt anyone to increase our federal minimum wage by a meager $1 a year for seven years — didn’t do any harm in Australia, the Nordics and New Zealand
Much better proposals than @RoKhanna and @BernieSanders’ wealth seizure taxes
Jeff Bezos@JeffBezos
Thank you. The important part is zeroing out taxes on the bottom half. Best way to put money in someone’s pocket is to not take it out in the first place. Bottom half is only 3% of total tax revenue. But it’s very meaningful to that person. Zero it out.
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Let’s start with you, Melat. IRS agents are going to arrive at your home every April, to find everything that has any value (including your home), tally up the total, and then demand 5% of the total as “wealth tax”. You have a $600k home? $30k in taxes. Your clothes, your jewelry, you kitchenwares, your car. They’ll go through your documents to identify anything you hold in accounts or own overseas. Your stocks, your bonds, your 401k, your IRA, and yes, that little sailboat you keep in Santorini. Every year, until you die. If you can’t pay, they seize it. Just like property tax.
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He’s right bc we tax income, not wealth.
Bezos takes out a tiny salary, pays the income tax, and lives off loans borrowed against his stocks, basically tax free. They all do this and now 935 billionaires hold more wealth than 170 million Americans.
It’s time to tax wealth.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar
Bezos on CNBC: "You could double the taxes I pay, and it's not gonna help that teacher in Queens. I promise you."
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You will make 50% of voters pure consumers of government welfare programs. Whatever government does for them comes at a perceived cost of zero (because other people pay for it). For them, government welfare programs become a limitless resource, a money fountain. To increase it, they will vote for politicians who promise to increase the amount of money they get. And government efficiency falls off because the pressure from the public to be efficient with tax dollars is lessened by 50%. Now, if voting were restricted to only net tax paying citizens, you might have something, but that's unlikely to ever get passed.
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Jeff Bezos with straightforward simple logic.
Bottom 50% pay no taxes + costs government 3%.
Yet 100% life changing for this bottom half of America
A smart and simple approach worth doing.
Jeff Bezos@JeffBezos
Thank you. The important part is zeroing out taxes on the bottom half. Best way to put money in someone’s pocket is to not take it out in the first place. Bottom half is only 3% of total tax revenue. But it’s very meaningful to that person. Zero it out.
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@elivenspire @AezzieUwU Oh dear, didn't bother to look at that profile. My mistake. Best not to engage. So much noise.
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@Alf53_361 @AezzieUwU You're talking to a socialist Democrat. They are the ones pushing the "the GOP hates America for kicking out Massie" talking points.
The same people who kicked out Manchin for not voting to destroy the country are telling Massie morons they need to vote for Dems.
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@DerrickEvans4WV They've closed most of the lumber mills and we import a lot of wood from Canada (where they are also closing lumber mills).
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The price of lumber is outrageous now.
Back in 2020 I was getting a 4x8 sheet of 1/2 plywood for around $12/sheet.
Went to Lowe’s today & it’s now $46.
How are people affording to build homes, or remodel their existing homes?
I’m not sure how this is sustainable.
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You will make 50% of voters pure consumers of government welfare programs. Whatever government does for them comes at a perceived cost of zero (because other people pay for it). For them, government welfare programs become a limitless resource, a money fountain. To increase it, they will vote for politicians who promise to increase the amount of money they get. And government efficiency falls off because the pressure from the public to be efficient with tax dollars is lessened by 50%. Now, if voting were restricted to only net tax paying citizens, you might have something, but that's unlikely to ever get passed.
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I appreciate this sentiment, but I strongly disagree with it. What all research has shown is that there is a *HUGE* psychological difference in people's minds between paying $0 and just a small nominal amount. When you don't pay anything for something, you end up not valuing it at all. As long as we collect revenue for the public services through individual taxation, paying even a small nominal amount by everyone gives everyone a sense of the stake in the system.
Lydia Moynihan@LydiaMoynihan
Jeff Bezos: The bottom half of tax payers pay 3% of all taxes, I think it should be zero.
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You will make 50% of voters pure consumers of government welfare programs. Whatever government does for them comes at a perceived cost of zero (because other people pay for it). For them, government welfare programs become a limitless resource, a money fountain. To increase it, they will vote for politicians who promise to increase the amount of money they get. And government efficiency falls off because the pressure from the public to be efficient with tax dollars is lessened by 50%. Now, if voting were restricted to only net tax paying citizens, you might have something, but that's unlikely to ever get passed.
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I agree that the bottom half of earners should pay zero federal income tax. My reason for it is different: it's about clarifying who pays.
Right now you have tens of millions of people paying painful taxes, and they're under the impression that their taxes make a difference. They assume that the government budget is funded by taxpayers exactly like them, they've been told that the rich aren't paying their fair share, and so forth.
The reality is different: the income taxes paid by these people are negligible (~1.6% of total federal tax revenue). It doesn't really matter. But it has an enormous political impact: they believe that by paying these dollars, they are core contributors, and the outrage press has them believe they're getting short-changed for their contributions. The reality is the opposite, they are net beneficiaries by a long shot.
As usual, there is a huge difference between "almost zero" and "zero" -- taking their contributions down to zero would make it abundantly clear that they are net beneficiaries, pure recipients, not payers. The value that this provides in terms of restoring some sanity to political discourse will probably outweigh the equivalent loss of tax revenue.
Shay Boloor@StockSavvyShay
Jeff Bezos said the bottom half of Americans should pay zero federal income tax. He cited a nurse in Queens making ~$75K and paying ~$12K in taxes saying “we shouldn’t be asking this nurse in Queens to send money to Washington.”
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When you see a Fez… what’s the first thing you think of?
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You will make 50% of voters pure consumers of government welfare programs. Whatever government does for them comes at a perceived cost of zero (because other people pay for it).
For them, government welfare programs become a limitless resource, a money fountain. To increase it, they will vote for politicians who promise to increase the amount of money they get.
And government efficiency falls off because the pressure from the public to be efficient with tax dollars is lessened by 50%.
Now, if voting were restricted to only net tax paying citizens, you might have something, but that's unlikely to ever get passed.
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this is a simple, elegant and very effective idea. take the taxes of the bottom 50% to zero.
Jeff Bezos@JeffBezos
Thank you. The important part is zeroing out taxes on the bottom half. Best way to put money in someone’s pocket is to not take it out in the first place. Bottom half is only 3% of total tax revenue. But it’s very meaningful to that person. Zero it out.
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@JeffBezos No, everyone needs just a little bit of skin in the game to not become a pure-state-welfare-consuming voting block.
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Yes, the United States has the most progressive tax system in the world. The top 1% pay 40% of taxes, the bottom 50% pay 3% of taxes. We can make it even more progressive by zeroing out taxes on the bottom half. It’s a small amount of the total tax revenue but very meaningful to people in this group.
Shay Boloor@StockSavvyShay
Jeff Bezos said the bottom half of Americans should pay zero federal income tax. He cited a nurse in Queens making ~$75K and paying ~$12K in taxes saying “we shouldn’t be asking this nurse in Queens to send money to Washington.”
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@scorinbuffet @GeigerTweeter @DominicJPino Dominance in low cost global shipping = dominance in critical defense components.
Manufacturing in defense is 1000X easier and cheaper when you have a strong manufacturing base doing the low cost stuff.
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@GeigerTweeter @DominicJPino Listen, It's not about dominance in low cost global shipping. It's about not depending on our adversaries for critical defense components. Come to a shipyard with me and tell me we should outsource what we're doing. The type of engineering we docan't be done by data centers.
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Look at all the 🇺🇸 trade that's now happening without the Jones Act in effect.
And the Jones Act fleet is still fully booked. This is all extra shipping, from Americans to Americans, that's happening just because government got out of the way.
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Navy ships have hundreds of crew, so there’s usually a trained barber—or at least one guy who can run clippers without creating a war crime.
Merchant ships have 25 people.
So you get TERRIBLE haircuts.
But I’ve never before seen one bad enough to trigger NATO Article 5.
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@grok Jonathan Turley can’t think of anything more antithetical to the US’s founding in 1776 than barring foreign born citizens from Congress in 2026, 250 years later. Let’s help him. What are some things that are much more antithetical to our founding than this that have been done over the years. Consider our founding principles and how far our government has strayed from them.
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I strongly disagree with the push for a constitutional amendment to bar foreign-born legislators. foxnews.com/politics/mace-… While I have suggested the possible tinyurl.com/f86u4tce, I cannot think of anything more antithetical to our founding than barring foreign-born citizens from Congress. As a nation of immigrants, it is a reaffirmation of our heritage to have these citizens serve in government...
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How does that work?
Are you going to change tax laws, to tax people with yacht-purchasing amounts of money? What if they buy a newspaper instead? Or build a college? Or a hospital? Or a research institute? Or if they buy a business? And then build that business into a profitable one that delivers goods anywhere in the US, in hours or a day or two, and that many people now depend on for daily life, every day, for years? Are you going to tax that money before it’s ever used to build that business? That way, those kids will have $180, or whatever’s left of it after it goes through the government agencies involved.
You’re right though, your way is the high road.
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Jeff Bezos paid $500M for his super-yacht and $75M for his super-yacht’s mini-yacht — both of which he’s allowed to write-off on his taxes.
That alone would cover $180 in classroom supplies for every public school teacher in the U.S.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar
Bezos on CNBC: "You could double the taxes I pay, and it's not gonna help that teacher in Queens. I promise you."
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