Contributors

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Another One Bites the Dust

The father of GOP hopeful Jon Huntsman had this to say, in today's Times, on the subject of the wealthy giving half of their money to efforts begun by Warren Buffet and Bill Gates.

I suggested 80 percent. A tremendous number of wealthy people haven’t given much of anything.

Wait, what? I thought the wealthy were very charitable and money trickled down from them as they sprinkled their magical job beans on all of us peasants. Yet the numbers say otherwise...

Of the world’s 1,200 or so billionaires, Mr. Huntsman is one of only 19, according to the wealth-watch monitors at Forbes Magazine, who have given away more than $1 billion.

I guess Jon Stossel was wrong. Here's something even more perplexing from the article.

Mr. Huntsman, the son of a rural school teacher, built the multinational Huntsman Corporation from scratch starting in the 1970s, a chemical company with most of its operations now overseas. He sympathizes with the Wall Street protesters. The political system, he agreed, is broken. Ethics have foundered.

A business owner sympathizing with the Occupy Wall Street crowd? Holy Shee-Aht!!! I don't get it. I thought any sensible business owner knows that being greedy, hoarding wealth, and creating even greater inequality in this country is the best way to cure our economy. In other words, the GOP platform. I'm shocked, I tell you, SHOCKED, that a man who started his own business actually thinks that the 99 percenters are right. What's the world coming to?

He argues that the rich, if they could be induced to greater generosity — and not simply be more stiffly taxed — could go a long way toward fixing things.

Isn't "induced" simply another word for "forced?" Oh, snap! And, if this wasn't bad enough...

“All men and women need a roof over their heads, and need to be fed and have proper health care,” he said. “I don’t know that I believed that, or even understood that, in the early days.”

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!! NO!!!!!!! Jon....Jon...Jon...now you are talking about (gasp!) wealth redistribution and helping people. Purity test=failed. A pox upon both your vacation homes! You are no longer one of them and are now a Marxist like me.

Another One Bites The Dust.

8 comments:

Larry said...

Even a frickin' tennis coach should know meaning of basic vocabulary, or at least have the brains to look it up:

induce:
1. To lead or move, as to a course of action, by influence or persuasion. See Synonyms at persuade.
2. To bring about or stimulate the occurrence of; cause: a drug used to induce labor.
3. To infer by inductive reasoning.
4. Physics
a. To produce (an electric current or a magnetic charge) by induction.
b. To produce (radioactivity, for example) artificially by bombardment of a substance with neutrons, gamma rays, and other particles.
5. Biochemistry To initiate or increase the production of (an enzyme or other protein) at the level of genetic transcription.
6. Genetics To cause an increase in the transcription of the RNA of (a gene).

[Middle English inducen, from Old French inducer, from Latin indcere : in-, in; see in-2 + dcere, to lead; see deuk- in Indo-European roots.]

Please point out where force or compulsion forms a part of the definition of the word "induce".

Since this gaffe of yours is so jaw-droppingly daft, I won't even take you to task for the strawman arguments in this piece [of what? ed.]that you take so much pride in knocking down. I know they're a lot easier to tackle than people's actual positions, but honestly Mark, such constant use of them is the sign of either a lazy or a dishonest mind. Or both.

Mark Ward said...

Larry, what ever are you going to do if wealthy people in this country band together and demand higher taxes? In some ways, this is already happening.

Larry said...

I'll believe that they're really serious about that when they fire most of their high-powered accountants and tax attorneys, and stop taking every penny of deduction they think they can claim. And when they actually just pay what they already <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/buffett-irs-back-taxes/2011/09/01/id/409520>owe</a> without years of court battle.

Till then, I'm assuming they're they're just crying crocodile tears.

Juris Imprudent said...

Isn't "induced" simply another word for "forced?"

No. And do you know how you might know that? Because in the snippet before...

could be induced to greater generosity — and not simply be more stiffly taxed

Induced is to persuaded as taxed is to forced.

Are you really that stupid, or do you think everyone else is that stupid?

Larry said...

"Yes!" says Marxy Mark.

A. Noni Mouse said...

Are you really that stupid, or do you think everyone else is that stupid?

If you haven't lately, you should check out the cartoon thread. Apparently, in Marky's fantasyland, compulsion isn't actually compulsion. It's truly amazing how far he will go to avoid admitting that he is wrong. (Apparently he prefers looking that stupid, and then some.)

A. Noni Mouse said...

what ever are you going to do if wealthy people in this country band together and demand higher taxes? In some ways, this is already happening.

Yep, guys like the CEO of Solyndra:

It’s too bad Obama never rails against Kaiser, because the well-connected Oklahoma billionaire reported zero taxable income during five years of his rise to the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans. In another year, he claimed on $11,699 in taxable income, which works out to $5.62 per hour.

Kaiser himself claims to be on board with the whole “Buffett Rule” concept, as quoted in Forbes:

I agree wholeheartedly that our tax system is insufficiently progressive. I also agree that the estate tax at levels above $10 million should be retained. Higher tax rates for higher levels of income [up to at least 50%, maybe higher] not only are socially responsible but also would encourage more charitable giving.

Anonymous said...

I want to see these rich liberals start the ball rolling by writing checks to the federal government. Big fat checks with lots of zeroes. At that point, they will have my attention. But until then, they are nothing but noise.