KaskadskyjKozak

That is so retarded. When I was growing up we would disappear for hours... and that was a welcome relief to the parents. Our society is so fearful of everything these days. When I was 10 or 11 my parents let me ride my dirt bike through the forest by myself all day. There were no cell phones, either. I'd crash that shit into trees and try to hide the bent levers from my father. Sometimes they weren't even home -- that was the best. Oh the horror! And I bet you didn't even wear a bike helmet!!!

Yeah, those are great "waning" signs of fascism. LOL

That is so retarded. When I was growing up we would disappear for hours... and that was a welcome relief to the parents. Our society is so fearful of everything these days.

wouldn't be suprised - a good cover story if you were freaking out over having kids and wanted to ditch them? sure, but can you really send people to prison for 12 years on that kind of speculation? And then say it's because they camped too close to a river? Weird, isn't it? If there is not more to this story, then it is definitely f-d up.

You look guilty as hell!

Last year I lost my passport and I still got across the border both ways - no problem. I've crossed 3 times in the past year total with not a hitch. You guys ought to consider not wearing a "legalize it" t-shirt on the day you drive across the border. ;-)

Maybe you all just look like guilty and shit.

That's simple: cc.com is one giant sausage party. ;-)

The plot "... top statutory tax rate" is misleading. In the 40's the rate may indeed have applied to folks making a much higher income, however, at that time there were many more than just a half-dozen or so marginal rates. I'll bet if you looked at the income for those being taxed at the 5th or 6th rate (whatever the 35% rate currently is) you'd see something much more like a straight line going across.

+1 and post the youtube here, p-wookster!

Holy shit! I agree with everything you said. I'm pouring an aberlour now and toasting you Minxie!

World's biggest scam? Please explain. One thing many of us can do is refuse to work for a company where the execs make 20+ million and go to a smaller company where the disparity bettween the rank-and-file and the top brass is smaller. Sounds great! Are you hiring? Yes, PM if you are seriously interested.

I dunno, I also have health care but I'm still pissed off that the extreme rich have pulled off the world's biggest scam on the rest of us. World's biggest scam? Please explain. One thing many of us can do is refuse to work for a company where the execs make 20+ million and go to a smaller company where the disparity bettween the rank-and-file and the top brass is smaller.

Nice. I have an original pair of the schoeller ones that came out around '04. I lost a few inches around the waist that year and ended up never wearing 'em again, so I may check these out (in medium) :-)

How will rolling back the Bush tax cuts affect you? Because the rich will actually have to pay there share and the will pass is down to you....trickle down? Because my marginal rate went down like all the rest did. DUH!

you assume wrongly - assuming my janitor is making a living wage, i'm pretty much happy to be making a mere 2x that I'm all for less administrators and layers above teachers, and more base salary for the rank-and-file (with pay increases every year to at least match inflation) But wait Rob or j_b probably say I don't really believe that.

zip-off legs would be even better.

Morons! People who don’t have money don’t understand the stress,” said Alan Dlugash, a partner at accounting firm Marks Paneth & Shron LLP in New York who specializes in financial planning for the wealthy. “Could you imagine what it’s like to say I got three kids in private school, I have to think about pulling them out? How do you do that?” I think the rich have all kinds of stress and pressure that I'd care not to have - much of it is self-induced, but a lot is due to realities of what their jobs and relationships and obligations demand.

Every time I hear talk about rolling back Bush tax cuts or raising the marginal rates, I know exactly who that will ultimately affect - me and everyone else in the lower 90% of those actually paying taxes. The rich will get away scott-free. You want to convince me? Modify the AMT to progressivly notch up the minimum absolute tax rate on the wealthy. After computing taxes, you take a person's total income (including cap gains) and if it exceeds various thresholds, the minimum tax is an absolute percent of said income. Example for the dense here: say a guy makes $500K in salary, cap gains and whatever else, and then leveages deductions to only pay 10% of total income. Well, there is one new final step I am propsoing where the IRS says, sorry, you made $500 and the minimum tax for you is 15%. The guy that makes $1 million? 20%. Etc. As for Warren Buffet, I say tax that loud mouth at 90% :-)

The rich keep getting richer. True. But is it not a part of our cultural values here in America now for each guy to grab as much as he can? Whether it be a CEO, a movie star, a top-tier athlete, or a university President - don't they all demand a "competititve" salary with all the perks possible - even if that is 1000x what the guy at the bottom of the organization makes? It hits all levels of our society - fuck humility or moderation - get all you can - you deserve it and the next guy has it! If we really want to "fix" this, it needs to come from a paradigm shift in our culture and values. Maybe OWS can start to affect this - that's about the only way I could see some of the change they demand actually happening.

Sounds like you agree with me. IN GENERAL, Conservatives tend think rich people got there because of their own hard work, or at the very least that they deserve their good fortune. And certainly I've met enough rich people to know that hard-work is definitely the secret-sauce for success, but also it requires a certain amount of good fortune that many people are simply born without. Many of our most successful entrepreneurs would have been miserable failures had they been born without certain advantages. So many people are born with an amazing legacy which conservatives tend to discount -- they associate personal success with financial success more than I think is appropriate. Had I been born to a completely different legacy with different parents and different values I may have ended up one of those guys begging at a freeway on-ramp. Republicans tend to assume all americans have equal opportunity, and therefore rich people deserve their good fortunes. They tend to assume that the poor are there because of "their own poor choices." They tend to believe that merit and personal ability are the deciding factor for success. It's a cute idea, and I hear you and other conservatives make this argument ALL THE TIME, so it's amusing to hear you reject it while basically confirming it at the same time. Additionally, conservatives tend to be much more likely to assume the poor are simple "milking the system" and are more likely to use words like "welfare moms" and tend to be more distrustful of public assistance. This is because they think that success is defined by one's actions. In a large degree this is true, but not as much as they think. Conservatives also tend to refuse to accept that our capitalist system ensures that there will always be poor people. But of course, this is true. After all, the majority of people -- by definition -- cannot be above-average. If everyone were rich, nobody would be. I would much rather see conservatives admit that our capitalistic system ensures a certain percentage of underprivileged wage-earners but attempt to argue the poor are better off than in other economic systems. But, that would assume a level of non-bias that you just don't see these days. work on your listening skills and stop broad-brushing troking and attributing opinions and I might respond to you. later.

wrong. that's not how "they" think, but if it is easier for you to live in that myopic world-view, have at-it! Sorry kkk.....that is pretty money if you ask me. I have conservative friends and they think that exact way. It almost sounds like them exactly. I'm not gonna argue endlessly with you or Rob, but take this one part to start with "conservatives wrongly assume that rich people got rich on personal merit alone" Firstly "conservatives" don't all think exactly the same way, so Rob's comment sorely needs qualification. Secondly, many (most? a majority of?) conservatives don't make this point at all. The point I hear is that many who have succeeded have earned their success through hard work, rather than just sitting on their ass doing nothing (what many left-wingers state openly if not imply indirectly), or by just being "lucky", or by inheriting their wealth ("the silver spoon" argument). There are ample stories of US millionaires who started out poor and worked their way up from nothing. Sure, there are folks who inherit a fortune (e.g. the Kennedies ;-0 ) and those that just get lucky, but they are not the majority. Indeed many children of the rich end up being zeros, and once you go down a couple generations wealth tends to dissipate in families pretty quickly. Many conservatives also argue that in America we all have an *opportunity* to succeed. That is a far cry from claiming *anyone can do it*, yet alone guarantee outcomes. And what conservatives I know resist the most is the idea that it is the governments job to try to guarantee outcomes - primarily by wealth redistribution.

hmmmm, sounds kind of like the Tea Party, but with less political success. yes, and that comparison was made a lot during the reporting of OWS protests.

wrong. that's not how "they" think, but if it is easier for you to live in that myopic world-view, have at-it!

OWS folks have some legit gripes.