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Posted on 08/25/2008 6:25:45 PM PDT by Kaslin
There are certain laws you can break without serious repercussions, but the laws of economics are far less forgiving. And history shows that we will all pay a hefty fine if lawmakers choose to enact a "windfall" profits tax as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has just proposed and Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama supports.
Talk of a "windfall" profits tax turns up, like a bad penny, when politicians catch on that Americans have become frustrated by high gas prices. The concept is simple: Politicians, who are no more popular than high energy prices right now, see an easy scapegoat. So they slap an extra tax on the "bad guy" and take a bow.
The concept's proponents must be credited for their shrewdness.
Indeed, even calling it a "windfall" tax implies that people or firms have not rightly earned that money.
In a bill earlier this year, 51 senators voted to impose a massive new special tax on energy companies whose profits grew by more than 10% — hardly a "windfall" by most definitions.
As columnist Jonah Goldberg argues, "If we were honest with the people having their profits yanked away, we'd call it the 'well-earned and richly deserved profits tax.' " Many are not so forthcoming.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
The problem seems to be that those advocating the higher taxes believe that “well-earned” profits is an oxymoron. Unless, of course, it’s Nancy Pelosi’s profits.
The problem is that the dems platform is built on almost entirely on class envy (hence BHO’s ad about McCain not knowing how many houses he owned) and if you take that out of their painfully simple equation they're argument would fall apart and they would have nothing to run on!
(At least, there'd be fewer Tom Cruise movies ... and Tom Hanks ... and ...)
Exxon-Mobil’s 1H08 earnings report:
$ 254.9B in revenue
22.57B profit after taxes. 8.9% of revenue
19.8B Income tax
18.0B Sales Tax
23.9B Other Tax
61.7B total tax 24.2% of revenue
For comparison:
IBM 1H08
51.3B revenue
5.1B profit after taxes 9.9% of revenue
Exxon-Mobil is a big company, but they do pay alot of taxes and are comparable in percent profit to other big companies.
This attacking big oil is like the ‘tax cuts for the rich’ mantra the dem’s put out. It sounds good but doesn’t stand up to the math.. But then 90% of the folks won’t do the math.
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed freepmail me or post a message here.
it has nothing to do with “windfall profits”.
it has to do with villifying the oil companies and setting them up for nationalization. (a la maxine waters)
They aren’t the only ones. Check this out from a lowly college student:
“If your point is “The money I make is mine and no one can take it” then you couldn’t be more wrong. Every citizen must give back to the system that gave them a hospital in which to be born, roads on which they can drive, schools in which they can be educated, and so on. Similarly, if you think that everyone should have to pay the same amount of taxes, that’s just ridiculous and you’re dooming thousands, if not millions of people to even further depths of poverty. Besides, you do know that the US mint is operated by the Department of the Treasury, right? Your government actually physically makes the money. It’s theirs to distribute, and theirs to recollect to ensure everyone’s mutual survival.
You propose a system that would make the disparagement between rich and poor is even wider and almost ensure an implosion of social programs and a vast reduction of vital national operations such as the military. Unemployment would skyrocket, the US dollar would plummet, and your economy would falter, throwing into jeopardy the economies of reliant nations.”
I think the only reason taxes are allowed at all is because a lot of people believe the same was as this bozo; that the money belongs to the government and they can do whatever they want with it.
BTW, can you give me an idea as to what this student was responding?
College student? I thought they were supposed to teach those kids how to think? Looks like one of them slipped through the cracks.
It really is kind of frightening.
Me challenging how the government taxes you more as you earn more. My view was that the money a person makes is his/her property.
If you had to listen to as much of his crap as I did, you’d want to strangle him.
“How about proposing a windfall profits tax on actors that make more than $10 million in one year? “
Or universities (”Big Education”) that charge $40,000 per year for tuition?
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