Victor Davis Hanson is smiling
Posted on 12/23/2010 6:07:54 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest
Jeffrey Sachs has attacked distinguished military historian Victor Davis Hanson as an "extremist" who "has done more harm to the American people" than any other commentator.
Sachs, a Columbia prof and income redistributionist supreme, launched his surprising verbal assault in commenting on Hanson's National Review Online column, "The Obamites' About-Face." Hanson there makes the case that out of political pragmatism, Obama has flip-flopped on everything from "the environment, radical Islam, taxes, stimulus, the economy, national security" to foreign policy.
View video here.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...
“They don’t want anyone else accumulating wealth.”
:Nodding in agreement: Taxing income keeps the strivers at bay — those noveau riche types who simply can’t be allowed in. Taxing wealth — now that would threaten the trust funds of “our sort of people.” Can’t have that...
I guess that makes me an extremist too because I agree with about 99% of what VDH writes, and no other commentator today can hold a candle to him imho. VDH’s vast knowledge of the history of civilization, and his ability to apply the lessons of the past to our modern times is unparalleled.
You know that in junior high this guy heard “Sachs sucks!” all the time.
He was visiting/speaking at NPS when I was out there and he is a JEWEL!!!!
LOL - Flak ... target.
So basically Sachs is saying that his tiny brain can’t even begin to engage VDH’s actual argument, leaving him with only the ability to make nasty, unsupported attacks on Hanson.
And why is this guy important? The opinions of leftist professors is like the wind out of a duck’s behind.
Outstanding!
Sorry to disagree, but you're wrong -- at least as concerns federal taxes:
When a U.S. person dies, the executor of the deceased's estate pays a federal tax. The heirs pay nothing. In computing the federal tax, neither the IRS nor the executor takes into account the wealth or income of any heir.
The next step is that the heirs or "beneficiaries" will be allowed to share whatever is left over, according either (A) to the deceased's will, or (B) in the absence of a will, according to per stirpes rules in the state or other jurisdiction where the deceased resided.
Now here's the crucial point of distinction between the federal estate tax and an inheritance tax:
Under federal law, the heirs don't owe any tax on what they get. An heir can be the richest person in the USA or the poorest. It makes no difference. Either way, he pays nothing. On the other hand, if we had a federal inheritance tax, then the heirs could be taxed directly -- perhaps on an equal percentage basis, on a "progressive taxation" basis, or even on a per capita basis.
To be sure, in some countries the legal system uses the term "inheritance tax" to refer to what actually is an estate tax. Also, it's certainly common for lay people in the USA to use the terms "estate tax" and "inheritance tax" interchangeably and incorrectly. In other words, confusion is rife.
Finally, there are some states of the USA that levy "inheritance taxes" on heirs -- taxes that are computed after the federal tax has taken its bite from an estate. So if you're a putative heir who lives in one of these states, and if you have a very rich bachelor uncle who's in his nineties, move to Texas or Florida while you still have time!
I saw that while surfing. The man is a first class nitwit. He appeared like a politico groupie fanboy. (mamas don’t let your children watch Bravo channel)
It was PAINFULLY obvious he was spining to fight the truth victor david hanson exposed. Sachs was just justifying the crimes against america done by democrats.
Does anyone know why victor david hanson does not appear on TV?
not even found on c-span.
I’d say Sachs is indulging in what the psychologists call “projection”:
As far as causing human misery is concerned, it was Sachs’s own very bad “expert advice” that contributed mightily to severe economic distress in Poland and the former USSR during the early 1990’s. Hanson has never done anything remotely similar.
Finally someone else is asking that question. The obvious answer is because they want to protect their wealth and keep other people - us serfs - from becoming wealthy and joining their club!
IOW, income taxes and over-regulation serve the same purpose in the US as the ghost cities in China: To use up resources so the ruled don’t become a threat to the ruling. They are Orwell’s “permanent war” set out in 1984: A way to use up the production of modern society and technology so the middles class can’t rise up to their level and threaten their power.
I don’t recognize Jeffrey’s name becuase he has had so little of worth to offer over the years. VDH? Well I am a big fan due to his ability to discern the underlying truths of a subject.
Go back to your academic hole, Jeffrey.
Victor Davis Hanson is smiling
Victor Davis Hanson is smiling
Wait until VDH is in charge of tearing down the current university system and replacing it with a real one. Sacs and his ilk will be strapping on suicide vests and blowing themselves up in auto parts stores and Walmarts to try and intimidate the great unwashed masses into returning to the sheep pen.
This idiot should be the poster child for what's wrong with education and most of the "educated" in this country and he VDH is doing harm? If anyone ever doubted that we need to tear down the current "higher eduction" system in order to rebuild it correctly Sachs and Columbia should sober them up. The the current "higher education" system is turning out blubbering, sputtering, reactionary, little Alynsky clones incapable of rational discussion but well versed in how to spew baseless hate and slander.
What a Christmas present for VDH. A towel boy for Soros, propted up by his millions in donations to his Village projects, decides to slur him on a fringe lefty TV blather show.
Victor gets to write about how the Marxist redistributionists like this guy have spent a century adding to poverty and state inflicted war death — Jeffy’s big cause for a life of franticly sucking up to the UN as the worlds savior.
Some economists waste a good education, Jeffy.
You are right, but now I can’t figure out what the point was that I was remembering and trying to convey. I just read this a couple of weeks ago, and apparently I didn’t understand the entire argument.
On the other hand, I did stumble over several items that suggested that the term “estate tax” was chosen to give the illusion that the tax was on the estate, and not on the heirs. I don’t know why people would call that an illusion, if as you note the tax is irrespective of the number of inheritors or their income/wealth.
As a practical matter, a wealth tax would be way too “expensive” a method to be useful. The death tax costs an enormous amount to determine; taking a full stock of a person’s assets one time at death is bad enough, but an attempt to require such an accounting on a yearly basis would be absurd.
Further, it would be weird. What if one year you are worth “too much” because the value of something becomes overpriced in a bubble, but the next year the bubble bursts? Should you be able to get a “wealth tax refund”?
I think we should do away with the death tax, and replace it with a tax on whatever assets are in an estate that have not previously been taxed, such as the unrealized capital gains on a house, stocks/bonds, and untaxed retirement funds.
Some would add the untaxed life insurance proceeds — that’s not as clear to me since you did pay tax on the money you use to BUY the insurance, and technically the insurance pays out less than it’s cost.
Of course, life insurance companies essentially survive on the money they take in because of the death tax, since it is one way to pass your money on without the death tax rates. If I pay a million dollars to a company to get a 900,000 payoff when I die, that’s only a 10% tax, vs the 35% I’d get under the latest scheme.
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