Mr. Spitzer had $80,000 to blow on hookers while I'm struggling to

[hedgehog]

pay tuition, room and board for my kids at state universities.

Is this an argument that there is something wrong with our current tax system?

[aikoaiko]

1. I'm sure the escort service and escort paid their taxes that subsidize state univ tuition

:hi:

[w4rma]

2. Our country is blowing hundreds of billions to kill brown people in other places in the world. (nt)

[selador]

3. not unless

your argument is that the tax system should tax the wealthy (e.g. spitzer) out of their wealth


there's plenty wrong with the tax system, but the fact that a wealthy man has money to spend on hookers is not part of it, imo

i would like a higher minimum wage, and some other changes.

but i don't want the wealthy stripped of their riches

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. I want them to pay higher taxes than they do

as they once did in this country

[slampoet]

20. Why exactly shouldn't the rich be MORE patriotic than the Poor? My taxpayer hero is Elvis.....

This might be BS....but

It is said that Elvis never asked for deductions or tax shelters. He may have paid more taxes than any person before him in US history.

He was TRULY grateful for what America had given him and felt the government should get their share.

His attitude was take all you want taxman, I'll just make more money.




Why aren't Rich People Patriots?


If America is really the land of opportunity
and is a special place in this respect like every free market advocate says...

Then the Rich should be thanking their lucky stars that the USA is here and they should be bending over backwards to give back to the Country.

[JVS]

36. See. Elvis gave freely while those fucking beatles wrote a song bitching about taxes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hYpAYWqiwo

And they sold out by making a cheesy cartoon!

[AlCzervik]

4. he was born into wealth, even he were to pay higher taxes he'd still have $80k

to spend on hookers.

[dysfunctional press]

5. just a note about semantics...

wouldn't it have been the hookers doing most of the blowing...? :shrug:

[ben_meyers]

6. As Sir Winston Churchill is reported to have said...

"Saving is a fine thing. Especially when your parents have done it for you."

-- Sir Winston Churchill, whose extremely well-connected family, no doubt, had rooms full of heirloom silver spoons.

[Warren Stupidity]

8. His daddy is very wealthy

Elliot could waste 80,000 on anything he wanted to waste it on. However your point is correct, working families are struggling to provide the essentials and the elites are blowing a year's salary on hookers. It is bullshit and we shouldn't stand for it. End the war in Iraq and end the military industrial complex's strangle hold on Washington. End the war on some drugs, and end the prison industrial complex's strangle hold on federal and state governments. Abolish the perverted tax cuts for the wealthy and re-institute progressive taxation. Use the money saved to fully fund universal healthcare, universal education through university, and to rebuild our infrastructure so that we have a low-carbon footprint modern economy where we can compete in a world of equals and where we put aside, once and for all, this idiocy of empire.

[Ghost in the Machine]

9. What does anyone elses financial status have to do with yours?

I just don't understand this line of thinking by some people here. Seriously. It's beyond ridiculous. Part of the problem with this country is that too many people spend too much time worrying about what everyone else has, instead of worrying about their OWN lives and how to better it.

Here you are disaparaging someone who was born into a family with money, yet in the same breath you state that YOU are paying for YOUR KIDS to go to college. Shouldn't they be working to pay for their OWN education. That's basically what you're saying about Spitzer, isn't it? That if his family's money had been taxed to death, he wouldn't have had $80,000 to spend on hookers? Why should YOUR kids benefit from YOUR money? Pretty ironic and hypocritical, if you ask me.

[Warren Stupidity]

10. How about we had a tax structure

that supported universal education through university level so that working families wouldn't have to be struggling quite so hard to make ends meet?

If everyone were being taken care of, if we had universal and comprehensive medical care, decent unemployment benefits, universal education, if there were no homeless people because everyone was guaranteed shelter and clothing and food, then yes indeed who cares what the filthy rich waste their loot on? Until then it is just wrong. It is as wrong as bloated CEO salaries, golden parachutes, monstrous mega mansions, private jets, gated communities, oversized everything, the dreary spectacle of conspicuous consumption celebrated by the media drones, the whole 21st Century Gilded Age Madness of which Mr. Spitzer's high end hooker problem is just a minor symptom.

There is a connection.

[Ghost in the Machine]

18. I'm all for fair taxes, but the prevailing mentality that I've seen here is

to tax the rich until they're poor. Education is the main key to ending the cycle of poverty, imho.

Also, all of these companies paying their CEOs all these huge salaries and golden parachute retirement packages should be barred from receiving one dime of government subsidies. The same with the oil companies. If they are unwilling to invest their profits back into their own businesses, they either need to go out of business or change how they do things, not keep sucking off of the government teat of subsidies and corporate welfare.

"If everyone were being taken care of, if we had universal and comprehensive medical care, decent unemployment benefits, universal education, if there were no homeless people because everyone was guaranteed shelter and clothing and food, then yes indeed who cares what the filthy rich waste their loot on?"

We have no guarantees in life, only constants. There is no *guarantee* that the sun is gonna come up tomorrow, but all past actions support the theory that it will. No one, and I do mean NO ONE, is guaranteed at birth to have a home, food or clothing. You have to work for things, not just expect them to be handed to you. If everyone was guaranteed a home, food & clothing, many people wouldn't have much incentive to work, would they?

[slampoet]

23. Once you have three houses, four cars, three boats and your kids education paid how can you possibly

spend MORE THAN A MILLION PER YEAR?


You would have to pick up some dirty habit like going to expensive call girls just to be able to spend a million.


Even if you had a wholesome hobby like say...buying pinball machines for your own private game room.
In just the first year you could buy 500 Pinballs at a grand apiece and STILL have a half million left!!
BTW - 500 pinballs is enough to play for a SOLID WEEK STRAIGHT on just two plays each pinball.




It seems you don't really realize the numbers here.


150 million is enough where you could spend 50 million on setting up your entire realestate and other holding to buy enough housing for all your family forever.

and then you could still live on the 5% INTEREST from the remaining 100 million, and have an income before taxes of 5 million each and every year FOREVER.

Why shouldn't the government be able to take 35-40% of that interest?

3 million is more than ANY Decent Patriotic American should be allowed to have in repeating annual income whether it is from salary or otherwise.



And BTW if you truly are making these large amount from a business isn't spitting in the eye of your investors not to reinvest in the company that has brought you such a bounty?

And why should stockholders be treated with more respect than America?

[Ghost in the Machine]

25. "It seems you don't really realize the numbers here."

It seems that YOU don't really realize the bottom line here. The bottom line is: Stop worrying about what someone else has and start worrying about yourself. It's not your job, nor is it your place, to tell someone else how much money they can make, or what to spend it on. PERIOD.

Some of you people friggin amaze me, you know that? If you aren't happy with your station in life, change stations and change your life. I *could* have gone to medical school. I had the grades & the scholarship offers ... I CHOSE to go into construction instead because, quite frankly, I LIKE working outdoors *and* with my hands. I also like being in different places. Finish one job, move on to the next. The thought of going to the same place day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year is just very unappealing to me... almost sickening. The thought of having to wear a suit and tie sickens me worse, as does the thought of having to shave every day. I can think of 100 things I'd rather do every morning than stand in front of a mirror dragging a sharp piece of metal across my face. I'd rather stick sewing needles under my fingernails...

Again.. the bottom line: worry about yourself and what you can do to improve YOUR life. Don't worry about how much money someone else has, or how they spend it. It's not your place...

[slampoet]

30. I provide Math you just push more opinion. Hokum just doesn't fly.

No wonder you quote Rush like you thought of the words yourself.


If you had gone to Med School you might have taken logic or debate and then maybe you'd see that you're losing this debate. Just because you talk more doesn't mean you are making better points. It doesn't work like that.


If it were not anyones job to tell people what to spend money upon then Elliot Spitzer would still be Governor.


Don't reverse points in mid stream.




Also the 35-50% bracket existed during your lifetime. It is what helped pay for that school you didn't use.

[Ghost in the Machine]

35. You provided math??? What a joke!

You provided nothing more than what YOU perceive that someone can spend THEIR MONEY on. The fact that you added your little equations about houses, cars and pinball machines doesn't mean shit. That's still *your opinion*, not *math*. Your ignorance is astounding.

"If you had gone to Med School you might have taken logic or debate and then maybe you'd see that you're losing this debate."

Speaking of learning "logic & debate", you should try it sometime. The only one "losing" here is you, pal. Learn to keep your nose out of other peoples business and worry about yourself. It's just that simple.

"Just because you talk more doesn't mean you are making better points. It doesn't work like that."

Just because you make asinine comments doesn't mean you have knowledge about what you're talking about. Once again, mind your own damned business and stop worrying about what someone else has. Nosy ass busybodies really annoy me. Worry about yourself, what you've got and what you can do to better your own life.

"If it were not anyones job to tell people what to spend money upon then Elliot Spitzer would still be Governor."

Please tell me you're really not this stupid, that you're just playing stupid on an anonynous internet message board. Spitzer broke a few LAWS and *that* is why he's no longer Governor.


Wait, let me guess... you're one of those "artsy-fartsy" types that's never held a real job in your life and you enjoy whining about "the man" holding you down..... right?? Grow up, would ya... the only thing holding you down is a lack of a work ethic, lack of ambition and the lack of intestinal fortitude to change what you don't like about yourself and your life. Quit whining about other people and worry about yourself.

BTW, I can't "quote" rush limbaugh if I've never read or listened to a word he has to say, so blow it out your ass, pal. You, on the other hand, seem to be intimately familiar with his words and works. Why is that? I bet I know the reason...

I've had enough of your foolishness already...

[slampoet]

24. Please don't use "to tax the rich until they're poor" That is a Rush Limbaugh quote.

It is also a gross misrepresentation of the 40-50% tax bracket.

[CRF450]

33. If my memory's correct, I believe I'v seen many here who uses that same line as well

[CRF450]

32. I'm seing that same attitude too.

I mean come on, whats wrong with having alot of money as long as your making that much in an honest working fashion? That 5 grand for Spitzer on a hooker is like $50 to those who make around $40k per year. Millionaires can spend that much because they can afford to do so and nothing is holding them back, yet theirs also many who choose not to blow money on mansions or huge boats and airplanes because they dont want to live that kind of flashy lifestyle, I wouldn't either but that wouldn't stop me from buying a $75k Corvette, a nice luxury car and bunch of other little stuff to keep me busy when not working.

[hedgehog]

27. I wish I had said that!

[marions ghost]

11. Obscene wealth

and self-indulgence at others' expense...seem to go hand-in-hand, I've noticed.

Spitzer was different from the typical selfish rich bastard because he was doing good works publicly, however hypocritically. But his extra-curricular rewards to himself had negative consequences, just like alcohol, drugs, gambling, and other compulsions. Spitzer's excesses were used against him. It's not fair, because so many others do it, but still not something to be proud of. You can't ignore this kind of self-sabotage in the character of a high public official. There are a lot of other things he could have done with his money that would not harm his family or his constituents. He made some bad choices. It's a good thing this came out before he made it as far as presidential contender. Bad enough in a governor.

[Ghost in the Machine]

19. Exactly... he was acting in a self destructive manner...

but who's to say that if he was just some Joe Schmoe down the block, he wouldn't have blown money on a $20 crack whore? Self indulgence is self indulgence, no matter how much you have or how much you spend...

[VotesForWomen]

13. uh, because the super rich often get super rich by accumulating the wealth generated by the not-so-r

rich. some would say that the workers at the bottom are not sharing equitably in the fruits of their labors.

[Ghost in the Machine]

21. not sharing equitably in the fruits of their labors??

Acceptance of employment is a contract... either written, verbal or implied. If you don't like the terms of it, don't accept it. That's a pretty simple solution, isn't it? Otherwise, you need to start your own business, with your own money, then *you* can decide on how much you want to pay people, and how much you want to share with your employees.

I'm highly skilled in several construction trades, from residential and commercial roofing, to framing, iron working, tile setting, operating cranes & boom trucks, pipefitting, plumbing & installing cental AC systems. I never had to worry about a job back before I became disabled, and I knew how much I could make doing each job. I was usually hired on as a lead man, foreman or supervisor, but I worked right along beside my crews. I showed the owners what I knew AND how I worked. I never asked any of my crew members to do ANYTHING that I wouldn't do, couldn't do or hadn't already done at some point before. I've run multi MILLION dollar jobs. Does that mean I should be entitled to a huge salary or huge cut of the profits? NO! I accepted a job at $15 to $18 per hour, and I did what was expected of me. Period.

Also, in my business I just shut down, EVERY ONE of my employees made money. Me? I LOST $80,000 last year, trying to keep everyone employed and hoping things would turn around. They didn't... and now I'm out of business, broke... and scared for the first time in my life. Should I go tell my employees that they owe me money since they made some and I didn't?? How's that "sharing equitably in the fruits of their labors" sound to you now?? If you worked for a company that lost money, would YOU be willing to pay them back what you got from them?? I didn't think so...

[VotesForWomen]

12. the Gilded Age is back (if it ever left). nt

[genie_weenie]

14. He's in Government the object of political aspirations is

to enrich yourself and your cronies through legal theft and extortion. Look at ** the MIC's choice for Dictator. He has enriched his corporate handlers beyond their wildest expectations.

[Jack Rabbit]

15. Well, you know how it works

Money is power and power corrupts. QED.

[mondo joe]

16. The tax structure is far more obscene than any sex trade.

So yes - the tax system is backward, corrupt and unjust.

All that said, even in a model with what I think is a more just system, there'd still be wealthy people who could toss around 80k.

[JI7]

17. to be fair, he was fighting for people like the rest of us who don't have it all

[Hissyspit]

22. It would interesting to know how much he gave to charities.

Not saying it would justify his actions, but it would put a different perspective on it. His family and he are VERY wealthy.

[JBoy]

26. He was just practicing "dribble down" economics.

ewwww..

[and-justice-for-all]

28. I am quite sure he is'nt the only one...nt

[Xenotime]

29. How is it that these people aren't taxed more? This pisses me off.

[SidDithers]

31. How much was he taxed?...

If you're saying he should be taxed more then you must know how much he was taxed. Right?

Sid

[CRF450]

34. So you want the riches stripped of their wealth?

Even if they worked rightfully hard that money?