Buffett, 3rd richest man in world, pays lower

Even he see the unfairness here.  Some conservatives are fond of saying that Democrats want to tax the wealthy unfairly, but what I would like to see is the wealthy taxed equally.  "Mr. Buffett said that he was taxed at 17.7 per cent on the $46 million he made last year, without trying to avoid paying higher taxes, while his secretary, who earned $60,000, was taxed at 30 per cent."  Here is the entire article.  It's a great read.  Trust me.

Tom Bawden in New York

Warren Buffett, the third-richest man in the world, has criticised the US tax system for allowing him to pay a lower rate than his secretary and his cleaner.

Speaking at a $4,600-a-seat fundraiser in New York for Senator Hillary Clinton, Mr Buffett, who is worth an estimated $52 billion (£26 billion), said: “The 400 of us [here] pay a lower part of our income in taxes than our receptionists do, or our cleaning ladies, for that matter. If you’re in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.”

Mr Buffett said that he was taxed at 17.7 per cent on the $46 million he made last year, without trying to avoid paying higher taxes, while his secretary, who earned $60,000, was taxed at 30 per cent. Mr Buffett told his audience, which included John Mack, the chairman of Morgan Stanley, and Alan Patricof, the founder of the US branch of Apax Partners, that US government policy had accentuated a disparity of wealth that hurt the economy by stifling opportunity and motivation.

The comments are among the most signficant yet in a debate raging on both sides of the Atlantic about growing income inequality and how the super-wealthy are taxed.

They echo those made this month by Nicholas Ferguson, one of the leading figures in Britain’s private equity industry, when he criticised tax rates that left its multimillionaire venture capitalists “paying less tax than a cleaning lady”.

Last week senior members of the US Senate proposed to increase the rate of tax that private equity and hedge fund staff pay on their share of the profits, known as carried interest, from the 15 per cent capital gains rate to about 35 per cent.

Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, acknowledged in an interview yesterday that there were justified concerns about the huge profits generated by private equity firms and that he worried that income inequality was “poisoning democracy”. He also said that he would be voting for the Democrat candidate at the next election. Mr Blankfein is the highest-paid executive on Wall Street, earning $54 million last year.

Mr Buffett, who runs the investment group Berkshire Hathaway and is widely regarded as the world’s most successful investor, said that he was a Democrat because Republicans are more likely to think: “I’m making $80 million a year – God must have intended me to have a lower tax rate.”

Mr Buffett said that a Republican proposal to eliminate elements of inheritance tax, which raises about $30 billion a year from the assets of about 12,000 rich families, would broaden the disparity between rich and poor. He added that the Republicans would seek to recover lost revenue by increasing taxes for the less prosperous.

He said: “You could take that $30 billion and give $1,000 to 30 million poor families. Or should you favour the 12,000 estates and make 30 million families pay an extra $1,000?”

• Buffett, 3rd richest man in world, pays lower - tax rate than his secretary. (kam)
  • Forgot to post a link in 1st post. Sorry. - kam

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companies.  There was one company out there advertising 3 cpl for ASR.  Their add said they need MTs who can "hit the ground running."  It was on MTdaily a few days ago.  There should be "ASR control" where they can't continue to lower our pay.  Remember years ago when people voted for "rent control" and won?  Time to sign those petitions for "ASR control."

Imagine what these companies are making off ASR.

...we have hired them to handle certain management tasks with OUR money. 

We have grown too large to defend the country with just a militia. We have high-rise buildings and can no longer get by with volunteer fire departments.  We need street crews because we have too much roadway, highways and freeways, and no longer can simply neaten up the road that runs past our property.  We produce far too much trash to simply take it out back and burn it (if that were even still legal in some areas.)  Some elements of modern life have grown just to large and complicated to handle on our own.

We have a system of compulsory schooling now that is doing SUCH a great job educating our children.  Kids were far more literate and better educated when the bulk of their learning occurred in the home.  Read anything written by John Taylor Gatto - Weapons of Mass Instruction is his most recent book - about the origins of public education.

I quote here what was in an earlier post:  *If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait until the government gives it to you for free.*  What the government dispenses, the government rations.  Do you really want a government bureaucrat in control of whether you get surgery or some diagnostic test your doctor says you need?  Bad enough you have to fight about it with your insurance company now.  You really want to turn this over to the government?  Really?

They certainly must for so many MTs to be all atwitter over this plan.  Fred Thompson said it perfectly last PM. 

So those "moneybags" need to stop griping about MQ and how crappy it pays.  You think you have less in your pockets now?  You think this crap he's promising is free?  How ignorant!

Very, very contradicting to me.  Obama changing a lot of what he said lately and it gets worse.  He wants us to vote early and take off from work Nov. 4th to help him win.  Fox news also reports Obama and his campaign lays out plans to kill expectations after win because of concerns that many supporters are now harboring unrealistic hopes of what can be achieved.  What the heck?  Now he says, "it will be hard to achieve goals and will take time."  He says one thing and then says another.  I want to know where these unauthorized credit cards came from for his campaign.  I want to see his birth certificate that he cannot cough up and there is a petition out and he is under investigation if he was truly born in the good ole USA.  Call your State Department and they will tell you there is an investigation and they trying to get this resolved before Nov. 4th.  So much uncertainty.   Hope I do not offend anyone, but just like a bumper sticker I read

I'll keep my God, my freedom, my guns, and my money, you can keep THE CHANGE.  VOTE FOR MCCAIN/PALIN.

is this country coming to?????  For goodness sake!  I did not vote for Obama, but the man is human.  I was nervous.  Good grief!!!  He is about to take a very big step in his life with responsibility that most of us in our right minds would not take.  He looked nervous and excited to me coming towards the steps, and I am sure he was very nervous when he was being sworn in.  I wish you people would just grow up. 

Many of you sound like high school girls - - did you see Michelle's dress.... blah, blah, blah.....  Bush had an embarrassed look on his face..... blah, blah, blah.....

GROW UP!

have to be politically correct at all times.  Many people are sensitive about their children with disabilities.  I could see where his comment could be offensive.  However, it does not personally offend me and I have an autistic son myself.

I think a lot of people need to simmer down.  Yes, it was a bad joke and he probably should not have said it, but his main point was that he sucks at bowling....nothing more. 

Political correctness has really hurt our country.  Any time someone says anything about color, sex, or race.....certain people will jump up and scream about it.  Being the president, you are under a much bigger magnifying glass.

It is my opinion that he probably shouldn't have said it....but it isn't the end of the world.  However, I'm sure if this had been Bush's goof.....the liberal media and dems would all be screaming about it. 

this going to boost the economy?  Joe Biden said yesterday that he would tell his family not to go anywhere in confined spaces like airplanes, subways, etc.  The White House had to back peddle and rephrase what he said but I personally agree with Biden.  You won't see me flying anywhere, etc. until I know for sure how serious this is.  Less people are flying.  No one is flying to Mexico.  Do you know how devastating this will be to airlines, etc. if more and more people don't fly because of this?  The airlines are already hurting.

Blame Mexico?  It is true that this started in Mexico, but things happen.  I don't hate Mexicans.  I'm just tired of paying for illegal ones.  I don't blame them for this flu.  It could have started anywhere, etc. and as much as people travel...something like this was bound to happen some time.

I think your post sounds more like a conspiracy theory and I don't get into those.  Besides, we have no vaccine for this.  Money may have been given for research into a new flu vaccine but there is currently no vaccine for swine flu.  So I really don't see where you get that we got a vaccine and now all of sudden....boom....everyone has the swine flu.

This is something that cannot be blamed on the current administration.  I personally don't like the idea of Obama having been in Mexico with this all going on but we didn't know at the time.  I personally feel that Obama has handled this swine flu thing well.  He has tried to be informative yet to keep people from panicking at the same time.  I personally do not feel that this is something we can hold over Obama by saying he hasn't kept us safe because the swine flu is in the US.  I think that is just insane to say.   Besides, the normal flu strain kills thousands of Americans each year and no one thinks a thing about that.