General Politics Discussion (IX) [ARCHIVED] • Page 137

I tried chocolate-covered insects back in high school. They were fine.

I've also had alligator, beef tongue, kangaroo, ostrich, snake, sweet-breads, and wild boar.


EDIT: I'd probably eat any of them before I eat Chipotle again.

 

I would NEVER eat a soy bean >:( soybeans are socialist gay islamic propaganda!!!

 

Soyboy remains one of the funniest insults ever. There's no circumstance where I would be able to contain my laughter if someone called me "Soyboy".

 

I eat bugs all the time.

 

how about soy boy beta cuck

 

Hbomberguy's videos on the SoyBoy myth are great:

 

96

 

I tried giraffe once; it was kinda dry

 

Now I’m genuinely curious as to how this came to be

 

Even better

 

We have an international market here in Minneapolis, and I went there once (this was years ago) with some friends and they had an African food stall (can't remember what country, if any, it was highlighting), but giraffe was on their menu, so I was like, "why not?"

 

Bugs were a staple of actual paleo diets

 

Ok, so the ProPublica article about IRS leaks of billionares tax returns is circulating, and I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around it. The author claims that Gates, Bezos, et. al. pay 'less' in taxes when calculating an effective tax rate based off of non-fungible asset valuations (stocks, property, goods, etc) and seem to support a wealth tax that would tax non-fungible assets.

However this portrayal in my mind conflates income and assets, particularly those assets that people don't sell. Do these assets include 401k balances? Would people need to pay taxes on 401k balances as they grow in the account? It seems that saying "Someone's account grew $11B, but they only paid $2MM in taxes" is not the whole picture. While the article delved some into why this system is in place the way it is, I'm not sure it accurately expressed the initial hesitation against taxing assets before they are exercised/sold for cash. Imagine you bought Bitcoin for $1.00, and now it's $50,000. You decide to still hold it after Dec 31. At tax day, you're required to pay taxes on that $49,999 gain, but you don't have cash. Meanwhile, perhaps the value dropped back down to $1.00. So you can't even sell it to pay the tax, you just have the tax bill.

I'm sure this is not how it's meant to play out, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how this is supposed to work. And if it's not, then what exactly are those who are outraged, proposing should be done? It seems like outrage for outrage's sake.

Seriously: I'm sure I'm missing something. I mean, I'm not Jeff Bezos, but the principals outlined in this article on how to use tax avoidance strategies are how my wife and I have a zero percent effective tax rate. We max out retirement accounts, we have 3 dependents, and our aftertax money beyond our emergency fund and expenses gets put into an after-tax brokerage account in index funds. And we're not making big income per year... less than $100K. Is this immoral for me to do?

The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax — ProPublica

 

I’ll accept this

'Redneck' TikTok user sets fire to Confederate flag in viral video

 

Not at all immoral for you to do, but comparing your financial situation to billionaires is apples and oranges. I don’t have any more nuanced take than that. Good questions though.

 

Yes we should be taxing a billionaires’ assets, we should be doing everything we can to take back as much as possible. To compare their situation to anyone making less than 100k is not helpful, it isn’t remotely comparable. we aren’t them

 

Rest in piss. Also, fuck Obama for his weak handling of the protests

 

They dream so big when the alternative is losing that oil money

 

Late to the party but everyone saying they have to go so far for authentic Mexican food…I have to drive 15 miles for a damn gas station

 

I had the same reaction. I'm not saying there isn't room for tax reform, but it's honestly a really weird article that seems to lack, like, basic financial literacy. I'm surprised more people aren't picking it apart.