U.S. House passes estate tax repeal

a reply to: mikell

At that rate you're looking at 540 acres in land alone, the average farm size in the US is 440 acres. We're not necessarily talking about regular farmers though, we're talking about 5400 families in the entire US. We're talking about the Walton's, the Hilton's, the DuPont's.

You, and others, are trying to make this an 'every man suffers' argument, where everyone is afflicted by this estate tax...but that's not remotely true when 0.2% of all taxpayers or just 5400 families are affected. On top of that it's a progressive tax extending from 7.7% up to 40%, so even if you barely meet the requirement for the tax to kick in you're looking to lose .4 of that $5.4 million. That's still five million to do as you please.

originally posted by: links234
a reply to: mikell

At that rate you're looking at 540 acres in land alone, the average farm size in the US is 440 acres. We're not necessarily talking about regular farmers though, we're talking about 5400 families in the entire US. We're talking about the Walton's, the Hilton's, the DuPont's.

You, and others, are trying to make this an 'every man suffers' argument, where everyone is afflicted by this estate tax...but that's not remotely true when 0.2% of all taxpayers or just 5400 families are affected. On top of that it's a progressive tax extending from 7.7% up to 40%, so even if you barely meet the requirement for the tax to kick in you're looking to lose .4 of that $5.4 million. That's still five million to do as you please.

Are you a farmer?

Anyone in your family a farmer?

It's the home grown and family farms that will keep Americans fed! Not the commercial corporate farms that promote and grow GMO crops!

So this tax already exists.

How come poverty keeps rising exponentially?

Why has government failed so badly?

Says it all really

a reply to: Aloysius the Gaul

In Monopoly, you're not given anything. You have choices....buy or don't buy, invest or pass it up for someone else to purchase, improve your property's value or don't. It is your choice, your skill, your intuition that determines your success or not.

originally posted by: queenofswords
a reply to: Aloysius the Gaul

In Monopoly, you're not given anything. You have choices....buy or don't buy, invest or pass it up for someone else to purchase, improve your property's value or don't. It is your choice, your skill, your intuition that determines your success or not.

Actually everyone is given the same amount of money at the start to buy property. The rules also apply to everyone the same as well. In other words the game is set up to be fair for all players without any advantages to anyone at the start of the game.

Ever wonder why they do it like that??? It's because playing the game where someone has an major advantage already means they will most likely win and nobody else would want to play. In fact, there would be no point in playing if it started off unfair.

Oh, I understand now.

Life is supposed to be fair!

Rich people shouldn't have children who inherit wealth. Their children should start at the same level as everyone else.

Either everyone goes to college, or no-one goes.

No-one can be smarter or more ambitious than anyone else either.

That would be unfair.

originally posted by: Aloysius the Gaul
Says it all really

Possibly one of the most ridiculous comparisons to the topic I could ever imagine !

The game of Monopoly is a dice game based on odds.

originally posted by: mOjOm

originally posted by: queenofswords
a reply to: Aloysius the Gaul

In Monopoly, you're not given anything. You have choices....buy or don't buy, invest or pass it up for someone else to purchase, improve your property's value or don't. It is your choice, your skill, your intuition that determines your success or not.

Actually everyone is given the same amount of money at the start to buy property. The rules also apply to everyone the same as well. In other words the game is set up to be fair for all players without any advantages to anyone at the start of the game.

Ever wonder why they do it like that??? It's because playing the game where someone has an major advantage already means they will most likely win and nobody else would want to play. In fact, there would be no point in playing if it started off unfair.

By the same token, in the ridiculous analogy of the game of Monopoly, if you make poor decisions, lose money, pass up opportunities, get thrown in jail, and fail to manage your investments properly, should everbody else be responsible for you or feel guilty because they got ahead in the game and you didn't?

People need to stop worrying about everybody else's success and focus on what they CAN do to help themselves and THEIR family. The government needs to keep their hands off family assets already acquired. It's not theirs to tamper with. It belongs to the heirs.

originally posted by: beezzer
Life is supposed to be fair!

I was just correcting queenofswords on the rules of Monopoly.

Life is a different game all together.

originally posted by: queenofswords
By the same token, in the ridiculous analogy of the game of Monopoly, if you make poor decisions, lose money, pass up opportunities, get thrown in jail, and fail to manage your investments properly, should everbody else be responsible for you or feel guilty because they got ahead in the game and you didn't?

I don't know. I always played Battleship instead.

People need to stop worrying about everybody else's success and focus on what they CAN do to help themselves and THEIR family. The government needs to keep their hands off family assets already acquired. It's not theirs to tamper with. It belongs to the heirs.

Yeah. Screw all you people!! I'm here for me and mine because that's what it's all about!! F*ck all you losers who can't hack it. When I'm rich I'm gonna crush all of you and repopulate the globe with only my bloodline!! Mmmwwwwwaaaaahhhahhhahha

Some of you are so serious. Anyone up for a game of shoots and ladders???

a reply to: mOjOm


It always amazes me that people who advocate against the death tax, unfair taxation, or simply advocating for keeping what a family has worked for are portrayed by others such as yourself as just wanting to screw others and keep it all for themselves. Ridiculous! That says more about you than anything else.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with accumulation of generational wealth

The founding fathers came here to get away from generational wealth and it's despotism.
The Republicans of course don't see anything wrong with tyranny.

originally posted by: CB328

I see absolutely nothing wrong with accumulation of generational wealth

The founding fathers came here to get away from generational wealth and it's despotism.
The Republicans of course don't see anything wrong with tyranny.

What a load of crap. have you been checked for tourettes?

originally posted by: CB328

I see absolutely nothing wrong with accumulation of generational wealth

The founding fathers came here to get away from generational wealth and it's despotism.
The Republicans of course don't see anything wrong with tyranny.

And I thought it might have had something to do with taxation.

a reply to: CB328

Where the hell did you learn history?

Maybe there is something to fluoride and GMOs making people stupid

a reply to: queenofswords

You obviously didn't pick up on how over the top I was in my post. I thought you would notice that I wasn't being serious. You, however are very serious about this topic. So let me get serious for a second.

First of all I don't like unfair taxation any more than you do. Second, what you consider "a family keeping what they worked hard for" isn't really the case. If the person who earned that wealth directly is the one passing it on, they're dead and can't keep anything. The heirs who get it in most cases are just getting it for no work at all.

But even that isn't important. I actually agree with you in principle that the Gov. has no business taking what isn't theirs. However, principles do not always apply correctly in reality because they are often way too simple when applied to our complex reality. So while in principle I might agree with you 100% in reality I think there are some very good and logical reasons for The Estate Tax. Here is a list of 10 of those reasons.

On a side note I find it interesting that you are so passionate about something that doesn't involve you anyway. Or are you one of the .2% that this would actually apply??? Or is it that you just hate all taxes??? Or that you think the super wealthy can't afford some taxes like the rest of us normal people who don't constantly get Tax Breaks that the rich always get??? Or is it something else???

originally posted by: queenofswords
a reply to: Aloysius the Gaul

In Monopoly, you're not given anything. You have choices....buy or don't buy, invest or pass it up for someone else to purchase, improve your property's value or don't. It is your choice, your skill, your intuition that determines your success or not.

Way to utterly miss the point!!

originally posted by: FyreByrd


I'll look up more specifics when I get in this evening.

And you can find the particulars of the original Conneticut Compromise that gave us the bi-cameral congress and the act that set the congress at 435 members.

history.house.gov...

But the original intent - that of resprestation by poplulation (therefore setting population as the standard for service to private real persons) is incoded in the contitution.

As a side note - the permanent apportionment act 1929 (interesting timing) also sets precedence for changing the intent (real or imagined) of the constitution.

originally posted by: queenofswords


And we all know it takes three government employees to do the work that one should be doing. Walk into any federal agency office like the IRS or HHS in a major metropolitan area and observe. It is virtually impossible for one to be fired for lack of merit or for their inefficiency and corruption.

Our tax dollars are not being managed efficiently and it is time those who pay more than their fair share say enough is enough. Stop treating us, the taxpayers, like your own personal money tree.

Do you have any scientific support for your wild supposition?

Any historial data, any first hand emperical data, any comparisons between private and government performance by individals doing the same tasks.

Something like this from the universally respected newspaper The Christian Science Monitor (with embedded link to the referenced study):

www.csmonitor.com...

“The study found that in 33 of 35 occupations, the government actually paid billions of dollars more to hire contractors than it would have cost government employees to perform comparable services. On average, the study found that contractors charged the federal government more than twice the amount it pays federal workers.”

Now are you telling me that private workers are superhuman and that one of them can do the work of three government employees, don't expect me to believe (and I would hope others reading this thread) it based on your say-so without any kind of support whatsoever.

Read the some more on the subject ... then we'll talk about 'cost effectiveness'.