>>>By the way, I don't want to see ANY tax money going to subprime, on either side of the transaction.<<<
I have no problem in throwing predatory lenders in jail. In fact I have a problem with not throwing them in jail. If we need tougher criminal laws, so be it. As a practical matter, it is very hard to throw business management in jail....deleted emails, pleas of "I forgot,"...no trails leading back to management...."I was only following orders,"..etc. (BTW - there is an awful lot of that going on within the government WRT the oil royalty case.)That doesn't mean that we shouldn't try. I understand that Sarbanes Oxley is driving a lot of business away. This is genuinely a tough problem to solve. I am not apologizing for anybody. It is a very tough problem.
I don't want to see any bailouts.
Rich getting richer??? I posted the other day a William F. Buckley piece stating that topmost 5% of the society pays 45% of the taxes. (It may have been 55% - I can't recall, but lets leave it at 45%.) How much should the rich be taxed??? Shouldn't there be a number we can fix and leave it at that point??? Is it 55%, 65%, 75%??? What is moral?? The constitution states that "axes should be equal." A later amendment basically says that congress can impost taxes it any matter it feels justified.
The Bible says that there will always be poor people.
Lets face it. Intelligence is distributed along a "Bell Curve." I think that common sense is a well. I also suspect that "luck" follows the same rules. Not all smart people have common sense. Not all successful people are smart or well educated - think Dominoes Pizza or Bill Gates. Does Forest Gump luck happen in real life??? This all leads to a joint money distribution curve which is also Bell shaped, and always will be.
Proletariat revolutions??? Sure it can happen, and has many times. Sen Mendenez of New Jersey habitually fans the flames. He loved to talk about oil companies "ripping America off." It buys votes.
I have read many an economist proclaiming that while the wealth gap is growing, the "poor" in fact are enjoying a much higher standard of living than 40 years ago. The rising tide does lift all of the boats - maybe not equally.
The wise rich understand that what goes around comes around, and that profits must be earned. Ken Lay was not an example of one of them. Those sort of shenanigans hurt everyone and are bad for all business.
I learned about stocks and bonds in the 7th grade. If I got out of line in school, I would be put down quickly and in a measure according to my offenses. My parents would apply additional correction as they saw fit. They never sued the school. No one was worried about my self esteem. Or perhaps it was the opposite. Because they were worried about my self esteem, they wouldn't take any s&*t from me. |
