Either pay your taxes at your secretary's rate AND give more to charities that fall in line with your ideologies, which you can clearly afford, or don't. But don't bitch about it when you can absolutely do something about it. It's disingenuous.

Well, I agree with his argument that the rich should pay more taxes and I'm glad he made that argument. The fact that his own behavior is arguably inconsistent with his argument doesn't bother me much, as his own behavior doesn't affect the validity of his argument that the rich should be required to pay more taxes.

I dunno--maybe it should bother me more. It's just a gut-reaction (or lack of one) on my part, so I don't know if it's right.

But don't bitch about it when you can absolutely do something about it. It's disingenuous.

I agree that he (and Buffett et al) can and ought to put their money where their mouths are, but I do find some use in rich people saying, "No, really, tax me more, it's cool" as a counterpoint to the "Oh noes if we tax the rich peoples ALL THE JOBS WILL GO AWAY FOREVERS" hysteria.

I guess I'm super prickly about Simmons since he keeps showing up at OWS camps and saying and doing stupid shit.

It's one of those things where I feel, you know, GET OFF MY SIDE.

I'm not asking anyone else to join me in my annoyance. Just venting.

I can finally eat a wrap, but a real sandwich with two pieces of bread is still too much for me.

I can eat more bread than I used to, too - don't know why. Still can't eat a lot. Pepperidge Farm makes Very Thin Sliced bread. It's very thin. 2 slices is less bread than in one regular slice. I started using this for sandwiches. It's nice to be able to eat a sandwich again!

Oh, I totally feel you, Allyson. Smonster has a point, though.

You know, with all the yelling about how we can't cut taxes on high incomes or capital gains (which is where a lot of the income comes from), I look at what these people have and think, "how much is enough?" I'll see stories about people with multiple houses and collections of expensive cars and private jets and paying ridiculous prices for things (someone cited $25,000 for a purse) and I wonder if there's a point at which they stop and think that they don't need one. more. thing.

I find it useful that they say it, but it would be far more meaningful if they said, "and so I make sure my accountants don't use loopholes and then tack on the amount I'd be paying if I were taxed at my secretary's rate, since I believe that's fair. I wish more people in my position would do the same."

I wonder if there's a point at which they stop and think that they don't need one. more. thing.

I've also wondered that. But apparently most wealthy people don't think that way.

In fairness, someone got paid to build the jet. Someone is getting paid to maintain it. When they buy art or shoes made of sapphires, people got paid. Artists are getting paid, as are the people making widgets for jets and yachts. Yay for people getting paid. That's great!

It's not an either/or scenario for the extremely wealthy. They can buy a yacht and pay taxes at a higher rate.

Well, the idea about not raising taxes on the rich is based on the premise that if you raise their taxes, they won't invest in businesses that hire people. However this makes some assumptions:

1. That rich people use their extra money to invest in businesses (and not, for instance, gold coins like Glenn Beck keeps telling people to, or $25,000 dresses).

2. That such investments result in jobs, and not higher productivity through better technology (IOW, fewer employees).

3. That it's rich people's investments that keep the economy flowing, rather than the millions of other transactions that take place every day amongst the other 90% of the population.

4. That money invested by rich people in the economy is better for national productivity than money invested by government.

5. That adding an extra 4% to the top marginal rate will make those so-important investors take all their toys and go home. When in fact the money invested in business is usually corporate profit, not personal income through wages, which is where the top marginal rate hits.

I hope y'all can see where some, at least, of those assumptions are flawed.