Now that we Amis have a nice tax cut, how to reduce spending to cover it?

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Kidicious

Usually you borrow it or you inherit it. Haven't you heard that the savings rate has been down for about 30 years

Yeah, because all the yuppies are into the "spend spend spend" consumerist mode.

still lucky

Well, you could stretch the argument to say you're lucky because you didn't get hit by a meteorite on the way to work this morning.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Luck is random.

Most risk is not.

Random has nothing to do with it. It's all about market forces and changes in the economy. And of course if you're smarter than the other fellas then you have an advantage, but that's not to say that the smarter guy is always more successfull, because luck is a more significant factor.

[kolpo]

The DNA you are born with is based on pure luck: you could do nothing to change it.

Your succes in the business world is heavily influenced by your DNA, good DNA can make you more intelligent, more persistant, more patient, stronger, allow you to work hard and long with no bad concequences.

So being rich has a lot to do with luck: the luck of getting the right DNA. Isn't it unfair that people get a better live just because they got a better DNA? A thing they couldn't influence? a thing that is out of there hands?

So what at first might appear the result of hard work is actually the result of pure luck: the luck of getting a DNA that allows and encourages the things that make you succesfyll in the business world.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Almost all risks can be insured, mitigated, or hedged against. Understanding market forces, economic trends, etc. isn't about luck, it's about careful and critical analysis. You can guarantee results, but you'll get mediocre results due to all the offsetting hedging and risk management costs, or due so saying "**** it, I'll just buy T-bills."

I like the "law of the seven P's" - a little saying by Master Chief Quartermaster Ev Barrett, one of the Seal Team 2 plankowners. "Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance"

If you do good research and proper analysis of the relevant factors to you investment decisions, identify the risks, assess their probability and magnitude, and develop an appropriate risk-management strategy to balance the types and degrees of risk you're willing to accept, you have a much harder time losing than you do winning. Presuming you're not stupid enough to tie up every asset you have in one transaction or one sector of the economy, in the aggregate, people who do good investment work will not lose.

People who've lost money in the investment business, do so overwhelmingly because of inappropriate strategies or inappropriate level of attention to what they're doing.

[Kidlicious]

kolpo,

That's very social darwinist. Don't you think there are plenty of smart people who choose not to take risks or who take them and lose? And on the other hand, don't you think there are people like Forest Gump who are just plain lucky?

[Odin]

Most rich people are either lucky or inherit the money. The American dream is a bunch of capitalist propaganda, if it was true my parents would be millionares, we make $25,000 per year. it's all luck, Bush Jr. wouldn't of went to Yale if his daddy wasn't rich, he wasn't good enough in school to normally go to Yale. If an idiot like him gets to go to yale I should too!




anyway, here is what I would do to cut spending:


Raise the dividend tax back up.

Cut millitary spending by $200 billion.

End corporate welfare.

Raise taxes on people who make more than 100,000 per year (to 42%).

Stop ALL subsidies, including farmers.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by kolpo
The DNA you are born with is based on pure luck: you could do nothing to change it.

Your succes in the business world is heavily influenced by your DNA, good DNA can make you more intelligent, more persistant, more patient, stronger, allow you to work hard and long with no bad concequences.

There's absolutely no evidence that DNA is responsible in general for personality traits, and it's clear that it's not responsible for learned behavior.

The guy that founded MCI made billions, but croaked at his desk of a heart attack, so so much for no bad consequences. Larry Ellison is a deranged *****, with all the charm of a rabid wolverine, but he's also filthy rich.

So being rich has a lot to do with luck: the luck of getting the right DNA. Isn't it unfair that people get a better live just because they got a better DNA? A thing they couldn't influence? a thing that is out of there hands?

So what at first might appear the result of hard work is actually the result of pure luck: the luck of getting a DNA that allows and encourages the things that make you succesfyll in the business world.

Well, DNA is responsible to the extent that if the suppliers of your DNA come from say, Burkina Faso, you're probably **** out of luck unless you can get somewhere else, or else successfully launch a coup and plunder the country.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Almost all risks can be insured, mitigated, or hedged against. Understanding market forces, economic trends, etc. isn't about luck, it's about careful and critical analysis. You can guarantee results, but you'll get mediocre results due to all the offsetting hedging and risk management costs, or due so saying "**** it, I'll just buy T-bills."

I like the "law of the seven P's" - a little saying by Master Chief Quartermaster Ev Barrett, one of the Seal Team 2 plankowners. "Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance"

If you do good research and proper analysis of the relevant factors to you investment decisions, identify the risks, assess their probability and magnitude, and develop an appropriate risk-management strategy to balance the types and degrees of risk you're willing to accept, you have a much harder time losing than you do winning. Presuming you're not stupid enough to tie up every asset you have in one transaction or one sector of the economy, in the aggregate, people who do good investment work will not lose.

People who've lost money in the investment business, do so overwhelmingly because of inappropriate strategies or inappropriate level of attention to what they're doing.

You're talking about people who have plenty of money already. They have the luxury of diversifying. If I get a loan from the bank to start up a business I have to pour everything I have into it. I can't afford to diversify.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Odin
Most rich people are either lucky or inherit the money. The American dream is a bunch of capitalist propaganda, if it was true my parents would be millionares, we make $25,000 per year.

No offense, but they should have done something else, if making more money was the criteria. I know quite a few people who don't make much money, but they enjoy life, and that's fine.

Nothing in the American dream ever said if you work hard at doing something with little market value, you'll get handed a ton of dough. If you want to make money, you have to do what's in demand, or create new demand in the marketplace.

it's all luck, Bush Jr. wouldn't of went to Yale if his daddy wasn't rich, he wasn't good enough in school to normally go to Yale. If an idiot like him gets to go to yale I should too!

I never bothered to finish high school, and just dicked around with college starting when I was 15, but I never bothered graduating from that either. It hasn't slowed me down. Most likely, it's done the opposite.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Kidicious
You're talking about people who have plenty of money already. They have the luxury of diversifying. If I get a loan from the bank to start up a business I have to pour everything I have into it. I can't afford to diversify.

Sure you can. It's just a matter of how.

If you start up a business on a debt basis, without backing from other sources of income, and without adequate preparation, then yeah, you're lucky if you succeed. Same as you're lucky if you decide to walk across the nearest interstate freeway with a blindfold.

That's not the way to do it.

[Imran Siddiqui]

The American dream is a bunch of capitalist propaganda

BULL! If you can use a personal story to try to say it's wrong, I'll use one to say why it is right . My dad was an immigrant to this country. He had an engineering degree from Pakistan. He couldn't get into any American University for his masters except the University of Wyoming (not exactly sought after). After he got his masters he worked hard. When my brother was born (2 years after me), our family still lived in a 2 room apartment, with no dinner table and not too much furnature.

20 years later, my dad makes around $100,000 a year and we live in a nice big house and living pretty comfortably.

I've seen the American dream come true, and I'm sure it'll work for me too (once I've paid back all my law school loans ).

[MichaeltheGreat]

Tell ya what.

I'm going to head south across the border in a few, after running some errands, so I can check my anti-air defenses and the fields of fire for my heavy weapons, in case you commies try anything.

Come up with a scenario - age, income, background, education, current job, type of business someone wants to start, and I'll illustrate what I mean in terms of a concrete scenario.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat


Sure you can. It's just a matter of how.

If you start up a business on a debt basis, without backing from other sources of income, and without adequate preparation, then yeah, you're lucky if you succeed. Same as you're lucky if you decide to walk across the nearest interstate freeway with a blindfold.

That's not the way to do it.

I'm not sure how you started up your business, but starting up a business that could possibly make you a millionaire takes a lot of resources. If you can pour those resources into your business and still hedge against your business failing you are already rich.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

The American dream is a bunch of capitalist propaganda

BULL! If you can use a personal story to try to say it's wrong, I'll use one to say why it is right . My dad was an immigrant to this country. He had an engineering degree from Pakistan. He couldn't get into any American University for his masters except the University of Wyoming (not exactly sought after). After he got his masters he worked hard. When my brother was born (2 years after me), our family still lived in a 2 room apartment, with no dinner table and not too much furnature.

20 years later, my dad makes around $100,000 a year and we live in a nice big house and living pretty comfortably.

I've seen the American dream come true, and I'm sure it'll work for me too (once I've paid back all my law school loans ).

Thanks for sharing

Don't you think it would be fair for your dad to pay a little more tax than the other folks who are trying to achieve what he has achieved?

[JohnT]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


90% of the rich were born that way.

Cite?