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[arab]

Tom Perkins and Self-righteous Gaffer are living together in an apartment. They go to the grocery store. Tom Perkins pays for 99% of the groceries and Self-righteous Gaffer pays for 1% of the groceries. Should Self-righteous Gaffer really get to choose 50% of the food? That doesn't seem fair.

this is the dumbest thing i have read in a while.

billionaries don't pay 99% of taxes already thanks to tax breaks, offshore bank accounts and other shelters for their income. second, a tax on a billionaire's income is a much smaller percentage of that income than the average american.

what the fuck are groceries supposed to be analogous to, anyway?

 

[Zaphod]

Not in Canada. Not by a long shot. In that sense I agree with the first part of his sentiment, even if it's not directed towards Canada. I won't dignify the other part with a response. Having said that, the idea that corporations (ie. Small businesses) should also get a vote is not something I'm opposed to either, as a small business operator.

So you guys don't pay an auto tax or sales tax or gas tax or alcohol/cigarette tax or any of the other typical taxes? Why should your choice of occupation net you extra votes?

 

[Aylinato]

Base it on IQ score, that way he gets 0 votes.

I couldn't deal with that much pressure

 

[jim-jam bongs]

So basically save all the cash they already spend on campaign ads for the GOP and get the same end result.

 

[kess]

What part of equal rights under the law do people not understand here? Being a manager doesn't entitle anyone to any more than one vote per person. Tom Perkins's Big Idea willfully turns a blind eye to value of labor in the marketplace.

 

[bonercop]

Actually, Adam Carolla suggested this system years ago, and it makes some sense. Now, it doesn't make sense that rich people get more votes on things like immigration or abortion, but on where their tax dollars are going? That seems fair.

But it's not "their tax dollars". Sovereign nations aren't funded by taxes.

 

[Goldenroad]

So you guys don't pay an auto tax or sales tax or gas tax or alcohol/cigarette tax or any of the other typical taxes? Why should your choice of occupation net you extra votes?

There is a percentage of our population that is exempt from paying all kinds of taxes, from sales tax to income tax. Your choice of occupation should not net you extra votes, but choosing to not have an occupation should eliminate your right to have say in what happens with the taxes that other people do contribute.

 

[injurai]

That's not how it works. The argument would actually go like this:

"Because U.S. policy influences so much of the world, the majority of the worlds population should get at the very least a partial vote."

 

[bonercop]

There is a percentage of our population that is exempt from paying all kinds of taxes, from sales tax to income tax.Your choice of occupation should not net you extra votes, but choosing to not have an occupation should eliminate your right to have say in what happens with the taxes that other people do contribute.

nothing happens with the taxes that other people contribute. taxes are a tool with which a government can control inflation, adjust inequality and so forth.

the suggestion in this post is simply another way to further reduce what little political sway the peasantry still holds.

 

[Zaphod]

There is a percentage of our population that is exempt from paying all kinds of taxes, from sales tax to income tax. Your choice of occupation should not net you extra votes, but choosing to not have an occupation should eliminate your right to have say in what happens with the taxes that other people do contribute.

You said that businesses should have an extra vote, that would give you an extra vote compared to someone like an engineer who worked for someone else.

Are the poor exempt from your gasoline, alcohol and cigarette taxes in Canada?

 

[kess]

There is a percentage of our population that is exempt from paying all kinds of taxes, from sales tax to income tax. Your choice of occupation should not net you extra votes, but choosing to not have an occupation should eliminate your right to have say in what happens with the taxes that other people do contribute.

That sounds like a exclusionary policy meant to punish a small percentage of the population. Who is going to enforce this legislation? Does this assume housewives and retirees are unworthy of the right to vote?

 

[David Incorporated Esq.]

That sounds like a exclusionary policy meant to punish a small percentage of the population. Who is going to enforce this legislation? Does this assume housewives and retirees are unworthy of the right to vote?

No only poor black peop... I mean....fuck.

 

[lednerg]

Seems like he's diverting attention away from how much influence billionaires already have. Like as long as we keep this idea from becoming a reality, then we've "won" something.

 

[wildfire]

I'm digging this idea. If we revise votes to percentage of taxes paid vs actual income + assets I might be in favor of this. *shit eating grin*

 

[Tawpgun]

Well....
He did answer the question... it would change the world...

 

[Kai Dracon]

I wonder how long it will take for some of these rich people to get brazen enough to say what some of them may be really thinking: that democracy itself is a bad idea because it gives too much power to the dirty poors and intrinsically inferior races in a mixed population. And that the world should be a corporate pseudo-monarchy run by those with the right... breeding.

 

[Heshinsi]

Not in Canada. Not by a long shot. In that sense I agree with the first part of his sentiment, even if it's not directed towards Canada. I won't dignify the other part with a response. Having said that, the idea that corporations (ie. Small businesses) should also get a vote is not something I'm opposed to either, as a small business operator.

Income taxes aren't the only taxes people pay. Everyone pays sales taxes. You start to allow corporations the ability to directly influence the political system, and you've just opened up a can of worms that would negatively affect most people.

 

[Cameron122]

Yay im a baron?

 

[genjiZERO]

Holy fuck it's scary that someone with so much potential influence actually thinks this.

Wow, we really are in a slave society again.

Not in Canada. Not by a long shot. In that sense I agree with the first part of his sentiment, even if it's not directed towards Canada. I won't dignify the other part with a response. Having said that, the idea that corporations (ie. Small businesses) should also get a vote is not something I'm opposed to either, as a small business operator.

Oh c'mon. Your business gets a vote in the form of your personal vote. When you vote you vote you get a chance to vote interest of your company.

 

[Couleurs]

Finally, someone recognizes the fact that the ultra wealthy just do not have enough power in the political process

 

[Heshinsi]

You said that businesses should have an extra vote, that would give you an extra vote compared to someone like an engineer who worked for someone else.

Are the poor exempt from your gasoline, alcohol and cigarette taxes in Canada?

No, he's talking primarily about our native peoples.

 

[FStop7]

This is his "idea"?

Not only is it a terrible idea he's also about the 43943955th person to suggest it.

 

[Aureon]

How about a 99% marginal tax rate over 1mil, instead?
And decapitation for any tax evasion of >100k, decided by a regular mob with customary pitchforks?
.. mh, still not equally dumb.

 

[kess]

No, he's talking primarily about our native peoples.

If we could keep them from voting, unicorns would piss rainbows!

 

[Battersea Power Station]

Finally we get to the heart of the matter: deep down this is what the Fox Newsites and young neocons of today feel.

They love to hide their "conservative" values behind the pretense that anything else would be un-American. But their brand of "conservatism" is at odds with the most basic, the most American value of all, the one that was the basis for the American revolution.

 

[Zaphod]

No, he's talking primarily about our native peoples.

Ah, so he's advocating taking the vote from the people whose land you borrowed.

 

[genjiZERO]

Not in Canada. Not by a long shot. In that sense I agree with the first part of his sentiment, even if it's not directed towards Canada. I won't dignify the other part with a response. Having said that, the idea that corporations (ie. Small businesses) should also get a vote is not something I'm opposed to either, as a small business operator.

Finally we get to the heart of the matter: deep down this is what the Fox Newsites and young neocons of today feel.

They love to hide their "conservative" values behind the pretense that anything else would be un-American. But their brand of "conservatism" is at odds with the most basic, the most American value of all, the one that was the basis for the American revolution.

My arch-conservative Fox News uncle has no qualms about admitting that he both does not believe in democracy and that the weight of your vote should be determined on how much taxes you pay. He has also heavily hinted that he has no problem with slavery.

Ah, so he's advocating taking the vote from the people whose land you borrowed.

"borrowed"

 

[mclem]

Well, he's right. It would 'change the world'.

There wasn't any specification of it being a positive change, was there?

 

[Angry Grimace]

Hey I have a great idea too!

I immediately started thinking about this, too. There's a lot more of us than there are of them.

 

[Battersea Power Station]

My arch-conservative Fox News uncle has no qualms about admitting that he both does not believe in democracy and that the weight of your vote should be determined on how much taxes you pay. He has also heavily hinted that he has no problem with slavery.



"borrowed"

Heh, my uncle also admitted that "one man, one vote" is a ridiculous notion that will always lead to "communism."

That's the thing that bothers me: why don't more of these anti-democracy people have the guts to admit it? Instead, they slime around and try to convince us they have American interests at heart when they are against the most American value possible.

I love the free market, but I cannot vote in favor of a party that is incompatible with democracy. I really hope today's GOP goes extinct.

 

[Dr.Guru of Peru]

Dumb idea, but the calls for decapitation are a bit much aren't they?

 

[D4Danger]

My arch-conservative Fox News uncle has no qualms about admitting that he both does not believe in democracy and that the weight of your vote should be determined on how much taxes you pay. He has also heavily hinted that he has no problem with slavery.

I assume in that situation he isn't imagining himself as a slave

 

[Host Samurai]

All these rich assholes just make people that have money look bad.

 

[Zaphod]

Heh, my uncle also admitted that "one man, one vote" is a ridiculous notion that will always lead to "communism."

That's the thing that bothers me: why don't more of these anti-democracy people have the guts to admit it? Instead, they slime around and try to convince us they have American interests at heart when they are against the most American value possible.

I love the free market, but I cannot vote in favor of a party that is incompatible with democracy. I really hope today's GOP goes extinct.

My state used to have a great common sense, leave people alone, rational GOP. Then the nutters took over and we now waste time ensuring gays have the right to be discriminated against, evolution is not taught, and the poor and those trying to better themselves are punished while taxes on business drop to 0. These assholes are as un-American as is gets.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Its pretty funny how hilariously accurate of a parody the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase is when you think about it.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Apparently Perkins wasn't serious. In an interview immediately afterwards:

http://blog.sfgate.com/cwnevius/2014/02/13/tom-perkins-still-thinks-the-rich-are-prosecuted/

“And those who have paid a million dollars in taxes,” he continued, “should have a million votes.”

In a press session afterward, he was asked whether he was really serious about that.

“Of course not,” he said. “I intended to be outrageous and I was.”

That could be said about the entire affair.

 

[Azih]

Oh so he's just a troll then. Mocking all of us poors.

 

[akira28]

Dumb idea, but the calls for decapitation are a bit much aren't they?

mostly symbolic. Obviously America's revolution would be all about the bullets.

 

[kmax]

Why not just not bring back slavery, since it's really what these loonies ultimately want. More power to them, less power to the rest of us.

Sickening.

 

[Kai Dracon]

I assume in that situation he isn't imagining himself as a slave

Nobody who advocates return to monarchy, absolute corporatism, slavery, biological determinism, pseudo-scientific racism, etc ever imagines that they are people who would suffer any hardships should their beliefs be made manifest.

Curious, that.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Oh so he's just a troll then. Mocking all of us poors.

Pretty much. From the same link:

Fortune Magazine editor Adam Lashinsky, who moderated the discussion, manfully attempted to keep the conversation on track, but Perkins foiled him with a combination of blinding statistics, exasperated sighs, and unpredictable digressions. He asserted that President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty was an enormous error, that the teachers union was ruining the school system and — most importantly — that taxes on the rich were persecuting the “1 percent.”

Pinning him down on specifics, as Lashinsky proved, was like capturing a wisp of smoke.

“You are barking up the wrong tree,” Perkins said at one point. “The squirrel is in the other tree.”

 

[FourMyle]

Dumb idea, but the calls for decapitation are a bit much aren't they?

Agreed. Lining them up against a wall would be far more efficient.

 

[Fenderputty]

Apparently Perkins wasn't serious. In an interview immediately afterwards:

http://blog.sfgate.com/cwnevius/2014/02/13/tom-perkins-still-thinks-the-rich-are-prosecuted/

Riiiiiiiiiight.

 

[Zaphod]

Riiiiiiiiiight.

He really meant 500,000 votes, a million would be silly.

 

[Agnostic]

Dumb idea, but the calls for decapitation are a bit much aren't they?

Yep, that is going too far and I apologize. Instead, we should throw them in the ocean and then run over them with a yacht.

 

[Cimeas]

This guy gives all rich people a bad name, seriously.

 

[fallagin]

Are these people really that deluded? Jesus christ, I cant believe people have to argue why this would be a bad idea.

 

[DedValve]

But if the rich dodges taxes left and right then not only should they not get a vote but they should be exiled!

Spoiler

hey look this retarded train of thought works both ways!

 

[Muppet of a Man]

The rich are getting to comic-book-villian levels of evil now. SMH. Something needs to be done before this problem really gets out of hand.

 

[Owzers]

If the rich are going to pay for all the welfare programs that the takers want, they should be able to own at least 10 people. Like a slave draft.