Gleaning Facebook: No Man Is An Island

This is absolute truth. Those among the wealthy who in their arrogance get to a place of entitlement where they truly believe, as some do, that they have "earned" billions of dollars, are deluded. No one "earns" a billion. However admirably someone has shown discipline, intelligence, originality, wisdom or other worthy traits in amassing a fortune, they have also benefited from good... um... fortune. As John Donne wrote, and as Warren eloquently points out in other words, no man is an island.

In my opinion:

• entrepreneurs should expect a good return for their successful efforts.

• investors should expect a good return for wise efforts.

• businesses should earn good returns for supplying needed products or services

BUT:

• a business should not be viable unless it can pay a living wage to each of its full-time employees

• every business owes the public reasonable safety and health and environmental precautions as a minimum requirement for viability.

• it is perfectly fair and a reasonable expectation to require everyone of us to pay higher taxes on each additional thousand dollars we earn each year. The more a person earns the more they have profited from the freedoms. infrastructure, natural resources, and labor of the nation as a whole.

Comments

Deborah Lake Dawson So happy someone said this, I have gotten verbally attacked for saying this. Mary Lake what I have tried to explain to you.
J Grant Magness Terrell Shaw, does anyone know if Elizabeth Warren has herself ever owned a factory?
Terrell Shaw I don't know, Grant. Do you know if Trump has ever worked for an hourly wage, depended on a next paycheck to cover an electric bill or the price of groceries, or, IDK, stood in a grocery store check-out line?

Ruth Baird Shaw J. Grant Magness and Terrell Shaw, two of the greatest men I know... continue to love and respect one another in spite of political differences..
J Grant Magness Terrell, I'm not a Trumpian, but I am not aware of him having ever spoken degradingly or passed judgement on those who have worked hourly. That would be analogous to Warren criticizing factory owners as one with no such experience. Blessings, G
Liz Tyler This is a person who REALLY tells it like it is. Our best route to a better outcome for our country, kids and grandkids is to LISTEN to her and put this knowledge to work.
Sam Burnham 1) People that own factories pay taxes for those roads as well. They often pay A LOT in taxes. 2) Some folks on those roads have never and will never pay taxes. Ever. 3) Many factories provide their own security teams, industrial fire brigades, and even EMS personnel. A fire at our local paper mill is often extinguished long before the local fire department arrives. 4) It's interesting that poor people and people who have failed in business have the same roads, same services, and the same educated workforce as the successful people. Interesting. Now, if y'all would like to discuss "underlying social contracts", oh I'd love to have that conversation!
Jeannie Blakely 1) Perhaps some factories do, but many do NOT. Pfizer for instance paid no US income taxes from 2010 to 2012. Fedex made over 6 billion in the last three years and hasn't paid a dime in federal taxes. And they obviously use the roads to move their goods. Maybe you're cool with Fedex letting you and me foot the bill for their roads. I'm not that generous of spirit! http://billmoyers.com/.../10-companies-that-dodge.../ 2) Really? They got around the gas tax when they filled their cars up? I would like to talk to them and find out how. 3) And many do not. Or rely on our excellent police and firefighters when things get out of hand (like the huge fire at Bekaert plant here in Rome a couple of years ago - thanks taxpayer supported cops and firefighters for evacuating the area, helping to contain the fire and keeping everyone safe!!). Should we just trust factories to be able to "handle it" even when the potential damage (as in the Bekaert example) can affect our citizens? http://www.northwestgeorgianews.com/.../article_c928b9fa... 4) And it's interesting that you seem to view a meme that I read as a message of "everyone benefits so everyone should pay their fair share" as a rich vs. poor issue. I feel incredibly lucky to live in this country and to benefit directly from all of the services the government helps provide. My kids are well educated, I drink clean water, I enjoy our local parks and I'm employed at a publicly funded institution. I don't love paying my taxes (who does) but I understand that a lot of these things I enjoy are directly related to me doing that. I just wish that some of these super rich business owners that don't want to pay into a system that they get huge benefits from would understand this as well.

BILLMOYERS.COM 10 Corporate Tax Dodgers You Should Know About | BillMoyers.com 10 Corporate Tax Dodgers You Should Know About | BillMoyers.com
Sam Burnham 1) By simply replacing our Marxist tax code with a simple consumption tax, all loopholes will be gone. 2) By the time you factor in the EITC, their tax burden is reduced to zero or, in many cases, they actually get paid in lieu of paying taxes. 3) I'm quite familiar with the Bekaert fire, trust me. 4 The message is not everyone benefits/everyone pays. The message is, the government is the only reason anyone makes it in this world. You're nothing without the government. Which is not just inaccurate, it's a lie. Allow me to add that I'm obscenely familiar with the Bekaert fire. Thanks for the kudos. And back on #4, my point is we all have the same "benefits". If you can look at a successful person with a straight face and say they didn't earn it, why doesn't everyone succeed? They all have the same benefits. Why do people fail?
Laurie Craw Sam Burnham Everybody who operates a car on our roads pays the state gas tax for transportation, which the Republican General Assembly raised last year. Sales and excise taxes hurt the working poor more than the rest of us.
Sam Burnham Laurie Craw the poor and some middle class people receive a tax refund in the form of the EITC even when they paid no income taxes. This amount in welfare receipts is often more than they would have paid in taxes for gas and other taxes. Therefore they actually paid 0 (or were even paid) in taxes. Pocahontas Warren is a joke.
John Carlin But like she said, the government shields those investments from marauding bands of criminals who steal to get by. Yes you loose a lot to the bureaucracy but you'd lose it to violent criminals anyway. And to other countries with their own violent criminals.
Sam Burnham The government IS a marauding band of criminals who steal to get by. What's the difference?
Terrell Shaw The government is you and me Sam.
Sam Burnham By design, not by practice. If the government was limited to what's specifically listed in the Constitution, we would still be the government.
Deborah Lake Dawson Hydrageas blooming and backyard full of camillia group cover is blooming.