"You know, you young kids may hate rich people, but if you look at how much they pay into the system you'll realize you don't want to piss them off. I mean, do you know those charts where they show you how much money is being spent or made? Yeah, Bill Gates would have like a million little dollar bills on the chart and then average guy would be a fraction of of a fraction of a dollar sign. You don't want that guy leaving."
Of course some people do.
But then there is a consequence.
Enjoy the decline!
Look at Western Europe. There tens thousands of people (usually young and skilled/educated) expatriate every year.
ReplyDeleteI'm convinced that Adam Carolla did a lot more to shape my worldview than a lot of other adults.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of expatriates, CC, have you ever read "The Art of Being Ungoverned"? It deals with the history of many people expatriating from oppressive, slave-holding states.
I'm always curious though, where do they all go?
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the Canada, with impending real estate troubles, a tsunami of baby boomers ready to drain the health care system, and a financial system dependant on the States, does anyone know where to go?
Adam Carolla actually has pretty sensible economics ideas in general. His podcast is awesome too. He's basically completely uneducated and has more sense and reason than your typical liberal arts grad. As you've pointed out many times, credentials don't mean educated.
ReplyDeleteAdam Carolla actually has pretty sensible economics ideas in general. His podcast is awesome too. He's basically completely uneducated and has more sense and reason than your typical liberal arts grad. As you've pointed out many times, credentials don't mean educated.
ReplyDeleteThis has been going on for several years now, but is probably accelerating.
ReplyDeleteWhy the Rich Leave (1995)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/archives/fm/9-95.html
In the Summer of 2010
http://www.lewrockwell.com/holland/holland19.1.html
I think Canada is not a bad choice, I see a huge divergence between the pap and BS we see on TV and what politicians say about what Canadians are/should be like and reality.
ReplyDeleteThere are socialist currents in Canada (the NDP), but the average Joe (and Jane) is not a socialist, by a long shot (a lot more Tim Horton's than Starbuck's); incidentally, I do frequent Tim's and overhear much from the blue collar guys, society is far from feminised here, aside from certain areas of Toronto and Vancouver (try working in rural NB or NS or Labrador or NF, they are far from Socialist -they do not want handouts, but that's all they are allowed to do by incompetent provincial governments-).
I have worked up north (in Canada), those guys in the mining camps and the oil sands are more resourceful than many would think, particularly in the really, really remote mining camps (try fly-in access camps in Labrador, I have).
As in many historical cases, it will be the rural resourceful types that save the bacon (due to the incompetence of the out of touch urban elites).
I'd like to see the 911 cowards trying to wage a guerrilla war in rural Canada, particularly in winter (or even summer). They may get one or two surprises.
Cappy Cap - this little analogy expresses Adam's point better than anything else:
ReplyDeleteLet's say 10 men are going out for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
-The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
-The fifth would pay $1.
-The sixth would pay $3.
-The seventh $7.
-The eighth $12.
-The ninth $18.
-The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
Let's further suppose that the ten men eat dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement. One day, when the owner says,"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20."
So, now dinner for the ten only cost $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So, the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other six? How could they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share'? $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being 'PAID' to eat their meal.
So, the restaurant owner suggested to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
-The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
-The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
-The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
-The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
-The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
-The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to eat for free. But the sixth man said, "I only got a dollar out of the $20 and the tenth man got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right. And I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than me!" exclaimed the fifth man.
"Right, why should the tenth man get $10 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!" shouted the seventh man.
"We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!" said the first four men.
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
So the next night, the tenth man didn't show up for dinner. When it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
Under our tax system, people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, and they just may not show up at the table anymore. There are lots of good restaurants in the Cayman Islands.
(shamelessly stolen from here: http://legalpublication.blogspot.com/2011/05/has-corporate-corruption-contaminated.html)