Re: Tariffs and bikes

On 4/6/2025 8:24 PM, AMuzi wrote:

On 4/6/2025 1:53 PM, zen cycle wrote:

On 4/6/2025 12:49 PM, cyclintom wrote:

On Fri Apr 4 21:43:55 2025 Frank Krygowski  wrote:

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chambers, dropped it to 77%:

I'm sure "virtually no one ever paid" the high marginal tax rates,
largely because people earning that much money invest in tax experts and
lawyers to minimize their tax burdens by any legal, and some very
questionable tactics.
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But I think it's significant that with top tax percentage rates in the
90s, then in the 70s, the country was generally quite prosperous. Middle
class prosperity soared. So what was the downside?
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True, we had fewer millionaires and no multibillionaires, but as I
recall, we got along pretty well without them.
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Overall, I think the government should be doing less to help
megamillionaires and more to help, say, a couple elderly widows I've met
who are both trying to scrape by only on Social Security. Don't worry,
Musk and Bezos and Zuckerberg won't go hungry. Honest!

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Frank, rather than implying criminal acts by people simply because they have money tell us some specific cases of "questionable practices". Trump and Musk are donating 100% of their government salaries to charity.

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Gee tommy, tell us exactly what musks salary is.
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 And many many other very rich people give huge amounts of money to charities. For many, many years NPR and PBS were the benefactors of this largess until they grew so far left wing that they were attacking the very people funding them.

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  " Gee tommy, tell us exactly what musks salary is."
  A lot.
 Much of his Tesla earnings, while structured as salary, are more properly 'performance bonus' as it was and would have remained zero had he not met extremely unlikely (when written) goals.  And it wasn't structured in all cash but rather mostly in stock options.  The consensus at the time was that it was nearly impossible.
 https://www.investopedia.com/elon-musks-multi-billion-dollar-pay- package-8757243
 "In 2018, Tesla's board and then the shareholders approved a compensation plan for Musk worth up to around $56 billion at the time. This performance-based package granted Musk stock options contingent upon achieving specific milestones related to Tesla's market capitalization and operational targets.
 Each milestone unlocked additional stock options, aiming to align Musk's incentives with the company's growth. Notably, Musk would not receive a salary or any cash bonuses as CEO, emphasizing a commitment to Tesla's long-term success."
 

I was referring specifically to "Trump and Musk are donating 100% of their government salaries to charity.", which in musks case is exactly $0 - hence musk isn't contributing any government salary to charity