Comments

1

Hahaha. "Fair Share". Satya Nadella would have had to turn over almost $20 million in tax on the proceeds of his stock and avoids this by selling now before the tax starts. Sounds like the kind of wise decision that makes him CEO of Microsoft.

Money is like water and the rate of tax is the incline of the terrain. Water will naturally flow away from high ground like money flows away from jurisdictions with high rates of tax. Advances in technology make this ever easier.

This is why Satya runs one of the world's most successful corporations and you write screeds for this pretend newspaper.

2

Good for Satya Nadella!

Mayor Harrell won't entertain foolish ideas of govt. sanctioned heroin and meth shooting dens. Thank God. The best deterrent for overdosing is fear anyway. Besides what self-respecting junkie would want to get high in a clinical setting? ick.

3

Sataya would much rather use that $20M for his own charitable work. I’m confident he wants to leave more than just a Microsoft legacy behind him …. Similar to his predecessors.

5

It'd be nice if Sawant could update her solidarity fund page. It does seem a bit light.

https://www.socialistalternative.org/solidarityfund/

6

@1/3 exactly right. Minimizing your tax burden is being smart not "avoiding paying your fair share". That language is so banal because I have never once heard anyone define what is "fair share". It's basically a moving goal post and by Rich's own logic any government imposed tax/fee is great and if you object you aren't paying your "fair share" even if said tax is unconstitutional as this one is or is a complete boondoggle such as the new long term care tax. Looking forward to both of those being overturned.

8

Don't want to pay taxes? Then you shouldn't be allowed to get subsidies. Love everyone cheering on the microsoft guy as if it ultimately doesn't mean a harder tax burden for themselves. Yeah let that shit trickle down all over your face. Yummy.

9

@8: Nothing about trickle down, just acknowledging someone taking the logical course of action.

10

@8 Go right down to City Hall and write them a nice check. You know you want to.

11

It'll be nice to have consistently positive results from safe injections sites made right here in the US of A, since the consistently positive results we've been importing from foreign safe injection sites have a much larger carbon footprint. Now naysaying Americans can be proven objectively wrong with facts and data built by blue blooded American workers, as it should be.

Also, for some reason, in my head I see the townsfolk of a Hollywood western town emerging from their homes after the gang of outlaws have finished robbing the stores and other businesses and leaving. All they can talk about while they all chip in to cover their collective losses is how clever the robbers were from a self interest perspective. Where's that coming from?

12

@11: Any study of the human condition by philosophers and scientists beginning with the ancient Greeks.

13

@8 please enlighten us to how much money the state needs to operate? As @7 noted they are currently running a surplus.

@11 Interesting analogy, so if I follow your logic the government is the rightful owner of all the money and by not paying the maximum tax amount people are "stealing" from the government? That is pretty messed up.

Demonizing people who follow the tax code to allow them to keep more of their own money is one of the reasons why people reject progressive tax revenue changes in this state. We all know its just a matter of time before its not enough to go after the Satya's of this state and we'll all be expected to pay more of our "fair share" whatever the heck that means.

14

@11 following that money to its end destination puts it in the pockets of several people who don't have to pay as much for childcare, and who may not have been able to otherwise, making it harder for them to work jobs and raise families without it. If "following the tax code" instead leaves that money to a single person as a decimal fraction of their total personal wealth while leaving the bill with the rest of the taxpayers (townsfolk), then it starts to look more like a counter robin hood scenario.

Freezing time when those dollars arrive at the government coffer does make it seem more nefarious though, I will admit.

15

Self-interested individuals will use whatever legal means are at their disposal to have an extra million or twenty in the bank. This is to be expected.

There will be future capital gains. The important thing is that Washington state took a small step towards a progressive tax structure. Next time there is a recession and state revenue from sales taxes plunge at exactly the time there is an increased demand for the services those taxes fund, there will be at least one alternative revenue stream that does not draw directly from the pockets of those least able to pay.

16

@9, the logical course of action would be to reinvest in the labor pool you feed off of to ensure they remain healthy, happy and educated so they continue to work and spend money on your products.

this is just greed because the uber rich are worried if they are taxed properly they may only have enough money for 300 lifetimes instead of 400. so, keep celebrating the greedy while they continue to ask for handouts from your paycheck I guess. stockholm syndrome is a bitch.

17

@10, checks are still a thing? I guess I'll call my 70-year-old mother and ask if I can use one of hers

19

There should be no billionaires.

21

Must be nice to move here from Missouri in 2015 and start demanding the city undertake all these crazy extreme experiments to try and create your utopian society.

If you're Rich Smith of Missouri and have no actual connection to Seattle, you can always just leave if your experiment doesn't work.

Those of us who have lived here our whole lives and have deep roots in this city will have to pick up the pieces, as we always do.

22

@17: Yes, they still are a thing. Hopefully one of these days you'll be successful enough to hire someone or present a gift to someone.

@19: Does that include Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, or just the nasty villains who come to mind?

25

@22 guess I am screwed then as there is certainly no other way to pay for things or give gifts in 2021. Maybe one day, as you say, someone will invent venmo

26

@24 I say we pool our money and rent a space in the stranger's building for a heroin/meth injection site. this way we can get daily eye-witness updates on all the progress. "the man who has been slumped in our doorway for three days finally moved. he's alive, somewhat, so... there's that. now here's the latest on city hall, take it away ri...oh wait, rich's MacBook was found in the alley covered in human shit."

28

thank god we got Harrell, I dont see any way he would sign off on "safe" injection sites. Slog didn't the last election hammer down the point that we want cleaner streets? How exactly do you propose that happening when we normalize crippling drug addictions?

30

@25: I didn't say there weren't other options.

A check looks lovely in a Hallmark card.

31

@29: No. The giving campaigns at MS and other large companies are heavily promoted and matched, even by a CEO's contribution.

32

I’m pretty sure that if we told the Stranger staff that the weed tax was going to double next year, they’d stock up this year to minimize their tax liability.

33

@32 FTW!

34

Whenever you read "fair share" on the stranger, it's code for: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs"

37

@19 I absolutely agree with the sentiment but the solution is not to have government confiscate wealth and redistribute based on its own biases. That is inefficient and a recipe for corruption and suppression of innovation. That kind of wealth is an indicator of uncompetitive industries. If the gov would take action to spur competition, such as antitrust action, you would naturally dilute that wealth and distribute it more efficiently.


Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.