A Father Daughter Talk

[JohnnyDetroit]

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many
others her age she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat and was
for distribution of all wealth. She felt deeply ashamed that her father was
a rather staunch Republican which she expressed openly.

One day she was challenging her father on his beliefs and his opposition to
higher taxes on the rich & more welfare programs. In the middle of her heart
felt diatribe based upon the lectures she had from her far left professors
at her school, he stopped her and asked her point blank, how she was doing
in school.

She answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that
it was tough to maintain. That she had to study all the time, never had time
to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn't even have time
for a boyfriend and didn't really have many college friends because of
spending all her time studying. That she was taking a more difficult
curriculum.

Her father listened and then asked, "How is your friend Mary." She replied,
"Mary is barely getting by", she continued, "all she has is barely a 2.0
GPA" adding, "and all she takes are easy classes and she never studies." But
to explain further she continued emotionally, "But Mary is so very popular
on campus, college for her is a blast, she goes to all the parties all the
time and very often doesn't even show up for classes because she is too hung
over."

Her father then asked his daughter, "Why don't you go to the Dean's office
and ask him to deduct a 1.0 off your 4.0 GPA and give it to her friend who
only had a 2.0." He continued, "That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and
certainly that would be a fair equal distribution of GPA."

The daughter visibly shocked by the fathers suggestion angrily fired back,
"That wouldn't be fair! I worked really hard for mine, I did without and
Mary has done little or nothing, she played while I worked real hard!"

The father slowly smiled and said...
"Welcome to the Republican Party."

 

[angusr]

I'm not sure that this is a fair characterization of the differences between Republicans and Democrats.

 

[Oceans11]

The republican actually owned the college, and wandered around the campus all day, looking really important and doing no real work.

Because she owned the college everyone in it had to give 50% of their GPA to her, or she would throw them onto the street.

At the end of each year she had a GPA of 1000, and everyone else had half of whatever they had worked for.

The Republican complained bitterly about socialist taxes, that reduced her 1000 GPA to 750 GPA each year.
Republican workers including the Daughter above agreed with her, the reduction of her remaining 2 GPA to 1.5 GPA was intolerable too.

[This message was edited by eek on November 14, 2003 at 04:39 AM.]

 

[Oceans11]

Footnote:
Mary married the Republicans' son, and kept on partying.

[This message was edited by eek on November 14, 2003 at 05:28 AM.]

 

[DannyMay]

The picture painted by eek is far more accurate than that painted by Johnny Detroit.

Yeah, George W. Bush worked real hard for his millions. He did illegal drugs, committed DUI, was an alcoholic for most of his life, etc. Yeah he has worked real hard for the millions of dollars that his daddy HANDED him.

 

[lander]

Wouldn't the correct analogy be that all of the daughter's children/grandchildren/great-children would be given 4.0 regardless of their abilities simple because they inherited it from the girl in the story?

Oh, no, no, that wouldn't be "slanted enough" to pubish

 

[Shotgun]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by lander:
Wouldn't the correct analogy be that all of the daughter's children/grandchildren/great-children would be given 4.0 regardless of their abilities simple because they inherited it from the girl in the story?

Oh, no, no, that wouldn't be "slanted enough" to pubish

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sounds like a story about Joe Kennedy's clan.

 

[JinnRikki]

I guess you're saying Republicans work really hard and Democrats just lay about looking for handouts. I think your analogy is very silly. And this is just another example of people on the right doing there best to equate being a Democrate with communism. Besides she is just being selfish. She could afford to give up 1 point and in return Mary would have taken her to a party and got her ugly ass layed. That's the free market system at work.

 

[lander]

Shotgun,
You're 100% correct, the Kennedy's and their illegal fortune (bootleggers) are no better than the Republicans that I stereotype.

I'm all for free enterprise, but the death tax should address these 2nd and 3rd generation free-loaders. Instead of rewarding people like the Kennedys and Bushs for, well, being born *into the right family*.

My problem is a specific problem with class-warfare not, necessarily, political partisism.

 

[Phaedrus]

posted by lander:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>
I'm all for free enterprise, but the death tax should address these 2nd and 3rd generation free-loaders. Instead of rewarding people like the Kennedys and Bushs for, well, being born *into the right family*.

My problem is a specific problem with class-warfare not, necessarily, political partisism.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You have a problem with "class warfare" but you advocate government intervention to prevent people from being able to bequeath their fortunes in the manner they see fit, because you don't think that the heirs *deserve* it?

The great majority of wealthy people in America did not inherit their wealth, they earned it. It's a shame to see rich scions piss away the fortunes that their parents or previous generations worked to produce, but it's the family's choice to direct inheritance, not the government's.


Phaedrus

 

[lander]

Phaedrus,
I didn't say what you claim I said ("you advocate government intervention to prevent people from being able to bequeath their fortunes in the manner they see fit, because you don't think that the heirs *deserve* it").

More accurately, my view is that I believe the "death tax" needs a HUGE revamping.

 

[Phaedrus]

Well, my mistake then. I too think it needs revamping -- via scrapping it entirely. Estate taxes can run as high as 55% of a person's estate value. That's some prize for working your ass off and getting raped every April -- that more than half of whatever you have left is subject to seizure.

On the other hand, it's one of the many silly-ass games that the IRS plays with taxpayers, because it is in reality extremely easy to minimise and even eliminate the estate tax. My own family has land, money and other assets (antique crap etc.) that have been in our family as far back is the 17th century and keep getting handed down relatively unscathed. And there is a serious problem with a system that penalises everyone who is "not in the know."

My own feeling about this of course is that if you are going to set up a complicated tax scheme that simultaneously robs and insults its victims (again, up to 55% of what you've managed to spare from the IRS, ends up going to IRS once you're too dead to give a shit) while offering fairly easy outs to those who "work the system" then that whole scheme needs to be thrown in the shitter, because it is clearly a waste from the start -- otherwise it would not have so many loopholes written into it.


Phaedrus

 

[lander]

Interesting post. Not to pry, but what loopholes exist?

If you defer, I'll completely understand.

I've heard, at least in CT, that one can recieve 8K/year in untaxable gift money. It hardly helps the rich, but for us working stiffs it gives us an easy way to liquidate ourselves over time.

 

[Skyweasel]

Are you some sort of 'armchair rich guy' ? Because your statement that rich folks get 'raped every April' is laughable. The tax code has been written for them by their own lawyers and cpas, aka congress. Most of them laugh their way to the bank and the vast majority of taxes are paid by the middle class and working stiffs in this country. I have wealthy friends who pay little or no tax because the game is rigged in their favor, always has been.

So you can rail about the death tax if you want, but your gripe about raping the rich rings hollow, like most ideological axe-grinding. You could do a lot better.

 

[Phaedrus]

lander

Different states have different guidelines for the estate tax. Federal estate tax kicks in at $ 600,000.00 worth of net assets. If you fall between $600k and $1m you're screwed, but over $1m in netw worth there are tons of options to legally and easily circumvent the federal estate tax, most of which center around private banking, a suite of services offered by virtually every major bank in the U.S.

On the lower asset level, to avoid for example probate, assets can be put into a revocable living trust paired with what is called a "pour over will" (legal terms might vary from state to state) which prevents the assets from ever hitting probate. In most places probate is not all that expensive, but can be an incredible hassle and is not really the sort of thing to which your loved ones should have to be subjected in the wake of your death.

As far as gift tax exemption goes, on the federal level it's $10k ... no idea what different states' regs are.

Skyweasel

Rich people, middle class, even the poor -- everybody gets raped every April. I did not mean for my comments to seem slanted towards any particular demograph with regards to the income tax.

While it is true that an average middle-class earner pays a greater percentage of his earnings in income taxes, a high-income earner will typically pay far more in the actual dollar value of taxes paid. And one does not have to neccessarily be rich to find and take advantage of loopholes in the tax system, which again reinforces my point that the system itself is corrupt and in need of scrapping -- anything that establishes a certain degree of payment for everyone except those"in the know" is not a valid system of revenue raising imho.


Phaedrus

 

[Jointpleasure]

That was beautiful, JohnnyDetroit!

I'll help you get the word out with that analogy.