Monday, September 17, 2007

Taxes and idiots

So not that I follow baseball much, really, but I did hear about Barry Bonds' record breaking home run a while back. And of course I knew some guy caught the ball, and I knew that he could probably sell the ball for a lot of money.

I also knew he would be taxed on that transaction if it did take place.

What I didn't know was that some tax experts suggested that he would be subject to a tax on the estimated worth of the ball even if he didn't sell it.

Now I'm no huge fan of taxes. I do believe, of course, that we need some. But this kind of money grubbing is nuts. So the government can tax monetary transactions -- great. But what the hell? Taxing on potential income? Or would it be property tax? This should shine a big light on how we do taxes in this country and what should be considered out of bounds (no pun intended).

Now here's the real kicker. In the comments section of some internet discussion I was reading there was this comment:
I just want a bullshit reason to hate capitalism more.
Huh? Goverment tax policy is capitalism? Idiots.

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