Posted on 09/27/2011 11:34:11 AM PDT by posterchild
Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helú—whose family fortune of about $74 billion makes him the world’s richest human (well ahead of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett on the Forbes list of billionaires—plays against type.
...
“I don’t know what Warren Buffett pays,” Slim says, “but I think that the fiscal policy should be fair. You don’t need to raise taxes on rich people, because they create capitalization and investment. But you need to tax speculation—meaning capital gains. Why should it be just 15 percent? Salaried people pay 35 percent. Why shouldn’t that be paid on capital gains?”
Anything else?
“The welfare policies that you are following—you and Europe—are unsustainable,” Slim argues. “You cannot have people retiring at 60 years old, and you cannot provide universal health care the way you do. That’s crazy. The focus should be the support of small- and middle-size business. That is where the employment is. And there should be investment in the real economy. Infrastructure is an example. And the best way to do that is with the private sector. It’s more efficient.”
I ask what should be done about the terrible violence surrounding the illegal Mexican drug trade, with grisly murders in the tens of thousands.
“It’s a problem coming from the United States,” Slim says.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Looks like folks from just about every other country out there are way, way smarter than our group of clown leaders.
mexican la raza rich boy... CUT SPENDING... REDUCE THE SIZE OF GOVERNMENT... PEOPLE THAT HAVE NO JOB AND HAVE LOST OR ARE IN DANGER OF LOSING THEIR HOME AND SAVINGS HAVE NO MONEY TO PAY HIGHER TAXES... CUT AND LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS... OR IT WILL END ONE WAY OR THE OTHER!
LLS
This guy got rich buying monopolies from the Mexican government and thinks the NY Times is a good investment?
The guy isn’t even a Mexican, he’s Lebanese:
Slim was born in Mexico City, Mexico in 1940 to Maronite Christian parents Julián Slim Haddad and Linda Helú, both of Lebanese descent. His father, born Khalil Slim Haddad, immigrated to Mexico at the age of 14 in 1902 and changed his first name to Julián. As it was not uncommon for Lebanese children to be sent abroad before they reached the age of 15 to avoid being conscripted into the Ottoman army, four of Haddad’s older brothers were already living in Mexico at the time of his arrival.
Carlos Slim’s mother, Linda Helú, was born in Parral, Chihuahua, of Lebanese parents who had immigrated to Mexico in the late 19th century. Her parents upon immigrating to Mexico had founded one of the first Arabic language magazines for the Lebanese-Mexican community, using a printing press they had brought with them.
Because capital gains are NOT indexed for inflation. If you buy a stock and hold on to it for 15 years, and if you are lucky, it doubles, you are taxed on 100% of your original cost. However if inflation has gone up 50% during the 15 years, you do not have a gain in buying power of 100%.
The economy needs capital to expand. If you remove the incentive for risk takers it will make stocks less attractive, drop their prices and thus further impede capital requirements of corporations since issuing new shares is the best method of raising capital for any corporation.
He certainly appears to be Mexican to me.
“The guy isn’t even a Mexican, he’s Lebanese:
Slim was born in Mexico City, Mexico in 1940 to Maronite Christian parents Julián Slim Haddad and Linda Helú, both of Lebanese descent.”
Salma Hayek is also Mexican-Lebanese. Picture please!
So then, it seems to me that the fair thing to do would be to index capital gains for inflation and then tax them as a part of regular income.
Because, Slim, much or all (or even "more than 100%") of a Capital Gain consists of INFLATION.
If I buy Intel at 10, and sell it ten years later at 12, when inflation has collectively taken 20% of a dollar's value, I haven't made any REAL-DOLLAR profits. But the government says it gets to take 20 (or, in Slim-land, 35) percent of that "capital gain."
Tell me why that isn't ca-ca, Slimster.
Yes, that would be fairer. However some reward has to be included in the capital gains situation because it is different than having steady income from your job. Because the capital gains are never guaranteed when you invest your hard earned and hard saved dollars. But at least indexing it for inflation would make it more fair tax.
Personally I prefer just a simple transaction tax on stocks. Why make things complicated by having to compute inflation indices over many years, keeping records of all your stock purchases and stock distributions and stock splits? Why not a 1 or 2% transaction tax when selling and buying? It will bring money sooner in to the Treasury and will discourage day trades and speculation and encourage long term investing .
This issue of taxing capital gains differently than regular income is widely misunderstood. If Warren and Carlos think it should be taxed as regular income, you might take note of where their income arises and how much they actually make relative to what they need to pay life’s expenses. WB, for example, takes a very modest pay amount annually and doesn’t need to worry about his income. He can draw on millions and millions more if he had to and the tax rate on what he takes as salary is, therefore, of symbolic importance only.
However, if I, a young entrepreneur, or a new college graduate (three entities with whom I am somewhat familiar) are to be encouraged to invest in something that pays capital gains, I will have to be rewarded for the inherent risk of the investment. Otherwise, I will spend my money on something else that is more greatly valued. The risks of obtaining capital gains demand that the rewards be potentially greater than those of putting my money in a sock under the bed. Either investment is after-tax money (my already-taxed pay).
If you increase the long-term capital gains tax rate, I will prefer other ways to spend my money and companies needing money to grow (and employ economically-challenged folks) will go wanting. That will make other countries look much more attractive to companies and you can say goodbye to the U.S.’s great economic strength and hello to a mediocre economic future for your children and grandchildren.
There are good reasons our ancestors left their miserable nations of birth.
I was born in the USA of immigrant parents. That makes me an American, thank you very much.
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