Posted on 09/27/2011 7:19:25 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
A rich former Google executive pleaded with Barack Obama to raise his taxes Monday, boosting the US leader's push to get well off Americans to bankroll his $447 billion jobs plan. Obama stormed through the American west on a three-day tour devoted to hammering Republicans and piling up cash for his 2012 reelection bid, which is overshadowed by 9.1 percent unemployment and a wobbling economy. Former Google brand manager Doug Edwards became an instant media sensation when he joined billionaire investor Warren Buffett in calling for those who had done well in America to do more to help the struggling masses.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
In his defense, the Google motto is “Don’t be evil.”
Now if it were “Don’t be stupid,” we might have a case here...
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This exec seems to have prospered by being at the right place at the right time, now with his own book of his being Employee #59 at Google. If he actually created his own business from the ground up and dealt with countless government regulations, taxes, he might have a different story.
I really wish we had other viable alternatives besides Google and LinkedIn to advance in business nowadays. Facebook is another disappointment based in Silicon Valley.
If these idiots were sincere about wanting to give the government money, they could write a check at any time. Liars and hypocrits - all of them.
Dem Fat Cat Begs Obama To Raise His Taxes
From Forbes:
Former Googler Asks Obama: Please Raise My Taxes!
9/26/2011
Former early Google employee Doug Edwards had a message for President Obama today: Raise my taxes, please.
Edwards, who was employee #59 at Google and is now not working, asked the question in Mountain View, Calif. at the Town Hall event today Obama held with LinkedIn to discuss job creation.
“My question is would you please raise my taxes?” Edwards said from the audience during the question and answer period.
Mr. Edwards worked as Google’s first director of marketing and brand management for all of five years. Where, by his own account, they “had free meals every day that were as good as any served by the finest local restaurants, great workout facilities, massage therapists and doctors on staff, and an annual ski trip for all employees.”
Mr. Edwards retired from this strenuous life a multi-millionaire. He now derives his income from dividends and capital gains. But he wants the rest of us who actually have to work for a living to pay more income taxes in order to assuage his guilt.
By the way, according to FEC records, Mr. Doug Edwards has given $34,723 to Democrat candidates and the Democrat Party. So his selection to ask Mr. Obama a question was surely not a coincidence.
“I would like very much for our country to continue to invest in things like Pell grants, infrastructure, job training–programs that made it possible for me to get to where I am. It kills me to see Congress not supporting the expiration of tax cuts that have been benefiting so much of us for so long.”
Needless to say, Mr. Edwards could start a private scholarship. He could fund private job training programs. He could even invest some of his millions in a business that would hire people.
Moreover, as we have often mentioned before, there are any number of ways for people to pay more taxes should they choose to. They could refuse to take deductions. They could make direct donations to the US Treasury.
The plain truth is, Mr. Edwards does not just want to pay more to the government. He wants others to pay more. Otherwise, he would have offered to pay increased taxes for those who don’t want or can’t afford to pay more taxes. Which is the case for most of us.
After asking where Edwards formerly worked (to which Edwards replied coyly, “a search engine”), Obama said that the U.S. needs to invest in education and other infrastructure that makes people successful.
“We’re successful because somebody invested in our education,” Obama said. “Somebody built our schools. I went to school on scholarship… We all benefited somewhere from somebody making an investment in us. If we make those investments how do we pay for it?” …
The US government collects somewhere close to $3 trillion dollars a year in taxes. You would think that should pay for something besides doomed solar panel companies.
Besides, someone should school Mr. Obama on the basics of the American system. The federal government was never meant to be the source for education funds in this country. The states fund education, primarily through their property taxes. Which, until very recently, have been at record heights.
Edwards, a former employee at the San Jose Mercury News and Markeplace, recently wrote a book entitled I’m Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59.
What a surprise. Mr. Edwards worked for one of the most leftwing newspapers in the country.
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/dem-fat-cat-begs-obama-to-raise-his-taxes
Hope this guy goes broke and ends up in a soup line at the Mission!
I’d argue for doing away with the income tax and instituting a consumption tax with no exemptions aside form church and state.
Suddenly the billionaires and their little pet charities would find that they are paying taxes. And something tells me that they just might “find religion” on top of that...
Why would you exempt church and state?
Edwards began his question by saying “I’m currently unemployed by choice.”
I believe a more accurate description is “retired.” He clearly was trying to gin up some sympathy for himself by describing himself as unemployed.
Tax this dude's "wealth" more (not yearly pay/imcome) and he'll change his tune real quick about getting taxed more.
“Ex-Google exec: ‘Mr President raise my taxes’”
Uh, oh, another Buffet groupie from his exclusive eat the rich club.
My hope is that they self propel themselves to the Forbes Bottom 400 by giving themselves a financial enema and writing checks to the US Treasury cleaning out their accounts.
Right place at the right time: I hear that.
I also agree with your comments about Google, Linkedin and now, FB.
FWIW.
Write a check you sorry assclown. No one is stopping you.
Just stay out of my wallet.......
This was a fake, phony, fraud campaigning fiasco.
I wouldn’t mind if he got his own personal tax bracket. He could get a 95% tax rate, bully for him.
But he isn’t asking for just HIS taxes to be raised. He is asking for them to be raised on EVERYONE in his income group, at the very least.
He is saying,
“Mr. President, raise THEIR taxes.”
I’m not Casper’s ghost, but
in re: taxing church -
we were founded on the principle of religious liberty by people and the descendants of people who were subject to severe and extended religious persecution. The problem was, the church was controlled by the state. People were tortured to death, deprived of their liberty, had their property and livelihood confiscated - due to their legitimate religious beliefs.
If the state can tax the church, the state controls the church.
Thus Christians particularly, and Jews, as we learn from long and usual history, get persecuted to death.
Were the state to have had control of the church these past two centuries, many Biblical teachings would be illegal to proclaim at this point: for example, women would have to be allowed in positions of authority, people who oppose your particular beliefs would have to be hired, homosexuals would have to be allowed to marry and get married in there, etc. etc. etc. The church would just become an arm of the state.
Also no church/Christian could in safety oppose the status quo. You may think the First Amendment would protect them; and perhaps as individuals it would; however, they’d have no legitimate church, no body, no fellowship, no sacraments or discipline; they’d have to be Christians by themselves in their house. They’d have to sneak to illegal churches and get arrested and etc. over same. “Tax evasion” would be the reason. You can’t have a Bible teaching church because the government would hold your teachings to be illegal; and you can’t have a non-registered church because you’d be evading taxes.
Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it. Our churches are tax exempt for excellent reasons.
Yes, but strictly speaking, no church, synagog, mosque or ashram would be taxed. No company would be taxed. No person would be taxed. Only purchases would be taxed, the taxes would fall evenly and controllably on the rich, the poor, the believer, the atheist, and most importantly on the state itself.
Everyone who benefits from the government would have skin in the game to keep taxation low.
The state itself would feel the bite of its own taxes at every level and in every department’s budget as well.
No system of taxation will ever be perfect, but I think this might be worth a try as the ONLY form of national taxation within US boarders.
YMMV.
I agree with the principle of the consumption tax and would like to see it replace our insane complex taxation system.
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