News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:The Koch brothers are campaigning against tax rises for p... by oldgrumpygeek on Tuesday June 19, 2018 @09:36AM (#17346422)
It seems like a bit of class warfare on the part of the Koch's. Without public transportation people in lower income areas can't get to better jobs, healthcare or schools. People in these areas also don't have access healthy food because grocery stores won't open in areas where the majority of customers use food stamps and government aid. Yes current modes of transportation are becoming out dated the newer modes like self driving cars are not ready for the mass public. What the Koch's fail to grasp is that the more people making a living wage we have means we have less people living off entitlements like food stamps. If we have more people paying taxes instead of living off the taxes of other we will see improvements for all and possibly lower taxes due to a surplus not a deficit. Sorry for the soapbox.
Re:The Koch brothers are campaigning against tax rises for p... by ocschwar on Tuesday June 19, 2018 @09:56AM (#17346617)
It's getting pretty intense, too. Michigan and Ohio are both passing rules to limit Medicaid eligibility in counties with low unemployment rates.

In both states, those high employment counties are counties with big suburban job clusters and big cities with high unemployment. Now, those city residents will be denied Medicaid because they live "near" lots of jobs which they cannot reach without public transit, which Michigan and Ohio are strangling.

This is seriously getting sick.

Re:The Koch brothers are campaigning against tax rises for p... by scruple on Tuesday June 19, 2018 @08:04PM (#17351325)
Do you have a source for this? I Would like to read more (specifically Ohio). I didn't have any luck with Google.
Re:The Koch brothers are campaigning against tax rises for p... by kartan on Tuesday June 19, 2018 @09:48AM (#17346536)
> It seems like a bit of class warfare on the part of the Koch's.

You can get richer by increasing your wealth or by decreasing everybody else's wealth. People that think that life is a zero-sum game think that both are the same thing.

People with a growth mindset care more about wellbeing over relative richness. Sometimes the best way for me to have more is for everybody else to also have more. And others happiness and wellbeing is part of my own.

The Koch's fall in the first category.

Re:The Koch brothers are campaigning against tax rises for p... by FranzFerdiNaN on Tuesday June 19, 2018 @09:44AM (#17346501)
Class warfare has never been gone. It's just that it's only the rich and powerful that wage it, and of course they are winning.
Re:The Koch brothers are campaigning against tax rises for p... by RichardRider on Monday June 25, 2018 @05:42PM (#17396067)
MOST political contributions by billionaires go to Democrats and liberal causes. An inconvenient truth you class haters refuse to confront. https://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/blue-billionaires-on-...
Re:The Koch brothers are campaigning against tax rises for p... by grasshopperpurp on Tuesday June 19, 2018 @09:57AM (#17346621)
>There’s been class warfare for the last 20 years, and my class has won

- Warren Buffett

Re:The Koch brothers are campaigning against tax rises for p... by RobertoG on Tuesday June 19, 2018 @01:39PM (#17348690)
This is a real quote but, without context, gives an unfair impression about Buffet: he said that while supporting bigger taxation.

He also said something in the lines that "he was paying a lower tax rate than his secretary". That sounds crazy to me, but I'm not going to discuss about finances with Warren Buffet.

Re:The Koch brothers are campaigning against tax rises for p... by pseudalopex on Tuesday June 19, 2018 @06:40PM (#17350864)
Most of Buffet's income is long-term capital gains, and he probably pays his secretary well above median.
Re:The Koch brothers are campaigning against tax rises for p... by smsm42 on Tuesday June 19, 2018 @09:14PM (#17351632)
> That sounds crazy to me

Probably because it's not true. Of course, it all depends also on definition of "tax rate" - are you talking about federal income tax? All taxes combined? Marginal tax rate? Effective tax rate? Single-year or averaged over a period of time? Do you include corporate taxes (which are paid by corporation, but effectively reduce the wealth of corporate owner or shareholder)? Until you define all those, this slogan is meaningless.

> I'm not going to discuss about finances with Warren Buffet.

He wasn't discussing finance, he was propagandizing. These are completely different games with completely different rules. In finance, numbers and facts matter - if you lie in a financial report, you risk heavy fines or jail, and probably will lose confidence of your business partners. If you lie in propaganda, as long as the lie is believable, well packaged and matches the prejudices of your target audience, you win.

Re:The Koch brothers are campaigning against tax rises for p... by grasshopperpurp on Wednesday June 20, 2018 @02:16PM (#17358070)
Please help me understand how the context of him arguing for a tax increase changes the meaning of the quote. How does the quote (independent of context) give an unfair impression of Buffett?
Re:The Koch brothers are campaigning against tax rises for p... by speby on Tuesday June 19, 2018 @11:22AM (#17347500)
Not surprising is it. Nevermind their political or philosophical viewpoint, when was the last time a Koch brother or family member took or relied on public transportation?