Mark Cuban: Wealthy Should "Pay Lots Of Taxes"

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks Owner: Wealthy Should 'Pay Lots Of Taxes'


The Huffington Post Posted: 9/19/11 06:13 PM ET

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0...212,b=facebook


Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, said wealthy Americans should pay "lots of taxes" in a post on his blog on Monday.

http://blogmaverick.com/2011/09/19/t...-you-can-do-2/

Titled "The Most Patriotic Thing You Can Do," the post told readers that wealthy Americans should "do something positive" with their money by hiring, training and paying employees and spending money on rent, equipment and services.

"I don’t care what anyone says. Being rich is a good thing," Cuban wrote. "Not just in the obvious sense of benefiting you and your family, but in the broader sense. Profits are not a zero sum game. The more you make the more of a financial impact you can have."

Cuban -- who has a net worth of $2.5 billion -- encouraged his readers to "get out there and make a boatload of money" and "enjoy the **** out your money" knowing that making more and paying higher taxes would help others.

So be Patriotic. Go out there and get rich. Get so obnoxiously rich that when that tax bill comes , your first thought will be to choke on how big a check you have to write. Your 2nd thought will be “what a great problem to have”, and your 3rd should be a recognition that in paying your taxes you are helping to support millions of Americans that are not as fortunate as you.

Cuban's post came in the wake of Rep. John Fleming's (R-La.) suggestion that he couldn't afford a tax hike because he had only "maybe $400,000 left over" from his $6.3 million in business profits. Fleming said that he opposed Obama's plan to tax the wealthy during an appearance on MSNBC.

[Mr.Meanie]

His point is not that wealthy should pay lots of taxes, but that everyone should go out and get so wealthy that they have the "problem" of paying a lot in taxes.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Originally Posted by Mr.Meanie

His point is not that wealthy should pay lots of taxes, but that everyone should go out and get so wealthy that they have the "problem" of paying a lot in taxes.

It's both of these things, actually.

He explains why rich people paying taxes is patriotic.

[Bronx33]

Cuban's post came in the wake of Rep. John Fleming's (R-La.) suggestion that he couldn't afford a tax hike because he had only "maybe $400,000 left over" from his $6.3 million in business profits. Fleming said that he opposed Obama's plan to tax the wealthy during an appearance on MSNBC.

Nice job not posting the rest of flemings comments. ( blog maverick?) they appear to only give you one side of the story ( go figure)

[Mr.Meanie]

Originally Posted by Bronx33

Nice job not posting the rest of flemings comments. ( blog maverick?) they appear to only give you one side of the story ( go figure)

Blog maverick is Cuban's weblog where he posted his comments. Link here

Cuban posted an interesting update to this, but for some reason it didn't post to his blog. I subscribe to his feed though, so here is what it said:

Things Our Federal Government Should Do and more..

These are not meant to be researched items. These are “streams of consciousness” from the conversation yesterday’s post created.

First some housekeeping. I DO NOT like paying taxes. In fact I hate to throw good money after bad and the way our federal government spends money is rarely good. HOWEVER, I think that this country has created unique opportunities for entrepreneurs and paying taxes is a small price to pay. In fact, as I wrote yesterday, I’m proud to pay taxes on the rewards I have EARNED through my efforts in the business world. Taxes are not a bad thing, mis-allocation of the money we all contribute is.

So what can be done ? Here you go:

1. Transparency.

It had been promised often and never delivered. If there was transparency in our budgets and the actual spending of our dollars, down to the nickel. Someone has to see it and approve it. If they can see it, US citizens (with the exception of classified defense spending) should be able to see it. The value of transparency is that we would benefit from the collective brain power of the American people who would be able to provide us in depth education and information . The power of the people at its best. Sure there would be tons of misinformation as people play the traditional partisan games, but I think that websites that take apolitical approaches to the issues will emerge that we could follow.

With complete transparency we could have our own online Super Committee to look for the best places to cut costs and improve efficiency. Without it, we are at the mercy of a “Super Committee” formed purely to make politicians happy.

2. 10 Year Budgets

There is no better example of how politicians lie to themselves and the American people than the fact that our budgets are framed within a 10 year plan. There is no business person on the planet who would think that a 10 year plan would have even a remote possibility of playing out as planned. Yet that is what we use to try to convince our country that we are “taking action ” to cure our problems. Hell, even communist countries have plans that are 5 years long. Any budget plan that is longer than the end of the current POTUS term is basically a crock of ****. You can’t plan what you have no chance of controlling. Any effort to do so is an out and out lie . It’s probably the only truly bi-partisan program that is unanimously agreed upon.

3. Spending Money on Infrastructure/Infrastructure Bank

I was walking a talking head show where an “expert” commented that the Chinese proved out the value of spending on infrastructure. They spent . The economy grew. Correct, but very misleading, but also very informative. Infrastructure spending is VERY BENEFICIAL when the spending creates new commerce opportunities. So in China, when roads were built where there previously had not been a road, thats a good thing. It enables commerce. We have seen it in the US with Dams, Highways, Bridges and more.

With only possibly the enhancement and building of schools, the only infrastructure investment that makes sense is where COMMERCE THAT WAS NOT PREVIOUSLY ABLE IS NOW ENABLED BY NEW INFRASTRUCTURE.

The problem in the USA is that those opportunities are few and far between. We have been there and done that. The BIGGER PROBLEM WITH INFRASTRUCTURE is that in the name of creating jobs we actually inhibit commerce. How ? When we rebuild or expand roads as a way of creating jobs, what happens ? We shut down or reduce the traffic on the roads to be rebuilt. The net effect is that during the construction period we CREATE PROBLEMS rather than solve them. We slow down commutes. Which costs people valuable time (and yes time is still money), wastes gas/oil/energy as we sit in traffic and forces traffic to streets not designed for the additional traffic. Not Good.

The bottom line is that we have to understand the difference between Maintenance and Infrastructure. Infrastructure creates opportunity where there was none. Maintenance gets things back to where they were. You INVEST in infrastructure when you can see a return. You SPEND money on maintenance when you not only have the available funds to do so, but also the ability to withstand the downtime and negative productivity impact that comes with the impact of the maintenance work. Yes there are times when you need maintenance to return to a steady business state (ie your computer is broken), but again those have an obvious return.

Entrepreneurship

Taxes and The Number

Tear Down Houses, Dont Rent Them

--------------


It looks like he accidentally posted it before he was finished. Great write up though, as usual I agree with just about everything he says.

[Bronx33]

thanks for the update meanie cuban may not be as dumb as he acts.

[cutthemdown]

Yes but the fantasy rich people aren't paying taxes is ludicrous. They pay almost all the tax the govt gets.

[Bronx33]

Ya know i can respect cuban from a (he made his own money) stand point but its pretty easy for him to say its no problem for him to pay more taxes since hes rolling in it but for most entrepreneurs taxes cut into your bottom line and it forces you to make cutbacks either by raising product prices to recoup loses or lowering product prices to remain competitive or getting rid of payroll/jobs.

[peacepipe]

Originally Posted by Bronx33

Ya know i can respect cuban from a (he made his own money) stand point but its pretty easy for him to say its no problem for him to pay more taxes since hes rolling in it but for most entrepreneurs taxes cut into your bottom line and it forces you to make cutbacks either by raising product prices or getting rid of payroll/jobs.

that wasn't the case during the clinton yrs.

[Bronx33]

Originally Posted by peacepipe

that wasn't the case during the clinton yrs.

Sadly its no longer the clinton years. ( time to move on and adjust)

[cutthemdown]

People have to understand why we had a lot of growth during the Clinton yrs. We had a robust tech surge and the NASDAQ exploded. That in turn with loose lending for mortgages and refinancing led to a lot of consumer spending. In fact rampant consumer spending. Lot's of people though they had money to spend that when housing crashed the suddenly didn't anymore.

Not saying Clinton didn't have some good things happen but to say he had some magic policy that led to the nasdaq exploding to over 3 times what it is today is sort of a reach IMO.

[spdirty]

Mark Cubans a ****in prick.

[spdirty]

Wtf are you gonna come up with next? Al Davis loves Obama, so we should too? Man this forum is boring anymore.

[spdirty]

Originally Posted by Mr.Meanie

His point is not that wealthy should pay lots of taxes, but that everyone should go out and get so wealthy that they have the "problem" of paying a lot in taxes.

Can't get wealthy because the rich aren't spending money to make money because they dont want most of the money they make from the risk they take to get taken away by having to pay a lot of taxes.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Originally Posted by cutthemdown

Yes but the fantasy rich people aren't paying taxes is ludicrous. They pay almost all the tax the govt gets.

Yeah, what would Mark Cuban know about being rich and paying taxes?

[Mr.Meanie]

Originally Posted by spdirty

Can't get wealthy because the rich aren't spending money to make money because they dont want most of the money they make from the risk they take to get taken away by having to pay a lot of taxes.

What? That's just flat out untrue. We are at historically low tax rates currently, and we currently have companies hoarding capital because they don't see a return on deploying it. Some of the biggest boom times in our nations history have been when marginal tax rates were at their highest.

I'm not arguing that we should go back to the Eisenhower days, but the entire world didn't collapse in some Atlas Shrugged ideological fantasy back then. In fact, some would argue that such a structure actually encourages massive reinvestment in infrastructure and employment and penalizes sucking cash out of companies and dumping it in t-bills.

Honestly, saying "nope, can't get rich cuz of the taxes" when taxes are at historic lows is nothing but an excuse for not going out and making it happen.

[Arkie]

The rich pay more than their fair share in the USA. The richest group pays 45% of all taxes while earning only 33% of all wealth.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Originally Posted by Mr.Meanie

What? That's just flat out untrue. We are at historically low tax rates currently, and we currently have companies hoarding capital because they don't see a return on deploying it. Some of the biggest boom times in our nations history have been when marginal tax rates were at their highest.

I'm not arguing that we should go back to the Eisenhower days, but the entire world didn't collapse in some Atlas Shrugged ideological fantasy back then. In fact, some would argue that such a structure actually encourages massive reinvestment in infrastructure and employment and penalizes sucking cash out of companies and dumping it in t-bills.

Honestly, saying "nope, can't get rich cuz of the taxes" when taxes are at historic lows is nothing but an excuse for not going out and making it happen.

Hammer --> nail ---> head.

[cutthemdown]

Cracks me up that people consider families making 250 grand, or singles making 200 grand a yr millionairs that need to pay there fair share. The fact it Obama isn't getting very much money from the people who actually make 1 million a yr. We don't have as many of those as people think. He is coming after people making 200 grand a yr. Doesn't really change anything for me but I wish he would just be honest. Even the non partisan fact check sites have said Obama's claim the rich pay less % in income tax then middle class is wrong. He's talking about capital gains and very few rich people by % get there jack that way. You don't want to mess with that because also in those taxes are all the regular investors and people that aren't CEO's.

The vast bulk of Obamas tax revenue increase comes from raising the income tax on individuals making 200 grand a yr, and families making 250 grand. That is going to crush an already fragile Calif economy.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

[Play2win]

Originally Posted by L.A. BRONCOS FAN

It's both of these things, actually.

He explains why rich people paying taxes is patriotic.

So every rich republican that doesn't want to pay his (fair share) taxes is unpatriotic.

That is a message that could leave a mark.

And the logic is there.

Do you believe in America (Mr. Rich republican guy)? then pay your taxes...

And rollback taxes to the Reagan taxes (or BEFORE)

[alkemical]

I get a kick out of guys like Sean Hannity. On the radio they are talking to a bunch of middle classers, getting them to buy into the "don't tax the rich" mantra. Yet, Sean Hannity isn't middle class - he's advertising tax breaks for himself....

[TonyR]

Originally Posted by spdirty

Can't get wealthy because the rich aren't spending money to make money because they dont want most of the money they make from the risk they take to get taken away by having to pay a lot of taxes.

Love this "logic". Love it!!! I mean, seriously? The wealthy don't want to make more money because they're afraid they'll have to pay more taxes on their incremental income? So let me guess, you bypass raises so you can keep your tax bill low. Right?

[TonyR]

Originally Posted by alkemical

I get a kick out of guys like Sean Hannity...

Yup. Hannity, Rush, etc. are multi millionaires busy convincing their sheep listeners that government and the poor are the problem and that the rich and corporations are put upon and asked to do too much. Have you read What's the Matter with Kansas?

http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Matter-K.../dp/0805073396

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

David Michael Green in today's Chimp: "Let me make it simple, in case anyone wants to share this essay with their idiotic, Republican (pardon the redundancy) cousin Buford: The story of American politics over the last generation is the story of the transfer of wealth from the people to the plutocrats. If you think there is anything else essential going on here, you don't get it. Of course, you're not supposed to get it. And one reason why so many people can't put the narrative together is because there is no one in the political class who is articulating that vision for them to consider. Not a single one among the elites in American politics and government."

The Daily Chimp for Thursday, 22 September 2011 | The Smirking Chimp

www.smirkingchimp.com