Government entitlement.

The argument that should be argued, of course, is not. What’s happening in the Kansas City Missouri legislation is an argument over the abolishing the 1% earnings tax that is imposed on the employers and companies who operate in Kansas City, MO. The argument being made against the tax is 1. It discourages companies from locating in downtown Kansas City instead opting for the suburbs which are safer and don’t have this 1% tax 2. The people who actually pay the tax don’t necessarily live in KCMO and cannot vote for or against the tax.  The argument being made for the tax is pretty much singular: the city can’t survive without it. It is estimated that the tax will be providing $206.5 million or 43 percent of the city’s general revenues this year.  They proclaim, “How would replace those funds?”  Here’s a novel idea: Pass taxes in a system that directly pays for those services needed. Property taxes for Police and Fire. Gas taxes for road maintenance. Maybe, then, the politicians would pay more attention to what exactly they are making us pay for.

First response: It’s incredible to me that hundreds of millions of dollars can just be given to the government with no tie or responsibility to a particular activity.

Argument that should be being made:  The government is only chartered to perform certain activities.  Any taxes must be directly tied to those activities in which the government is responsible for.

I will say this about part of the argument that the people in favor of the abolition of the 1% tax. The fact is negligible that people who work in Missouri but live somewhere else are coerced into paying a 1% income tax even though they can’t vote for or against the tax.  It ignores the choice. Businesses and employees choose to do business in Kansas City, MO, but virtue of that choice, they are accepting that 1% tax. (A big problem for KCMO is that many businesses have chosen to move to the suburbs). In the same way that, if I go traveling, I pay sales tax when I purchase anything. I can’t vote for the taxes in California, but when I go there, I pay for souvenirs and the sales tax on those souvenirs. As part of my choice for going to and buying in California, I’ve accepted the tax.

In reality, this earnings tax is part of the larger problem Kansas City, Mo has had to deal with. They pushed businesses out of downtown with stupid big taxes, survived on corruption and poor safety records. The first step is recognizing individual and government responsibility. KCMO hasn’t made that step. Instead, they have to offer large temporary tax reductions to individuals( real estate tax abatement ) and businesses ( TIFs).  Favors and government entitlement. Band-aids instead of of permanent long-term solutions. The only way this

Kansas City Star - Kansas City Earnings Tax Debated
BlogKC - “Earnings Tax: True Hollywood Story”
KC Prime Buzz - “Senator seeks to end KC’s 1% earnings tax”
Show-Institute - Lest We Think 1 Percent Is Small

From Robert Morris to Bill Gates, Forbes Magazine takes us through 20 spectacular business stories in the book titled, “Forbes: Greatest Business Stories of All Time.” Another highly recommended book. The stories aren’t long, about 10-15 pages each. The stories start at the beginning our the capitalist story (also known as the founding of our country), and continue to near modern day. You can learn a lot from each of the people in this book and that’s why its a stepping stone. While it doesn’t go into serious depth, the book gives you plenty to remember! Check the book at. The link to amazon is above. It’ll make you hungry for more about these real-life heroes.

Tags:   book review capitalism politics1 Comment

Man, it’s been a while since I’ve posted. check out the main reason why.

Five members of Cuban U-23 team missing from hotel -
I’m sure they were just wandering the street promoting the Cuban health care system….

So McCain actually has some guts when talking middle-east, but there is something more domestic to be worried about with his politics. Yaron Brook  at Forbes magazine gets to the point -> “Sen. McCain was once asked whether McCain-Feingold abridges freedom of speech. He implicitly admitted that it does: “I would rather have a clean government than one where quote ‘First Amendment rights’ are being respected that has become corrupt. If I had my choice, I’d rather have the clean government.” We should tell Sen. McCain and those who agree with him that a government which strips us of our right to free speech is by that very fact corrupt.”

Oh yes, see the future. Hulu.com is a central site for NBC, FOX andd some other stations where you can stream new television shows for free.  Also, there are some movies on there too. HIGHLY recommended. Easy to use.

Tags:   politics · technologyNo Comments.

Blackboard wins Lawsuit over E-learning Patent
Patent lawsuits are hot. If I were in law school right now, I’d be more akin to technology issues, and IP is the biggest issue around. There are several big trends in intellectual property today. I’ll mention a couple of them: patent hoarding and overly-broad patenting. Patent hoarding is when companies buy up a whole bunch of patents with no intent to use them to produce anything, but instead, sue the pants of anyone who DOES create something of similar nature to the patent. This is done by patent holding companies, billion dollar companies and small-cap companies. Over-broad patenting is when a company files a patent (AND GETS APPROVED?) for a patent on an extremely broad idea or technology. In the above article, this is what we find. Blackboard has a patent on distance learning over the internet…. Seriously. For those who don’t know, Blackboard is an antiquated e-learning suite. Universities all over use blackboard as an online tool that can track grades, facilitate group communication, host course files and presentations, transfer documents, etc. etc. Basically, it’s a very useful product, but the actual available features are nothing exciting and the suite not very intuitive. Companies like Blackboard who are losing their grip on their market share are suing using an old IP system in order to protect themselves from having to innovate and create better products, you know - compete.

The IP office needs to change. They need technology-savvy lawyers fast. They need people who can tell the difference between an actual innovation that needs protection and a broad idea. Much in the same way, our congress needs technology savvy individuals too. Why you don’t see every single student coming out of college with at least a minor in something technology related is beyond me.

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In case you missed it, Paul over at Noodlefood points us in the direction of a great NYT article about the dynamics of British Health care. How is it really doing? Do you get the kind of care that you need when you need it?

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Got some time to kill? Get your Pro Wrestling name!?
Mine is: Bobcat Satan
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The Rule of Reason hits a point that has been bugging me for quite some time. The Fed and its crappy policy is going to lead us into a lot of bad news. Even today, agriculture prices dramatically increased. Hard to say why right now, but hit up the Capitalist Pig vlog to see which ones hit their highs. Assuming these prices stick, inflation for this month isn’t looking any better. It’s definitely time to be putting your new money into bonds, preferred stocks and other countries’ currencies.

Tags:   capitalism · health care · politics1 Comment

Chinese officials are doing their best to prepare the propaganda pitch for the Olympics. “The great firewall of china? No. No. There’s no such thing!” Techdirt reports, “According to Fallows’ sources, during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the Great Firewall will be mostly turned off, so that visiting foreigners won’t notice any problems accessing foreign sites, and will (or so officials hope) tell people that the concept that China is blocking many popular sites is simply a myth.” Tricky bastards.

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Part of being a more productive member of society ( and not being a wake up at noon, go to class at 1pm college student) is learning how to be on the ball and have an active mind at all parts of the day. Of course, caffeine is often included in this equation. This is why I’d like to share to you an essential travel item for the business person on the go! The Handpresso Wild!! [video here]

Tags:   olympics · politicsNo Comments.

 This is what happens when governments gives hand outs. Because the government is supposedly authorized to subsidize new buildings, they now must decide whether a few historic buildings are blighted enough to give money away supporting their demolition. Blighted, of course, being undefined and up to interpretation of a government official’s favor pocket.   Say goodbye to these building.  The government official wouldn’t live there, so it’ll probably be blighted. Just like how the government official doesn’t like smoke in a bar or go to Wal-mart, so we gotta ban those. We can’t allow poor people to shop at Wal-mart or people relaxing with a smoke at a restaurant. That would be horrendous.   We absolutely shouldn’t allow people to live in cheap housing. That is unless the cheap housing tenants have some favors to give…

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If Capitalism was TV show, THIS would be its theme song in the 90’s.

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Gus Van Horn’s post titled Religion Vs. Nanotechnology has jogged an idea in my head. There could be one way Americans would benefit from not having separation of church and state. In the post, a researcher looks at the results of a study showing that far less Europeans have moral qualms about Nanotechnology than Americans. Europeans have an interesting view and relationship with religion. If the US had a church tax like Germany, would we hate the church as much as we do the IRS? In that way, if the Church was more closely tied to the state, Americans might develop the same sort of apathy and dislike of the Church as they do for the Government. Not to say that I want a anything near a theocracy in the US. It would be overwhelmingly bad for individual rights the closer the state gets to religion, but reason would benefit from a more skeptical view of religion and a more secularly moral society.

Tags:   capitalism · politics · religion2 Comments