The owners of the robots can give the non-owners a one-time cash payment to irreversibly sterilize themselves. The cash payment would provide sufficient income to live out the rest of their sterile lives in some modicum of comfort. Those who choose not to sterilize themselves can reproduce, but their children will be competing with robots for jobs and are likely to lose. The owners will eventually meld with the robots, as best they can, to inaugurate non-biological life on Earth and eventually other planets. That's evolution at work.
Wow... listen to this shit. <div style='text-align:center'> <object width='560' height='450' id='FiveminPlayer' classid='clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000'> <param name='allowfullscreen' value='true'/> <param name='allowScriptAccess' value='always'/> <param name='movie' value='http://embed.5min.com/517369227/'/> <param name='wmode' value='opaque' /> <embed name='FiveminPlayer' src='http://embed.5min.com/517369227/' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' width='560' height='450' allowfullscreen='true' allowScriptAccess='always' wmode='opaque'> </embed> </object> <br/> </div>
Well, so much for innocent until proven guilty. Schumer isn't even fit to be elected dog catcher, much less a senator.
The crooks on wall street are robbing AUM with another pump and dump internet IPO.No wonder pension funds lose money in real terms.
The ex-patriot act is really the American Tax Slavery Act: "Anyone who has paid $128K in taxes over the past 5 years or has a net worth of over $2M who renounce citizenship will automatically be deemed to have done so for tax avoidance." They will be assessed 30% on any US investments and barred from ever returning to the US. Appears our govt has a problem with the sudden increase in wealthy individuals cashing out and leaving the country. Talk about citizen trap...
If this isn't the epitome of class warfare and police statism, then I don't know what is. Unbelievable.
the comments after the interview are such bs. Of course the government has an interest to collect taxes that are due. Its like the government builds a brand new pay-road just this time it does not charge you each time you drive on it but charges you at year end in good faith. Days before the year ends you move to another county without paying your dues and again abuse the faith of the system of you paying for what you use. Saverin did not do anything illegal but in my book his conduct is highly unethical because he first surfed the system and enjoyed all the goodies it has to offer and when the payday comes he runs away. He knows perfectly well something is not right otherwise he would not deny so vigorously that his move is related to tax avoidance. I pointed out in an earlier post that living and working in Singapore or Hong Kong can be accomplished with as little an investment as 1 million USD. No need to renounce citizenship (you can look it up yourself in those cities' immigration information on the web). People like him are the real pest of this age, because they move wherever it is most beneficial for themselves, suck everything they can, and when all is consumed and said and done, they are gone, just gone. No responsibility, no sense of pride in citizenship, no nothing. Again nothing illegal was done (other than him and Zuckerberg cheating those who came up with a Facebook related idea earlier and delaying the project they were actually hired to work on), but it just contrasts very well with types of this kind versus Buffet, Bill Gates,...what a huge difference. I have never heard of Buffet or Gates moving countries, renouncing citizenship: And I am willing to bet the farm that they would have had a lot more to gain from not being taxed as US citizens. This whole story is about the big picture of life, of taking pride in what you do, in acting responsible. I am not a proponent of socialism or communism but I am a proponent of being human and having a right sense of giving instead of always taking. Here is a great book recommendation, one of the best books I ever read: http://www.amazon.com/The-Go-Giver-...200X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337313953&sr=8-1
how true, though this time the take up by retail is way above average. More interest on the retail side almost than on the institutional side. Its funny, nobody wants to own rail stocks though some take trains every single day but everyone believes Facebook must go up....;-)
and what is wrong with it? Honestly, please tell me. Leaving the country and living elsewhere is VERY DIFFERENT from renouncing citizenship, I think you are putting both into the same bucket. I am not American but I can appreciate such classification. Why else would you give up your citizenship? You either do not believe in the system anymore (aka Jim Rogers, though I am not sure he actually gave up citizenship) or you run to avoid taxes. Care to provide more reasons for giving up citizenship? I think you grew up in a too well protected environment. If you speak to even wealthy Chinese who want to immigrate into Canada or the US you will understand what immense benefits you were enjoying in the US and I think the government rightly takes the stance that when you give up citizenship and it is more than apparent that it was for tax avoidance then you pay a certain price. In Saverin's case it is all too clear what this locus is up to.
As you probably know, equity valuations are derived from the sum total of the forecasted discounted earnings of the company. By your example, Saverin would be liable for 3/4 of a year's worth of the valuation of Facebook, since he lived in the US up until September of 2011. But, the US government wants to charge him as if he were going to live in the US for the foreseeable future, i.e. the entirety of the discounted cash flow series which underlies the Facebook valuation. The difference is very significant, since any 1 year's worth of cash flows is only going to be a very small (less than 2%) proportion of the total valuation. So, instead of valuing Saverin's equity stake at $4 billion (which I think is in the ballpark of what they are saying he'll take away), it would value his stake at $80 million. While I agree you should pay for what you use, I don't think your tax burden should extend beyond that. It's not as if the government built a road, free of any upfront charge, just for Saverin. If we, as a species, are going to take human rights seriously, the human right to free association, which includes the right to alter one's citizenship AT WILL and without punitive reaction from the governments which are "losing" a citizen has to be a part of that. Otherwise, the "right" is just BS. Which is fine, if that's the rules we are going to play by, but let's spare each other the pious nonsense about human rights, then, and just admit that we live by the law of the jungle and if you don't like it, tough shit. At least then, people will know where they actually stand, rather than this make-believe world of having "human rights" only up until the point where you actually try to exercise them, for whatever reason you find yourself wanting to.