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Comment by girvo | Hacker News Reader

Yep, even nuts get stolen!

Anything and everything has a "dark side". That's why these, "Gasp! Oh my goodness, I can't believe there are such vile people in this world" comments piss me off. It's a clear sign of willful ignorance and naivety. The same goes with, "I can't believe people have offshore accounts. Those terrible rich people. Adam Neumann is so terrible for setting up in his contract to get a 1.7b bailout." Bitch, what would you do in their position? Don't lie. You'd probably ask why Adam didn't go for the even $2b. There isn't a single person in this HN thread who, if they made enough to get taxed 35%+ of their income, wouldn't tax shelter the shit out of their money. I already know they lie their ass off on their taxes. Why not take a dependent or two away from your taxes, just so you can pay a more moral share of the tax burden? Claiming moral righteousness due to inability is just shoving your head in the sand.

Thanks for the article by the way. Got to admit, those folks have a great heist story. "We stole $10m worth of deez nutz!"

Ever wonder if someone does a heist and the press shorts the value, do those guys want to correct them? "Excuse me, we stole $12.4m worth of nuts. We are professionals after all, thank you very much." Not going to lie, it would piss me off if I ever did an art heist and the news says, "$10 million dollar painting stolen..." Mofo, you forgot a zero! You're making me look bad!

If I had $1.7b I would not give a shit about the taxes I had to pay because my family would be set for generations no matter what. That's what I don't get about the super rich that obsess over taxes, the insane greed when you could be doing absolutely anything else you wanted to.

Lol, billionaires don’t spend any time thinking about this.

A special tax firm approaches them and says, “yo, give us 10 million and we’ll save you $200 million in unnecessary taxes.”

The billionaire says, “sure, I’d like to use that money to build spaceships.”

That’s the amount of thought the billionaire has to put into it. The rest is attorneys and accountants doing the work.

Did you forget that billionaires can... pay people to do things for them?

In Scandinavia, 30%+ tax rates are pretty much where people start, and it doesn't take too high an income to be right up at 35%. Yet those countries don't seem to be collapsing from tax evasion, and surely there must be some Scandinavian readers here.

Myself and most all my coworkers are on 40%, and obviously tax evasion is not on anyone's mind. I think it comes down to your social environment and values.

If I were born and raised in the US, with all that anti-government and anti-tax rhetoric around me, I might feel similarly to the impassioned gentleman or lady above. Yet as it stands I am happy to pay for taxes as I see great value in them, and I would generally be happy for a tax rise if justified and needed.

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