Friday, December 10, 2010

On Hostages and Ransom


Why didn't the president exhort his followers to do what it took to get rich and then pay more taxes? If the problem is that the rich aren't giving enough money to the government, then the people who want that should get rich and give the government their money.

Why not?

2 comments:

tim eisele said...

Speaking of getting rich, here's something I've been mulling over for a while:

Successful entrepreneurs have certain traits:

- A willingness to take big risks in order to get a chance at a big payoff;

- The drive to get out there and sell, sell, sell whatever good or service they are producing; and

- An ability to work out how to get things done in spite of any barriers that might be in their way.

It occurs to me that there are two other classes of people who tend to share these traits: (1) Immigrants (legal or otherwise), and (2) Certain types of criminals[1] (such as, say, drug dealers).

Which brings up the question: are a significant number of the future entrepreneurs that we need to build the economy either being shipped back across the Mexican border, or locked up in prison?

[1] Anecdotal support: My father has a cousin who is an example of this. He was regularly in trouble with the police when he was younger, and yet ultimately ended up founding a multi-million-dollar machining business. If he'd been locked up in prison for 30 years, that never would have happened.

K T Cat said...

I dunno, man. That description would fit a serial killer, too.

:-)