[geeks] KVM for Sun Sparc Servers with USB keyboards

[Phil Stracchino]

Sandwich Maker wrote:
> " From: Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at gmail.com>
> " 
> " []
> " 
> " As you describe it, and in light of recent election, if you promise to  
> " raise taxes on 5% of the population to fund a tax cut for 95% of the  
> " population - you're virtually guaranteed to win...
> " 
> " I think we are there, or at least just about there...
> 
> well, considering that 5% has managed to get massive tax -cuts- over
> the last 5 decades...
> 
> the top rate is what, 37%?
> 
> it was 50% under reagan.
> 
> it was 70% under nixon.
> 
> it was 90% under eisenhower.
> 
> obama has been labeled a socialist for proposing an increase to levels
> less than any of these republican presidencies.


Just as a datum, a number of pretty influential economists have
calculated optimal values for tax rate that lie between 10% and 13%.
Any higher than 13%, while it bring in more money *right now*, results
in a smaller economy and lower long-term tax revenues because of the tax
burden on the economy.

Frankly, 80%-plus tax rates are not economic, they're punitive.

Another datum:  During the height of the UK Labor governments in the
1960s and 1970s, if you were a stockbroker (or someone else who made
essentially all your income from investments), earned more than about
20,000 pounds sterling a year (might have been 21,000), and met one
other condition that I don't remember at this point, it was possible to
be taxed at a rate of 105% of your taxable income.  83% top tax bracket,
15% investment tax, and 7% on the top for the third condition.  And the
government wondered why so many of the wealthy were fleeing the country
for offshore tax havens like the Bahamas...  Meanwhile, leading pillars
of labor-union thought were declaring that after the working class got
home on Friday, handed the wife a fiver for the week's groceries, and
went down to the pub and spent the rest renting beer, they should be
able to get an extra handout from more prudent neighbors who hadn't done
so.  Verbatim quote:  "The besetting sin of the middle classes is that
they save their money."


-- 
  Phil Stracchino, CDK#2     DoD#299792458     ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
  alaric at caerllewys.net   alaric at metrocast.net   phil at co.ordinate.org
         Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
                 It's not the years, it's the mileage.