Replies to post #108156 on Intel Corp (INTC)

[salasidis]

Fair - I mean it in the non distributionist sense :-)

ie you should get and keep what you earn, without having to feel guilty about it.

Taxes being paid should be competitive with the rest of the world, and in fact should be a little lower than countries one is competing against.

[wbmw]

This word "fair", what does it mean? I see it used all the time and as far as I can tell it means whatever the user wants it to mean to justify whatever he wants to do.

Yes, it is subjective. But from my perspective, there's no reason why policies can't be set up such that people pay in taxes what they won't miss in terms of wealth, and that those revenues can go towards making sure that Americans have a path towards prosperity. Examples of this are college education for those who can't afford it, temporary welfare for people who can't find work or can't afford basic necessities (like food) by working part time, and healthcare and retirement stipends for the elderly and veterans.

That's the way things are set up now, but while we had a budget surplus in 1999, now we have a trillion dollar deficit that needs fixing. So the choices are (1) austerity, or (2) raising revenue, and both are painful. The heart of the argument right now is which one we should do, but I think the reality is that it needs to be a bit of both, along with some fundamental restructuring - even though the latter is complex and will not be possible until both parties come to terms.