[FoRK] Clarification on 401k, also further details of Obama's position re: investment income

[Jeff Bone]

On Apr 18, 2008, at 8:01 AM, Russell Turpin wrote:
>
> Jeff Bone:
>> None of which matters a whit when the idea behind such a tax increase
>> (ideology, "rich" - remember, above-the-mean wealth - people are  
>> evil,
>> their gains are ill-gotten, screw 'em, and use tax policy to do so)  
>> is
>> so disconnected from the reality (79% of capital gains payers in 2005
>> earned under $100k.) The clear statement is that investment income is
>> in some way less legitimate than earned income. ..
>
> Being an ordinary yokel who pays tax on dividends and on capital  
> gains,
> I quite sympathize. The problem is my young nephew. He has this notion
> that earned income is just as legitimate as investment income, and
> shouldn't be taxed at much higher rates. Which it now is.

Well, that's a completely different argument, isn't it?  And one that  
I suspect you and I are mostly on the same side of...

That doesn't change the attitude the Candidate expressed, or the fact  
that that particular attitude is quite likely rampant among the  
Candidate's party and simultaneously quite attractive to the populist  
masses these days...

jb