Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

SobeysBags t1_j5qk3wb wrote

One of the richest families in the world, worth $8.4 BILLION. They own so many businesses there are researchers who dedicate their whole careers in discovering what they actually own. They are building Canada's new naval fleet in a plant in a new Halifax yard that makes Bath Iron works look quaint. They have fleets of ships supplying their oil refineries and oil storage plants. They own tire companies, trucking companies, pulp and paper plants, railways, logistics companies, Kent (Canada's version of Lowes), agricultural companies (cavendish farms), they even make diapers and tissues. The list goes on.

Yet they are synonymous with avoiding taxes. You'd never know there was a family of Canadian billionaires floating around New Brunswick and Maine.

28

Azr431 t1_j5r9a3j wrote

Billionaires shouldn’t exist

15

saigonk t1_j5s1g7y wrote

Explain why?

−6

gjazzy68 t1_j5terd4 wrote

You explain why they should.

6

saigonk t1_j5thkxp wrote

Good retort there. If someone makes money it isn’t a crime and it isn’t wrong, it’s how they act as a person. I don’t fault anyone being rich, they either earned it, got lucky, or were given it. All of which you or I could also do in one fashion or another.

Being jealous of those individuals is understandable, they have so much money, why don’t they give to things I want, etc.

It’s “what-about-ism” at its finest.

0

gjazzy68 t1_j5tpjtj wrote

It's not! And I will try to explain you why. Your response is a classic one, that's why I was curious to hear it first. And I get it. Most people work their daily grind, thinking one day they would be filthy rich and get out of that. Capitalism is brilliant that way, make other people work to death, based on a dream. And if suddenly people can't become a billionaire for some reason, that would be the killing of that dream. And hope is important to get by.

But, being rich and being a Bilionaire is two different things. To help you visualize 1 million seconds is 12 days, 1 billion second is 31 years. It would take me, with a very good salary if you consider the American average, 6 THOUSAND years of hard work without spending a single dime to reach a billion, but only 8 years to reach a million. And although a million doesn't have the same power as it used to I'd gladly retire now, in my mid 40s, if I had a couple of that in my savings.

Nobody makes a billion by chance, and even a lottery billionaire, which is extremely rare, won't be able to hold that money for very long if they are honest folks. Because people are only able to keep their billionaire status by exploiting other people, evading taxes, buying political influence, and benefiting from inside trading information. And that's why they shouldn't exist.

If billionaires didn't exist there would still be rich people and poor people, there'd still be inequality, but it would be just a little harder for a very few group of people to keep control over the world.

9

tomhsmith t1_j5udjza wrote

So what does someone do if they want to retain their company and their company becomes worth billions? They'll pay a huge amount of taxes once they sell or die.

1

gjazzy68 t1_j5v3v2k wrote

They should be paying those taxes alive.

2

Muted_Discussion_550 t1_j5tmrv6 wrote

Trickle down capitalism has failed that's why there shouldn't be billionaires someone who has that much money should be deemed a national security risk they can buy politicians lobby for whatever they want whether it be to keep minimum wage down or to keep cigarettes on shelves billionaires are for the most part are turning this world into a coffin

7

Notmystationbro t1_j5r7mvn wrote

All rich people use tax loopholes written by both parties to avoid paying “x” taxes

4

bortvern t1_j5tjk9e wrote

It's kind of an inherent problem with being wealthy. Most people don't make enough money to make "tax optimization" a worthwhile endeavor, but at a certain point the money saved by minimizing tax liability far outweighs the money spent getting there. From the perspective of the wealthy, they are compliant tax paying entities, and any perceived inequity is the problem of the lawmaker.

2

PGids t1_j5tbryv wrote

> They are building Canada’s new naval fleet in a plant in a new Halifax yard that makes Bath Iron works look quaint

Full transparency, as far as shipyards go BIW is quaint. When you have one customer and one customer only, who pays handsomely, you don’t need a ton of room to attempt to crank out two ~600ft hulls a year vs what you need to build super freighters

I’ve been in a variety of heavy industries since 2015 including BIW, and as far as sheer acreage of an operation they’re peons. I worked a power plant in Texas whose coal pile alone was probably 80% of the size of the Bath yard

3

SobeysBags t1_j5tn3lz wrote

True, to be fair the shipyard in Halifax essentially didn't exist up until about 10 years ago, when the Irving's won contract to essentially rebuild the entire Canadian naval fleet over the next 20-30 years. It's crazy what they have built on the Halifax waterfront. So essentially they currently only have one customer for this particular shipbuilding plant, but they do have other shipbuilding plants.

1