Bill Gates’ Father

It never ceases to amaze me that the father of the world’s richest person would endorse the Communist plank of wealth redistribution. This isn’t the first time Bill Gates, Sr. has publicly gone on the offensive to defend the concept of the estate (aka death & inheritance) tax. He’s now trying to rally opposition to those of us who want to see the estate tax eliminated forever.

As I have explained several times, his argument that removing or reducing taxes causes less charitable donations is pure bunk.

KMK

Oops, They Did It Again

Everyone I speak with tells me that they wouldn’t mind paying their fair share of taxes if they had any confidence that the money was going to be spent wisely by our masters in DC. However, with constant stories of government waste and pork barrel programs, this just isn’t the case.

It’s even harder to rally people to send their money to Washington when stories like this come out, describing how our rulers allowed $17.3 Billion to slip though their fingers last year due to “sloppy bookkeeping.”

This is a pattern and not a one time incident. If an employee in a real world company allowed this to happen, s/he would be fired at a minimum and probably hit with criminal charges. When our rulers do it, they are rewarded and re-elected over and over. Disgusting.

KMK

Frequent Flyer Mile Scam

I don’t think Joe Bob Briggs has any formal training in accounting or finance; but he does an excellent job in analyzing the scam the airlines have been pulling for decades with their frequent flyer mile programs. As he very cleverly documents, these have actually become a form of currency in this country that can be used for almost anything, not just for flying.

This reminds me of an accounting class back in college, where we discussed the effects of unrecorded liabilities on the books of airlines; specifically unredeemed frequent flyer miles that would affect future revenues and expenses.

It also reminds me of the hilarious scene in the movie, Duets about someone trying to actually use his frequent flyer miles with a hotel and going berserk when he is confronted with all of the fine print restrictions designed to prevent real people from actually using the miles.

KMK