Just DO It....Who Cares?
By Jim Bauer
@porwest (99528)
United States
January 30, 2023 7:10pm CST
Laurels, motives and ulterior motives are all great things. So are convictions and principles.
But at the end of the day? When there is money involved? Sometimes you just suck it up and do what you got to do.
I have always said of the stock market, it is all about money and profits. I don't care if the company is selling something not necessarily good, so long as they make me money.
Cigarettes kill people. But it makes a TON of money. I can always use my profits to support an advocacy group on smoking cessation. Some alcoholic beverage companies may make alcoholics out of some people...
I can use my profits to support AA.
In the meantime? Take your money and run. They are going to make the money anyway, and people are going to do what they do despite your best effort to have those laurels, motives and principles.
So, just take it. Every red penny. Every red cent. Take it and let them all figure out their own wrongs. It's not my job, and taking care of other people is not my concern and does me no good.
So...just do what you gotta do and leave the rest to those who have to do what they have to do.
Onward and upward.
10 people like this
10 responses
@lovebuglena (46177)
• Staten Island, New York
31 Jan 23
Do you have to pay a lot of taxes on stock market earnings?
2 people like this
@porwest (99528)
• United States
31 Jan 23
Not really. In reality, despite even certain recent tax law changes from Biden, I pay less taxes on dividends and proceeds than I pay on income. Mostly. The real problem with the tax code, and why so many of the rich don't pay as much as you and I do? It's W-2 wages that are the focus of the income.
There was an episode of Cheers once where a CEO made a bet to give up his entire year's salary. The winner won $1. That was the CEO's W-2 wage. His stock options, share rewards and other things were all taxed less which is why he chose the $1 W-2 salary to be taxed.
The reality is that rich people do not make money from wages. They make it from investments. And proceeds from investments are taxed less than wages are. It is all, also, quite legal.
3 people like this
@lovebuglena (46177)
• Staten Island, New York
31 Jan 23
@porwest So the rich are rich from investments and not from their positions as CEOs, etc.?
2 people like this
@porwest (99528)
• United States
31 Jan 23
@lovebuglena The $1 thing was simply hyperbole in the show. But overall, much of a CEOs compensation package is tied to things OTHER than W-2 wages and therefore the way they are taxed is different.
2 people like this
@TheHorse (226212)
• Walnut Creek, California
6 Feb 23
Yep.
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@LindaOHio (187984)
• United States
31 Jan 23
To each his own. I would not support a company that I do not agree with on their tactics.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (187984)
• United States
1 Feb 23
@porwest As I said, to each his own. Have a great day!
1 person likes this
@porwest (99528)
• United States
31 Jan 23
I will agree to some extent there is a fine line. But I will also assert that supporting a company and investing in a company are different things. The objective of an investment is to make money, and regardless of the enterprise or tactics, if the profit exists...I say why not capture the profits?
Depending on one's investment, it can also give an investor some aptitude to be involved with decisions advocating for change brought to the board and presented to other shareholders to consider.
I do get what you mean, and I can list many companies I would not invest in. But few of them have to do with the nature of their business, but rather my assessment of the viability and profitability of the sector in which they operate, or comapanies that don't stack up well in a peer-to-peer evaluation.
1 person likes this
@2ndchances24 (10378)
• Cloverdale, Indiana
10 Dec 23
That's about the size of it these days.
1 person likes this
@porwest (99528)
• United States
14 Dec 23
@2ndchances24 At the same time, as I have always said, social security was never meant to be a pension. It was only ever meant to be a supplement to other savings and investments to fund retirement. They send annual statements of benefits every year, so it's not like people can't see what they will be getting when they collect, and if it is not enough, there is usually plenty of time before benefits are received to make the necessary adjustments. But many people don't.
The way I am setting myself up is to not need the benefits, and therefore, when I collect them, they will simply be a bonus.
Granted, there does come a time when, for some people, it's simply too late and then you just have to deal with what you have to deal with. It's part of the reason I write (here and elsewhere) so much about the importance of saving and investing, because there will come a time when NOT doing it will really bite people in the butt.
1 person likes this
@2ndchances24 (10378)
• Cloverdale, Indiana
10 Dec 23
@porwest that's what I do
like we just got a 20 cent
raise on our S S check like
THAT'S going to help us
when everything is going up
more than 20-40 cents.
1 person likes this
@RebeccasFarm (94538)
• Arvada, Colorado
31 Jan 23
Exactly how I feel..well said Jim.
1 person likes this
