jeffythequick

mac_dog said:

johnbear said:

Just make them pay fair taxes in US. I’m thinking at least 30% just as Apple charges for the AppStore 

A better idea would be to charge everyone 30% tax on net income, including religious organizations and zero refunds. 

Or even better-er, charge everyone 23% on things they purchase, and not on their income.  Also, have a pre-bate, where the tax load on the basics of life are paid out to everyone.

Income taxes are inherently wrong, as they implicitly state that the money isn't yours.  What the government lets you keep is yours, only if you jump through hoops and are controlled by those that write the rules, so I guess the money isn't really yours.

Can we break up the Federal Government into 50 smaller governments, and just let the Federal Government worry about borrowing money, regulating commerce with foreign nations and between the States (actual commerce between those states, not inferred commerce), Naturalizing, bankruptcy, coining money, fixing standard of weights and measures, punishing counterfeiters, establishing post offices, roads, patents/copyrights, punishing piracies on the high seas, declaring war and making rules concerning natures on land and water, making and regulating armies and a navy, making militias to execute the laws of the US and to suppress insurrections and invasions.

And leave the rest to those smaller governments, as long as they don't violate any of the other rules from the document where I pulled that list from.

j2fusion said:

It just shows how close the stock market is to gambling. And most of us depend on it for our retirement...

I'll take 8-12% (S&P500) on my investment over 1.75-5% every day of the week.  It have a stomach for the ups and downs, though, and many people (including my wife) do not.

To me, working and setting aside 15% of my income for delayed gratification is far less risky than living now, and hoping that politicians in the future don't think I'm "rich" so they can not give me benefits that others get because of my past earnings.

https://dqydj.com/is-social-security-a-good-investment/

Beats said:

sflocal said:

anantksundaram said:

If my portfolio didn't have too much AAPL in it already, I would be buying.

I have quite a bit in AAPL as well, and happily going long on it.

Waiting for the bottom and will be loading up on more.

Isn't this the bottom? I mean how much lower can it go?

Then again this is AAPL......

A long time ago, I worked at Lucent Technologies, the descendant of Bell Labs.  When the stock was going up and up and up, there was a guy that walked around the place like he owned it, and in fact, he did own quite a bit in his 401(k) and stock purchase plan (ESPP).  When it went to $89/share, he laughed and said that he would retire at 40, after the next doubling of the stock.
It went above $110/share (all values are normalized in this story)
There was news that there were financial misdeeds 
It dropped to $80, and he was confident.
"It'll never go below 80."
Then, it went to 60, and he was less confident.  
"It'll never go below 60."
Then, it went to 40, and he was shaken.
"It'll never go below 40."
He was frazzled, but held on.
"It'll never go below 20."
Dreams of retirement in two years disappeared.  80% of his net worth disappeared.
I asked him how he was doing, and when he said it will never go below 20, I responded with, "you know, it'll never go below zero."
He held on, with 100% of his investments in LU.
He finally got out when the stock hit $5/share, losing over 95% of his nest egg.

In retrospect, it's easy to see where he went wrong, putting all his eggs in one basket, trying to dance on a collapsing building, using metaphors that never existed, but even at the time, he could have recovered from a 50% loss, but he had to start over at 40, saving for retirement.

The rule is:  It can never go below zero.

cgWerks said:

So... anyone have a rational reason why Apple is worth over a 1/4 $trillion less today than it was a week ago?
Ahh... you gotta love the Wall Street Casino!