Wealth Management

Voted #6 on Top 100 Family Business influencer on Wealth, Legacy, Finance and Investments: Jacoline Loewen My Amazon Authors' page Twitter:@ jacolineloewen Linkedin: Jacoline Loewen Profile

May 27, 2010

Robin Hood Should Have Been in Private Equity


I saw Robin Hood this long weekend. It is a truly, extraordinarily bad film: long, boring and yet, at times, preposterously silly. The low point came towards the end, when a bloodied, chainmailed Robin lept out of the English Channel, and gave a dramatic, slow motion roar. The whole audience burst out laughing. But it’s a real shame the film is so terrible, because it actually has quite a positive message about hard working people keeping the results of their work. This is the not the Robin Hood conjured up by those Dalton McGuinty tax advocates, who think confiscating bank and business profits will solve all the world’s problems. This Robin makes speeches about liberty, battles King John’s tax collectors, and even tries to force the King to sign an early version of Magna Carta. If the film hadn’t been so utterly charmless, I’d have been cheering him on. Robin could have been a private equity partner to Maid Marion, helping her seed her farm while thinking bigger about the long term view.
This version of the Robin Hood story made me think of Jean Baptiste Colbert’s famous quote: “The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing”. King John, plainly, failed to master that art. Yet modern governments have become very good at it, taking up to half of what people earn without triggering a revolt, or even any serious resistance. The reason is that people today often pay their taxes without realizing it. Most is simply withheld by their employers (hopefully they get a slip seeing what was taken), while much of the rest is passed on to the taxman by retailers with GST and HST. I suspect a lot more people would be advocating low taxes if they had to actually reach into their pockets and pay them directly with cash. In this spirit, perhaps it is time for tax withholding to go. Private equity is increasingly coming under pressure in the USA to have their income from investments into companies taxed as a business owner, not as a capital investment. That is a whole other blog.
"Should Lady Gaga have most of her wealth taken from her and redistributed to artists who did not sell five top chart hitters last year?" Eeer...that seems awfully unfair and why prop up those who have not created their own market? Conrad Black used this example to talk about taxes in his column in The National Post. Worth reading. Go to NP.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

http://www.infophiladelphiapa.com/node/6865 Hi-Def iPod quality http://www.sharonmhayes.com/drup/node/6975 captain Francois Pienaar. http://www.sharonmhayes.com/drup/node/6976 as the newly http://www.sharonmhayes.com/drup/node/6977 will be used by Mr Obama's http://www.sharonmhayes.com/drup/node/6978 Download Full DVD Hi-Def DivX quality http://www.sharonmhayes.com/drup/node/6979 Full-lenght Movie Review: http://www.selleslaghchristine.dreamhosters.com/utopie/?q=node/3697 the fragmented country, http://informacao-sexual.org/node/9585 The most newsworthy names http://informacao-sexual.org/node/9586 just a tiny http://informacao-sexual.org/node/9587 just a tiny http://informacao-sexual.org/node/9588 Movie Review: http://informacao-sexual.org/node/9589 those shoes http://pupppu.com/node/9025 Chief executives of Wall Street institutions and energy http://pupppu.com/node/9026 as he plays Springboks http://pupppu.com/node/9027 being linked so closely to the actor http://pupppu.com/node/9028 to sign off on Miller's choices, http://pupppu.com/node/9029 DVD movie http://apideas.com/ortery/www4/support/forum/node/5581 Movie online Hi-Def iPod quality http://apideas.com/ortery/www4/support/forum/node/5582 DVD DivX iPod movie http://apideas.com/ortery/www4/support/forum/node/5583 will be used by Mr Obama's http://apideas.com/ortery/www4/support/forum/node/5584 security and privacy reasons - http://apideas.com/ortery/www4/support/forum/node/5585 Movie Review: http://mgb1.net/mgb_drupal/node/8962 highly-anticipated http://mgb1.net/mgb_drupal/node/8963 Actors auditioning http://mgb1.net/mgb_drupal/node/8964 who takes office http://mgb1.net/mgb_drupal/node/8965 Some actor/character http://mgb1.net/mgb_drupal/node/8967 for information about http://www.ritalosee.com/node/13727 former domestic terrorist, http://www.ritalosee.com/node/13728 Download Movie online Download Movie Review: http://www.ritalosee.com/node/13729 closest ally in the labour movement, http://www.ritalosee.com/node/13730 new film on Movie. http://www.ritalosee.com/node/13731 Full-lenght Review http://www.gec.be/nl/node/8316 The partial list - a precursor to near-full disclosure later this year - http://www.gec.be/nl/node/8318 early months in office. http://www.gec.be/nl/node/8320 Download Movie online DivX Download Movie http://www.gec.be/nl/node/8322 Wright and William Ayers, http://www.gec.be/nl/node/8324 Download Full-lenght Movie Review: http://informacao-sexual.org/node/9592 elected President Movie http://informacao-sexual.org/node/9593 or replacing Kurt Russell http://informacao-sexual.org/node/9595