Saturday, May 1, 2021

SURVEY - LESS THAN HALF OF DEMOCRATS SAY CAPITALISM IS BETTER THAN SOCIALISM - BUT WHICH HANDS OUT HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS TO CRIMINAL CRONY BANKSTERS

 

Survey: Less than Half of Democrats Say Capitalism Is Better than Socialism

 By Craig Bannister | April 30, 2021 | 4:05pm EDT

 

Self-described "Democratic Socialist" Sen. Bernie Sanders (Getty Images/Andrew Burton)

Less than half of Democrat voters believe that Capitalism “is a better system” than Socialism, a new Rasmussen survey finds.

In a national poll of 1,000 U.S. likely voters, conducted April 27-28, 2021, Rasmussen found that more than three times as many Americans prefer Capitalism (65%) over Socialism (18%). Another 17% say they’re not sure which system is better.

But, among Democrats, just 46% favor Capitalism, compared to 84% of Republicans and 66% of other political affiliations. Only 2% of all U.S. voters who “strongly disapprove” of Democrat President Joe Biden say Socialism’s a better system, while 26% of those who strongly approve of Biden prefer Socialism.

Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to think that the current U.S. economy is a “free market economy,” rather than a “Socialist economy.” Fully 75% of Democrats consider the U.S. economy to be either “generally” (41%) or “partially” (34%) free market.

Conversely, barely half (51%) of Republicans say today’s economy is either generally (18%) or partially (33%) free market. Among all voters, 28% say the economy is generally free and 33% consider it partially so, while 30% see it as being either somewhat (23%) or mostly (7%) driven by socialism.

By age, the youngest U.S. voters are the most likely to believe Socialism is superior to Capitalism. Thirty-one percent (31%) of voters 18-39 years old pick Socialism, compared to 13% of those 40-64 and just 9% of those 65 years and older.

Less than half of those 18-39 (48%) favor Capitalism, compared to more than seventy percent of older Americans.


Land Grab: Mark Zuckerberg Almost Doubles His Hawaii Real Estate Holdings

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg closeup
Anthony Quintano/Flickr
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have nearly doubled the size of their real estate empire in Hawaii, buying another 595.4 acres on Kauai from Waioli Corporation, a nonprofit established by a local family with roots going back to the era of the Hawaiian kingdom.

Zuckerberg and Chan are now the owners of 1,300 acres of land in Hawaii after closing on a $53 million purchase of three parcels of nearly 600 acres on March 19, according to a report by Pacific Business News.

The purchase, which includes land fronting Larsen’s Beach, does not include the beach access road, which is owned by the county, and remains open to the public.

The Facebook CEO bought the land through an LLC registered in Delaware whose member is San Francisco-based Square Seven Management LLC. Square Seven is managed by wealth manager Iconiq Capital LLC, of which Zuckerberg is a client.

The report added that Zuckerberg began amassing the Kauai estate in 2014 when he bought the 357-acre Kahuaina Plantation from California investment firm Falko Partners. After that, the Facebook CEO bought another 384 acres from the late Hawaii auto dealer James Pflueger, and then added more in 2018 for a total of nearly 750 acres.

Zuckerberg’s entities also acquired titles to dozens of smaller lots within the larger parcels that were known as kuleana lands, the report adds.

The couple has reportedly been building residential and agricultural structures on the properties, which are being used for ranching.

Building permits — which total to more than $83 million — show that the largest permit was the 2018 application for a 57,059-square-foot single-family home, which includes a connected accessory building or dwelling with a total of eight bedrooms, nine full baths, and 16 half baths.

“The decision provides Waioli with the financial ability to be able to continue our critical conservation and historical work and ensure that Kauai’s cultural history continues to be shared in the community for years to come,” said Waioli Corp. president Sam Pratt.

Waioli is a nonprofit organization established by members of Kauai’s kamaaina Wilcox family, who are descended from missionary schoolteachers Abner and Lucy Wilcox, from the Kingdom of Hawaii era.

Pratt added that Waioli chose Zuckerberg and Chan after seeing their “dedication over the years to land conservation, protecting native species and working to preserve the natural beauty of Kauai.”

“We know that this land will remain in their trusted hands and that Mark and Priscilla will act as responsible stewards of Lepeuli today and in the future,” he said.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler @alana, and on Instagram.

Pandemic Prize: Amazon’s Q1 Sales Soar 44%

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos during the JFK Space Summit at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Wednesday, June 19, 2019. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
AP Photo/Charles Krupa
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E-commerce giant Amazon released its first-quarter results on Thursday, reporting a 44  percent sales increase. The results blew analysts’ expectations out of the water. The Masters of the Universe say they expect their sales to continue to climb in the second quarter.

CNBC reports that Amazon shares climbed more than three percent in extended trading on Thursday and are up on Friday morning after the company released its first-quarter earnings, beating Wall Street expectations for both earnings and revenue.

Amazon reported earnings of $15.79 per share vs $9.54 per share expected. Amazon also enjoyed a revenue surge of 44 percent to $108.52 billion vs $104.47 billion expected. Amazon has seen a major surge in its online shopping business partly due to the coronavirus pandemic leading to many choosing to shop online rather than in-person.

Amazon’s guidance for the second quarter implies that it expects this success to continue, expecting to post revenue between $110 billion and $116 billion, which surpasses Wall Street’s projection of $108.6 billion.

Amazon has confirmed that its popular “Prime Day” sale will start in June of this year, which is likely to help year-over-year comparisons for revenue in the second quarter. Amazon’s annual two-day discount sale usually takes place in July but the company postponed the event to October last year due to pandemic-related uncertainty.

Discussing Prime Day timing, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky stated on a call with investors: “In many areas, July is vacation month, so it might be better for customers, sellers and vendors to experiment with a different time period. We believe that it might be better timing later in [the second quarter], so that’s what we’re testing this year.”

Amazon’s cloud-computing and advertising businesses also saw major success this year with Amazon Web Services seeing nets ales of $13.5 billion during the quarter, an increase of 32 percent year over year. Amazon does not directly release advertising sales but its “Other” revenue category grew by 77 percent year over year to $6.9 billion.

Read more at CNBC here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com


Joe Biden’s ‘Tax System Will Punish’ Small Business Employees and Hurt Startups

US President Joe Biden delivers remarks at an event marking Amtrak's 50th Anniversary at the William H. Gray III 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 30, 2021. (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP) (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)
OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images
3:58

Prominent Silicon Valley billionaire and investor David Stewart tweeted President Joe Biden’s capital gains tax, proposed to be raised about 20 percent, would make it harder for startups to recruit because “the tax system will punish their employees.”

“If Biden increases the long-term capital gains tax rate from the current 23.8% up to a new cap of 43.4%, it could neuter America’s entrepreneurial ecosystem,” Stewart explained. Capital gains rates apply when an asset is for gain after being held a year.

Stewart said he “ran the numbers” and determined an employee working at Google earning $400,000 per year in California “pays 38 percent of income over 10 years in taxes.”

By contrast, Stewart believes a startup founder pays 36 percent of her $3.9 million 10-year income. But under “Biden’s plan,” Stewart continued, “the Googler’s taxes don’t change but the founder’s rate shoots to 46%!”

Stewart further explained raising taxes on businesses dis-incentivizes businesses to take risks:

Founders and early employees shoulder pay cuts and increased risk when they leave an established company for a startup. They do this in part because there is the potential for a big payday at the end, at an advantageous capital gains tax rate.

It will be harder for startups to recruit bc the tax system will punish their employees. A Googler making $400k/yr for 10 years will pay less tax vs a startup employee making $100k/year for 9 yrs, plus a $3m payday at year 10, despite the Googler earning more total income.

Today’s tax code effectively incentivizes people to take pay cuts and risks associated with building the next generation of companies. If entrepreneurs start to take home less of their total income vs salaried workers at mature companies, the startup ecosystem will suffer.

This is compounded by highly graduated income tax rates in states like CA, which make no distinction between cap gains and ordinary income. Founders with lumpy income (“exit” years interspersed with lean years) have long paid higher state tax rates vs salaried employees.

But big tech disagrees with the venture capital investor.

Adam Kovacevich, founder and CEO of Chamber of Progress, said in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, “The [tax] plan speaks to a lot of goals that I think many people in the tech industry have wanted to see for a long time.”

Companies who are associated with the Chamber of Progress are Automattic, Doordash, Getaround, Grubhub, Instacart, Lime, Twitter, Uber, Waymo, Wing, and Zillow.

“From my experience in the tech industry, this is a deal that most tech companies can live with,” he continued regarding Biden’s tax hike.

It is worth noting if Biden succeeds in raising taxes on income and capital gains, the disparity of Biden’s tax plan would be diminished.

“The current capital gains tax rates are 0 percent for a married couple earning less than $80,000, 15 percent for couples earning more than $80,000 and less than $496,000, or 20 percent for wealthier households,” Breitbart News’ John Carney reported.

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