It's so unfair that we tax the job creating producer class.
Please don't wait around for John Paulson to create those jobs. He might have raked in a record $5 billion in 2010, but his job isn't about employing people to make things or provide services. He's a hedge fund manager. Paulson (a spiritual but not a blood relation of Henry, Bush's Treasury Secretary) leads the list of America's top "earners" for the year. If you divide his 2010 take by the standard work year of 2,080 hours, you'll find that this ubermensch had a wage of $2.4 million an HOUR...
Paulson's was a different kind of theft -- but theft it was. In fact, he barely evaded prison for his role in Goldman Sachs' Abacus deal, which suckered investors into buying securities that were explicitly designed to fail. Paulson colluded with Goldman Sachs to build a synthetic collateralized debt obligation (CDO) that bet on the very worst kinds of mortgage securities. Goldman got the fees and Paulson got a billion dollars for betting against those securities. The investors, trusting GS's sales pitch, had no idea that Paulson was allowed to pick the most toxic securities to mix into the stew.
But -- Paulson walks away with the money...and then doesn't even pay his share of taxes on it! You see, his hedge fund take home isn't even taxed as income. It's taxed as "carried interest," at a rate of 15 percent -- assuming it's taxed at all. If Paulson's income was considered income by the federal government, he'd be paying the top tax rate of 35 percent. Paulson should be paying $1.75 billion in federal income taxes. Instead he's paying at best $.75 billion. That extra billion he's not paying? It's enough to cover the wages and benefits for over 33,000 entry level teachers. But, sorry teachers, kids, and parents -- we just don't have the tax revenue to support those educators -- we'll have to lay them off.
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