Wow. No one to root for in this fight.

They will just move the university to Vermont.

\mass-holes

"When people can't afford to live. How do you justify not taxing them?"

When you're horny and can't find a willing woman, how do you not justify rape?

Looks like it's time for an old favorite:



/Though I guess now they could add an extra frame into that one.

Confiscate's concise.

Considering the guv and the legislature are constantly at each other's throats, this won't go anywhere.

This shouldn't be a problem - the socialists at Harvard espouse redistribution of wealth all the time.

It would be completely hypocritical of them to even object.

Want to...doesn't mean they will, just means it's an election year, and they're looking for handouts.

I live in the Boston area, and I'm all for this. Harvard owns so much of the good (subway-accessable) real estate in Cambridge that pretty much no one can afford to live there. So they move to the subway-accessable parts of the suburbs, which become super-gentrified and now no one can afford to live there. I'd love to buy a house, but I make $40,000 a year, and the only things I can afford are a 90 minute commute to my office. (So buy a house and work closer to home? Sounds nice, but I love my job and the only jobs in the towns where I can afford to buy are in strip malls.)

Also, the big universities are a huge burden on the roads, public transportation, public works. They should be paying for that.

i predict a thread full of reasoned arguments, and absolutely none of the "ivy league people suck, take all their money" vs the "taxachusetts sucks" shiat that could get thrown around.

On one hand, this is communism and I hate it. On the other hand, Harvard is full of neo-communists so its somewhat fitting. I think once the school allows all its students to go for free, then the state can take it.

Windfall endowment tax.



_{© Barack Obama 2008}

Many Harvard grads are socialists, as are much of the professors and staff. So I can't see how the university could possibly object to this proposal. In fact, they should be lining up to give all their money to the state legislature.

Weaver95: Many Harvard grads are socialists, as are much of the professors and staff. So I can't see how the university could possibly object to this proposal. In fact, they should be lining up to give all their money to the state legislature.

That's assuming they aren't a pack of hypocrites...

It's bullshiat -- they're looking for handouts so they're preying on any easy source. To say that Harvard and other universities don't give anything back to the state is a complete fallacy. They stir up a HUGE amount of business and bring a huge brain-drain of educated people into the state. And endowments are based on donations. Are we going to start taxing all donations to non-profits?

Weaver95: ManyThe Harvard grads people hear about are socialists, as are much some of the professors and staff in the social sciences . So I can't see how the university could possibly object to this proposal. In fact, they should be lining up to give all their money to the state legislature.

FTFY. I work in the sciences at Harvard. I am not a socialist. Not many of the professors / staff in my dept. are socialists either, from what I can gather, but then again, politics doesn't come up that much in astronomy.

marzipanda: I live in the Boston area, and I'm all for this. Harvard owns so much of the good (subway-accessable) real estate in Cambridge that pretty much no one can afford to live there. So they move to the subway-accessable parts of the suburbs, which become super-gentrified and now no one can afford to live there. I'd love to buy a house, but I make $40,000 a year, and the only things I can afford are a 90 minute commute to my office. (So buy a house and work closer to home? Sounds nice, but I love my job and the only jobs in the towns where I can afford to buy are in strip malls.)

Also, the big universities are a huge burden on the roads, public transportation, public works. They should be paying for that.

I could see your point if it weren't for the fact that Harvard, MIT, etc. generate so much revenue for the state anyway. This is not just in the form of getting people from all over the world to come here to work, pay taxes, etc. But, consider MIT (the case I know best). If you removed MIT from MA, and pretend that it had never been there, the state's economy would go to shambles. Why? All the tech companies that are in the greater Boston area contribute greatly to the economy of the state, and many were started by MIT grads. You can't pretend that universities are just money sinks.

/ don't have a source for the above since i am at work and busy working.
// maybe i'll get one later.

GoldSpider: Weaver95: Many Harvard grads are socialists, as are much of the professors and staff. So I can't see how the university could possibly object to this proposal. In fact, they should be lining up to give all their money to the state legislature.

That's assuming they aren't a pack of hypocrites...

Perish the thought! I'm sure Harvard will give all that money to the state government.

Disregard my last post. I'd forgotten that the contemporary American brand of socialism isn't about making the people pay for public services; it's about making OTHER people pay for public services.

Maybe they should force Harvard to pay property tax on all the land in Allston they've bought up.

As someone studying for my LSATs right now, i find this thread amusing:

Harvard is a university. Some people who go to Harvard are socialists. All Harvard employees are socialists.

Which of the following points out the logical flaw in the above statement?

Nestea Plunge: The OTHER people? Like in that Nicole Kidman movie?

I think GoldSpider is making a lost reference...

Did anyone say that the Mass state legislature should spend less money to prevent financial obligations they can't meet?

Spend less = need less = tax less!

I wonder where President Stupid lived when he attended Harvard Business School? I just can't see him living in Cambridge or Allston.

Confiscation is the same as taking 2.5% per year? One option to potentially begin thinking about possibly considering in this case would be to use facts. Argumentation based on facts is often more successful than creative alternatives. If an idea is bad, then there really isn't any need to make things up.

Weaver95: Many Harvard grads are socialists, as are much of the professors and staff. So I can't see how the university could possibly object to this proposal. In fact, they should be lining up to give all their money to the state legislature.

It's funny because you're not intentionally trying to be funny.

The Homer Tax: Weaver95: Many Harvard grads are socialists, as are much of the professors and staff. So I can't see how the university could possibly object to this proposal. In fact, they should be lining up to give all their money to the state legislature.

It's funny because you're not intentionally trying to be funny.

Unless of course that was my intent all along....

Maybe Mass. (all states) should be a bit more open about their true financial situation.
Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (new window)

SFW, not safe for blood pressure

In fact, they should be lining up to give all their money to the state legislature.

Funny thing about that. As a result of a debate over the income tax rate a few years ago Massachusetts allows taxpayers to choose whether to pay a tax rate of 5.3% or 5.85%. Guess which rate the elite who support a high tax rate choose to pay when their own finances are at stake? A few poor people symbolically choose to pay 5.85% of nothing. Professors getting paid $100K per year choose 5.3%.

moops: I wonder where President Stupid lived when he attended Harvard Business School? I just can't see him living in Cambridge or Allston.

The Dorch, or Quincy. Lots of good drugs.

Take that Liberal institutions getting pwned by Liberals spending all teh money... Liberal farking up other Liberals day... Liberal

AndEhBus: Take that Liberal institutions getting pwned by Liberals spending all teh money... Liberal farking up other Liberals day... Liberal

Obligatory...

ZAZ: In fact, they should be lining up to give all their money to the state legislature.

Funny thing about that. As a result of a debate over the income tax rate a few years ago Massachusetts allows taxpayers to choose whether to pay a tax rate of 5.3% or 5.85%. Guess which rate the elite who support a high tax rate choose to pay when their own finances are at stake? A few poor people symbolically choose to pay 5.85% of nothing. Professors getting paid $100K per year choose 5.3%.

Those results are skewed. The socialists abstained from voting because there was no 100% box.

FTA: "When is a nonprofit not a nonprofit because of the wealth they are acquiring?" said Representative Paul Kujawski, a Democrat from Webster and chief backer of the legislation.

They're not a nonprofit if they make a profit. Harvard does not make a profit. They are a nonprofit.

/Harvard
//Not a socialist

Mistah Scrotie: As someone studying for my LSATs right now, i find this thread amusing:

Harvard is a university. Some people who go to Harvard are socialists. All Harvard employees are socialists.

Which of the following points out the logical flaw in the above statement?

Hmmmm...
I'm going with petitio principii:
I am a pre law student
Therefore, I find this thread amusing

USP .45: Windfall endowment tax.



© Barack Obama 2008

FTW!! It is an obscene endowment.

"When is a nonprofit not a nonprofit because of the wealth they are acquiring?"
said Representative Paul Kujawski, a Democrat from Webster and chief backer
of the legislation.

Maybe Harvard University should just become a religious institution...

Hang On Voltaire: USP .45: Windfall endowment tax.



© Barack Obama 2008

FTW!! It is an obscene endowment.

It's nice to see a "conservative" back the taking of legitimate private wealth.
Is this some sort of epiphany for you? Can we look forward to your support
on a high rate of Capital Gains tax?

Harvard sucks

Hang On Voltaire: USP .45: Windfall endowment tax.



© Barack Obama 2008

FTW!! It is an obscene endowment.

Great. So now that we're taxing nonprofits on their donations, you guys should be all for rolling back the Bush tax cuts and instituting the windfall profits tax, right? I'll be sure to remember that for the future.

Random Reality Check: It's nice to see a "conservative" back the taking of legitimate private wealth.
Is this some sort of epiphany for you? Can we look forward to your support
on a high rate of Capital Gains tax?

Or perhaps just extend this measure to all private wealth exceeding $1 billion. Since they are apparently feeling all anti-hypocritical today, I'm sure they'll agree what's good for Harvard is good for everybody else too.

Why don't they just tax anyone who makes over $100K a year another 20%? Oh right it really pisses those people off and Universities don't vote.

Galen_Rasputin: Oh right it really pisses those people off and Universities don't vote.

Add up all the people who work for universities in Massachusetts and that's a serious voting bloc right there. Education is one of the biggest industries in the state.

ZAZ: In fact, they should be lining up to give all their money to the state legislature.

Funny thing about that. As a result of a debate over the income tax rate a few years ago Massachusetts allows taxpayers to choose whether to pay a tax rate of 5.3% or 5.85%. Guess which rate the elite who support a high tax rate choose to pay when their own finances are at stake? A few poor people symbolically choose to pay 5.85% of nothing. Professors getting paid $100K per year choose 5.3%.

That's because most people don't even know the optional higher tax rate exists. It's only mentioned in one fine print line on tax forms, and most higher-income people use tax preparers or software anyway.

They could generate more revenue if they increased tickets for everyone who pahks their cahs in the havahd yahd.

/obligatory
//Disappointed in you fark. This is a thread about Mass, and 40 some posts in nobody did that yet? For shame.

Call me kooky, but doesn't society have an interest in creating an educated populace, hence the reason universities aren't taxed? It's the same principle as the state funding public schools.
People who are for (essentially) taxing Harvard: what am I missing here?

After moving to Boston 2 years ago and working at Cambridge's two famous universities and interacting with the people who inhabit them, I've come to the conclusion that these ivory tower types are just as out of touch with reality as the fly-over country Bush-Bots they look down on so much. It's such a pretentious, fake, and catty atmosphere.

Instead of feeling jealous about their neighbor's new pickup truck, they let envy and bad thoughts brew inside them as a colleague gets showered with elite intellectual brownie points for unveiling a groundbreaking new theoretical "model". Always with the models, many of these people view the world through a textbook. The highest tiers of Academia make up a huge frat party of people who have defined themselves by their intellect and resigned themselves to being bookworms and are now feeling the ego payoff. Many of these elite New England WASPs seem incapable of carry on a normal conversation without an air of pretense, as if the only reason the small talk is occurring is that it's the expected social convention.

/College student
//Loves the pursuit of knowledge, not the academic divas who point their powerful brains in the wrong direction

Needlessly Complicated: Call me kooky, but doesn't society have an interest in creating an educated populace, hence the reason universities aren't taxed?

Since when have power-hungry governments done what was in society's best interests?

TrickyPG: After moving to Boston 2 years ago and working at Cambridge's two famous universities and interacting with the people who inhabit them, I've come to the conclusion that these ivory tower types are just as out of touch with reality as the fly-over country Bush-Bots they look down on so much. It's such a pretentious, fake, and catty atmosphere.

Instead of feeling jealous about their neighbor's new pickup truck, they let envy and bad thoughts brew inside them as a colleague gets showered with elite intellectual brownie points for unveiling a groundbreaking new theoretical "model". Always with the models, many of these people view the world through a textbook. The highest tiers of Academia make up a huge frat party of people who have defined themselves by their intellect and resigned themselves to being bookworms and are now feeling the ego payoff. Many of these elite New England WASPs seem incapable of carry on a normal conversation without an air of pretense, as if the only reason the small talk is occurring is that it's the expected social convention.

/College student
//Loves the pursuit of knowledge, not the academic divas who point their powerful brains in the wrong direction

i would love to hear what field this is in, because in my field there's none of that nonsense. also, i'm curious about what you consider the "wrong direction"?

Edsel: It's bullshiat -- they're looking for handouts so they're preying on any easy source. To say that Harvard and other universities don't give anything back to the state is a complete fallacy. They stir up a HUGE amount of business and bring a huge brain-drain of educated people into the state. And endowments are based on donations. Are we going to start taxing all donations to non-profits?

exactly; agree or disagree with harvard (and its not a super liberal hippy college like people seem to believe) this sets an awful precendent allowing a state to decide what is non-profit when it needs more money. Would you like them raiding a non-profit cancer research group, or a fund to help the homeless?

Just because harvard and others are an easy target doesn't mean that the state wont try and attack others later down the road, if the door is opened to them now.

The real answer is for massachussetts to stop spending on retarded things, and to cut back on their ridiculous pseudo-communism spending policies. fiscal conservatism from the state is what is needed, not looking for targets to rob.

From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs. Amen.