1/4% Tax on all stock trades pushed in NY Times today

Quote from gkishot:

Because I would prefer to sign the petition and have added to it my arguments against the tax instead of writing my own letter. I believe there are more people like me who would sign the petition but won't send the letter. I believe also that it would have more impact than individual letters and it will save a lot of senators time on reading.
Lawmakers would rather deal with a group than with the individuals.

Here you go gkishot........

http://www.rallycongress.com/no2tradertax/1536/tell-congres-to-block-trader-tax/
 
Not to rain on a parade, and I understand the fear as it were, but do you honestly believe that your efforts considering your lack of any meaningful status or prominence in the business, apart from financing said politician's campaign coffers, is going to have any effect?
 
Maybe and maybe not Prime but it doesnt hurt to chime in and try. Becuase there is a lobby and maybe that someone of prominence will be on our side. Then when they start to lobby government officals will remember all the letters they got from us and that might help tip it on our favor. Anyways it doesnt hurt and doesnt take too much time to do.
 

The way it's structured is that every signee adds his comments at the end of the skeleton letter. This is ok for a loose group of traders without a leadership. I am thinking more in terms of one letter that would combine the ideas and arguments of individuals into one logic thread. But that would definitely require some leadership.
 
GKI ,

Maybe you can email the STA securities traders assoication. They are a big association with good leadership. They wrote a letter to congress back in Feb when this first came about with Defazios bill. They might be up for taking on that role.
 
Quote from rsikit:

Maybe and maybe not Prime but it doesnt hurt to chime in and try. Becuase there is a lobby and maybe that someone of prominence will be on our side. Then when they start to lobby government officals will remember all the letters they got from us and that might help tip it on our favor. Anyways it doesnt hurt and doesnt take too much time to do.

The lobby groups like FIA, et al, know who to buy to represent their interests. They never refer to any grassroots efforts because it devalues their position. Nor do most of these lobby groups allow membership by individual private traders.

Ours is a pay to play system. Wasn't always that way, but is increasingly so now.

But hey, if it makes you feel as if you're doing something in an otherwise personally powerless situation, by all means. Indeed it doesn't hurt.

But let's not kid ourselves into thinking it actually helps either.
 
The good thing is, big financial lobby will be on our side when push comes to shove (a rare event). Their campaign contributions are valued by many high powered Dems with influence... and you can count on the Republicans to be against any new tax hikes.

On the other hand, we have a very left leaning White House, House, and Senate who are spending money like drunk sailors on weekend pass. Someone has to pay for this shit at some point. Wall Street is the new boogie man, and created every problem from the current recession, to cancer and aids. An easy target for the tax and spend crowd.

The talking points need to be that this is a tax on savings and retirement accounts 401k's IRA's, and Pension funds. The 150+ million investors in the country need to understand how bad this will be to them.

As traders we are not understood by 99% of the population and our arguments against this will fall on def ears. Joe retiree, Jane middle class investor, and Billy Bob welder counting with a pension, are the people that will be hurt as well. They need to be awakend if this gets traction.
 
Quote from Midas:

The good thing is, big financial lobby will be on our side when push comes to shove (a rare event). Their campaign contributions are valued by many high powered Dems with influence... and you can count on the Republicans to be against any new tax hikes.

On the other hand, we have a very left leaning White House, House, and Senate who are spending money like drunk sailors on weekend pass. Someone has to pay for this shit at some point. Wall Street is the new boogie man, and created every problem from the current recession, to cancer and aids. An easy target for the tax and spend crowd.

The talking points need to be that this is a tax on savings and retirement accounts 401k's IRA's, and Pension funds. The 150+ million investors in the country need to understand how bad this will be to them.

As traders we are not understood by 99% of the population and our arguments against this will fall on def ears. Joe retiree, Jane middle class investor, and Billy Bob welder counting with a pension, are the people that will be hurt as well. They need to be awakend if this gets traction.


The reason I think we are doomed is because they actually believe this tax will raise revenue.

Cognitive Desonance on a grand scale.
 
Quote from jficquette:

The reason I think we are doomed is because they actually believe this tax will raise revenue.

Cognitive Desonance on a grand scale.

They always think in a straight line. They think that if we have $x Billion in trades then a .25% tax will produce ($xBillion x .0025) in tax revenues. They never allow for the market & taxpayers adjusting.

Beyond that - we are using after-tax dollars to invest and the gains will be taxed anyway. The investment funds have already been taxed as income, and they will be taxed at cap gains or income rate when we sell - not allowing for the "inflation" tax. This is just two more layers of tax; an entrance and exit tax. All that is missing is a "wealth" tax - that's where they tax you for not trading and just shave a slice off your holding every year.

The trader tax is the tax that potentially puts you out of business, so the tax revenue from many (most?) daytraders will eventually be ZERO.
 
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