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Murderous Thoughts
The “kids” at the dinner table, the same one they'd sat at for years, what’s left of a meal still scattered about. Lucy, the oldest, at the head of the table, where she always sits. Danny, two years younger and then Richard, named after the father, now long since dead. They called him Little Dick because one day an Aunt says, "The boy looks like the old man", so he was Little Dickie, and the name stuck. No one outside of the room had ever called him that.
Lucy’s high on red wine, Danny’s smoking weed and Dick wondering which way to go. They’re not kids anymore, now in their 60’s and thinking of snuffing the old lady. Lucy saying, “Tell it to me one more time”.
Her talking to Danny, who was always the numbers guy. The one who never had a problem at school. He’s looking at the plate in front of him, pushing around what's left of a slice of peach pie with a spoon.
Not looking up, “I told you. It’s a cliff that the government created. On January 1 the taxes go up, and that’s that. The only way around it is if the fools in Washington step back and make a deal. If they don’t, then we get hit."
Lucy still confused, saying, “Why now?” Adding, “How much money is it?”
The brother, looking disgusted, "She’s worth about six mil all in. The capital gains rate going from 15% to 35% will hit us on her stocks and the house. Then there's the 55% estate tax that kicks in over $1m versus the $5.1m it is now; it's close to $3.5mil more tax owing than if she died today. It comes to about $1.2mil apiece."
Dickie, not liking where this is headed, and looking for some other way, “Why don’t you use the Power of Attorney you've got and just transfer out the money now. Fuck the cliff and the three mil it will cost us.”
Danny, still playing with the pie, “You can’t do that. The IRS would see it as transfers in anticipation of death. We get caught, cost us big in fines.”
Dropping the spoon, turning to the sister, eyes meeting, “If she goes before the end of the year, it saves us a bundle. Even if there's a compromise, they'll still gouge us plenty.
Lucy, looking back, “It’s the meds that are keeping her going. Ninety-three, and her pressure 70 over 40, barely alive. If she stopped with the pressure pills, the numbers would fall a bit more; she'd fall asleep and just not wake up.”
Danny saying, “How long”? Lucy making sure what he’s asking, “You mean before she dies?” Him saying, “Yeah, how long’?"
“Maybe five days, it could be just one”. It got quiet with that.
After awhile, Lucy, being the oldest and the one who made all the decisions early on, tells it like it is, “We wait til Christmas, see what Washington is going to do to us. But then we have to choose”. Adding with a hard look on her face, “We'd have only six days left”.
The boys saying nothing, shaking their heads, "Yeah".
Okay, I’m just goofing around. Experimenting with fiction/dialogue. And yes, I do tend to dwell on the dark side. But this story is more real than you might think. Some 7000 older folks are dying every day, 200k by the end of the year. A fair number of those have bucks in the bank. If it’s over $1m, then big taxes are due if falling off the cliff is in our future.
My story is pure fiction, but in real life, thousands of people and millions of dollars are up in the air. After all, it's about the money. Right?
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Yes, its a moral story.
No, it's not about taxes per se.
It's about two things:
1. Theft via taxation (taxes are a word used to describe the taking of money by the government/masses).
2. Epic failure in values delivered by the government. Paying taxes to failed government programs is a bad value choice: Ergo, immoral.
I am a better steward of my family's assets than the government, and will do everything to I can to prevent the government from touching the fruits of my labor.
Protecting the fruits of your labor is important. Even more important is to stop funding an organized crime syndicate masquerading as a government.
I've gotta go. There's an MQ-9 Reaper hovering outside my window right now.
Hey dipshit, you're not capable of deeper thought, are you?
I see it as a tale of both greed and taxes. The greed of the kids...and of the government thinking they should tax someone for having the temerity to die. Who would be responsible for the murder? The three kids plus Big Brother who cannot say no to more spending in order to keep their asses in power.
Think before opening your mouth and showing what a shallow, one-issue, idiot you are.
hey Hoof-hearted Fuckwad, EAT SHIT AND DIE PANSY LIBURUL BITCH-NITZ!!!
hmmm, that felt odly cathartic....
Is that why you: spittle-flecked, candy-assed, rightist, internet-butch-bitches engage in it?
monomaniac.
"911? Yeah, send an ambulance...Grandma got run over by a raindeer."
Reindeer..., und der tannenbaum.
You're velcome;)
Bruce - I like your story and I like the the way it is written. Charts and Xs and Ys are great for some but for getting an alternative narrative out there and embedded in the modern psyche, story is the way to go. Why do you think O is sucking up to Hollywood? Catch 22 probably "told"more people aboutAmerican war on foreign soil than history books and until we have an educated youth who love learing and scholarship that will be the way. Go Bruce.
Nah, just stick her in a hospital ... incompetent staff, superbug, or both will get her before Christmas.
Yup! Third leading cause of preventable death in the US - medical errors and/or hospital acquired infections.
Source: Harper's Index
That must mean an IRS audit is second.
Looking at pictures of Hillary Clinton or Janet Napolitano are #1.
The kid in the back seems a little young to be a brown shirt. But, still, okay, sure, why not wack her?
Just another day living with the terrible pressure and pain of wealth, I guess.
...so you want more deficit spending?
"Bi-partisanship"?? They should "grow up" and "work together," right?
You think that if they "reach an agreement" the can can be kicked down the road another year?
"You think that if they "reach an agreement" the can can be kicked down the road another year?"
Yeah! Like working together to screw the working class!
"so you want more deficit spending?"
The fiscal cliff: higher taxes and budget cuts won't even make a small dent in the deficit. Entitlement costs are rising close or perhaps even faster than the tax hikes+spending cuts.
Don't forget those rosy 4% growth assumptions built into the CBO 'forecast'.
Change them to 1.5% and its $2T deficicits in five years even reverting to
the Clinton tax rates.
How about reverting to the Clinton spending rates ?
Theres a thought.
How about going back to the McKinley spending rates? We could pay off the debt in a decade, maybe less!
I liked it. :)
I am wondering though, would they not be hit with tax anyhow, or is the rules in place on the day of death the ones in effect?
For heaven's sake, this article is murdering the facts:
"Above and beyond the annual exclusion gift limit of $13,000, the federal applicable exemption amount for transfers during life (gifts) and death (estates) has increased (by indexing) to $5,120,000 per person for 2012 — by far the highest it has been since the establishment of the estate tax. Wealthy individuals, who have both the means and desire to do so, should plan on taking advantage of this current environment during 2012." (italics added)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robclarfeld/2012/02/14/tax-free-gifting-during-2012-a-great-deal/
No problem with facts: gifting now saves big bucks later.
Not only is Bruce murdering estate tax/estate planning facts, he appears to be a limousine liberal, complaining just the other day that New York (where he lives) and New Jersey immediately need their eleventy zillion quadrillion dollars of taxpayer "gifted" Jeetner-Bernaxbux to rebuild from Storm of the Millenium Sandy (897 times more potent than Katrina, Mayor & Professional Meteorologist/Scientist/Engineer/Physicist Bloomturd said).
For Heaven's sake.
Do what congressmen and senators do:
Get a lawyer (preferably one from a firm that helped write the tax code).
Put your assets/worth in Trusts.
If you've got a boatload of money, start a charitable trust/foundation.
The government wants to take 30% of your life's work...don't you think it's worth a little effort and a few grand to stop them?
For Heaven's sake.
Do what congressmen and senators do:
Get a lawyer (preferably one from a firm that helped write the tax code).
Put your assets/worth in Trusts.
If you've got a boatload of money, start a charitable trust/foundation.
The government wants to take 30% of your life's work...don't you think it's worth a little effort and a few grand to stop them?
Yeah well there's no more deduction for coke and hookers entertaining foreign heads of state in order to win contracts, either.
Umph. There goes my reason for going to work each week.
YOu are a hooker?
DOES BERNANKE HAVE KIDS?
So, are you suggesting the old ZH regular "Fuck you, Ben Bernanke!" should change to "Murder you, Ben Bernanke!"????
Electroshock Therapy, Ben
yes, with a lincoln arc and some wet sponges.
"DOES BERNANKE HAVE KIDS?"
Yeah: Blankfein, Dimon, Buffet, and Ponzi!
Bravo, Bruce. The two second attention span be damned.
Bringing back freshman rhet and firing existing faculty might yet save the life of the mind.
This is from Harvard, of all places.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732375110457814929250312112...
I really enjoyed that piece. It really is a values thing, if we posess the right values we can govern ourselves and have prosperity. If we decide money alone trumps all, we may end up giving all of our industrial base to the communists. Wait....
Exactly. For far too long compensation has been going to the wrong people. These useless paper-pushers have got one hell of a racket going and now they have captured the people's representation in order to keep the capital and resource mis-allocation and mal-investment going in order to maintain the status quo. The longer this continues and the longer rule of law and contracts is ignored the greater the moral hazard and the faster these paper promises collapse. Bring it. I know the the real value of my employees and I. Soon enough you may have to provide us with something a bit more real instead of credits or bullshit paper.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skv3wSIL5xI
There is also the perspective of some elderly who are wondering if they wouldn't rather end it themselves before December 31st.
Perverse incentives of a perverted system run by perverts.
Some of us young ones too!
She's cute.
Meet her coming out of rehab with a bag of coke and a 1.75 of Smirnoff
Whata roll.
Umm, that might just be better than busting funerals for hotties.
Jeezus, Bruce. Charts. Heard of them. X axis. Y axis. Makes it much easier to visualize. Know this is the interenet, people suck. But you're better than this.
nice family photo
I played around with this for a bit, at one point I went looking for images that might work, I googled, "Three kids, black and white", and this pic came up.
Right away I liked it. Little Dickie with the tie messed up, Lucy not looking at all like a murderer. But who knows?
Anyway, after I found the pic, I finished the rest in 15 minutes. Those faces made it easy going.
b
I liked it Bruce.
"Mom" could easily be any other entity with the greedy little parasites plotting how to get the most out of her...even if it takes killing her. Of course all the good things she does outside the home and away from these spoiled little brats will cease with her untimely demise.
I can hardly wait to see which one of these social malcontents will be the last one standing, in say, August ;-)
Get some help - you have some issues.
Does your wife know you're on her computer, looking at MAN sites again? Better get your ass back into the kitchen before you burn the quiche.
Another murderous thought : anybody nicknamed ' Little Dickie " should never have been allowed to live into his 60's
Jeezus, Bruce. Complete sentences. Heard of them. Noun. Verb. Makes it much easier to read. Know this is the interenet, people suck. But you're better than this.
we're going to kill and eat the prissy-man schoolmarms first, you know.
Hey wetboy, get a life.
Preferably not one as a literary critic.
Would you like for me to count the errors in your post? I would be happy to. I will do one just for the board's pleasure. You misspelled "internet". Oh ok, I will do one more. "Heard of them" is not only incorrect in that it is not a complete sentence, you also failed to use a question mark as it appears you were asking BK a question. Be careful when you ding people for sentence structures, spelling, etc. If that is so important to you then I would advise you to work on your own first........
I was mimicking Bruce's style, dipshit.
Let me lay this out for you half-brained Bruce-worshippers. Bruce starts the story with 3 incomplete sentences:
None of those is a complete sentence! Bruce continuously uses phrases like "Lucy saying," "Her talking to Danny," Lucy still confused, saying," "The brother looking disgusted,"... What the fuck people? Noun-gerund has never been a complete sentence, or maybe Bruce has trouble with the proper use of singular and plural nouns and their associated verbs. English is a language; it has rules. If everyone made up their own we'd all be speaking ebonics. On top of that, most commenters on ZH at least feign some kind of intellectual superiority to the 'average joe.' Apparently, you all failed 8th grade English, then downvoted me for calling out Bruce on his terrible grammar. Dafuq people.
What do you do for a living that you have time to write this shit??? Are you kidding me? Really? Are you???? Well?? Come on man - answer me!!!! :-) LOL....