Friday, August 16, 2013

Cartoon Socialism!

... British style.

Three BBC dramas and a couple of animated kids projects have been guaranteed the 25 percent tax break for programs that cost $1.56 million (£1 million) or more per hour. But overall, more than 30 guarantees have been issued, with the rest of the projects not immediately named. ...

BBC kids network CBeebies got guarantees for tax incentives for two shows -- animated Sarah and Duck and stop-motion series Calamity Island. ...

Nothing like good old capitalism to get jobs growing. Especially when the capitalism is generously laced with state socialism. (The oil industry figured that out a long time ago.)

8 comments:

Unknown said...

You realise that socialism isn't a dirty word outside of America right?

Chris Sobieniak said...

Yeah, it's really an American thing that we think it's bad.

Celshader said...

I think you both missed Steve's wisecrack about the American oil industry, which receives subsidies from Uncle Sam.

Unknown said...

I read and understood the joke. It was funny, but it was about corporate socialism.
The term socialism has lost all meaning, because people just use it for "government interference" whenever they think its "bad", or often just in place of "communism" (which is Evil)
America has a military and state school system, which are also "socialist", but I wouldn't consider either to be a terrible thing.
Pet peeve anyway, I don't mind discussing the merits/problems of subsidies, I just hate seeing that term used to describe anything people think is wrong because of their political ideology

Grant said...

Big Business has always enjoyed "socialism" from U.S. Taxpayers. Sometimes when they need it, but more often than not lately, they're just bilking the U.S. Taxpayer. FAR more than any individual.

It's not Socialism the U.S. has a problem with, it's corporate Communism, the likes of donald trump, koch brothers, and g.w. bush and dick.

Steve Hulett said...

To be perfectly clear: "Socialism," as used above, is snark.

It's a word without meaning, at this point. Like calling any politician you don't like "Hitler."

The U.S. of A. LOVES state subsidies. They're all over the place, and they're "good" when they do something you like, and "bad" when they do something you don't.

A Tennessee congress critter recently voted against food stamps even as he voted for large federal subsidies that benefited his family farm. TBut this is okay because one form of largesse is all star-spangled, don't you know, while the other is for the undeserving poor and so is COMMUNISM!

But that's the way things go here in E. Pluribus Unum.

Oswald Cox said...

If you don't like "corporate welfare", then you should want a flat tax rate.
A flat tax would effectively end all corporate tax breaks

Steve Hulett said...

I'm in favor of the Reagan tax package of '86. Four rates, the top one at 26%. ALL income, however derived, taxed at the appropriate rate. None of this "long-term capital gains" crap.

Income is income is income.

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