Pi ying xi

Some say that I am not only a connoisseur but the world’s leading expert of this dramatic art—  I must agree.   Pi ying xi: the ancient tradition of projecting onto the screen the play of shadows…otherwise known as Chinese Shadow Play.

It has distracted the masses and amused aficionados for milennia.

The so called Buffett rule is but a modern variant of shadow play.  The Buffet rule is supposed to impose a higher tax rate on the well to do…and it might do so with the only marginally wealthy…but for people like Warren and Mitt and myself…we will never pay that tax rate.  For 99% of the people about 10 pages of the tax code applies to them.  For us there is about 40,000 pages and those pages are not written to require us to pay taxes, they are written to allow us to avoid taxation.

Take for example, Mitt Romney.  Using a provision written for him it allowed him to give his sons $100 million in a trust without paying any taxes.

That is not the shadow, that is the reality.

So while the proposed Buffett rule appears to impose higher taxes on wealthy people, the other 40,000 pages of loopholes guarantees that it is nothing but sound and fury, signifying…nothing.

This would have earned sustained respect from the the Pi xing xi masters of old.  And as we say at the end of any great theatrical performance:

“dashou dashou”