"John R. Carroll" wrote in message
...

"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
...

"Mark Rand" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 4 Nov 2008 14:02:02 -0500, "Ed Huntress"

wrote:

snipped for sanity

Before we get too far off the track here, remember that the subject is
whether you can have a capitalist system with no growth. My assertion is
that you can't. Share prices versus dividends still leaves open the
question
of why someone would risk capital by buying equity in a company that
isn't
going to grow. Even if one company grows in such a system, it requires
that
another one decline. The stock market then becomes a gambling game --
or,
more likely, it dries up -- because it's a zero-sum game overall.


Someone would risk cash for income i.e. dividends.

But they don't. Dividends-only securities only work when there's a
guarentee for the principle. In other words, bonds, and some types of
preferred stocks. The high-risk equities market would dry up with no
growth. Where would the capital come from for new startups?

Well Ed I'll tell you.
The tax plan Obama is going to ask Congress to pass changes the capital
gains rate on any money put into a start up at ZERO.
Since passive income is taxed at capital gain rates, it will essentially
be tax free.

I'll bey you didn't know that G

I heard it. I've been watching a LOT of TV -- including Fox, MSNBC, the BBC,
and CNBC. That's more TV than I've watched in the past year. And I've been
reading _The Economist_ from cover to cover, and even Rupert Murdoch's new
toy newspaper, the _Wall Street Journal_.

In other words, my life is a complete wreck, and I need two weeks in a
health spa. d8-)

--
Ed Huntress