Tuesday, February 4, 2014

A Couple of Bad Pieces of News for the Statists of the World

1) According to the Fraser Institute's ratings on economic freedom, the average economic freedom in the world has increased from 5.5 to 6.7, an increase of nearly 22%. That cannot be good news for paper-pushers and for those like monstrous government.............2) For some strange reason the state of Rhode Island does not charge sales tax on fine art. And so, no, when the William Vareika Gallery on Bellevue in Newport sold that John Henry Twachtman landscape for $850,000 or that Charles Wilson Peale portrait for $1,500,000 (both of which were undoubtedly sold to wealthy people), the bureaucrats in Providence didn't a solitary cent on it....Man, can I ever hear the outrage brewing on that sucker.

11 comments:

dmarks said...

Glad when some people are able to do some things without the vultures stealing a cut of it.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

And in Rhode Island of all places.

Rusty Shackelford said...



Was'nt Rhode Island where John Kerry either bought his boat or had it docked to avoid taxes.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

I think so and I actually commend him for it....It WAS legal, right?

dmarks said...

Rusty: he bought his boat there, and didn't buy his boat there. And it was swift.

dmarks said...

Will: you can't blame a person for heeding the disincentive provided by such tax policies and modifying their behavior accordingly. The Kerry's and those like them already pay a massive amount in taxes.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Tax avoidance versus tax evasion, the latter I obviously encourage.

BB-Idaho said...

Odd, R.I quit sales taxing on fine art, wine and spirits, but
a KFC meal (or any meal) they ding 7% regular sales tax + 1%
meal tax. Social engineering to
create skinny art aficionados
(that are slightly tipsy?

dmarks said...

BB: picturing Niles Crane holding a bottle of sherry.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

I bought my Anna Falconnet Hunter for $3,500 and didn't pay a penny of tax on it. Thank you, Rhode Island!

dmarks said...

Will: Guessing from your travel plans, you paid tax on food and gas when you went there. They get you, somehow :)