This Week in Startups
00:53:51 · Lon Harris, Jason Calacanis
[00:53:51] S2: So this one is a Reid Jackson's predicting Chamath. Tomorrow's gonna be like, there are only two priorities, inequality and climate change. He's gonna be back there. So I wanted to pick your pick your rate. Is it... Is that gonna happen? Do you think... Was this this jump over to Trump and to the right? Is that, like, a sincere... Like, the the... These guys have embraced that philosophy and that worldview, or do you think, oh, now that democrats are back in power, we're gonna see a lot of the tech CEOs and leadership come back to the fold and become democrats again? [00:54:21] S0: I I think everybody will... I don't know if they'll become democrats. I think if the democrats are smart, they'll invite them, to participate, come to DC, etcetera, and, they should take the invitation. And if we have a Democrat win the White House, they will certainly... The Democrat should absolutely, steal Trump's playbook. This was the best one. [00:54:50] S2: Yeah. This is another good one. [00:54:53] S0: Before we begin, we acknowledge the indigenous people That's NVIDIA. Whose ancestral lands I was doing your bit. Center occupied. [00:55:00] S2: It's it's a Your good lived experience is our most valuable data. You recognize that good intentions That won't [00:55:09] S0: be erase. Right? With the mustache. Who's [00:55:12] S2: that? To redistribute. Is [00:55:13] S0: that Powell? [00:55:13] S2: Andreessen? That's Andreessen. [00:55:14] S0: And we want to lead that work. That's Bezos. [00:55:17] S2: There's a Andreessen.
00:55:17 · Lon Harris, Jason Calacanis
[00:55:17] S2: There's a Andreessen. [00:55:18] S0: Look at Elijah with that thick mustache and [00:55:20] S2: a pop song. [00:55:22] S0: Here we go. They made a pop song. There's Darius. So there's Darius. Karp. Karp. Yeah. Sometimes after the polls closed, values never changed. Just updated This is so great. Always blue. Mhmm. Look how much a founder cares. And look at the real the real hipsters are like, that's not true. [00:55:57] S2: This is gonna this is gonna happen in the culture, but these guys have a really hard road, I think, ahead if they wanna do that because everybody remembers what happened. [00:56:07] S0: I I think you could make a very simple, argument like I did. Hey. Listen. I... I've had my problems with Trump. I said it early on when he... Listen. He's the president. I support the president. I I support whoever's the president of The United States. I'm American, and I hope for the best for them. And then I call balls and strikes along the way. You know, if AOC wins, I'll support her as well. I don't know if I'll vote [00:56:30] S2: for her. I don't wanna vote for a socialist. [00:56:32] S0: I'm like I don't [00:56:32] S2: I don't think taxes to be 60%. Think it's gonna be. I'm an AOC fan. I would vote for her if she ran, but I don't I don't think [00:56:40] S0: Really?
00:56:40 · Jason Calacanis, Lon Harris
[00:56:40] S0: Really? [00:56:40] S2: I think it's too soon. I think she's gonna wanna hold off and and accomplish more at the congressional level first before before the run. Think a guy like Ossoff or something makes a lot more sense for two years from now. But we'll we'll see. I mean, maybe I will eat these words, but I don't know. I don't I don't know. [00:56:55] S0: I... Here's what I'll tell you. If the... If taxes become 60%, I'm gonna, retire. I'm just gonna skate. I'd Fuck it. I made enough money. I'm done. I mean, can you imagine working and you make a $100, and they're like, you got 40 left? [00:57:09] S2: It wouldn't be it wouldn't be that for the $100, people. We're we're talking $2.50 and up, like, a year. I mean, I I feel [00:57:15] S0: like still, if I make 300 k and I take home a 120 and I'm giving I... [00:57:19] S2: I've [00:57:19] S0: heard a lot of 180 to the government. [00:57:22] S2: I I think it'll going to be more like... I think it was Tim Dillon who said this on the all in election night special. [00:57:29] S0: A livestream on Tuesday. [00:57:30] S2: Think he was right. And I think I've heard a lot. It's going to be about switching the focus from income to assets and equity. We're gonna figure out ways to tax holdings instead of income because that's what... Income is hitting the people who [00:57:46] S0: are working [00:57:47] S2: day to day, and the rich people are getting away out of that. [00:57:51] S0: I don't think there's that big of a delta right now between capital gains and income at the highest levels.
00:57:51 · Jason Calacanis, Lon Harris
[00:57:51] S0: I don't think there's that big of a delta right now between capital gains and income at the highest levels. [00:58:03] S2: I mean, because that's the perception. The perception is that through accounting [00:58:07] S0: trade Well, because you don't sell and you get loans. That's the issue. [00:58:09] S2: That you could borrow against your stock or your holdings and you're not earning, you know, like salary and that's not the basis of your wealth. And so you can sort of get around. That's the perception. And when people hear that like, oh, this person is being taxed at the same rate as, like, a teacher, like, that's what's stoking a lot of that outrage, I think. [00:58:30] S0: Yeah. Really easy solution. You take out a margin loan that is above a certain dollar amount. I don't know. Pick 10,000,000. [00:58:38] S2: Yeah. [00:58:38] S0: You pay the taxes on... You pay your capital gains taxes at that moment. If it's under 10,000,000, okay, everybody gets up to 10,000,000, kinda like your inheritance act. There's some level of gifting. There's a certain amount. Just say any margin loads above 10. I have less than 10, so that's a good number for me. Pittsburgh's perfect. [00:58:56] S2: Why not? There you go. [00:58:57] S0: Perfect number. [00:58:58] S2: I thought that 9,000,994 your amount is the right number. Yeah.
00:59:02 · Jason Calacanis
[00:59:02] S0: Of course. And you know, listen, I have used a margin loan sometimes. Like, when I wanted to buy the ranch, I was just like, okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'll buy it on margin, right? It's the same price, six or 7%, or whatever as getting a mortgage, I can probably save a point or whatever. But it's just a quick way to do things. It's a nice option if you have a bunch of equity holdings. And I just think if I go over a certain number, I'm obviously doing that to avoid the taxes, and maybe I pay down the loan as the stock appreciates. So if you're doing this with Google shares, and let's say you, I don't know, you're David Friedberg or somebody, I don't know how much you made in whatever, but let's say you're a Googler, just a general Googler, you made 10,000,000, and you take a million a year to live off of, and the stock's going up 25% a year, you just never have to pay it down, and there's a delta. It's going up 25%, and you're using 10%. You can just go at it forever, and then, hey. Yeah. When you die, you do it, but it means you've deferred all your taxes till your death. Yeah. It's a pretty sweet deal. Exactly. Easily solved. Whatever your tax rate is, just do that. And then there is, do you wanna narrow the difference between long term? Like right now, if you had a million in salary in Texas, 37% federal, 2.5... Three or 5% Medicare, you're paying 39.4. Now, if you didn't take a salary, but you owned a long term business and you were selling shares and you have capital gains, you're only paying 23.8. In California, if you were making a million dollars in salary, you're paying 54% now. I was paying 54%. And I... That's just like, okay. We're... And you're paying 37.1% in, your capital gains. But, I mean, I think we're not far from 60%. I think New York and California are gonna go right to 60% when they do that. Man, if you thought the exodus with the billionaire tax, which we didn't talk about, billionaire tax got shut down.
01:00:55 · Lon Harris, Jason Calacanis
[01:00:55] S2: Yes. We did not talk about that, but that is that is true. I feel like I feel like we [01:00:58] S0: would have talked about [01:00:59] S2: it if it passed, but nobody re... It didn't... It was not really expected to pass, and then it did not pass. [01:01:04] S0: It's coming back. I guarantee it, and I think it's gonna pass next time. I think it was sixty forty. Mhmm. Thereabouts. I... I'll tell you something I'm excited for, except for going off duty. Let's go off duty. Let's go off duty here. Play the theme song. Okay. We don't have one, but we're gonna have [01:01:19] S2: working on it. I got... I did the Plaud AI demo. I'm I'm working on Okay. I'm working on the the promo intro AI demo. [01:01:26] S0: This is what I'm really excited about. [01:01:27] S2: Oh, Godzilla minus one. Yes. Of course. [01:01:30] S0: Godzilla minus zero, I think, was the first one? [01:01:34] S2: Yes. That was what... It's like a prequel to Godzilla. It was set at the end of World War two instead of the atomic age. Correct. [01:01:43] S0: The gravitas in this thing is incredible. The CGI is unbelievable. When you see the... Is Godzilla... Yeah. Godzilla minus one is the one coming, I guess. [01:01:56] S2: And No. Godzilla minus one was the first one. Godzilla minus zero is the one that's coming now because it's [01:02:01] S0: like That was the one I was [01:02:02] S2: trying Yeah. It's... It was the... Godzilla minus one was the prequel. Now it's just Godzilla in his own era being Godzilla. [01:02:09] S0: Okay. So Godzilla minus one twenty twenty three. I took my daughters to