This Week in Startups
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
01:02:09 · Jason Calacanis, Lon Harris
[01:02:09] S0: Okay. So Godzilla minus one twenty twenty three. I took my daughters to [01:02:12] S2: see it. [01:02:13] S0: That's the peak. Person. They loved it. I loved it. And I think it's the only time they saw a film with subtitles, with the first time. [01:02:19] S2: Probably that for a [01:02:19] S0: lot of people. Yeah. And it is unbelievably good. Highly recommend. Here is the next one coming. This is Godzilla Minus Zero. Is the one. This is zero. And the woman's got their eye blown out. I mean, it is... And it's Toho Studios. Look at this, man. Look at this. A house is flying through the air. [01:02:39] S2: Yeah. This one, they really... You can tell they got... They had a bigger budget this time. They've really upped the ante. They're taking it to the next level. [01:02:46] S0: I love this. You know my love of Japan. And, like, this era in Japan, to me, when I go to Japan, I look for the buildings and the vibes Mhmm. From... If this is what? Thirties, forties, fifties maybe? [01:02:58] S2: Is this is fifties. The first one was forties, and now this one is jumping ahead to the fifties. [01:03:02] S0: Okay. I I I love this era of Japan. And there's areas in Japan where they have preserved this era that I go when I walk around. [01:03:11] S2: Yeah. Yeah. Those little [01:03:12] S0: village I'll get soba at a 100... No. But I'll get soba in Tokyo at a 100 year old place. So that's, like, something you go watch now and then something you should look forward to. I don't know when it's coming out. Think it's sued? It's rated r. [01:03:25] S2: Yeah. It's coming soon.
01:03:25 · Lon Harris, Jason Calacanis
[01:03:25] S2: Yeah. It's coming soon. [01:03:26] S0: I hope. Metacritic. I don't see when it's... Oh, November 3. Yeah. In... Oh, wait. It's out. It's... [01:03:31] S2: That's this week. It's out. [01:03:32] S0: That's this week. God. I cannot wait. [01:03:35] S2: Oh, yeah. [01:03:35] S0: We we should do a movie run. [01:03:36] S2: It's playing at the Draft House. It's at the Barton Creek Square. [01:03:39] S0: We can go. Why don't we go? Wait. Wait. What am I doing this weekend? Why don't we all go? Yeah. I'll I'll get tickets for everybody. [01:03:44] S2: Figure it out. [01:03:45] S0: Let's go. Yeah. We got the IMAX. Okay. What do you got on your off duty? [01:03:49] S2: I did... There there is a film I wanna talk about. Another Asian film. This one is Korean. It's from this year. It's now on VOD. It's called hope. Zach, see if you can find this. You can rent it. It's on, you know, Prime Video, Apple, all the different platforms. It is... This movie is crazy. It's like two and a half hours long. I don't wanna give too much away. The opening is [01:04:08] S0: What? What's the name of the film? [01:04:09] S2: Hope. H O P E. That's... Which is the... Which is a town. It's a village in the opening of the movie. It is being attacked by some sort of unseen threat. It sounds like a monster. [01:04:20] S0: The Korean film. It's a [01:04:21] S2: Korean film. There's some sort of You saw it? I watched it. It's on VOD now, so I watched it the other day. [01:04:25] S0: There is [01:04:25] S2: some sort of monster or creature that is, as you could see, attacking the world.
01:04:25 · Lon Harris, Jason Calacanis
[01:04:25] S2: some sort of monster or creature that is, as you could see, attacking the world. [01:04:29] S0: Heard this is the best movie ever made in Asia. [01:04:32] S2: Chasing this thing around. It takes a long time for you to get your bearings on what really is happening. It's just chaos for a while. Incredible action sequences, really weird, cool effects, great characters. I mean, this is a crazy movie, and it takes... It it goes into some really unexpected, interesting directions. [01:04:50] S0: Okay. For 10 year old daughters? [01:04:52] S2: Oh, I mean, [01:04:54] S0: it is 16 year old. Yes. [01:04:55] S2: 16 year old for sure. It is it is... There is... Like, there's nothing objectionable about it, but it is... There is a lot of violent, monsterish action. So [01:05:04] S0: Okay. [01:05:05] S2: People are getting violently injured by this creature. [01:05:08] S0: Hope. H o p h [01:05:10] S2: o p, [01:05:10] S0: Korean film. It it is just People say this is by far the best Korean movie ever made. I think it's the biggest budget ever. [01:05:16] S2: It was a huge [01:05:16] S0: People are losing headlines. [01:05:17] S2: A huge budget. It's a big concept, and and there's lots of action, and some of the action sequences are really impressive. But it's also just... It's just really different. Like, it's a fascinating take on this whole genre, and you're following all these different characters, and it's interesting the way things come together. Some big twists. I I I really got into it. [01:05:34] S0: Don't tell us anything else. [01:05:35] S2: I don't