Reason: California Tried to Seize Millions of This Inventor’s Fortune. He Fought Back

Bodhisattva

Hall of Fame
Aug 22, 2001
21,596
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Government is awesome. We should have more of it.

In the early 1990s, California tax authorities traveled to Las Vegas in pursuit of Gilbert Hyatt, an inventor who earned a fortune as the patent holder of the microcomputer. They staked out his home, dug through his trash, and hired a private eye to look into his background. He'd moved to Nevada in 1991, but California made a claim that the state was entitled to millions of his recent earnings.

What transpired over the next twenty-five years is a story of greed, harassment, anti-semitism, and the abuse of power. And it wasn't the first time that the California tax agency has strong-armed a former state resident. What's so unusual about Gilbert Hyatt is that he fought back—and won.
http://reason.com/blog/2017/10/23/california-wanted-a-piece-of-this-invent
 

Bodhisattva

Hall of Fame
Aug 22, 2001
21,596
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The way government uses is taxing authority is often obscene. Through in the use of the police force as a revenue-raiser for the state and things like encouraging people to play the lottery ..... well, it's hard to see the government as much more than a predatory parasite on its citizens.
 

Jon

Hall of Fame
Feb 22, 2002
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The way government uses is taxing authority is often obscene. Through in the use of the police force as a revenue-raiser for the state and things like encouraging people to play the lottery ..... well, it's hard to see the government as much more than a predatory parasite on its citizens.
I'd say it is closer to a symbiote than a parasite in that it does provide benefits to it's host while it slowly destroys it.
 

uafan4life

Hall of Fame
Mar 30, 2001
15,608
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Florence, AL
From the article... said:
[FONT=Helvetica, helvetica, sans-serif]Hyatt also sued the Franchise Tax Board for fraud and harassment years ago, and a Nevada jury awarded him a $388 million judgment. That amount was later reduced to $50,000 because of a statutory cap on the amount state agencies can be held liable for their conduct.



[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, helvetica, sans-serif]This perfectly exemplifies two of the biggest problems with our government, in my opinion.

[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, helvetica, sans-serif]1) They allow themselves to behave in borderline if not outright criminal ways with virtual impunity.
[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, helvetica, sans-serif]2) They have removed as much power as they possibly can from its citizens, in terms of civil and criminal procedures, without most people noticing.

And number two bleeds over into the private sector, as well, in terms of limiting liability for corporations and industries, good-old-boy style, under the guise of regulating those industries.
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