Exactly right Shorts15, I was once a shareholder of the one...

Exactly right Shorts15, I was once a shareholder of the one doing well (fortunately), but it was just dumb luck back then, more than anything else. I sure as hell wouldn't buy it today.

My friend does the same thing as you describe.

It's actually quite funny when I talk with him, and we had a Christmas drink and laughed about it.

You see, he owns 5 shoe stores, and 4 of them are making a profit, the fifth was bought in a low socio-economic location to deliberately make a loss, in fact when people walk into the 5th store and steal shoes and run out the door, he just shrugs his shoulders and has a laugh. The shoes in the 5th store are very low quality anyway, but they are priced at a premium, for insurance and tax purposes.

And you know what, the (purposeful) losses from the 5th store off-set almost all his gains on the other stores and he pays almost no tax, and yet the value of his business has tripled over the pandemic. Welcome to capitalism.

He's made millions (while actually recording losses), and you should see the house(s) and new (young) wife and cars he's acquired. It's a joke, no wonder the fat old guy is laughing. I just shake my head at him, but really I'm shaking my head at the entire corrupt system that permits these things.

I know another half-dozen blokes that are filtering money to the Cayman Islands tax haven, but I'm too old and tired to be bothered now myself, but if I was young and their age ... well ...

The middle classes are way over-taxed in comparison.

I've always liked Randy Newman and Dire Straits, and I tell my friend that he makes me think of the Mark Knopfler guitar and Randy Newman lyrics in their song "It's Money That Matters" - quite a humorous video clip too, which he laughs about and just gently nods his head in agreement while patting his new (very) young blonde wife on the bum and sipping some more champagne. He's always been a funny fellow, but sharp, and yet for all of that, he's quite generous to his family and others. He likes sitting by the huge pool and eating barbecued prawns (caught from his own launch) and sipping champagne and reading crime novels, I told him he should write a crime novel, but he likes owning shoe stores.

"He was a little fat guy, in a red jump suit",
I said "that looks kinda funny",
He said "I know it does to, but I've got a great big house on the hill here, and a great big blonde wife inside it, great big pool in my backyard, and another pool beside it".
"Sonny, it's money that matters, here what I say, it's money that matters, in the USA".



Gw