by jm3 on 1/3/16, 11:59 PM with 10 comments
by gexla on 1/4/16, 1:22 AM
I have never been a billionaire, so I don't know how this works. How do you earn a billion dollars? I'm guessing in most cases this would be paper wealth (ownership of businesses) and you would pay taxes on that wealth when you cash out. I'm also guessing that there are loads of loopholes here and that almost nobody would subject themselves to an 80% capital gains tax.
Edit: And of course, rich people can lobby to create more loopholes. Poor people just have to pay their taxes.
by bonobo3000 on 1/4/16, 1:54 AM
* If a startup/piece of technology takes $X to make (VC money, costs of running business etc.) and makes more than $X, it DOES grow the pie. This is almost a definition of the word technology (before it came to mean tech related to computers specifically). A skilled person can take $10 of wood and make a $50 chair out of it - thats value creation.
* The progressive tax on rich - PG was saying basically the same thing here, not sure what you are attacking. quote:
> For example, let's attack poverty, and if necessary damage wealth in the process. That's much more likely to work than attacking wealth in the hope that you will thereby fix poverty. [9] And if there are people getting rich by tricking consumers or lobbying the government for anti-competitive regulations or tax loopholes, then let's stop them.
I think he was just talking about rich people kind of being demonized by the media, they like to paint a story of rich as the oppressive ruling class which everyone else needs to rise up against. That only divides people, there are peaceful solutions too..
by NhanH on 1/4/16, 12:38 AM
by johngalt on 1/4/16, 3:43 AM
You could tax the rich at whatever rate you feel appropriate and still be deficit spending at current spending levels. So I guess the good services you expect should already be there.
Plenty of tax money goes into the government coffers, and they spend even more than what goes in. It's rare to see good services in return.
by orionblastar on 1/4/16, 12:31 AM
The people being taxed for basic income will feel like they are being targeted or hunted.
We are reaching a social security crisis as the Baby Boomers retire and there will become more people on social security than working to pay taxes to support it. Either the fed increases taxes on workers or they print up more money and go into debt.
Whomever becomes President in 2016 is going to have to clean up social security as well as address this income inequality issue and basic income.
In all honesty if you put a 80% tax on the rich, they will just move out of the USA to a nation with lower taxes and move their business and jobs there.