from Hacker News

"Elected leaders must tax us, the super rich. We'd be proud to pay more."

by alexaholic on 1/20/24, 2:13 PM with 23 comments

• by elzbardico on 1/20/24, 2:21 PM

  Kind of weird to hear it when the super wealth could be paying way more taxes if they wished right now.

• by nextaccountic on 1/20/24, 2:20 PM

  Where's the list of the super rich that wants to be taxed more? Wouldn't this online form be filled mostly by average Joes? The "Yes, I am signing as a person of wealth" checkbox doesn't inspire much confidence

• by billy99k on 1/20/24, 2:44 PM

  The reason why the super rich shouldn't give more money to the government is the same reason lottery winners lose it all within a very short period of time.

• by blamestross on 1/20/24, 2:22 PM

  Honestly, I think we need an entirely different way of looking at "taxes". We need to find a way to calculate the externalities of a company and charge that as taxes.

  I don't have a magic way to do that, nor am I convinced it is possible.

  But I think that is the bare minimum we can agree government and regulations are for, to prevent and compensate for us hurting each other. Especially in ways that are hard for individuals to handle.

• by jacknews on 1/20/24, 2:53 PM

  the problem with tax is that it goes to government

  billionaires may well recognize that they are the beneficiaries of a rather unfair system, but they may also balk at giving back their gifts, if it means handing them on to a quite inefficient, often opaque, and quite self-interested institution

  maybe a solution is to sell government positions for taxes; the wealthy buy seats in government with increased taxes.

  on the surface this seem like a terrible idea, but any self-serving decisions while in government would just lead to more taxes, etc.

  in any case we should move away from a system where the ultimate bragging right is how much money you accumulate.

  for example, i believe the status of rich ancient romans was tied to the public works that they enabled

• by ksherlock on 1/20/24, 2:23 PM

  Just a friendly reminder - for Americans that think your taxes are too low, you can make a "gift to reduce the public debt" here:

  https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/23779454

• by esahione on 1/20/24, 2:19 PM

  Easy to say when you have a foundation that holds all your wealth and you only pay marginal income taxes. That's pure marketing. Anarcho-capitalism is a better idea.

• by hitpointdrew on 1/20/24, 2:21 PM

  Put up, or shut up.

  If you want to pay more, the fucking pay more, you are free to give the IRS more. I don’t understand why anyone, ever, would be in favor of more or higher compulsory taxes.