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Because I'm sure these governments will spend the extra $250 billion/year so much more productively than the companies they're taking it from... (not.)

toyg 11y ago
Considering most of this untaxed money sits idle in some Caribbean virtual bank, yes, even using it to dig holes would be a more productive use.
- dr_win 11y ago
  If that money sits there in U.S. dollars or any other central-bank issued paper money then "sitting" money is a non-issue. Central bank can increase money supply and direct it through government or banking system to holes digging efforts to keep current employment levels (aka monetary easing). The hard part is to unwind it when that money which was sitting there starts moving. Then we will probably see some inflation. Easing is easy, tightening hard.
- crdoconnor 11y ago
  >Considering most of this untaxed money sits idle in some Caribbean virtual bank It's not idle. Those carribean virtual banks buy a lot of empty condos in big cities with tight housing markets all around the world. God forbid that money would all be taxed away. Prices and rents might come down and those condos would start to fill up with people... What a waste
  - zo1 11y ago
    >"It's not idle. Those carribean virtual banks buy a lot of empty condos in big cities with tight housing markets all around the world." And who do they buy it from? And what do those individuals do with that money?
    - crdoconnor 11y ago
      Property development corporations I guess.
      - zo1 11y ago
        The point is that it disperses throughout the economy anyways. Money doesn't magically disappear into nothingness when it is invested, as it seemed in the earlier comment. It eventually get's used by someone to buy something.
        crdoconnor 11y ago
        >The point is that it disperses throughout the economy anyways. The point is that the wealth trickles up and is getting less and less dispersed. That ought to be obvious to anybody paying attention in the last 10 years.
        zo1 11y ago
        Assuming that's true, and you want to social-engineer your populace into some sort of "equality" utopia, then I can see why you might think that to be a problem. Unfortunately, we can disagree on that latter part as I believe in absolute individual freedom from violence and coercion. That definitely includes state engineering.
- ahallock 11y ago
  I'd rather it sit in a Caribbean bank than be spent killing people in foreign conflicts. Also, what's wrong with saving money? Not all money needs to be constantly spent.

toyg 11y ago

Considering most of this untaxed money sits idle in some Caribbean virtual bank, yes, even using it to dig holes would be a more productive use.

dr_win 11y ago
If that money sits there in U.S. dollars or any other central-bank issued paper money then "sitting" money is a non-issue. Central bank can increase money supply and direct it through government or banking system to holes digging efforts to keep current employment levels (aka monetary easing). The hard part is to unwind it when that money which was sitting there starts moving. Then we will probably see some inflation. Easing is easy, tightening hard.
crdoconnor 11y ago
>Considering most of this untaxed money sits idle in some Caribbean virtual bank It's not idle. Those carribean virtual banks buy a lot of empty condos in big cities with tight housing markets all around the world. God forbid that money would all be taxed away. Prices and rents might come down and those condos would start to fill up with people... What a waste
- zo1 11y ago
  >"It's not idle. Those carribean virtual banks buy a lot of empty condos in big cities with tight housing markets all around the world." And who do they buy it from? And what do those individuals do with that money?
  - crdoconnor 11y ago
    Property development corporations I guess.
    - zo1 11y ago
      The point is that it disperses throughout the economy anyways. Money doesn't magically disappear into nothingness when it is invested, as it seemed in the earlier comment. It eventually get's used by someone to buy something.
      - crdoconnor 11y ago
        >The point is that it disperses throughout the economy anyways. The point is that the wealth trickles up and is getting less and less dispersed. That ought to be obvious to anybody paying attention in the last 10 years.
        zo1 11y ago
        Assuming that's true, and you want to social-engineer your populace into some sort of "equality" utopia, then I can see why you might think that to be a problem. Unfortunately, we can disagree on that latter part as I believe in absolute individual freedom from violence and coercion. That definitely includes state engineering.
ahallock 11y ago
I'd rather it sit in a Caribbean bank than be spent killing people in foreign conflicts. Also, what's wrong with saving money? Not all money needs to be constantly spent.