4 ms·

This thread has gotten a bit muddled, but I don't think the thrust of the argument is that Jobs didn't want to get rich (did someone upthread actually argue tha

This thread has gotten a bit muddled, but I don't think the thrust of the argument is that Jobs didn't want to get rich (did someone upthread actually argue that?); instead, its "if he had to get somewhat less rich, would he have done what he did?", to which I think it's far to ask "yes, but how much less would he have been OK with before he said 'no way'?" The discussion is about marginal tax rates without stating it as such. He might not have been OK with a 95% MTR, but would he have done it with a 45? a 50? People could opine on what he would have or would not have done given that, but I think it's reasonable to say that many people would, and do (given that successful innovators and businesses exist in higher tax countries.) Higher marginal tax rates don't mean you don't get rich; they mean you don't get quite as rich, which is what much of the proposals are about.

pdonis 11y ago
> The discussion is about marginal tax rates No, it isn't. The discussion is about Graham's claim (which I agree with) that income inequality due to variations in productivity--i.e., allowing people to get rich in proportion to how much wealth they create--is an unavoidable consequence of economic growth, which means you can't get rid of it without getting rid of economic growth. Graham makes a separate claim about tax rates, which is that the marginal tax rate has basically no effect at all on tax receipts as a percentage of GDP. This argument is based on nothing more than looking at the actual statistics since World War II, which do indeed show what he claims. But in itself, it says nothing about what, if any, effect marginal tax rates have on wealth creation.