4 ms·

No, it isn't.

• ethbro 10y ago
  If not, then what moral basis does a progressive tax code rest on? Or do you disagree with a progressive code?
  • amitdeshwar 10y ago
    Decreasing marginal utility of money plus "fairness" (everyone sacrificing an equal proportion of their utility). Fairness is in quotes because it's a complicated word.
    • ethbro 10y ago
      Added an edit onto my original because I realized I was using illegal as a proxy for fair (given the context of the article and SEC/Wall Street prosecutions).
  • dizzy3gg 10y ago
    Agreed. But for Political Correctness remove ", you're probably doing something illegal" and thats is probably the moral basis.
    • ethbro 10y ago
      I've never been much of one for Political Correctness as long as my statement doesn't actively make an oppressed group feel worse about themselves. I added an edit to clarify the correlation I was trying to draw.
  • tanker 10y ago
    I consider a progressive tax code to be justified by supporting the system which permits large gains. There is also an argument about holding onto large amounts of wealth being difficult without expending some of your resources to protect it. If nothing else, taxes spread the burden of the security apparatus around. If you have more to lose, you pay more to protect it.
    • ethbro 10y ago
      That's fair, and pretty earning-method-agnostic. Although resting strictly on that would seem to lack a justification for most tax-funded social welfare programs.
  • ryanlol 10y ago
    Does it need to rest on any moral basis? >Or do you disagree with a progressive code? Depends very much on the country, but in many cases yes. I believe that it can create a situation that disincentives paying taxes altogether. In my case instead of paying almost 50% tax rate I've moved all of my income into a friendlier legal climate where I only have to pay a tenth of that (something a lot of people can do for only a few grand). Although it's also worth noting that I've got ethical issues with financially supporting the Finnish government, and those have played no small part in my decision. I'll gladly expand on that if you want.
    • Bromskloss 10y ago
      I'd love to hear about your ethical issues with the Finnish government.
      • ryanlol 10y ago
        Utter lack of accountability for government officials, no matter how badly or systemically you screw up you'll never face any consequences for it. Actually, the justice system even actively rewards law enforcement for abusing their powers in a blatantly illegal manner. In this country we don't have the concept of "fruit of the poisonous tree", which in combination with police writing their own search "warrants" results in a perverse system where they can just march into anyones home. seize whatever they want and no matter what that'll be admissible in court. Now, it might actually be possible for this system to actually work if there was some level of accountability here. But no, if a police officer straight up falsifies the reasoning behind a search warrant, they will not face any kind of repercussions for that. Why would they? It's a win for them. Only thing you'll get from suing them is a symbolic piece of paper that says that the police acted wrong, and maybe a few hundred euros in compensation. Unsurprisingly, Finland has repeatedly lost cases relating to such searches in the ECHR. Very little has resulted from those losses.
        • ryanlol 10y ago
          Hey, I actually just today got a letter thats yet another example of this. I got a notice from the government collections agency that they will start seizing two thirds of any transfers to my Finnish bank accounts to pay for a debt that was paid three years ago. This has already been sorted out in the courts a year ago, a judge has confirmed that I did in fact pay said debt in 2013. Nevertheless, today the collections agency decided that it can just ignore the courts decision and start seizing my funds. I just tried calling them, not once but four times. Each time I was given a different phone number to call, and each time nobody picked up. In fact two of the phone numbers had full voicemail boxes. Finally I managed to get an email address out of them. This is the kind of incompetence that the Finnish government allows to thrive, I've been trying to sort this out for 3 years now and have received several acknowledgements that it's sorted out. I even had a court confirm this. I feel that such incompetence simply shouldn't have a place in a civilised society.