8 ms·

The worst thing for me is that inflation is an implicit wealth tax, because governments don't account for inflation when charging capital gains tax. So if infla

The worst thing for me is that inflation is an implicit wealth tax, because governments don't account for inflation when charging capital gains tax. So if inflation is 3%, you have $10000 which increases in value to $10300, then you pay capital gains tax on that $300, reducing the real value of your holdings.

jdavis703 10y ago
Why are you investing in things with a 0℅ return then? If you're part of society you're ideally using labor and resources from other specialists such as farmers and miners who need some reason to move dirt around to make your life better. If you have money then you put that to work helping those people be more efficient, and maybe spawn other kinds of specialists like web developers. If however you'd rather not be a part of this society, then you're free to opt out. But then you don't get the benefits of "being on the team" and now either your standard of living goes down (I.e. homelessness) or you have to work super hard (I.e. living off grid in some remote area).
- grzm 10y ago
  "a 0℅ return" I've seen ℅ used a couple of times recently where I would have used %. Is there a connotation or other difference in meaning implied by ℅ (care of) instead of % (percent)?
  - jdavis703 10y ago
    They're fairly close together and easy to mistake for each other when typing fast on an Android keyboard. I certainly meant to write percent (%), and probably others too. In fact I just learned there was even a "care of" symbol.
    - grzm 10y ago
      Ah! Thanks for clarifying!
- logicchains 10y ago
  It doesn't matter what the return is; if the nominal rate of return is 5% and inflation is 3%, and $10000 increases to $10500, I'm still paying capital gains on $500, when in fact $300 of that is just inflation and the real gains are only $200. The key issue is that capital gains tax applies to nominal rather than real returns.

jdavis703 10y ago

Why are you investing in things with a 0℅ return then? If you're part of society you're ideally using labor and resources from other specialists such as farmers and miners who need some reason to move dirt around to make your life better. If you have money then you put that to work helping those people be more efficient, and maybe spawn other kinds of specialists like web developers. If however you'd rather not be a part of this society, then you're free to opt out. But then you don't get the benefits of "being on the team" and now either your standard of living goes down (I.e. homelessness) or you have to work super hard (I.e. living off grid in some remote area).

grzm 10y ago
"a 0℅ return" I've seen ℅ used a couple of times recently where I would have used %. Is there a connotation or other difference in meaning implied by ℅ (care of) instead of % (percent)?
- jdavis703 10y ago
  They're fairly close together and easy to mistake for each other when typing fast on an Android keyboard. I certainly meant to write percent (%), and probably others too. In fact I just learned there was even a "care of" symbol.
  - grzm 10y ago
    Ah! Thanks for clarifying!
logicchains 10y ago
It doesn't matter what the return is; if the nominal rate of return is 5% and inflation is 3%, and $10000 increases to $10500, I'm still paying capital gains on $500, when in fact $300 of that is just inflation and the real gains are only $200. The key issue is that capital gains tax applies to nominal rather than real returns.