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I'd be stronger and say flat taxes are nonsense. All the people that go on about incentive and the open market amaze me when they claim that it's a disincentiv

by Latty 9y ago

I'd be stronger and say flat taxes are nonsense. All the people that go on about incentive and the open market amaze me when they claim that it's a disincentive for people to work when you lose say, 50% over some high amount. Once you have a ton of wealth, it just becomes relatively worthless to you. People with a ton of wealth don't add (significant) value except by providing that wealth to others, which then nets them even more. We should be trying to limit the ability to just continually accrue wealth. At some point it stops serving society for an individual to have more. The incentive is gone - no one is not going to try because if they are so successful they earn over $10m say, they will not get any more.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
CryptoPunk 9y ago
>>People with a ton of wealth don't add (significant) value except by providing that wealth to others, which then nets them even more. Investments that produce positive returns are the primary mechanism by which productivity increases. Productivity gains explain almost all of the rise in standard of living experienced throughout human existence.
- Can_Not 9y ago
  But we don't need a rich person to hold onto the money, decide where to invest, or spend lavishly on enormous mansions/yachts, we can build institutions to focus on benefiting humanity as a whole first or even automate rich people out of their jobs.
  - CryptoPunk 9y ago
    Letting good investors keep their returns is how we encourage the volume of good investments to increase. It both provides better investors with more capital to invest with, and incentivizes them to invest. Centrally planned economies don't make these considerations and languish in productivity as a result. The wealth generated should go to the investor who earned it. >>or even automate rich people out of their jobs. Go right ahead. Any automated tool you create that can effectively identify investment opportunities would be a enormous boon to humanity. What you'll find as you grow more familiar with how an economy works is that investment is a dynamic, ever-changing process, and individual initiative and enterprise is always necessary to make it happen. Many people make the mistake you're making now, of taking for granted the process of managing and allocating capital, because they don't understand how enormously complex the task is.
    - Can_Not 9y ago
      I think you've overstating the efficiency in this investments economy, along with overlooking the negative externalities. How much was thrown away? 6 empty houses per homeless person. Why instead of updating AIM/ICQ for Android/iOS and business usage, they were abandoned and new investors replaced them with several Electron based permanent MVPs? There's entire industries dedicated to creating fake demand for high margin items, then there is also people buying things just on speculation that it could be worth more later. Its incredibly inefficient and wasteful. Who pays for the smog from coal? Our lungs do.
      - CryptoPunk 9y ago
        First of all, pollution has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. It is an act of public property damage that ought to be punished. If it's not punished, we get negative externalities. As for efficiency, you're overestimating how efficient political establishments can be in comparison. Just because a plan calls for the government to act efficiently, in the interest of the public, doesn't mean that this is what actually happens. All of the tendencies toward waste and corruption seen in the market are manifested in politically appointed institutions as well. Private sector investment has been demonstrated to be the best way to increase productivity, and to be far more effective than politically directed management of economic assets.
aianus 9y ago
Tax rates should be based on $/h somehow but I don’t know how it would be possible to implement that without it being gamed. It’s not fair that I should pay 30% tax on my minimum wage part-time Algebra tutoring job just because my software internship earlier in the year had a high salary. And yes, it did serve as a disincentive to work and I quit that job and the students had to make do with what I assume was a marginally worse tutor at the same price. Similarly it’s unfair that if I do a three month software contract and then go off to Mexico to surf for the rest of the year, I pay the same low tax rate as someone who works hard all year to make the same amount and has to pay high cost of living in the US the entire time.

by Latty 9y ago

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

CryptoPunk 9y ago

>>People with a ton of wealth don't add (significant) value except by providing that wealth to others, which then nets them even more. Investments that produce positive returns are the primary mechanism by which productivity increases. Productivity gains explain almost all of the rise in standard of living experienced throughout human existence.

Can_Not 9y ago
But we don't need a rich person to hold onto the money, decide where to invest, or spend lavishly on enormous mansions/yachts, we can build institutions to focus on benefiting humanity as a whole first or even automate rich people out of their jobs.
- CryptoPunk 9y ago
  Letting good investors keep their returns is how we encourage the volume of good investments to increase. It both provides better investors with more capital to invest with, and incentivizes them to invest. Centrally planned economies don't make these considerations and languish in productivity as a result. The wealth generated should go to the investor who earned it. >>or even automate rich people out of their jobs. Go right ahead. Any automated tool you create that can effectively identify investment opportunities would be a enormous boon to humanity. What you'll find as you grow more familiar with how an economy works is that investment is a dynamic, ever-changing process, and individual initiative and enterprise is always necessary to make it happen. Many people make the mistake you're making now, of taking for granted the process of managing and allocating capital, because they don't understand how enormously complex the task is.
  - Can_Not 9y ago
    I think you've overstating the efficiency in this investments economy, along with overlooking the negative externalities. How much was thrown away? 6 empty houses per homeless person. Why instead of updating AIM/ICQ for Android/iOS and business usage, they were abandoned and new investors replaced them with several Electron based permanent MVPs? There's entire industries dedicated to creating fake demand for high margin items, then there is also people buying things just on speculation that it could be worth more later. Its incredibly inefficient and wasteful. Who pays for the smog from coal? Our lungs do.
    - CryptoPunk 9y ago
      First of all, pollution has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. It is an act of public property damage that ought to be punished. If it's not punished, we get negative externalities. As for efficiency, you're overestimating how efficient political establishments can be in comparison. Just because a plan calls for the government to act efficiently, in the interest of the public, doesn't mean that this is what actually happens. All of the tendencies toward waste and corruption seen in the market are manifested in politically appointed institutions as well. Private sector investment has been demonstrated to be the best way to increase productivity, and to be far more effective than politically directed management of economic assets.

aianus 9y ago

Tax rates should be based on $/h somehow but I don’t know how it would be possible to implement that without it being gamed. It’s not fair that I should pay 30% tax on my minimum wage part-time Algebra tutoring job just because my software internship earlier in the year had a high salary. And yes, it did serve as a disincentive to work and I quit that job and the students had to make do with what I assume was a marginally worse tutor at the same price. Similarly it’s unfair that if I do a three month software contract and then go off to Mexico to surf for the rest of the year, I pay the same low tax rate as someone who works hard all year to make the same amount and has to pay high cost of living in the US the entire time.