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> But you'd generate basically zero revenue. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, which you’re not providing. If you keep all else constant th
by CPLX 8y ago
> But you'd generate basically zero revenue.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, which you’re not providing.
If you keep all else constant then raising the tax rate will raise revenue. Your narrative about how all else will not be held constant isn’t compelling.
Whatever mechanisms you describe for tax avoidance are only marginally different at 35% than 70%, making your hypothesis of zero obvious fiction.
- darawk 8y agoDid you read what I said? People in the bracket you're targeting don't get paid in cash. It's not a scheme, it's not theoretical, it's a fact.
- CPLX 8y agoThen by your logic they aren’t paying any tax now either. So raising the rate won’t change anything. If so why not just do it for fun? Either they pay tax now at a certain rate or they don’t. Your premise that raising the rate won’t change the tax bill is based on your theory that whatever they’re paying now is just by their grace and free will?
- opo 8y agoBecause it hurts the economy. As I said previously, confiscatory high tax rates just result in politically connected groups getting tax breaks, lots of money spent in less productive ways to avoid the high rates and if those can't be done you get dead weight losses from economic activity that isn't done. There is a reason countries moved away from confiscatory high rates.
- CPLX 8y agoSome countries have some haven't. The top marginal tax rate in Denmark is over 60% I've been there, it's awesome, everything works super great, and the country consistently ranks as the happiest population on the planet. They also have a great economy. Meanwhile I've lived in the US for almost five decades and watched as the billionaire class has lobbied successfully for lower taxes, offshoring, financialization of everything, and criminalization of debt, leading to vast swaths of the country condemned to permanent economic misery, increased xenophobia and political instability, declining standards of healthcare, and an out of control problem of education debt for the next generation.
- opo 8y agoA difference is that the US is a much more progressive tax system, - the tax rates in Denmark are much flatter. This gives Denmark much more income from taxes per person. So far none of the politicians in the US arguing for very high rates in the US are arguing that the bulk of the country should pay them.
- seibelj 8y agoI think you have intellectual blinders on, as you refuse to respond to logical arguments and ignore valid points.