4 ms·
Wealth taxes are a bad idea. We already have one (inflation), which is a nasty way to bypass the electorate and hits the poor hardest, but I don't think an exp
by big_chungus 7y ago
Wealth taxes are a bad idea. We already have one (inflation), which is a nasty way to bypass the electorate and hits the poor hardest, but I don't think an explicit one is any better. It seems to come from the Sanders-and-company position of "billionaires should not exist"; many appear to believe that morally, even were everyone else well-off, someone having that much more is simply wrong. _Why_ is a "wealth tax" any better? Why shouldn't I be worried about the precedent of the government taking someone's assets? This seems bad for the same reasons civil forfeiture is bad.
Secondarily, I fail to understand the defense of such a policy by the "fair share" argument. Can someone explain? Here's how I see it: I am splitting a pizza among myself and seven friends. I cut it into eight pieces. My "fair share" is one piece, and does not change because someone else is hungrier. However, what the "fair share" of the "one percent" is, according to some people, seems to scale based on how many programs said people want to implement and how much they cost. Before anyone goes after my analogy, please excuse it; I understand that it doesn't fit perfectly, that not everyone has the same number of slices to start with, that the pie is not of constant size, ad nauseum. But even if I am re-distributing pizza from those who have twice as much to those who have half as much, the "just" amount doesn't fluctuate based on the relative hunger of the people in question; why, then, should the "fair share" increase because there are more things which people wish to fund? The taxes seem to be devised to keep up with the policies, rather than the government taking each person's "fair share" and doing as much as possible.
Effectively, it seems as though some people believe every dollar past a certain amount is part of a cash reserve with which politicians may fund things. This doesn't really seem "fair".
- onlyrealcuzzo 7y agoLOL. > We already have a wealth tax (inflation) > which [...] hits the poor hardest. A wealth tax does not hit the poor hardest.
- big_chungus 7y agoInflation does. The poor don't have financial advisors, stock trading, etc.; many keep money in cash. Sources: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/inflation-may-hit-the-poor-hardest/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/inflation-may-hit-the-p... https://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/why-inflation-hits-poor-hardest-11684646 https://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/why-inflation-hits-poor-hard... http://www.poverty.ac.uk/inflation-low-income-households-necessities-reports/inflation-%E2%80%98hits-poorest-families-hardest%E2%80%99 http://www.poverty.ac.uk/inflation-low-income-households-nec... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/20/AR2008032003517.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03... https://www.ft.com/content/77a36048-4ddd-11dd-820e-000077b07658 https://www.ft.com/content/77a36048-4ddd-11dd-820e-000077b07... https://www.fin24.com/Economy/Poor-hardest-hit-by-inflation-20140820 https://www.fin24.com/Economy/Poor-hardest-hit-by-inflation-... https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/02/how-poor-have-been-hit-hardest-inflation https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/02/how-poor-have-... https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/must-read/inflation-hits-the-poor-hardest-washington-post https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/must-read/inflation-... https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/new-index-of-inflation-shows-poor-hardest-hit-6cvxs7dnd https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/new-index-of-inflation-sh... https://business.inquirer.net/151537/poorest-households-hardest-hit-by-inflation-say-economists https://business.inquirer.net/151537/poorest-households-hard...
- w1nst0nsm1th 7y agoYou forget you should take your regime seriously, eat a lattuce, and leave your "fair share" of pizza to a guy who could not afford to eat these last 24h, you obese fat ass who already ate a large pizza assorted with a big milshake and a box of donuts at breakfast, already totalling a whopping 4000Kcal at 9am on your own. It's called wealth redistribution.
- dang 7y agoIt's not ok to break the site guidelines like this, regardless of what you're replying to. Would you please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here?