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"When a man tells you he got rich through hard work, ask him: Whose?" Don Marquis Very few people make wealth through individual effort (musicians, football p
by chrisbennet 7y ago
"When a man tells you he got rich through hard work, ask him: Whose?"
Don Marquis
Very few people make wealth through individual effort (musicians, football players, Buffet?, etc). Most everyone makes by:
- The sweat of others (factory workers, etc)
- Skimming money from a business
It boggles my mind that investments in which you get money while you sleep/sit on your ass get taxed less than income for actually working.
- notacoward 7y agoIt boggles my mind too. I know the arguments for it. The "rewards of previous hard work" ignores inheritance (plus other kinds of favoritism and/or luck). The "risk premium" argument has some merit, but doesn't come close to justifying the "all of it" premium that we're actually close to. Other arguments ignore power or information asymmetries, various kinds of market failure, etc. None of them even come close to matching the obvious point that work should be rewarded more than non-work. The direct fruits of individual labor should be the last thing we tax.
- loco5niner 7y ago> Buffet Nothing against Buffet, seems to be a great guy, and he worked hard, but I wouldn't call his efforts "individual". He is the epitome of making money on investments. > It boggles my mind that investments in which you get money while you sleep/sit on your ass get taxed less than income for actually working. This is probably because it takes more discipline to initially accumulate the assets to invest than it takes to simply show up to work.
- chrisbennet 7y agoYou're right. (Hence the question mark.)