4 ms·
This is a good insight from the essay: "I'm sure most of those who want to decrease economic inequality want to do it mainly to help the poor, not to hurt the
by raspasov 7y ago
This is a good insight from the essay:
"I'm sure most of those who want to decrease economic inequality want to do it mainly to help the poor, not to hurt the rich. Indeed, a good number are merely being sloppy by speaking of decreasing economic inequality when what they mean is decreasing poverty. But this is a situation where it would be good to be precise about what we want. Poverty and economic inequality are not identical."
- tempsy 7y agoI don’t think the progressive leaders who have been championing a wealth tax have been unclear about that though. The point of a wealth tax as described by Warren, Sanders, etc. is specifically to fund programs for poor and struggling middle class, not just as some penalty for being rich.
- raspasov 7y agoWealth tax discussions aside, then they should talk about "getting rid of poverty" instead of "inequality" which puts "us vs. them" spin on the whole discussion.
- tempsy 7y agoThe wealthy have been lobbying for laws that benefit them at the expense of the poor and middle class for awhile Tax cuts, carried interest loophole, limited income tax tiers
- jb775 7y agoMy initial thought with this is that the rich would find loopholes around this tax, the upper middle class would pay it, the struggling middle class and poor would barely be taxed....so basically the upper middle class would be dragged down towards the struggling middle/poor, therefore making the underlying issue worse.
- tempsy 7y agoNot sure how that would work. Warren’s tax starts at a net worth above $50M. How would someone who is upper middle class pay for it.
- ghufran_syed 7y agoThe same way the AMT started as a tax on "the rich" and now regularly affects middle class earners
- jb775 7y agoIndirectly at first primarily via wage stagnation and inflation, then directly via additional taxes. Additional taxes will follow the same pattern as my original comment, further compounding the problem. We need to think about this issue from different scopes at the same time. The optimal solution is probably fragmented across a few of them, we just need to figure out how to put the pieces together.