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I think economists universally agree income tax is suboptimal. I'm not sure if a wealth tax is the answer. Personally I'd like to see taxes on negative things
by eloff 6y ago
I think economists universally agree income tax is suboptimal.
I'm not sure if a wealth tax is the answer.
Personally I'd like to see taxes on negative things. Taxes invariably have the effect of discouraging the thing taxed. Which is why taxing income sucks. Let's tax pollution, traffic congestion, advertisements, and social media. Ok, well the last two are half joking.
- notacoward 6y agoI agree, actually. "Tax bads, not goods" as saying goes. However, as a practical matter I don't think a pure Pigovian approach could ever fly. Overhead and enforcement issues would sink it. A hybrid approach with most revenue from land-value and value-added taxes gets pretty close and is fairly straightforward to administer. Not saying we shouldn't tax those other things, but that wouldn't be a huge percentage of revenue.
- eloff 6y agoYeah land tax and VAT are quite practical possibilities. I'm still hopeful for a Carbon tax. I think I'd be more likely of seeing that in Saudi Arabia before the USA though with the political climate being what it is.
- fortran77 6y agoThe most logical thing, then, would be to tax obesity. The obese cost us several trillion dollars because of COVID. (If it weren't for the obese, our hospitals would have had capacity, and there would have been no need for shutdown.) Get on the scale and pay your taxes! https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/06/01/david-kass-obesity-covid-19/ https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/06/01/david-kass-obesity-covid-19/
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]