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> Also houses are almost literally untouchable, Often, (in the US) retirement accounts are also sacrosanct, depending on the claim. The issue of houses remind

> Also houses are almost literally untouchable, Often, (in the US) retirement accounts are also sacrosanct, depending on the claim. The issue of houses reminds me of how much of the US tax system is regressive. Electric car subsidies, special treatment for capital gains, mortgage deductions.

saithound 5y ago
Private retirement accounts are far from untouchable in the EU, though: e.g. Hungary straight-up nationalized private pension funds in 2010 [1]. [1] https://www.ipe.com/nightmare-in-hungary-as-government-nationalises-pension-funds/38105.article https://www.ipe.com/nightmare-in-hungary-as-government-natio...
dantheman 5y ago
The US tax system isn't regressive; I'm against legislating behavior through tax breaks, but calling them subsidies isn't really fair either.
- dan-robertson 5y ago
  The comment was only about parts of the us tax system. Regressive is a technical term and means that the effective rate decreases as one’s means increase. A simple example is a flat poll tax: richer people feel a much lower burden than poorer people. Mortgage contribution deductions are regressive because poorer people don’t have mortgages on average.
  - missedthecue 5y ago
    It's also worth noting that the mortgage contribution benefit is capped at a few thousand bucks. It primarily benefits the middle class but is an after thought to millionaires and above. It really doesn't move the needle for them.
ixacto 5y ago
The US tax system is designed by people who in theory represent the will of the people, but in reality that are advocating for special interests. You have things like SALT tax deduction and mortgage interest tax deduction which are directly designed to benefit rich liberals in blue states by subsidizing their oversized government. Take these away and people get mad or move to TX/FL/NV because they actually have to pay their full taxes. Also having a high state sales tax is much more logical if you don’t want to pay tax just don’t spend money. It would make much more sense to just do a federal sales tax, totally eliminate the corporate tax as people are paying taxes anyway and it is just a disadvantage to us-domiciled corporations competitiveness, and also totally eliminate fed and state income taxes. Like purge them with fire, there’s way too much complexity and corruption built up over the last hundred years. Then if you still care about people at the end just institute UBI and Medicare for all to eliminate the billing complexity and potential for discrimination. This policy would also be compatible with open borders and free movement of labor if we as a society decided we want that.

saithound 5y ago

Private retirement accounts are far from untouchable in the EU, though: e.g. Hungary straight-up nationalized private pension funds in 2010 [1]. [1] https://www.ipe.com/nightmare-in-hungary-as-government-nationalises-pension-funds/38105.article https://www.ipe.com/nightmare-in-hungary-as-government-natio...

dantheman 5y ago

The US tax system isn't regressive; I'm against legislating behavior through tax breaks, but calling them subsidies isn't really fair either.

dan-robertson 5y ago
The comment was only about parts of the us tax system. Regressive is a technical term and means that the effective rate decreases as one’s means increase. A simple example is a flat poll tax: richer people feel a much lower burden than poorer people. Mortgage contribution deductions are regressive because poorer people don’t have mortgages on average.
- missedthecue 5y ago
  It's also worth noting that the mortgage contribution benefit is capped at a few thousand bucks. It primarily benefits the middle class but is an after thought to millionaires and above. It really doesn't move the needle for them.

ixacto 5y ago

The US tax system is designed by people who in theory represent the will of the people, but in reality that are advocating for special interests. You have things like SALT tax deduction and mortgage interest tax deduction which are directly designed to benefit rich liberals in blue states by subsidizing their oversized government. Take these away and people get mad or move to TX/FL/NV because they actually have to pay their full taxes. Also having a high state sales tax is much more logical if you don’t want to pay tax just don’t spend money. It would make much more sense to just do a federal sales tax, totally eliminate the corporate tax as people are paying taxes anyway and it is just a disadvantage to us-domiciled corporations competitiveness, and also totally eliminate fed and state income taxes. Like purge them with fire, there’s way too much complexity and corruption built up over the last hundred years. Then if you still care about people at the end just institute UBI and Medicare for all to eliminate the billing complexity and potential for discrimination. This policy would also be compatible with open borders and free movement of labor if we as a society decided we want that.