5 ms·

>Long before we get to something like a 90% tax bracket, we could have the very wealthy pay the same rates as regular folks. Flat tax for all! >Anyway, I don'

>Long before we get to something like a 90% tax bracket, we could have the very wealthy pay the same rates as regular folks. Flat tax for all! >Anyway, I don't see why a billionaire shouldn't have a 90% bracket. Lets ignore the economics and how going off the gold standard removed the government's ability to tax and taxation will trend toward 0% for everyone until we figure out a new standard. However, let me tell you about 3 brothers. They all live on the same culdesac, they all have the same education, same type of job. The only difference is hours worked. The first brother works 20 hours, middle brother works 40 hours, and final brother works 60 hour/weeks. They come together and agree they want to contract a landscaping/flower place to put flowers on their culdesac. The flat cost is $10,000/each but the brother who only works 20 hours cant afford that. He wants his brothers to pay for it. They protest that he should pay his cut. The middle brother however devises a plan. The poor brother will pay very little if not nothing. The middle brother pays less than $10,000. The final brother has to pay for most of it. They vote and 2 to 1 they win. What happens? The brother working 60 hour weeks is now incentivized to reduce his hours so he gets less penalized.

imtringued 5y ago
What happens? Everyone works 40 hours.
- sleepysysadmin 5y ago
  >What happens? Everyone works 40 hours. The people who work 20 hour weeks are upset and certainly dont work any additional amount. Daycare probably booms as a business. Productivity plummets to tremendously low levels, economies collapse, massive numbers of people die, etc. Less than half of doctors work 40 hours or less. Pretty significant number above 60 hours/week. Same for nursing and much of the medical field. Firefighters have very long hours. Truck driving and logistics pretty much depends on truck drivers maxing their hours at around 70 hour weeks. Lawyers pretty much cant work 40 hour weeks without the legal system collapsing. So right away, we are going to have people working different amounts of hours per week. It's unavoidable. This alone means you can never have 'equal outcome' A doctor who works 60 hours a week and still paying off med school loans cannot have the same outcome as a part time mcjobber. That's the failure of the progressive tax. The progressive tax is some wierd attempt to make the rich less rich but instead generates significantly more income inequality as a consequence.
  - imtringued 5y ago
    Your comment was about three brothers where the third was complaining that he was working too much and that the first was working too little. All the examples you listed don't have anything to do with your thought experiment. I hope you didn't interpret my comment as normative or as the right would say "market intervention" I was merely describing one way that the three brothers could get along. I find your comment quite amusing.
    - sleepysysadmin 5y ago
      >Your comment was about three brothers where the third was complaining that he was working too much and that the first was working too little. To demonstrate the progressive tax system. Completely valid to the real world. >All the examples you listed don't have anything to do with your thought experiment. I hope you didn't interpret my comment as normative or as the right would say "market intervention" I was merely describing one way that the three brothers could get along. That's just not practical. People choose to work 20 hour weeks for various reason, people choose to work more than 40 hour weeks for various reasons. You cant form society into everyone working exactly the same hours. It probably would be a great thing if we could. Allow productive people who work 60 hour weeks to do something different and do more. However, the reality is that we discover income inequality is just a fact because of individual choices. Trying to 'fix' this using a progressive tax system in fact only makes it worse. >I find your comment quite amusing. How do you mean?

imtringued 5y ago

What happens? Everyone works 40 hours.

sleepysysadmin 5y ago
>What happens? Everyone works 40 hours. The people who work 20 hour weeks are upset and certainly dont work any additional amount. Daycare probably booms as a business. Productivity plummets to tremendously low levels, economies collapse, massive numbers of people die, etc. Less than half of doctors work 40 hours or less. Pretty significant number above 60 hours/week. Same for nursing and much of the medical field. Firefighters have very long hours. Truck driving and logistics pretty much depends on truck drivers maxing their hours at around 70 hour weeks. Lawyers pretty much cant work 40 hour weeks without the legal system collapsing. So right away, we are going to have people working different amounts of hours per week. It's unavoidable. This alone means you can never have 'equal outcome' A doctor who works 60 hours a week and still paying off med school loans cannot have the same outcome as a part time mcjobber. That's the failure of the progressive tax. The progressive tax is some wierd attempt to make the rich less rich but instead generates significantly more income inequality as a consequence.
- imtringued 5y ago
  Your comment was about three brothers where the third was complaining that he was working too much and that the first was working too little. All the examples you listed don't have anything to do with your thought experiment. I hope you didn't interpret my comment as normative or as the right would say "market intervention" I was merely describing one way that the three brothers could get along. I find your comment quite amusing.
  - sleepysysadmin 5y ago
    >Your comment was about three brothers where the third was complaining that he was working too much and that the first was working too little. To demonstrate the progressive tax system. Completely valid to the real world. >All the examples you listed don't have anything to do with your thought experiment. I hope you didn't interpret my comment as normative or as the right would say "market intervention" I was merely describing one way that the three brothers could get along. That's just not practical. People choose to work 20 hour weeks for various reason, people choose to work more than 40 hour weeks for various reasons. You cant form society into everyone working exactly the same hours. It probably would be a great thing if we could. Allow productive people who work 60 hour weeks to do something different and do more. However, the reality is that we discover income inequality is just a fact because of individual choices. Trying to 'fix' this using a progressive tax system in fact only makes it worse. >I find your comment quite amusing. How do you mean?