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> Our users are not used to paying taxes and are deeply afraid of using our monetized features... The problem you are trying to address is not a new one. What'
by than3 4y ago
> Our users are not used to paying taxes and are deeply afraid of using our monetized features...
The problem you are trying to address is not a new one. What's worse, solutions have only gotten worse and less palatable because of decisions made as a result from the past generation doubling down on failed policies and strategies that don't work. They've paid the price themselves, and that price will also be passed down to next generations in terms of lost opportunities, lower wages, and less availability of work.
Its a cursed problem. The best solution people have come to a consensus about is that its about investments in technologies that augment labor, rather than replacing labor. This solution worked at a time when there was less regulation and labor was not as expensive as it is today. Currently, it just doesn't work because of the costs to businesses as a result of regulation, and incentivizes businesses to use financial engineering to take advantage of tax loopholes and invest in technologies that replace labor instead of augment it.
On top of that is the runaway inflationary pressures that printing money from nothing causes. No one of any influence has gone to these failed policies and re-examined what didn't work and taken steps to fix it. Instead they've doubled and triple downed on their failures with a this time will be different.
Also, people are rightfully worried about taxes because the things we get for those taxes are minimal, over half of their annual productive time spent working is done for free (to pay those taxes), if you count fuel, sales tax, social security, medicare, income tax, and those other costs that are tacked on at the business level and then passed onto the consumer in costs; you are basically slaving away for a promise that by the time its your turn there will be something for you (social security).
Tax law primarily encourages investments in non-productive assets. The solution so far has been complex financial engineering (some of which resulted in frauds) and the bailout which has been to print money, and you can only kick that can so far before the jig is up and there is a currency crisis.
The problem isn't experts. The problem is credibility. There have been multiple crises where people lost most of what they had accumulated where the experts failed them completely, they did everything right and lost it all and their answer which came after losing it all from the professionals was, "We've never seen this happen before".
The policies that have been enacted deform economies and cause boom bust cycles. Debt is cheap, almost ensuring failures if you aren't bought out with a leveraged buyout when the economy sours. The incentives to invest in productive investments have been neglible compared to the returns on unsound investments; and the investment environment has never been so risky.
- imtringued 4y ago... you get boom and bust cycles even with a perfectly played straight gold standard because people can invest more than others save and you can save more than others invest. >The incentives to invest in productive investments have been neglible compared to the returns on unsound investments; and the investment environment has never been so risky. What do you expect from a system that avoids full employment at all costs? How exactly is there supposed to be competition over employees without full employment? There is no incentive to do anything productive because some people pointlessly work their ass off for the benefit of money they never intend to spend which displaces other people who then end up in a sort of reserve pool of labor that accept bottom barrel pay who get scooped up by unproductive businesses because the labor is so cheap you can use it wastefully.