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That’s settled by law, not by the actions of the current government. If you want to pin down the source of how the wealthy can retain their wealth, that would b
by yakubin 4y ago
That’s settled by law, not by the actions of the current government. If you want to pin down the source of how the wealthy can retain their wealth, that would be the courts and broader law enforcement. So going this way the wealthy would contribute more to the justice system, while they wouldn’t pay as much for public education, health services, and social welfare? Doesn’t seem like something anyone would want.
- TheCoelacanth 4y agoHow would law get enforced without taxes? Clearly the wealthier you are, the more benefit you are getting from taxes because the government stops everyone else from taking your wealth.
- yakubin 4y agoYeah, but they don’t benefit from public health services, since they can pay for a private insurance with a higher quality of services. They don’t benefit from social benefits, since they have much more efficient ways of making money. They don’t benefit from public schools personally, since they can send their children to private schools. So if I were to go with the reasoning that people should pay for received services proportionally to the benefit they get from them, I don’t think we’d end up with a system where the rich support the poor better. That’s all because the needs of the poor are very different from the needs of the rich.
- TheCoelacanth 4y agoThose things are nice, but the benefits are a rounding error compared to the benefit that the rich get from government enforcing the existence of property rights.
- yakubin 4y agoThose are enforced by courts and police. So you may end up with well-funded police and courts, but defunded public health services, public education and social benefits.
- droopyEyelids 4y agoIn your system, courts and law are not part of the government?
- yakubin 4y agoNo? Government is the people currently elected. Nothing to do with courts. And law was decided by previous governments. Giving money to the current/future government to create new law which you like is called lobbying, or bribing (whatever floats your boat).
- TheCoelacanth 4y agoTaxes don't only pay for what you have defined as "government". They pay for everything the state does, including courts and enforcement of laws.
- yakubin 4y agoYes, but if you demand that everyone pays proportionally to the benefit they get, then the threat of moving capital to another country has an outsize influence on politics within the country. So the rich get even more say about how taxes are spent than they normally do, by literally voting with their wallets. And thus state’s spending is optimised to protect the interests of the rich with little regard for the poor.