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Ironic that nearly all the problems listed in the article are due to there being literally too much money in the system. That's what 3 rounds of massive stimulu
by titzer 3y ago
Ironic that nearly all the problems listed in the article are due to there being literally too much money in the system. That's what 3 rounds of massive stimulus, absurdly low interest rates, unnaturally low upper income tax rates, and persistent deficit spending will get you. One generation absolutely hammering the next with debt and no onramp to prosperity.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ChuckNorris89 3y agoOne easy fix: wealth tax && unused property/land tax
- voisin 3y agoNot if the tax revenue just gets handed over to BigCo via subsidies & bailouts or squandered on war.
- jdmoreira 3y agoThe truly wealthy are impossible to tax. They will just move their wealth elsewhere or exploit all kinds of loopholes. Best you can do is tax income a lot and capital gains at 30%. Which is exactly what we do in Europe.
- pydry 3y agoGood luck moving property.
- green_man_lives 3y agoThis argument is so lazy. Simply levy a tax on them each year that is their net worth multiplied by the risk-free rate. That takes care of most people with money in publicly traded companies. If people with more "diversified" portfolios try to move their money elsewhere, penalize them for it. Revoke their citizenship, make it harder for them to do business without a majority percentage of their wealth in the US. It's not "hard" to do, we just lack the political will.
- ericd 3y agoIn your system, are regular people allowed to save up enough so they no longer have to work? Or must their savings erode continually so that they're forced to work forever?
- green_man_lives 3y agoThis is not "my system" just poking holes in the argument I was responding to. Let's say you don't get taxed in this manner until after $1B net worth.
- gonzo 3y ago> Revoke their citizenship Literally unconstitutional in the US.
- green_man_lives 3y agoThe US gov does a lot of unconstitutional things. I am just saying it's a lack of political will.
- jdmoreira 3y agoJust read this: https://nomoretax.eu/ikeas-founder-paid-tax-for-the-first-time-in-42-years/ https://nomoretax.eu/ikeas-founder-paid-tax-for-the-first-ti... These are Swedes. Basically border-line commies from a US viewpoint, they can't even tax the owners of their most famous company.
- green_man_lives 3y agoIf you'd read what I said, you'd understand why this doesn't apply.
- PurpleRamen 3y agoThis is the problem of a globalized free world. Where there are loops, people abuse them. But this is worked on, it just takes time. And saying that because the loops exist at the moment, it's impossible to fix them at all, is indeed a lazy argument. This is the toxic mindset which brings down all efforts.
- lucaspm98 3y agoI've never seen any wealth tax proposal that would raise any significant amount of money. That's ignoring the glaring issues of most wealth being illiquid, the capital flight/brain drain that's happened every time it's been tried, and the complete lack of faith anyone has that these taxes would be put to any better use. Unused property and land is already taxed through property taxes. Regardless, unused property is an easy scapegoat but not a significant problem (similar to the foreign investor bogeyman) when the real problems are loose monetary policy, speculation, NIMBY zoning, and real supply/demand imbalances.
- ChuckNorris89 3y ago>the capital flight/brain drain that's happened every time it's been tried Where has this been tried and caused brain drain?
- ericd 3y agoAbsolutely, the restrictions on dense housing development combined with the global hunt for yield caused by low/zero interest rates are the root cause for most of these issues. Policymakers were trying to keep the long term debt cycle alive a bit longer, but that's created its own massive issues.
- UtopiaPunk 3y agoThe new capital gains tax in Washington state seems to be doing better than expected: https://crosscut.com/politics/2023/06/was-new-capital-gains-tax-brings-millions-more-expected https://crosscut.com/politics/2023/06/was-new-capital-gains-...
- voisin 3y agoAnd yet youth perpetually don’t show up to vote. I am frustrated by millennial and Gen-Z’s willingness to roll over without putting up a fight. We’ll turn out to protest against police brutality or for #MeToo but any form of protest related to the economy ceased with Occupy Wall Street, which was pretty tepid.
- xracy 3y agoWho should they vote for? I would love to see candidates addressing the needs/wants of Gen-Z... But uhh, I don't know anyone who is actually appealing to them. The only 2 parties I see (in the us) are: Republicans: Actively trying to harm them. Democrats: Actively trying to maintain the status quo. Neither of these groups are interested in Gen-Z issues. The Democrats pay lip-service, but don't actually want to shake up the social hierarchy. So instead they mostly try and move to the center for the more regular turnout they know how to ask for. Gen-Z is not stupid. And I believe they demonstrate good turnout for the candidates they like... Maybe Politicians should be doing more to appeal to them instead of older generations that they claim are who they need to appeal to.
- iceflinger 3y agoAlmost like some kind of force noticed that particular protest too close to the real meat of the problem so made efforts to suppress it.
- vxNsr 3y agoOh they vote… just against their own interests. Gen-Z is a captured demographic that will vote against themselves while blaming others right into the pauper lines.
- jdmoreira 3y agoCan't agree unfortunately. Taxes in Europe are about 40-50% of income for upper middle class + 20% VAT. Still sucks for young people. Even the healthcare systems are going to crap now!
- blitz_skull 3y ago> going to crap now What do you mean? Last time I was in Europe, their healthcare wasn't the pinnacle of healthcare systems. Cheap? Sure. Effective? Not really.
- jdmoreira 3y agoNot sure what you mean by effective but life expectancy is really good in Europe so I can't really understand what other criteria you would apply.
- jackmott42 3y agoMuch more effective than being the USA and having to do without because you can't pay.
- blitz_skull 3y agoWho is "having to do without" because they can't pay? In the US you can't be refused life-saving healthcare.
- masfuerte 3y agoEmergency treatment, sure. Something that will kill you in a year, not so much.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 3y agoRight, which means perfectly preventable problems just plague you until they become catastrophic enough that they require life-saving care. The bare minimum of course.
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- gjsman-1000 3y agoLet me tell you a story. I earned $1 in 2018. That dollar had the buying power of $1.21 today. Now imagine, I worked hard to save $30K. That $30K is now worth just under $24K now because I didn’t spend it immediately. Tell me - why would I save my $30K? There’s a 4% wealth tax per year on unspent money. I paid over $6,000 in unofficial taxes for the crime of saving money - I could literally have been reinstated from a DUI almost 8 times for the crime of trying to save for a mortgage down payment. I don’t think you want to know what happened to housing affordability since 2018, making a $30K down payment feel more like $10K-$15K in usefulness. Saving money is quite literally for people who like seeing money lit on fire.
- throw1234651234 3y agoYou are not supposed to keep it in the bank, unless you are keeping it in a high-yield account (NOT even a CD, an account you can still use), which will get you 4% on $25,000+ such as US Bank. You could also have it in the market. Neither will dramatically beat inflation, but they will beat it. The debatable part here is the merits of pretty much having to understand finance to not lose money all the time is a separate topic. I am in IT and always thought my finance/stats degrees were a complete joke, but it helps to have an intuitive understanding of this stuff not to get **ed by the basics.
- gjsman-1000 3y ago> which will get you 4% on $25,000+ such as US Bank Now it will. During the pandemic and earlier? Getting a 1% CD was tough. There was almost no insured way to protect yourself before it happened. My 4.15% high yield bank account was paying about 0.4% until last year. > You could also have it in the market. Neither will dramatically beat inflation, but they will beat it. Yay, invest myself to the stock market which, to me, reeks of overinvestment and too much money in it. Do you actually believe Apple is worth $3 trillion?
- throw1234651234 3y agoNo, but that's the game, right? Index funds or adjust for the times, e.g. dividend mining stocks for income and value preservation were undervalued at the time. That's the part I am talking about with there being standard strategies depending on the stage of the economy. It's almost a job on top of your job though, which is the issue I am calling out.
- PurpleRamen 3y agoIs it really too much money or just poorly balanced money? And is it even real money, or just wealth, virtual money?
- fmajid 3y agoIt's not the only factor. Millennials and Gen-Z are unable to buy homes because of housing scarcity created by Boomer NIMBYs and the politicians who pander to them.
- helij 3y agoIt's not that simple. "Gen Zers are tracking ahead of their parents’ homeownership rate: 30% of 25-year olds owned their home in 2022, higher than the 27% rate for Gen Xers when they were the same age. But the Gen Zers who didn’t take advantage of the pandemic-era’s low mortgage rates could be left behind."[0] [0]https://www.redfin.com/news/gen-z-millennial-homeownership-rate-home-purchases/ https://www.redfin.com/news/gen-z-millennial-homeownership-r...