5 ms·
What's not equal about applying the same percentage? No matter your means, the fines are the same percentage, which to me is pretty danged equal when the point
by genocidicbunny 3y ago
What's not equal about applying the same percentage? No matter your means, the fines are the same percentage, which to me is pretty danged equal when the point is to punish certain behaviours.
- smitty1e 3y agoSame problem as a national VAT: turning the tax base into an ATM empowers myopic polixy.
- genocidicbunny 3y agoWouldn't it be more like a VAT where you pay based on your means, not what the product costs? That and I don't really have a problem with making the rich the country's piggybank.
- smitty1e 3y agoYou'll not have a problem until the rich eject, take their wealth with them, and crash the tax base. See: NY, CA, &c.
- genocidicbunny 3y agoMake it federal, and have a steep 'exit penalty' for renouncing citizenship if you're over a certain wealth threshold. Make it so that if you try to renounce your citizenship to avoid the taxes, you're left to start from zero again, and if you don't renounce your citizenship, you owe the taxes no matter where in the world you are (and in most of the world, Uncle Sam can absolutely get to you if he wants.)
- smitty1e 3y agoAs a personal example, I left the military reserve because, inter alia, the joy of serving my country mattered less than the tax beating I was taking for being bumped into a higher bracket. That is: (dis)incentives matter. Maybe we can agree that our tax system is a Byzantine train wreck in need of reform.
- zo1 3y agoWell then if applying the same percentage is a principle, how about we apply it to taxes?
- genocidicbunny 3y agoIf taxes were applied based on total wealth and not income, the two would be comparable. But the taxes you're talking about, income taxes, aren't taxing wealth but the rate of change of wealth, and I can accept that we need to apply slightly different principles in that case.