14 ms·

It looks like the Norwegian wealth tax is for wealth above $170M, which seems pretty aggressive to me. Gabriel Zucman and others made a website [2] in 2020 aim

by slwvx 2y ago

It looks like the Norwegian wealth tax is for wealth above $170M, which seems pretty aggressive to me. Gabriel Zucman and others made a website [2] in 2020 aimed at the US that included a wealth tax; the lowest bracket it had was for wealth above $1M. I like wealth taxes, and prefer Zucman's model over that of Norway. Progressive income taxes and wealth taxes seem to me like great mechanisms to build a middle class and to increase social stability. I.e. stabilize the wealth and income distributions (in the statistical sense) so that they do not become bimodal. [1] https://www.lifeinnorway.net/wealth-tax/ https://www.lifeinnorway.net/wealth-tax/ [2] https://triumphofinjustice.org/ https://triumphofinjustice.org/

cpursley 2y ago
The problem is, ultra-rich people don't pay income taxes because they don't have incomes. And they type of income earners who earn high are often those who spend years studying for no/low pay like doctors, lawyers (yeah, yeah), local small biz owners, etc. The tax experiment I'd like to see is a very progressive sales/VAT tax that exempts certain used goods, essentials (groceries, etc) and hits luxuries, sin tax (that burden public healthcare) hard. Augmented with certain tariffs, natural resources, etc. This gives people the opportunity to "choose" their own tax rate.
- ryandrake 2y ago
  > The tax experiment I'd like to see is a very progressive sales/VAT tax that exempts certain used goods, essentials (groceries, etc) and hits luxuries, sin tax (that burden public healthcare) hard. I'd like to see this, too, but all you'd get is companies constantly bellyaching about why is my essential product considered a luxury?? And lobbying to get them on the low tax list rather than the high tax list. Every company is going to have their little excuse about why their product isn't really a luxury.
- inhumantsar 2y ago
  the tax experiment I'd like to see applied at scale is a Land Value Tax. for the unfamiliar, the gist is taxing the value of the land, not the improvements on it. the idea being to reduce the amount of land speculation, expands the number of homes built, and lower the cost of doing business by incentivizing land owners to use the land to its fullest productive potential. eg: replacing a single-family homes with multi-family homes, surface parking for multi-level garages, or empty lots for literally anything. add to that tax advantages for things like rewilding, below-market rentals, or other public-good use cases, and anti-nimby reforms and it could make a number of separate government programs easier to implement, if not redundant.
  - cpursley 2y ago
    This is an interesting idea. How do you handle the situation with retired/fixed income people (say, who are retirement age and paid off their mortgage and trying to keep expenses low)?
- drpixie 2y ago
  Why not something a little simpler, like a universal sales/VAT/transaction tax offset by a UBI. This simpler model provides fewer opportunities to build or exploit loopholes. The universal tax would be at a relatively low rate, because it would apply to all transactions. And the UBI compensates everyone for the tax on essentials.

by slwvx 2y ago

cpursley 2y ago

The problem is, ultra-rich people don't pay income taxes because they don't have incomes. And they type of income earners who earn high are often those who spend years studying for no/low pay like doctors, lawyers (yeah, yeah), local small biz owners, etc. The tax experiment I'd like to see is a very progressive sales/VAT tax that exempts certain used goods, essentials (groceries, etc) and hits luxuries, sin tax (that burden public healthcare) hard. Augmented with certain tariffs, natural resources, etc. This gives people the opportunity to "choose" their own tax rate.

ryandrake 2y ago
> The tax experiment I'd like to see is a very progressive sales/VAT tax that exempts certain used goods, essentials (groceries, etc) and hits luxuries, sin tax (that burden public healthcare) hard. I'd like to see this, too, but all you'd get is companies constantly bellyaching about why is my essential product considered a luxury?? And lobbying to get them on the low tax list rather than the high tax list. Every company is going to have their little excuse about why their product isn't really a luxury.
inhumantsar 2y ago
the tax experiment I'd like to see applied at scale is a Land Value Tax. for the unfamiliar, the gist is taxing the value of the land, not the improvements on it. the idea being to reduce the amount of land speculation, expands the number of homes built, and lower the cost of doing business by incentivizing land owners to use the land to its fullest productive potential. eg: replacing a single-family homes with multi-family homes, surface parking for multi-level garages, or empty lots for literally anything. add to that tax advantages for things like rewilding, below-market rentals, or other public-good use cases, and anti-nimby reforms and it could make a number of separate government programs easier to implement, if not redundant.
- cpursley 2y ago
  This is an interesting idea. How do you handle the situation with retired/fixed income people (say, who are retirement age and paid off their mortgage and trying to keep expenses low)?
drpixie 2y ago
Why not something a little simpler, like a universal sales/VAT/transaction tax offset by a UBI. This simpler model provides fewer opportunities to build or exploit loopholes. The universal tax would be at a relatively low rate, because it would apply to all transactions. And the UBI compensates everyone for the tax on essentials.