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One of the chief arguments for low taxes on the 1% is that governments do dumb things with money. Billionaires are more likely to invest it in beneficial resea
by beloch 1y ago
One of the chief arguments for low taxes on the 1% is that governments do dumb things with money. Billionaires are more likely to invest it in beneficial research, enterprise, etc.. If left to their own devices and not stripped of their resources, good billionaires will do great things for society. Or so the claim goes.
The problem is, although much potential for good may exist in billionaires, the average billionaire spends next to nothing on philanthropy or research. It's only highly unusual exceptions who do. Next to nothing, even when well invested, accomplishes next to nothing.
If billionaires won't open their purses to support the society that has provided them with opportunity, that's what taxes are for. If billionaires aren't lining up to fund research institutes, that's what tax-funded government research is for.
- pfannkuchen 1y agoIt sounds like you don’t think allocating capital to new business ventures or supporting the funding of existing businesses counts as supporting society? Businesses are made up of people, and last I checked all of the things I use on a day to day basis come from companies. Companies seem pretty important. Why do things like venture funding, which I think a lot of billionaires do engage in directly or indirectly, not count as supporting society?
- beloch 1y agoBusiness ventures use long-term, curiosity driven research and educated workers to produce goods/services as a byproduct of generating profits for their owners. If the owners are not paying taxes that fund education or long-term research, nor directly funding same, then they're both short-sighted and parasitic.
- srean 1y agoIn a free market with competition, probably yes. The market is far from free, big money is near impossible to compete against. In effect, when they pour tens of billions the work that gets done could have been done perhaps with millions. Take a look at Chinese AI accomplishments and at what point it has been achieved. Granted plagiarism might be reducing some of the costs, but in a free market, things would have been a lot cheaper. Similar example India's accomplishments in space.