md_

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451.
by md_ 5y ago
What? How else would a tax on unrealized gains work if not mark-to-market at a fixed day of the year? This is exactly how Wyden’s proposal works as well, so I fail to understand the point you think you are making. Personal wealth taxes are
452.
by md_ 5y ago
1. Two points: a) The capital flight argument is silly. The US has a global tax on tax residents already, alongside an onerous reporting scheme. b) So what? Again, I don’t understand your argument, which seems to be “this is just how it wor
453.
by md_ 5y ago
Maybe. This guy Arnold seems to take the position that the ProPublica piece is somehow invalid because…you can’t tax unrealized gains? 1. I don’t understand how the latter follows from the former. 2. Of course you can. Property taxes are ju
454.
by md_ 5y ago
Why? Calculating the tax rate as “taxes paid” / “net wealth” is just what the effective wealth tax would be if one existed. This is consistent with advocating for a wealth tax, which, as I noted elsewhere, does in fact exist in other O
455.
by md_ 5y ago
What? This is extreme hair splitting. Switzerland, Norway, etc, do tax unrealized gains. They net tax wealth of saleable assets along with cash at a specific point in the year, as you note. That includes unrealized gains. It’s totally uncle
456.
by md_ 5y ago
Well, no, you could take a reverse mortgage. The US does substantially favor “primary residences” vs other forms of capital ownership, basically for the reasons you give. Renters, typically, receive fewer such protections (but this depends
457.
by md_ 5y ago
So why tax physical property? :)
458.
by md_ 5y ago
I continue to miss what all the fuss is about on the ProPublica piece, both in the sense that (as this article points out) it’s not, in broad strokes, surprising, and in the sense that it’s very far from journalistic malfeasance. This autho
459.
by md_ 5y ago
Ok, when you put it that way, I agree. As an aside, this phenomenon is known as “money illusion” in behavioral economics. So you’re onto something. ;) Yes, I totally buy that for some it drives a decision to invest at all (which may be good
460.
by md_ 5y ago
Don’t worry. I’m not at all offended. It’s a good faith discussion. :) I think I agree more than I disagree. A few points: 1. Note that Buffet and Gates have both pledged to give half their wealth to charity in their lifetimes. Is your conc
461.
by md_ 5y ago
I may have been a little unclear. I'm typing this while in a meeting. ;) My point was that a rational actor might believe that per dollar more good is done by the dollar being given directly to the charity of choice than to the gover
462.
by md_ 5y ago
Bellingcat appear to routinely buy data from Russian blackmarket data brokers.
463.
by md_ 5y ago
> Plus, managing DIY security is more complicated than just running Signal on an encrypted phone. Same concerns regarding supply chain interdiction, remote code execution, and other security vulnerabilities on the operating system runnin
464.
by md_ 5y ago
For sure, but I assume his calculation may be similar to mine: that it's even more optimal to advocate for a higher tax rate and give his money directly to charities he chooses (which he has done, sort of, by pledging to give half
465.
by md_ 5y ago
Well, all tax schemes are about balancing potential perverse incentives or other warping effects against the social interest of, you know, collecting tax revenue. I am a little bit skeptical of the assumption that a wealth tax encourages ri
466.
by md_ 5y ago
I explained my thinking because I can _imagine_ it to also describe someone like Buffet's thinking. The top 0.1% have about 11% of the income in the US, or about $2Tn. So for someone like Buffet, a one-time contribution of half his net
467.
by md_ 5y ago
I think "at a disadvantage" may be the wrong framing. As a member of (say) the 1%, but not the 0.01%, my personal take is this: - My money does more good, dollar-for-dollar, by my own personal definition of "good", when
468.
by md_ 5y ago
Typically, by government action, ideally as a result of a democratic process.
469.
by md_ 5y ago
As I noted elsewhere in this thread, this is the nature of what are called "collective action problems." In effect, these are situations where coordinated collective action may be beneficial, but there is a disincentive to being t
470.
by md_ 5y ago
Some countries do not tax capital gains except on professional traders (the criterion being something like, "is it your main line of work") but do tax wealth. That seems like a model which results in a meaningful tax on the ultra-
471.
by md_ 5y ago
Yes, exactly. As a trivial example, it's perfectly rational to say, "I should be required to carry health insurance, because universal insuring would lower the premiums for everyone, but I will not do so until then because the pr
472.
by md_ 5y ago
I think “I should pay more taxes” is generally understood as shorthand for “all people in my financial situation should pay more taxes.” It’s a bit like saying “I should be required to have fire protection”, “I should be required to carry h
473.
by md_ 5y ago
I'm not disputing that intelligence agencies would lie to justify a foreign war. It's happened multiple times before. I'm disputing that lying about aliens would be an effective or preferred strategy for doing so. Lik
474.
by md_ 5y ago
Don't get me wrong: I am baffled by some of the reports (especially, as you note, those that have multiple witnesses or multiple independent pieces of evidence). But of course alien civilizations—or (non-human?) co-terrestrial civiliza
475.
by md_ 5y ago
> Feels like we are being primed for something new to be afraid of and give our treasure to in defense of. Aliens being non-peaceful fails so many logic tests though. Heh. Are you really suggesting that after decades of disinterest, the
476.
by md_ 5y ago
> My 2c is extra-terrestrial civ is less likely than co-terrestrial civ (subterrainean/ocean) - but lets stop talking about this like they are hallucinations or possible atmospheric phenomenon. Why? This whole thing reminds me a bit
477.
by md_ 5y ago
That makes sense if it's like "@fromthedeskofdjt" sharing posts. But I'd be surprised if having a "share" button where readers can share with their smaller circle of friends would be problematic. In comparison,
478.
by md_ 5y ago
The idea that Trump will reach a larger audience by returning to some fringier social media platform than he could with his blog is quite counter-intuitive. It seems to me that a blog with proper (mainstream) social network "share&qu
479.
by md_ 5y ago
Does W3W offer an easy way to see the locations of potential typos? E.g. can you put in a country constraint and have W3W give you the most similar (by edit distance, word swaps, etc) locations to the one you input that match that constrain
480.
by md_ 5y ago
Well, the parent post was saying that people were initially hesitant to move to credit systems, so I'm confused. :) If we're talking specifically about credit cards, the credit card went from new invention to ubiquity in a couple

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