this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2024
30 points (58.5% liked)
General Discussion
12084 readers
16 users here now
Welcome to Lemmy.World General!
This is a community for general discussion where you can get your bearings in the fediverse. Discuss topics & ask questions that don't seem to fit in any other community, or don't have an active community yet.
🪆 About Lemmy World
🧭 Finding Communities
Feel free to ask here or over in: !lemmy411@lemmy.ca!
Also keep an eye on:
- !newcommunities@lemmy.world
- !communitypromo@lemmy.ca
- !new_communities@mander.xyz
- !communityspotlight@lemmy.world
- !wowthislemmyexists@lemmy.ca!
For more involved tools to find communities to join: check out Lemmyverse!
💬 Additional Discussion Focused Communities:
- !actual_discussion@lemmy.ca - Note this is for more serious discussions.
- !casualconversation@lemm.ee - The opposite of the above, for more laidback chat!
- !letstalkaboutgames@feddit.uk - Into video games? Here's a place to discuss them!
- !movies@lemm.ee - Watched a movie and wanna talk to others about it? Here's a place to do so!
- !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world - Want to talk politics apart from political news? Here's a community for that!
Rules
Remember, Lemmy World rules also apply here.
0. See: Rules for Users.
- No bigotry: including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia.
- Be respectful. Everyone should feel welcome here.
- Be thoughtful and helpful: even with ‘silly’ questions. The world won’t be made better by dismissive comments to others on Lemmy.
- Link posts should include some context/opinion in the body text when the title is unaltered, or be titled to encourage discussion.
- Posts concerning other instances' activity/decisions are better suited to !fediverse@lemmy.world or !lemmydrama@lemmy.world communities.
- No Ads/Spamming.
- No NSFW content.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
No. What kind of crazy shit is this?
Income tax is one of the only tools that could be used to combat inequality
Capital gains taxes and graduated lending taxes would do far more to combat wealth inequality than income tax ever could
I'd just like to give a shout-out to estate tax, which is the only kind of tax that has the explicit purpose of preventing the establishment of an aristocracy.
Yeah but it also means that families might not be able to afford their own home if the people listed on the deed die.
1 home should be deductible from property and estate taxes for all individuals, and not at all for any kind of corporation or organization.
Here, if you'd actually like to learn why income tax doesn't work and why it disproportionately impacts the poorest workers: https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax
This is incredibly misleading. I thought propublica was better than this. They calculated these billionaires “true tax rates” based on unrealized gains. Until they cash out they don’t actually make the money.
You can argue for higher income tax brackets, or a more progressive capital gains ladder, or regulations in banking stopping rich people from using other peoples money based on equity they have or any number of way more complicated things that aren’t income related, but outside of just a wealth tax which is something entirely different, these true tax rate numbers are nonsense.
His idea that an income tax is super regressive because the wealthy can live off "unrealized gains" is wrong. But so is your assertion that they don't actually make money until they realize the gains.
Wealthy people live off of low interest loans that use their stock as collateral. However as long as the green line goes up, they never need to really worry. And when payment comes due it just gets rolled into another loan. The primary mistake the merely rich make when trying to move up is transitioning to this model too early or too aggressively and losing their stock collateral.
This is also how billionaires take a 1 dollar "paycheck" and afford to fly private jets everywhere. "Unrealized gains" is a lie and a giant loophole in our tax system.
I know, and that’s what I was vaguely describing. It’s something entirely different than what’s being talked about.
The poorest workers have an effective tax rate of 0%, and are given extra money when they file their returns if they have kids. How does income tax hurt people who don't pay it and only receive the benefits from it?
You must not understand how the rich make money. Unfortunate, hopefully you learn some day.
So you're not really asking if your plan makes sense, you're trying to force what you think on others. You'll learn one day.
I'm not forcing anything on anyone, I'm just bringing up things they don't like to hear.
You want income tax to scale up for 'normal' rich people. You then need additional laws/taxes for the super rich as they operate in a different economic world.