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American Equity

blog.samaltman.com

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Re: American Equity

#71

Post by dv_dt »

koolba wrote: post #20
jacquesm wrote: post #16

People already have a share in the GDP. That's what it is, the total domestic product, the sum of all the little parts. The problem is not that people don't have share in it (and this goes for every country, not just for the USA), but that they have a disproportionate share in it. Bill Gates' (to name a random American citizen) has a far larger share in the GDP than most other Americans. If you want to solve that rai…

> Bill Gates' (to name a random American citizen) has a far larger share in the GDP than most other Americans. If you want to solve that raise your taxes on the rich and lift up those that are at the lowest end of the scale. That will have a lot more effect than some fiction where you get to do a bunch of make-believe bookkeeping. Or go a step further do what nobody has the balls to do: tax wealth That's what all the…

We do tax wealth in a very limited way in the form of real estate property taxes. Though I would note that it hits the middle class and poor more disproportionately than the extremely wealthy. And I'd note that the tax cuts in front of congress propose making that scheme land even harder on the middle class by eliminating or curtailing the state/local tax (including property tax) exemptions from federal taxes.

Re: American Equity

#72

Post by [deleted] »

RivieraKid wrote: post #46
smeyer wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>do what nobody has the balls to do: tax wealth Just to clarify, nobody in the US is doing this, but it's not unheard of elsewhere. For example, Norway has a wealth tax of about 0.85% and there are some other examples at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_tax#Current_examples .

The drawback of taxing wealth is that it distorts markets, it discourages saving. EDIT: Can't comment ("You're posting too fast, blah blah blah"). Here are some replies to the comments bellow: > It's encouraging people to make their money be productive instead of stashing it under a mattress. When you have money in the bank, you're effectively lending most of it to other people. Your money is "productive", which is e…

[deleted]

Re: American Equity

#73

Post by cinquemb »

creaghpatr wrote: post #19
andy_ppp wrote: post #8

I'm a little unclear how this would work in practice. What is the financial instrument and is it equity in the government or equity in all the companies in the US? I see no reason why companies would do it and no incentive to take a part of the government (is the US government going to pay a dividend?), I'm not certain everyone having a share they couldn't trade would be worth it. I think the ability to trade state m…

>is the US government going to pay a dividend? First, the US government would have to turn a profit...

Who needs profit when you can sell treasuries to central banks?

Re: American Equity

#74

Post by [deleted] »

RivieraKid wrote: post #46
smeyer wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>do what nobody has the balls to do: tax wealth Just to clarify, nobody in the US is doing this, but it's not unheard of elsewhere. For example, Norway has a wealth tax of about 0.85% and there are some other examples at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_tax#Current_examples .

The drawback of taxing wealth is that it distorts markets, it discourages saving. EDIT: Can't comment ("You're posting too fast, blah blah blah"). Here are some replies to the comments bellow: > It's encouraging people to make their money be productive instead of stashing it under a mattress. When you have money in the bank, you're effectively lending most of it to other people. Your money is "productive", which is e…

[deleted]

Re: American Equity

#75

Post by RivieraKid »

chollida1 wrote: post #3

Can someone actually explain what Sam wants to do here? I've read the post 4 times and I still can't see an y sort of plan, numbers, etc to actually critique, Which is odd because he specifically ask you to give feedback but never follows through on presenting the actual idea. He does motivate why he thinks a share of the GDP is so he gets the why, but never actually gets into the what, and how. I mean the GDP isn't…

It's basic income branded in a way that's more attractive for economically right-wing people (aka "capitalists").

Re: American Equity

#76

Post by KirinDave »

Or... and I know this is crazy... why don't we make these benefits much more valuable by taking the total pool of money an negotiating collective strategies for services every human needs to varying degrees. Like health care, transportation, housing, food, and network connectivity.

What if it was as easy to start a private small business in the US as it was in the UK _for the individual_.

Re: American Equity

#77

Post by DubiousPusher »

gozur88 wrote: post #37
jacquesm wrote: post #16

People already have a share in the GDP. That's what it is, the total domestic product, the sum of all the little parts. The problem is not that people don't have share in it (and this goes for every country, not just for the USA), but that they have a disproportionate share in it. Bill Gates' (to name a random American citizen) has a far larger share in the GDP than most other Americans. If you want to solve that rai…

>Bill Gates' (to name a random American citizen) has a far larger share in the GDP than most other Americans. If you want to solve that raise your taxes on the rich and lift up those that are at the lowest end of the scale. I don't understand why this is something people believe needs "solved". Did you build Microsoft?

Because a growing share of Americans are beginning to feel trapped by poverty and when masses of people feel trapped instability often follows.

Everyone, from the CEO to the custodian has an interest in people feeling there is some truth to "The American Dream." Which is not that you might get rich but that you can at least get ahead.

Re: American Equity

#78

Post by bb88 »

chollida1 wrote: post #3

Can someone actually explain what Sam wants to do here? I've read the post 4 times and I still can't see an y sort of plan, numbers, etc to actually critique, Which is odd because he specifically ask you to give feedback but never follows through on presenting the actual idea. He does motivate why he thinks a share of the GDP is so he gets the why, but never actually gets into the what, and how. I mean the GDP isn't…

It's a rebranded form of guaranteed basic income.

Re: American Equity

#79

Post by conductr »

RivieraKid wrote: post #46
smeyer wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>do what nobody has the balls to do: tax wealth Just to clarify, nobody in the US is doing this, but it's not unheard of elsewhere. For example, Norway has a wealth tax of about 0.85% and there are some other examples at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_tax#Current_examples .

The drawback of taxing wealth is that it distorts markets, it discourages saving. EDIT: Can't comment ("You're posting too fast, blah blah blah"). Here are some replies to the comments bellow: > It's encouraging people to make their money be productive instead of stashing it under a mattress. When you have money in the bank, you're effectively lending most of it to other people. Your money is "productive", which is e…

It's encouraging people to make their money be productive instead of stashing it under a mattress. That doesn't sound like a bad thing to me.

Re: American Equity

#80

Post by rsp1984 »

I sort of get the intention behind this but I'm entirely unclear about the mechanism.

Is Sam proposing that citizens get stock in an actual entity?

If yes, what entity? All public assets are already jointly owned by all citizens so I'm not sure what assets there would be left to distribute.

If no, and it's some kind of virtual entity, how would the proposed dividends be paid? Out of tax money? Why not just adjust the tax laws then (something that has to be done anyway) and make that more fair?

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