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Scott Adams: How to Tax the Rich

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Re: Scott Adams: How to Tax the Rich

#251

Post by [deleted] »

forensic wrote: post #247
philwelch wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People can move up or down a social class or two. I know people who came from fairly little wealth who earn decent urban-professional six-figure salaries, and people come out of families in the upper-middle professional class and become multimillionaire entrepreneurs. (Likewise, other people move down.) Entrenched aristocracies happen when you have old money that looks down on the "nouveau riche". Every country has a…

>Entrenched aristocracies happen when you have old money that looks down on the "nouveau riche". That's not the cause of aristocracy, that's the effect.

[deleted]

Re: Scott Adams: How to Tax the Rich

#252

Post by ericd »

alsomike wrote: post #215
gjm11 wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The government awards tax credits for everyone making less than that [...] > [...] dividing the total US income by the number of workers [...] So, for that $90k figure to be attainable, you need those who aren't "workers" not to get any of this money. Which means that becoming a "worker" will suddenly mean getting an extra $90k/year, whatever the job. Which means that there will almost certainly suddenly be a lot m…

> Which means that there will almost certainly suddenly be a lot more "workers". You mean a low unemployment rate? > Your system relies on taking away a great deal of money from rich people... the more you do it the harder those rich people are going to try to avoid paying Not really, no. Money in excess of $90k isn't confiscated, it's still used to purchase status just as it is today. The only difference is that it'…

Status markers are much more complicated than you imagine, and they tend to be extremely expensive to produce. If you think that the govt. could make a status marker that rich people actually care about, you're dreaming.

The finer things in life really are finer, and it becomes nonlinearly more expensive to produce them the finer they are.

A $500 meal at Per Se in NYC isn't just for signalling, if it is at all. It's an extremely memorable experience.

Re: Scott Adams: How to Tax the Rich

#253

Post by windsurfer »

seabee wrote: post #229
reubenyeah wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? You think £1.30 to get a bus as far as you like is expensive? and £4 to get as many buses as you like in a day is expensive?

Maybe not for you. I did a little calculation at http://listentotaxman.com/ and put in the minimum wage for a 37.5 hour week. If you need to take a few buses to get to work, over 10% of your £190 weekly pay packet gets eaten up on travel. It's definitely cheaper (though less flexible) than running a car on your own, but some of the costs of a car can be spread between more than one person, which isn't the case with p…

London doesn't allow you to tranfer to another bus with a single ticket? Here in Ottawa busses are $3.25 and about to go up, and I think that's more than fair.

(I suppose pun intended)

Re: Scott Adams: How to Tax the Rich

#254

Post by jasonervin »

100k wrote: post #14

I don't think the rich really get anything out of it, but in the Nordic countries, fines increase in proportion to your wealth. I remember reading about a Nokia exec getting pulled over for speeding. His ticket was like $75,000! http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1670583 I've often thought some fees should be adjusted for wealth. For example, a quarter a day isn't really enough to get me to take my…

Proportions are right on. Simple and probably easy get passed by the public... errr well maybe. Very good point.

Re: Scott Adams: How to Tax the Rich

#255

Post by hugh3 »

redthrowaway wrote: post #239
hackerblues wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I go into debt that year does that mean the fine gives me money?

I'm not an expert, but I don't believe debt reduces your net worth. Irresponsible use of that debt does, but if I borrow $250k to buy a house, the value of that house offsets the debt. It's a wash in the end, is it not?

Well obviously the grandparent should be read as "If my net wealth decreases over a year then should the fine give me money?"

Re: Scott Adams: How to Tax the Rich

#256

Post by hugh3 »

seabee wrote: post #154
gabrielroth wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The HOV-lane idea starts out in the wrong place. If you want to raise money from apportioning a scarce resource (in this case space on the road), you use prices, not taxes. Congestion charges have become very popular and successful in London—it's too bad Bloomberg's attempt to install them in New York failed.

> Congestion charges have become very popular and successful in London Popular and successful with who, exactly? I don't know a single person that likes it. Traffic was reduced for a few years but now it's just as bad as ever. And the cost of public transport continually rises above inflation. At least they recently shrank the chargable area. So what has it done, exactly, except raise income for the city and raise pr…

Well, it has winners and losers.

The winners are the poor (who don't get around by car anyway) and the very rich (who think that five pounds a day is a small price to pay in order to have somewhat less traffic). The losers are everyone else.

The biggest winner is always the politicians, who get chauffered around in cars which are exempt from the charge, and find that they no longer have to wait in traffic. This is why such schemes are disturbingly popular among politicians.

Re: Scott Adams: How to Tax the Rich

#257

Post by vl »

daniel-cussen wrote: post #234
zbanks wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also been shown that you can maximize the throughput of a highway if the speed limit is 45mph. Too high, and you need to increase the space between cars. Although 55mph != 45mph, it's pretty close. It also doesn't serve the individual, but if can't get the cars through fast enough, the traffic will build up eventually.

You could change the speed limit dynamically to always maximize throughput.

Major Seattle highways have variable speed limits now, same constant traffic jams as before.

Re: Scott Adams: How to Tax the Rich

#258

Post by hugh3 »

My idea along these lines, which I may have explained in this forum before, is to replace one of the houses of parliament (or congress, or whatever you call your local bicameral legislature) with the "House of Taxpayers", where representatives are elected by taxpayers whose vote counts in proportion to how much tax they pay. The other house remains a "House of Commons" where the one man/one vote rule applies.

The point of this idea is that every new piece of legislation must be approved (in effect) by two groups: the people who are affected by it (everybody) and the people who have to pay for it (disproportionately the rich).

Re: Scott Adams: How to Tax the Rich

#259

Post by uytrtyui »

borism wrote: post #241
uytrtyui wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ikea is the most notorius tax avoider in the world. The great swedish furniture company is actually a dutch charity.

Bill & Melinda Foundation?

They do actually give away money - although with some strings attached (like your government not using open source!)

IKEA itself - not the owner - is a charity, registered in Holland to be in the Eu but actually in the Dutch antilles so they don't pay Dutch tax and they can keep secret any donations

Re: Scott Adams: How to Tax the Rich

#260

Post by teyc »

Actually, every rich tax payer should be given a free trip to developing countries where poverty and crime is rampant, and the rich are forced to live in gilded prisons because it is so unsafe outside.
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