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Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth

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481–490 of 660 posts

Re: Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth

#481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> In the US? This isn't common It's state by state: https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-highest-and-lowest...

I own vehicles in CA. There is no property tax for vehicles in CA. I can guarantee you that. I specifically own vehicles that I don’t renew with the state and there’s no problems with that.

Do you pay a vehicle license fee on those vehicles?

Re: Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth

#482

No NBA player may score more than 100 points per season. After reaching this cap they may only pass the ball.

What an outrageous analogy. Let's compare a competitive game to a complex system that rules the lives of basically all humans.

Life is a game. If basketball rules sucked, far less would play and definitely not at its current scale. If you block the game of capitalism you stunt all of the growth and innovation that comes with it. It’s how people tick.

Re: Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth

#483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US used to tax up to 90% or so at the highest brackets. Rich people survived.

The US also used to have no income tax. Lots of people survived then too.

Many fewer, actually. People lived significantly shorter, harder lives; many more died young.

Re: Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth

#484
post #6

Adding this to my reading list. I've thought for years that we should place at hard cap on wealth somewhere around $10 or $15 million. Because that's the point at which you have enough wealth to live a comfortably middle class lifestyle for the rest of your life, still pass down a substantial chunk to your children, and never have to earn another cent. I've argued we should combine this with a move towards a worker o…

Whenever people talk about how much wealth is comfortable (or ethical) to have, its usually just a notch above their own (well within their social class status). To be fair I don't know your wealth at all but its just an observation I've had from talking with others about this. The end result of this would be to make these people some of the wealthiest in the country by dragging the wealth curve to just above their l…

> Whenever people talk about how much wealth is comfortable (or ethical) to have, its usually just a notch above their own (well within their social class status).

I haven't observed that, and it's very unlikely the GP is a "notch" below $10-15 million.

Re: Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth

#485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever people talk about how much wealth is comfortable (or ethical) to have, its usually just a notch above their own (well within their social class status). To be fair I don't know your wealth at all but its just an observation I've had from talking with others about this. The end result of this would be to make these people some of the wealthiest in the country by dragging the wealth curve to just above their l…

"Everyone driving slower than me is a slowpoke, everyone driving faster is a maniac" This was on full display back in 2017-2018 when tax code was changed to limit the amount of State and Local taxes (SALT) that could be deducted from your Federal tax liability. The original SALT deduction, before the change, clearly benefited the wealthy, with large mortgages and living in high-tax (read: expensive) areas. Cue articl…

> considers themselves 'middle class'

They don't consider themselves middle class, statistically they are middle class based on (income, wealth, purchasing power, etc.). They aren't out of touch - nobody asked them - they just live where there's a higher cost of living. But it pays off, or they would move someplace less expensive, and housing would cost the same nationwide.

Re: Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth

#486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not how it works. Get Elon and friends to donate half his wealth and then we can talk. Progressive taxation is a good idea...

Specifically, this is how it works. Are Elon’s rocket and car company infringing on your well-being? What about the pensioners holding Tesla shares? Are they stifling your ability to come up with some funds for the public good?

They infringe if they don't pay their share of what is needed to provide for the common welfare, defense, etc.

Re: Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth

#487
post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I find private land ownership a kind of ridiculous concept. Our current system provides the convenient and necessary fiction of land ownership but ultimately to the extent there is an owner, it is always the state.

Why is a nation-state any less farcical to you than private land ownership? Its even more abstract and far removed from material reality.

It's chosen and controlled by the citizens. Private land ownership is chosen and controlled by the owner.

I support the latter, and protection of their rights, but the former certainly has more legitimacy.

Re: Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth

#488
post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why? If someone is creating millions of dollars worth of goods or services what moral justification is there for it to be confiscated, particularly at your arbitrary level?

Explain how to reconcile these two things: “ if some minerals are discovered on your heretofore low value land” And “ creating millions of dollars worth of goods or services” Where was the act of creation that led to the increase of the value? How did the land to acquire become yours? Most likely you didn’t discover the land, or do anything to find the materials (hiring people to do labor) so there’s no reason to thi…

It incentivizes people to find minerals that are valuable to the public. You can construct a hypothetical where someone gets lucky, and you can construct one where someone has reason to suspect the minerals are there and invests in the land.

Re: Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth

#489
post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most frustrating part of economic arguments, right there. There is an official policy that prices will go up exponentially, controlled by a tiny committee who implements the policy by, effectively, money printing. The official justification is a just-so story with no compelling evidence that I've ever seen. We seem to have gotten there because politicians don't like sound management any more than anyone else and…

You wish it was money printing. It's just plain greed. Without money printing what you'd get is even higher inflation. (Though probably only by some percentage.) Any excuse is good to raise the price if some people really need your product and it doesn't jeopardise your demand enough. (This is called demand inelasticity.) No price fall is needed or done when the excuse goes away. If you control supply side sufficient…

This is complete nonsense. The purpose of inflation as a policy is to increase employment by decreasing the real cost of labor: in short, it's sneakily stealing money from the labor class to keep the employment metric high.

This is the primary cause of the poor getting poorer. Greed has nothing to do with it. Greed is linear. O(n). Inflation compounds. O(e^n).

Re: Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth

#490
post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would a bank lend money to another bank for nothing, instead of the alternative course of action of not lending?

The lowest recorded interbank lending rate in Australia was 0.03% https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/interbank-rate If you're lending someone a billion dollars, and your labour cost for doing the lending is in the hundreds (maybe thousands?) of dollars, then interest rates quickly approach 0. Sure, no-one would do it for literally 0 dollars, but the rates at which banks lend to each other when there is a ZIRP pol…

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