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Why Inequality Matters

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Re: Why Inequality Matters

#461

Post by eru »

waldir wrote: post #441
cbovis wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If more money is made, then we made the right decision" Unfortunately this is so often true in a purely financially oriented point of view however it completely neglects moral obligations which SHOULD supersede financial incentives if need be.

Definitely. That's precisely the argument against relying on GDP or similar measures as indicators of "progress": https://www.youtube.com/v/cpkRvc-sOKk?start=54&end=141

Oh, GDP is useful, because it correlates well with most other indicators of progress that people have come up with.

Re: Why Inequality Matters

#462

Post by ScottBurson »

enoch_r wrote: post #450
ScottBurson wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Are you claiming that taking risk is a form of work? Yes, because you have to decide what risk to take. > it'd take a lot to convince me that buying shares of an S&P500 ETF is a form of work that I should be taxed on It would take a lot to convince me that you should pay a lower tax rate than I do on the money you make, just because the work you do is trading the stock market. (Essentially all my income is ordinary…

Thanks for responding, I appreciate the interesting discussion. :) You began this sub-thread by making the following claim: > It's only at the risk-free rate of return that the two products you describe are of equal value. In order to realize returns higher than the risk-free rate, investors must do work. I think that the extra gain beyond the risk-free rate should be taxed as ordinary income, because that's really w…

Sorry I was unable to reply sooner. This debate is perhaps one that will never be settled; here's a discussion on the front page today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8508382

> I completely reject the idea that my personal decision to purchase stocks instead of bonds is work.

But you can see, can't you, that what active traders and investors do is work? I'm talking about the people who do select individual stocks and do attempt to time the market. To do that with any degree of success takes both skill and work.

And is what you're doing really different in kind from that activity? I understand that it's different in quantity; you're now just following a plan that you decided on previously, so the amount of work you're doing is very small by comparison. But is it really zero? You did a certain amount of reading and study before coming to the conclusion that your preferred strategy is to buy equity ETFs. Wasn't that work?

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