Ocasio-Cortez Says 70% Ultra-Rich Tax Could Pay for Climate Plan • Hacker News Board

Re: Ocasio-Cortez Says 70% Ultra-Rich Tax Could Pay for Climate Plan

#111

Post by tracker1 » Sat, Jan 05, 2019, 10:59 AM UTC

goalieca wrote: post #105

tracker1 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what's so wrong from wanting to support charities that pay for the things you want and care about vs. more money to the militarization of police, or the military industrial complex in general?

Charities are only needed because the government doesn’t provide the necessary services in those areas. The unfortunate thing with charities is that it’s a whim of the donors what gets covered (1 dollar = 1 vote) and sometimes they are religious (not all inclusive)

I'm not a socialist and am in favor of maximizing personal liberty. Likewise I'm against corporate protectionisms and in favor of reigning in IP law. I don't want more government as a general rule.

Re: Ocasio-Cortez Says 70% Ultra-Rich Tax Could Pay for Climate Plan

#112

Post by tracker1 » Sat, Jan 05, 2019, 11:04 AM UTC

goalieca wrote: post #95

tracker1 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not... I've seen enough government operations that you cannot convince me that additional taxation is necessary vs. reducing excess spending and bureaucracy.

Haha. You will never be convinced the. There’s been ample examples of austerity and cutbacks and government audits at all levels of government in all countries. This libertarian ideal of wasteful spending and government mismanagement is kind of a dumb one. Things are actually pretty well done unless the politicians are corrupt. But if corrupt politicians are the problem then the solution is to fix the corrupt politic…

I've seen $80k phone systems denied, while $180k systems get approved... I've seen fixed telecom rates nearly 5x what private businesses pay. I've seen contracts burn through cash only to cancel projects after billions have been spent. I've seen $100 office chairs denied, and $580 chairs ordered instead... because of anything from approved vendor lists, to just plain shifts in corruption. In the end, it all sucks a lot.

These are just off the top of my head. I'm not saying there aren't things that do run relatively effectively... I will also say there is gross overspending at all levels.

For the most part, the military could be cut to a fraction of the current size without much lost. A lot of the rest could be made up by shifting IP registration costs, and reducing protectionism. There's plenty of fat to trim...

Re: Ocasio-Cortez Says 70% Ultra-Rich Tax Could Pay for Climate Plan

#113

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jan 05, 2019, 4:03 PM UTC

nonbel wrote: post #35

I look at these "tax the super-rich" ideas like this: >"Added together, the total net worth for 2018's billionaires was US$9.1 trillion" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World%27s_Billionaires Meanwhile, the US federal government spends ~$4 trillion per year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget#/... So even confiscating all the wealth of the top couple thousand richest people in the world (not…

[deleted]