Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes Are a Bad Idea

fair.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 488 posts

Re: Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes Are a Bad Idea

#31

Post by mhh__ »

flashyfaffe2 wrote: post #3
commandlinefan wrote: post #2

I'm neither wealthy nor the media and I believe that wealth taxes are a bad idea, too.

Would you consider volontarily contribution instead?

Possibly not what you mean but I very strongly believe tax rates should he a minimum where you can set your own (and displayed publicly) tax rate above a certain level for your income.

Both physically and online, as someone who grew up not poor but far far from rich i.e. I've still only been abroad from the UK twice in my (so far short) life, I am absolutely sick of rich people saying "I'd pay more tax if I could" as a throwaway gesture. I increasingly think an underlying motive of why I study fairly intensely is just to end up better than those who were born better than me.

If you really believe that, put your money where your mouth is.

Re: Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes Are a Bad Idea

#32

Post by throwaway2048 »

el_nahual wrote: post #21

Classic circular fallacy. "Wealth taxes are good. Wealthy people don't like wealth taxes, and that's how you know they are good." Or is it an ad hominem even if the "hominem" is a class (wealthy people) instead of a person?

Its not making the argument that wealth taxes are good because wealthy people oppose them, only that their point of view on the topic is deeply self serving and masquerading as an objective analysis.

Re: Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes Are a Bad Idea

#33

Post by riku_iki »

tonystubblebine wrote: post #6

As a business owner, when taxes are low, I see that as an incentive to pocket profits. But when taxes are high, I see that as an incentive to hide the profits by investing in the future. I know this isn't always the case with everyone. And especially investors have a case that higher corporate taxes reduce the value of their investments, possibly to the point of not making them. But this incentive is so blatantly obv…

> I see that as an incentive to hide the profits by investing in the future.

Can it be also an incentive to work less, since most of the results of your hard work will be taken from you in form of taxes, or you would need to 'hide the profits' potentially forever?

Re: Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes Are a Bad Idea

#34

Post by zdragnar »

tonystubblebine wrote: post #6

As a business owner, when taxes are low, I see that as an incentive to pocket profits. But when taxes are high, I see that as an incentive to hide the profits by investing in the future. I know this isn't always the case with everyone. And especially investors have a case that higher corporate taxes reduce the value of their investments, possibly to the point of not making them. But this incentive is so blatantly obv…

Strange. Business owner friends of mine have taken the opposite approach over the years.

Taxes low? Start up something new, get it going. Taxes go up again? Sell it off (if they haven't already) and go back to early retirement doing whatever.

Maybe it is largely the type of business that behavior changes. Their last venture was starting up an aquaponics farm in a borderline urban / suburban area, though I haven't kept in touch and it appears to have been sold off to another family.

Re: Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes Are a Bad Idea

#35

Post by tolbish »

bpsh wrote: post #28
commandlinefan wrote: post #2

I'm neither wealthy nor the media and I believe that wealth taxes are a bad idea, too.

Well define not wealthy, if you have over $90,000 net worth you would be in the top 10% already.

Wealthy = enough money to lobby

Re: Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes Are a Bad Idea

#37

Post by vmception »

RivieraKid wrote: post #11
commandlinefan wrote: post #2

I'm neither wealthy nor the media and I believe that wealth taxes are a bad idea, too.

Why? (I mostly agree but it's not a strong opinion)

Hard to value creating expensive compliance and easy game-ability.

Not easily convertible to cash.

Doesn't fix the government's spending pattern or plug its budget hole unless it resorts to full on expropriation.

Not competitive.

Re: Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes Are a Bad Idea

#39

Post by andy_ppp »

PG also seems to think this, is there any evidence wealth taxes make people poorer on average? Even people like Ray Dalio are in favour of redistribution as he thinks the system is unbalanced.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-how-capitalism-needs-refo...

Re: Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes Are a Bad Idea

#40

Post by BitwiseFool »

muststopmyths wrote: post #15
RivieraKid wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? (I mostly agree but it's not a strong opinion)

My guess: because they hope to be wealthy some day.

That's very reductive. You should know that the Federal Income Tax that was first collected in 1913 had a top bracket of 7%. Today, the minimum bracket is 10% and the average middle class citizen pays around 12-18% of their income to the IRS.

So sure, the wealth tax would only be on "the rich" when it first starts out but I guarantee you the middle class will be hit by it eventually.

Post reply on HN