not this grifter again
Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics
311–320 of 362 posts
Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics
#312Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly. We should tax billionaires away.
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Billionaires are a parasitic class, in the sense that they can wield enough power to sway elections, and do very concrete damage to society.
Taxing away billionaires is not "to punish them", it's to PROTECT society.
Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics
#313Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nah billionaires need to be punished, they have raped the Earth for profit and caused mass misery/death upon her people. In fact a good way for the US to rebuild credibility is to probably send a few billionaires to the Hague and have them tried for crimes against humanity in the ICJ.
Lots of billionaires should probably be at the hague. But we should be glad if people can become billionaires because they are generating that much value of both parties being better off, without imposing externalities on others. Yvonne Chouinard came close to this ideal, I think. If someone can genuinely generate billions in value, not just by imposing externalities on others that they then reallocate to themselves,…
No we shouldn't be "glad that people can become billionaire".
We should be glad that people can get reasonable wealthy, say, $100M net worth would be more than plenty, and would ensure that: people who worked hard got a lot ($100M!!), but nobody alone or in very small numbers can try to destroy the fabric of society
Is that hard for you to understand?
The fact that at your age you're still mistaking "generating billions in value" (this doesn't mean anything) with "extracting money from the system and selfishly refusing to give some of it back in a meaningful way" means that you still have to learn about how the world really works
Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lots of billionaires should probably be at the hague. But we should be glad if people can become billionaires because they are generating that much value of both parties being better off, without imposing externalities on others. Yvonne Chouinard came close to this ideal, I think. If someone can genuinely generate billions in value, not just by imposing externalities on others that they then reallocate to themselves,…
No, this is truly a pathetic mindset. There is more to the world than making "value." No one dies thinking "I wish I made more value." Absolutely pathetic, much like them.
Exactly. Also it's not the "billionaires" who are "making value". They are lousy at making anything. It's the workers (engineers, farmers, factory workers) that "make".
The billionaires are just good at "capturing" value, and not giving back the rightfully owned share by the people.
They are leeches
Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics
#315Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly. We should tax billionaires away.
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You do not appear to have a solid grasp on how the world functions.
Billionaires don't reach this extreme amount of wealth by "work" (unless you believe in magic tales and "tooth fairy", but probably you're old enough to figure out that those "tales" of self-made man they give you on the TV are completely made-up?)
Billionaires reach those obscene amount of wealth by tricking the system. Putting themselves in a place where they're able to "capture" the money, and refuse to pay (through normal taxation) their fair share of what they owe the society
No billionaire does his business "on his own". They rely on an existing infrastructure (roads, schools, hospitals for the workers), and the very work of their employees.
So it's perfectly normal at some point to say: you might have done a very interesting business and got rich, but beyond a certain "inequality threshold" (let's say $100M) we tax away all the rest to give it back to society. When you think about it, it's the ONLY thing that makes sense
Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics
#316Earlier quoted context omitted.
it is not separate, it is exactly the same discussion. if you currently can use “unrealized” shit to borrow against than it is perfectly fair for you to pay the taxes on that shit. it is absolutely not a “separate discussion”
I support some sort of disincentive to prevent HNW individuals from borrowing against assets for income. I do not support wealth taxes or taxing unrealized gains (unless you get rebates for unrealized losses lol) There SHOULD be some mechanism (idk what) to close the loophole of HNW individuals borrowing against an asset you have not sold to minimize actual income, but that doesn't mean its right, effective, or even…
no, its not.
Articulate an alternative or deal with a non-optimal solution.
The status quo currently is leading to civil war.
Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics
#317I think rich people have too much influence, I probably agree with Garry Tan on a lot but we need to get money out of politics. Let’s face it we’re all meant to get one vote but rich people spend money on this stuff so that they manipulate what and who can be voted for. I do think that if this current system is the result of democracy + the internet we need to seriously reconsider how democracy works because it’s cur…
"we need to get money out of politics"
Then Congress will need to pass legislation to that extent that would also survive a challenge based on the precedent established by the Citizens United case. Or a Constitutional Amendment that would weaken the 1st Amendment.
IOW, it is unlikely to happen in your lifetime. Focus your efforts elsewhere...
Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics
#318I think rich people have too much influence, I probably agree with Garry Tan on a lot but we need to get money out of politics. Let’s face it we’re all meant to get one vote but rich people spend money on this stuff so that they manipulate what and who can be voted for. I do think that if this current system is the result of democracy + the internet we need to seriously reconsider how democracy works because it’s cur…
"we need to get money out of politics" Then Congress will need to pass legislation to that extent that would also survive a challenge based on the precedent established by the Citizens United case. Or a Constitutional Amendment that would weaken the 1st Amendment. IOW, it is unlikely to happen in your lifetime. Focus your efforts elsewhere...
One person using their “free speech” to stop many others from having free speech nets out to negative free speech.
If this doesn’t change the United States will fail or become an oligarchy, or both, so I’d consider it.
Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics
#319Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you think that similar law could not be passed without direct vote? The problem is not direct democracy but the fact that it is being done in a wrong way. Voting should be done without anonymity, online. One should be able to either vote for everything manually, or delegate the vote to any other person. If some change is supported by 100% of the voters it should be implemented immediately. But if smaller perce…
"Voting should be done without anonymity..." This is a spectacularly bad idea.
Why is it a bad idea? Can you describe one bad consequence of it, if it is implemented in combination with the other ideas above?
Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics
#320Earlier quoted context omitted.
In 2022 Norway increased wealth tax to 1.1%, expected to bring in an additional $146M tax revenue. Individuals with a net worth of $54B left the country, led to a $594M loss in tax revenue. https://citizenx.com/insights/norway-wealth-exodus/
Okay. And let's look at Norway'S GDP as a result https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?location... It fell, like much of the post COVID world. But somehow, I don't think that 600m tax opportunity cost contributed to 112 billion dollar drop in GDP. And then after that it basically stayed flat (rose by 1 billion, or.2% rise) So, not too convinced this is a net loss for society. Studies in New York (pre Ma…
I didn’t say the tax gap caused the drop in GDP. I did say the capital flight caused the tax to wildly underperform revenue estimates, which is objectively true.
I love how this goes from “there’s no evidence wealthy move” to, when presented with evidence wealthy move, “well, ok, I’m not convinced this is a net loss for society”
Keep moving those goalposts