Comment by giantg2
3 years ago
It's always interesting to think about how someone somewhere is earning as much as you earn in a decade or lifetime in a single year. Also that you are that person for someone else.
3 years ago
It's always interesting to think about how someone somewhere is earning as much as you earn in a decade or lifetime in a single year. Also that you are that person for someone else.
What I find more interesting is this:
A sole proprietor landscaper making $45-50K a year in California is paying $675 a year in annual registration fees just to keep his newish pickup truck on the road. Why newish? Because the people he's servicing trust a guy with a nicer work vehicle than a beaten down 30 year old Tacoma.
A $900k developer with the same pickup is also paying $675 a year.
Extrapolate this seemingly trivial example across literally EVERYTHING in life.
I do not find that interesting. If the goal is wealth redistribution, then either a marginal income/wealth (property)/sales tax accomplishes that.
We do not have marginal sales tax rates because it is not feasible.
Marginal income tax is feasible, and so it does exist in most places.
Marginal property/wealth tax is somewhere in the middle, given the difficulties in valuing thinly traded assets, and the tremendous effort required to appraise them all the time, over and over.
Does anywhere in the world have a marginal property tax?
LA introduced a mansion sales tax.
Anywhere else?
My main issue with a marginal property tax is that the areas with high property values already have enough taxes generally for the things property tax covers.
Not sure at least in the US how feasible it would be to have a marginal property tax and the revenue go to the state and the Fed (or even the county's general fund in most places).
My guess is there's a 0% chance the marginal property tax could go to the Fed to reduce Federal income tax, and in most states, a low chance it could even go to the state, or even in most counties that it could go to the general fund instead of mostly to the local school district and local fire department (which are usually already funded adequately).
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Yeah crazy. A gallon of milk costs the same if you’re a landscaper or a tech bro. Really makes ya think.
Does it? how do you even price a gallon milk of organic raw unpasteurized fresh from the grass-fed cow that the billionaire has on the estate comapred to a gallon of milk a poor person would buy from something as pedestrian as a supermarket?
To add, a billionaire consumes just as much milk as someone making 40k
Don't forget, however, that the $45K landscaper probably pays zero in Federal taxes, while the 900K dev (assuming it was all cash, which it isn't) is losing a third of that to Fed taxes alone, and tons more to State and local.
I'm not saying the highly-paid developer is hurting, but the better question is why does it cost $675/year to register a vehicle in CA? Our income tax system is already highly progressive, so why do we have all these other stealth taxes that hurt low incomes the most.
I don't understand your point - is it that people should pay different amount for identical amount of work based on how much they themselves are paid?
Vehicle registration fees, like many others, are 100% a blunt money collection mechanism imposed by the government. This has nothing to do with a poor or wealthy person buying a new Playstation 5.
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I don't think that's a fair example. I'm not sure what it's like to run a small business in California. But the answer to that situation is progressive taxation, and California has one of the most progressive tax systems in the US. https://taxfoundation.org/which-states-have-most-progressive...
Punitively high static costs of living and costs of doing business have profoundly cascading effects on people. Progressive tax rates have absolutely nothing to do with that.
I find it more interesting that the sole proprietor landscaper doesn’t just become a developer and make $900k a year.
Extrapolate this to literally anyone making less than a developer.
Those skill sets aren't interchangeable.
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The sole proprietor is also able to get a tax deduction on his truck that the developer can't.
Only if he uses it for work (exclusively for work, if you ask the IRS). And he’s paying double in payroll taxes - sole proprietors/self-employed workers pay 15%, employees pay 7.5%.
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which is why billionaires are an indictment to our system.
Billionaires have a whole novel extra layer above this, as their taxable income and investment preferences can be significant for local (and sometimes national) governments.
What's described here affects everyone, and is a reason to something something Gini coefficient.
Someone on $1k/year can't afford for their $50 smartphone to get damaged or stolen; on $10k/year they can't afford for their fridge to break and their food to spoil; most of us are close enough to $100k/year to not need an example; $1M/year I can't imagine, as despite my close (logarithmically) to $100k income, my expenses are closer to $10k but without the stress of low earnings.
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Is it interesting?
I am that person for myself, for my first year in the workforce.
I am also that person for myself when I was studying in college.
I think it is only interesting in the case when you are performing the exact same job, and yet the compensation varies by an order of magnitude or more.
I think the point is people earning $8/hr 40 hrs/wk 40 years = $665k total for a lifetime's work. Of course most people in the world earn much less than this.
One of the most compelling lyrics I've ever heard, that has stuck with me for about a decade now, is Chris Brown's, "I get what you get in 10 years in 2 days."
For me, on the same track, I'd have to go with Busta's verse when he's all "cuz it doesn't matter cuz I'm gonna da da da da"
(I jest. I just really like that song's beat & Busta's verse in terms of sheer speed & enunciation & crispness in staying on beat.)
That track really goes hard, and Busta's verse is always a treat lol
> you are that person for someone else
Especially if you're American. Gallup [1] reports:
> The median annual household income worldwide is $9,733, and the median per-capita household income is $2,920
Even among developed nations, Americans get paid more.
[1] https://news.gallup.com/poll/166211/worldwide-median-househo...
This is a good point.
I look at 900k$ and think wow from the perspective of my very well paid job in France.
Getting 900k$ a year would bring great things to me and probably make me retire earlier. This will not be life-changing though.
And then I think about people who earn 5% of what I do and for them multiplying their income by two would probably be truly life changing for them.
And then these 900k$ do not look that wow anymore.
I'd call "may retire, or work on whatever you want for the rest of your life, after a few years of saving" life-changing.
Twice my salary will not allow me to retire much earlier and sustain my level of living. Maybe ay 1M€/year that would be doable.
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For people not living there but curious about trying it out: What's a reasonable range for "very well paid job in France"? Is it all cash or is there equity?
For a entry-level developer in a large French company you would aim a 50k€.
But this is just the bare salary - you will have to take off about 20-30% for various taxes. But then you get free healthcare and education, and retirement.
Some companies will have a bonus ("intéressement / participation") which can be an extra 10 to 20% once a year.
You would typically have a straight salary, no equity or something like that.
When you look at the most senior positions, this is about 130k€.
But it really depends on the city, on the industry etc. Generally speaking your salary is not that big, bt you have extra advantages (such as the social committee, a company-funded organization that will reimburse part of your vacation costs, give gifts at Christmas, ...)
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At 62k€ before taxes you're in the 10% top earners in the country. That's about 41-47k€ after taxes depending on your situation.
Are you here to just brag? Also the dollar sign goes on the other side.
Currencies are formatted differently in different locales, even foreign ones.
Brag about what? Please take a moment to read my comment with understanding.
And the dollar sign goes on the side I put it: nine hundred thousand dollars. The fact that you want to write $900k is just an idea specific to the finance world (such as using parentheses for negative numbers).
Do you usually write m4, in7 or lb9?
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imho most countries on earth use the format: [scalar] [si-prefix] [unit]
I find it interesting too. Also interesting to see how I measure with regard to my parents.