Comment by dataflow
2 days ago
I think you missed my point. I was saying that even if they did, a lot of people would still be unhappy with that kind of outcome.
Which isn't to say that they shouldn't pay more in income taxes. It's just to say that it's important to identify the real problem and address it directly, and to realize when you're not going to be happy with a solution beforehand.
This is the worst kind of defeatism. By that logic literally no progress on anything is ever possible.
What? The fact that I believe higher income taxes aren't going to make people happy makes me defeatist? All I'm staying is you have to lead with the fundamental problems are instead of your desired solution, and to realize when your proposed solution won't get you there. The whole point is to find better solutions, not to throw your hands and give up. At the end of the day, taxes are a means to an end, not an end.
Thank you this got me thinking. The issue isn't (just) whether the rich are paying a high enough rate, it is that a lot of people currently complaining still won't be happy even if we increase it by a lot.
I can only speculate, but I wonder if the reason a lot of people shout "tax the rich" isn't that they want a bit more resources for geniunely deserving causes, but that they hate uber successful people and just want to see them "cut down to size".
In this view, higher taxes aren't meant to bring in more revenue (Laffer curves place limits on the effectiveness of higher taxes), but to hurt Rich people. Bring them down so we don't see some people doing 100,000 times better than the average person.
Maybe they think hurting Rich people will make the world a better place? Maybe they just wanna hurt them because they feel jealous? I'm super curious about what the true motives are.
Why are people so unhappy to see the existence of centinares and billionares?
I'm especially talking about people who made their money by creating new things, or made the world more efficient in some way.
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