I disagree with the premise, but for the sake of argument, even if taken as assumption the point still stands. "Taxing the rich" is a proposition that will help the people that collect the tax far more than the general population.
A simple example of this can be Seattle and San Francisco Governments, that have had explosive tax income booms, most of their staff collection 6 figure salaries, and yet both cities enjoy very large homeless populations.
Increasing tax income does not mean inequality will decrease. It might even make it worse.
Your argument is completely incoherent. Are you suggesting that raising taxes on the rich through closing loopholes, raising capital gains tax, removing 529 and housing subsidies, and yes, increasing income tax, would actually end up with Gini inequality getting even more skewed?
Absurd.
I didn't turn anything: they are the same thing more often than not.
> Your argument is completely incoherent. Are you suggesting that raising taxes on the rich through closing loopholes, raising capital gains tax, removing 529 and housing subsidies, and yes, increasing income tax, would actually end up with Gini inequality getting even more skewed?
And thus my examples of Seattle and San Francisco: cities that have had exponential tax income at the same time as a net increase in homelessness. + TAX + (extreme?)Poverty simultaneously. It is disproven constantly that what the state gathers, it does not distribute appropriately.
The city of san francisco spends 20k+ a year per homeless person, but if you look at the way they live, you can be pretty certain they don't get that.
Raising taxes is not the solution to poverty. Specially when everybody pays them.
https://www.seattle.gov/financedepartment/documents/Economic...
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/podcast-h...
Thats seattle. I have limited anecdotal data of seattle, but the homelessness is pretty pervasive, almost San Francisco Level.
On SF:
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-spends-record...
Googling has reports on SF tax revenue, but dont have a quick link for it. It will definitely show growth in the past decade, since there are more people, more consumption, housing boom (and hence prop taxes) etc. If you insist I can google more, but I dont have a skill you dont on that front.
Two of the fastest growing cities ever, tax revenue surge, increased government expenditure, higher homelessness.
Cant help but think that Henry George was right.
Provide me with data that shows that both 1) and 2) are not the case.
Your second link is just a big "data dump" and doesn't point me to the relevant facts, so I'll just share what I saw out of it: tax revenue is growing, even though tax rates aren't being increased. So, amongst other factors, this is likely due to population growth. This actually makes the opposite point of what you want to make.
Your third link does nothing to connect the homeless problem to the increases in tax rate. Show me that homelenessness spikes each time tax rates are increased. It's really a pretty simple graph I am asking for.
You provided no evidence for other points I raised, and the evidence you did provide were for mostly for questions I did not ask. In my first post, I clarified that I want data that shows cause and effect you claim:
increases in tax rates (not revenue!) => increases in city spending => increases in homelessness
Grade: fail. Off to the gulag with you.
2013: 4.32Billion
2014: 4.72Billion
2015: 5.14Billion
2016: 5:41Billion
2017: 5.71Billion
Tax revenue is increasing enormously.
> Your second link is just a big "data dump" and doesn't point me to the relevant facts, so I'll just share what I saw out of it: tax revenue is growing, even though tax rates aren't being increased. So, amongst other factors, this is likely due to population growth. This actually makes the opposite point of what you want to make.
My point is that increasing taxes is not the way to solve poverty. Increasing tax rates is a proxy to leevying taxes, its not meaning per se. Its not that if you tax 40% you have poverty and if you tax 41% you have equality. What matters is how much money is taking and how much is given from top top bottom.
But lets say we want to talk only in percentages. Its not about the legal increase of rates, its about the effective rate. Seattle gathers most of its income with property taxes, which, even with the tax rules unknown to me, have to have been increasing with the increase of prices of land and properties, I'm confident. To the very least, it shows in the revenue.
> ou provided no evidence for other points I raised, and the evidence you did provide were for mostly for questions I did not ask. In my first post, I clarified that I want data that shows cause and effect you claim:
increases in tax rates (not revenue!) => increases in city spending => increases in homelessness
I did not say that increasing tax rates increases homelessness. I said increasing taxes does not necessarily decrease homelessness. SF and Seattle are examples of increased revenue (and effective rates, considering income and prop taxes respectively) and increasing homelessness.
So to the one that says that a steeper progressive taxation will reduce poverty, I shall answer nay.
USSR + communist china + North Korea + Communist countries in Europe + Cuba + communist countries in Africa. They kind of blow that ideal-neutral theory out of the water
Zero marginal utility in buying stuff. Tons of utility in giving you influence over laws and power over society.
Beyond a certain point it's not about wealth as buying utility at all, those people play the game for power, control, and to play the game.
That's why I find it ludicrous hearing about this or that "hard working" billionaire. It's not "hard work" when you don't have to do it. It's just doing what you like all day in -- like a 20-yo could play videogames all day in, those people play business and power games. Work is really work (with all the extra weariness and anxiety that comes from it) if you either do what you don't want to do (e.g. are a cog in some company or flipping burgers) or you do what you like but not just because you like it but also to get by (e.g. lots of small business owners, creators, etc fall into this category). Rant off.
>I don't envy the rich nor am a communist so let them be as rich as they want as long as we don't compete for the same resources.
The hurt is not them merely being rich, it's about them stifling wages, damaging the economy, buying policies, hurting the future, fostering abusing monopolies, and all that to increase their fortunes and win more...
You're picturing wealth as 0's in a checking account but "more wealth" is control of capital, probably shares in an increasingly valuable company. I don't think we've discovered the limits of capital utility; the power and influence some companies wield is only increasing.
Now apply this mindset blindly to a person with $10mn, $100mn, $1bn and so on..
Technically, they have "enough" to live comfortably for LIFE (and a few generations after them). But capitalism says GROW, so they will put their money somewhere that returns more than bank interest rates or government bonds etc. Because growth is imperative.
So, despite the extra wealth having zero marginal utility, the rich try to become wealthier because they are of the MINDSET that growth is the highest goal and nothing trumps growth.
So sorry but they want to keep using land to farm you.
Very good point. Rich have cornered housing markets in all #1 cities effectively farming workers & capturing value they create.
Road to serfdom?
If your hobby project is e.g. putting humans to Mars, you need a lot, and every tiny million USD counts. Same applies to biotech (defeat deadly diseases, slow down or reverse aging, etc), terraforming (stop deserts from expanding and recultivate them, etc), lowering humanity's greenhouse gases emission, improving or reworking education across the world, etc.
These things are normally not what a for-profit company makes its explicit target. It's what some of the super-rich spend their own money on, seeing utility in that.
just recently a chunk of California coast was preserved in such a way by the founders of map company Esri.
we also set aside vast acreage as monuments. this land is also permanently "off the market"