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Comment by systemvoltage | Hacker News Reader

I’m changing my views on regulations and supply-side economics.

I think this nation needs to kick start innovation and tech progress that was displayed in 1950-1970.

That means, low taxes, control inflation, get budget in order and have a surplus even, stop spending and question the efficiency of the Gov (Do 2x from existing funding). Huge tax breaks for startups and small biz. No state income tax.

It’s wishful thinking but I want Taiwan x Singapore x HongKong economic policies in the USA. Special economic zones like Shenzhen.

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>That means, low taxes, control inflation, get budget in order and have a surplus even, stop spending and question the efficiency of the Gov (Do 2x from existing funding). Huge tax breaks for startups and small biz. No state income tax.

IIRC, the top marginal Federal income tax rate in the 1950s-1960s was never below 70%[0].

[0] https://bradfordtaxinstitute.com/Free_Resources/Federal-Inco...

Edit: Fixed prose.

I should have compared to progress in the Roman empire just so that I can say that I do not condone aristocracy, only making a point about progress itself.

I refuted the points here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31867958

I have no opinion about what you said that I'm willing to express here, except that you mis-stated the level of income taxes during the period you mentioned.

Not an attack on you, just correcting the record.

Thanks and correction accepted. Lot of it is still misleading though. We should also clarify that it was the marginal tax rate, not the "tax rate" as we know. Marginal = above a certain threshold. 90% marginal tax rate, but effective tax rate only bit higher than it is today.

https://taxfoundation.org/taxes-on-the-rich-1950s-not-high/

no/low taxes has been done since the 80's and all we have for it is massive wealth disparity in this country. It's a failed policy that punishes the majority so a few can be obscenely wealthy. The wealthy economic zones also require we be OK with little to no environmental regulation, Hong Kong was known for having medical waste simply be dumped into the ocean. It wasn't unheard of to find used syringes and such wash up on the beaches..

I'd argue that wealth disparity is good if we can lift the entire stratum upwards. We have been doing exactly that since the industrial age. Life of the poorest has gotten better.

Worth visiting this debate at Yale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RITVJy7ogI

Inequality is overplayed and oversold to people who conflate crony capitalism to capitalism. The kinds of Thomas Piketty has done a tremendous amount of disservice to the west which hailed capitalism for over 2 centuries, unfortunately, USA + EU are regressing into socialism.

Yeah, I'm not going to base the idea that "inequality is OK" by someone from the federalist society. That's like asking an arsonist if fire is good. I'd argue that the lower class has lost upward mobility in this country in the last 40-60 years. Sure, cheap crap can be purchased from walmart - but that's just subsidized crap. China has been lifting their lower classes up - yes, but at our expense.

Didn’t we have high taxes from 1950 to 1970 and massive government science military and education programs to do moon shots, stop the commie dominoes, and improve STEM education after Sputnik? And we had labor unions so your average job was enough to buy a home and send your kids to school if they wanted and maybe save enough for a boat when you started getting your pension?

I mean there was segregation, anti black and LGTBQIA violence and lots of rape of women and children, but economically, it had taxes. And larger non-entitlement government spending.

I am not advocating 1950-1970 policies, only indicating the level of progress. Otherwise, we'd also need to advocate for a massive World War that lead to the political resolve/unity followed by Cold War where we are on the verge of nuking each other for 3 decades necessitating intense R&D and military spending. Furthermore, it also necessitates that we form new Gov agencies like they did in 1950's which were nimble, highly efficient and competent. The latter, I would be in favor of. Remove regulations and start new agencies, abolishing old ones. It is also interesting to study why USSR, Cambodia and North Korea failed spectacularly while others that adopted highly capitalistic policies propelled into pulling people out of poverty (China, SK, HK, Taiwan, Singapore, and more recently Indonesia, India post-1990's, Vietnam and Thailand).

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