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Comment by trosi | Hacker News Reader

A simpler solution to #2 would be to raise minimum wages.

Health care seems like the bigger root problem. It limits job mobility because people get tied to their employer’s coverage.

Cue inflation.

A better solution is to tax capital gains and corporate income at a rate that is closer to personal income taxes so that everyone pays their fair share.

I think the US has enough tax money it just needs to use it more efficiently. If you look at the government revenue per capita of the US it isn't that far off from Germany or Japan. Construction in Japan certainly has a higher price floor than in the US so there is no excuse there, and the various government offices in Japan operate quickly and efficiently despite offering much lower pay and worse hours, in a much stricter work environment.

Basically, I think its a culture problem. You could give the US 10 trillion a year in Taxes rather than 3 but the dmv is still going to have a line, take 3 hours to get through and have a rude morbidly obese woman behind the counter.

I agree that there's a culture problem, if the line at the DMV (which, who goes there these days, so much can be pre-handled online) is the worst government interaction you can think of, you're doing pretty well for yourself.

It is not, and was not intended to be an example of the worst. Actually the exact opposite.

The DMV is intended as an example of a low complexity, low risk task that should be easily done well, and despite that, is usually done horribly. Thats my point.

If the government cant get a dmv right, why would I expect them to be able to handle anything else.

> Doesn't raise minimum wage

> Still have massive inflation

That's a logical fallacy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denying_the_antecedent

Adjust the wages by inflation every year, it's pretty simple.

I'm not against higher corporate tax rates, but that's a separate problem.

And devalue our currency against every other nation? No, thanks. Input costs to business are often priced in the international market. You'd just have a weaker economy. There's no such thing as good inflation

That's ok, they'll just find another tax carve out.

VAT is the real answer. If people had to pay consumption taxes, the issue would go away. You have to spend the money somewhere.

People cannot live on $7.25 an hour in the US, and the government has a responsibility to promote the general welfare. Inflation skyrocketed in the past 5 years; minimum wage has not changed for 15 years. So, no correlation there.

The corporate tax rate should be increased, as well as taxes on high-earners, as well as the minimum wage. Capital gains taxes for individuals with 1M+ of assets may be considered, but is unprecedented in US tax history, no?

It's always interesting to watch how so many people oppose increasing the minimum wage (which stagnates since decades) while at the same time opposing increasing the taxation of corporations and billionaires (which goes down since decades). It's like, the society was created for corporations, not for regular people... and no, billionaires are in reality not taxed like regular people so let's not even try this theoretical argument.

It's called capitalism, not laborism. What's weird is you'd think that labor would vote a bit differently.

too many temporarily embarrassed millionaires in the US.

(or rather, not that people on the bottom think they’ll be on the top someday, but they’ve come to identify with the ruling class, and bought into the arguments that we can’t have nice things because of inflation or moral hazard or whatever else.)

In theory yes, in a global economy you're just dooming further sectors of the economy to painful death in competition with developing countries.

I read that as "We should allow paying developing country salaries in a developed country to allow competition".

-Free trade

-Decent wages

-Everyone has a job

Choose any two.

I guess? Corporations now throw hissy-fits in response to this and pass on the costs as loudly as possible to the consumer-voters.

How's that working for California food workers, or delivery drivers on Seattle?

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