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Comment by colordrops | Hacker News Reader

It is absolutely wild to me that money gained from letting it sit is taxed less than money gained from working your ass off. A crime against the working class.

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The system wasn't named “capitalism” because it systematically favors the working class, I mean, what do you expect?

Where in the US constitution is capitalism mentioned?

What's your point? The tax code isn't in the constitution either.

The point is that this isn't some fundamental property of our society that we all agreed to. It's de facto capitalist, not de jure. Just because a bunch of people pushed it one way doesn't mean we have to throw up our arms and just go with it.

The working class have property and stocks too and don't want them taxed stupidly.

That's the entire reason why income tax is progressive, and there's no reason that couldn't be applied to any other implemented tax including capital gains.

Yes, but far less. We can have tax free thresholds, you know. Like the capital gains exemption for sale if a house.

Any working class person against higher and broader capital gains taxes is not thinking very deeply, in my opinion.

Hard disagree. Compared to the OECD average, we collect almost double in personal tax revenue as a proportion of total tax revenue. What's more, historically personal tax revenue as a % of GDP stays roughly the same - regardless of active tax rates.

Where we fall dreadfully short compared to other countries is corporate tax revenue. In 2021, corporate income tax revenue in the U.S. was 1.6% of GDP, compared to the OECD average of 3.2%

It's messed up from first principles - hard work should be valued as a society over investment gains, and reflected at the individual level in take home income. Obtuse measures and comparative aggregates are irrelevant.

“Should be” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there - I have heard reasonable arguments either way - but it misses the point: whether the personal tax rate was all-time high or an all-time low, personal tax revenue stays roughly the same historically. In other words it’s a trap - raising the rate might make you feel better, but if history is any indicator it won’t change anything for everyday citizens.

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