Comment on How would you actually tax the ultra wealthy?

• porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I currently live in a country which has this. Income taxes are correspondingly very low and public services are extremely good. I’m very satisfied with the arrangement, yes. You seem preoccupied with some kind of religious sanctity of your “savings account” without actually considering what the implications of such a policy are, that’s too bad.

  source

  • SolidShake@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I don’t think you understand then… see we get a paycheck which is taxed for states and federal. So that money was taxed already. In my example I said you can save $10,000 a year…you are saying that money should be taxed a second time. Which is absolutely wild to me and probably anyone who lives in the US. If that was the case people would be keeping cash in their homes in safes.

    source

    • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      No, I understand just fine, we have income taxes here too, they’re just lower. This means that the tax system is fairer because richer people pay more. It also means that people are more incentivised to work, to contribute to the economy, and to invest. I don’t really see what something being taxed a first or second time has to do with anything. What matters is the overall tax burden, which although hard to calculate exactly, is lower here for the large majority of people but distributed more towards richer people - not those with more income but those with more wealth. It may be true that Americans would freak out about such a thing, but that is merely due to quasireligious ideas about taxation from national myth propaganda, not about the actual effect it would have on their lives, and it reveals fundamental defects in the American character.

      source