3294

If we have to accommodate the Great and the Good and the Billionaire more than the average person, i’d like a theory of globalized economics to explain it. Simply saying ‘they’d leave’ feels like, to a certain extent, hostage taking.

3295

Eh, this suggests that if I don’t buy stuff from an overpriced seller, that I’m engaging in hostage taking.

I think with reasonable tax increases, there’s little reason to expect billionaires to leave the country. But if you were to implement something that would immediately tax them billions of dollars, I think it’s likely that they would leave, because there are lots of other places around the world that would welcome them without taxing them billions of dollars of their wealth. Once you get into that level of taxation every year, well, it just doesn’t cost anything approaching that much wealth to move.

And the thing is, any tax change isn’t going to take effect the instant it’s passed. They would have time to leave.

And the question you need to ask yourself is, why wouldn’t they leave if you are saying you are going to take literally billions of dollars from them, every year, if they stay? With something like 5% wealth tax m for Bezos, that’s what, 10 billion dollars? In one year? You could move to another country, real easy, for way less than that. And not like, a third world country, but a totally nice European country. And in today’s world, he could still manage his business.

3296

I mean this is kind of the implication. The status quo is the best possible situation. Any adjustment upward is going to lead “sensible” billionaires and founding black swans elsewhere in some small quantity.

If you follow the simplistic logic then the best thing the US can do for its economy is reduce its tax rate to zero.

The reason i state it in this way is that dealing with is going to be the big issue of the 21st century - globalized capital vs. nationalized capital - and it seems like the implication is that globalized capital has “won” more or less, so we just have to grin and bear it. Effectively since this becomes a race to the bottom, to take things to their logical extreme, it means that global tax rates on income from capital everywhere should be zero. That’s why I want a coherent theory of globalized capital movement and controls, rather than some handwavy stuff about If We Tax It, They Will Leave starring Kevin Costner as Generic Wall Street Guy.

3297

Because, as American persons for tax purposes, they would still be liable for the tax.

3298

Well, there are people that think this should be the plan…

3299

Those guys and the MMT guys need to marry and have many dystopian kids.

3300

Aren’t the zero tax guys in the same camp as the banks would never act in irrational and highly risky manners because it would doom them… and then we watched the whole system almost collapse for doing just that?

I mean if people were rational and caring on their own… I guess we’d spend more time talking about the meaning of the color blue or something instead of this stuff.

3301

No, not ANY adjustment upward.

Picking up and moving your life is not a trivial undertaking. There is some degree of inertia that works need to be overcome.

But if you say, “in going to take 5% if everything you own, every year,” well, that could overcome a lot of inertia.

If you said a much smaller number like you see in some other countries, or if you focused on income tax rates or other stuff, I think you would be less likely to overcome that inertia for most people.

3302

Even if that five percent results in no noticable difference to one’s lifestyle?

I think you guys are overstating how much the uber-wealthy would care. I think you’re just as likely to see them shrug and carry on buying yachts as you are too see them leave.

And if they do still leave because they’re only worth 190 billion instead of 200 billion? Well, that need for wealth for its own sake is downright pathological. I’m not sure it’s in our long-term interest to cater to people that depraved anyway.

3303

But you aren’t thinking it through.

It’s not like they pay the tax once, and then it’s done. You pay that every year. That’s a lot of money. And if you don’t get out when it starts, then you are likely stuck.

For someone like Bezos, he doesn’t seem to just be sitting on his mountain of gold. He seems to actually want to do stuff with it. He’s making spaceships and stuff. I can imagine he may not want to see that kind of erosion.

3304

Oh they care.

They’re not using tax loopholes and trying to avoid paying capital gains because their billions somehow means they won’t miss 100k. Hell if you have billions, that theory would suggest they don’t care at all what people do because… I mean billions. Except we know the ultra rich are heavy into politics… why bother when you can country and house hop pretty much at will? Yet they do.

Our politicians didn’t come up with a shit and complicated tax code on their own. Rich cared enough to push them to where it is today. The thing is, we still out number the ultra rich. If people stopped voting against their interests, it just wouldn’t matter how much they cared. They just need to keep us going after crumbs of Oreos and blaming office workers so they can continue to get away with it.

3305

Nah, I’m thinking it through just fine. Bezos’ wealth could be taxed at five percent every year for the rest of his life, and his lifestyle wouldn’t change. He would barely be inconvenienced by it. He could still have his masturbatory rocket launches. Because it’s not like he would just stop accumulating wealth. He’d continue to make money and generate wealth just fine. And again, if he decides that the money-pile dick-measuring contest is more important to him than paying taxes to improve the society that made him his wealth? We should just shrug our shoulders and let him do what he wants?

Of course they do. Like you say, it’s how we got here in the first place. But if I were a wealthy person, seeing the tide of public opinion of my wealth slowly turn from veneration to vilification, I might decide to be okay with only billions of dollars for the rest of my life. And you never know, you might have the odd billionaire who genuinely doesn’t care.

3306

It’s possible that his use of that wealth to develop commerical space flight could improve society more than whatever you want to spend that money on.

3307

Or we could just have NASA do it? I’m not sure why we need the libertarian middle-man involved in this, doubly so since he has zero loyalty to our country and would flee to Belize if we ever increased his taxes.

Other Bezos news: He’s exploring the far reaches of the ocean! Thank goodness we have him to do this for us.

Oh and the climate change induced heat wave is still going on tomorrow, so make sure to turn your thermostat to 82 degrees to fight global warming and keep the energy grid from keeling over. We’re all in this together.

3308

Of course it does when you can declare residency on the country next door and change nothing else in your life.

If we compare a company who externalizes all costs, including to suppliers and municipalities, they’re both still awful, and trickling money upwards.

On second thought, you keep them, and let my investments profit off your backs. But, really, investors depend on educated workers who can buy stuff, companies are not going anywhere, and they’ll want dollars no matter how much you spend to have them. If they stopped buying political power, even better. And billionaires abandoning the posh rich american lifestyle? Na.

More wanton fuel burning as every billionaire strives for space immortality, what could possibly go wrong.

3309

You could have the government do everything, but it’s not generally that good at doing lots of things.

But even beyond that, there are tons of people who say NASA is a waste of money, and we should be spending that money on other stuff, certainly not something as eccentric as space travel.

Maybe they’re ideas about how to spend that money are bad. I might think that you sirens your money badly… But it’s your money, so you don’t need to consult me about it. And maybe you’ll do something cool with it, that I lacked the vision to think of .

3310

Pictuing @RothdaTheTruculent going “whew whew whew”

3311

That’s why he can’t be trusted.

3312

For the zillionth time. It is not about the wealth it’s about control of the companies they founded.

If you gave most of these guys a choice. I’m going to reduce your wealth 50% or 75%, but you still have you still have all the stock you have in Amazon, Facebook, Tesla, or I’ll let you keep your wealth but you can have no involvement in the company, nor can you start or buy a similar company. All of them would choose the company control.

3313

Odd that it keeps growing while he’s using all of it to do stuff…