I found it too daunting, but may return, seemed to make the basic point I got from torah that wealth tends to skew upward over time. Can't see how to tax wealth, except at death which we ought to do much more of. As we both know, higher taxes promote more sophisticated avoidance efforts, providing some of our friends with an ongoing comfortable living.
This is indeed august company on this comment sheet.
If AI is actually going to do all the work it's going to take some interesting government approaches to supporting /employing people. Killing them is not an acceptable answer. When you consoder the various versions of "socialism" which the govenment aleady successfully suports , it can't be that hard....
Really lovely piece, Jim. Having thought about this subject a bit and coming from a labor background (my Dad was a union official, and I grew up in a house that never crossed a picket line), I think capitalism is a necessary evil. As you say, what's the alternative? The problem is how to live with this 'greed is good' philosophy while maintaining some semblance of fairness. I always thought the best answer was one we constantly try to pick apart: the graduated income tax. I'm not talking about our current tax system with all of its loopholes that you know well. Just a tax schedule that taxes income, as in the more you make, the more you pay. No loopholes. No exemptions. Just straight-up taxes on income. period. Such a scheme doesn't make capitalism any better. It would just make it easier to digest.
Jim, thanks for the kind words. I'm wondering whether part of our shared bias on this issue comes from a common moral view based on our differing religious affiliations. Using the words tax and fairness in the same sentence is an ongoing challenge cheers.
Capital by Thomas Piketty is very good, very hefty.
Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty is a landmark book that analyzes historical data to argue that capitalism naturally generates extreme wealth inequality, a trend that is accelerating as the rate of return on capital (r) consistently exceeds the rate of economic growth (g). The book posits that the mid-20th century's reduced inequality was a temporary anomaly caused by world wars and the Great Depression, and that the world is returning to a "patrimonial capitalism" dominated by inherited wealth, which threatens democratic values. Piketty proposes a global wealth tax as a solution to this growing disparity.
I found it too daunting, but may return, seemed to make the basic point I got from torah that wealth tends to skew upward over time. Can't see how to tax wealth, except at death which we ought to do much more of. As we both know, higher taxes promote more sophisticated avoidance efforts, providing some of our friends with an ongoing comfortable living.
This is indeed august company on this comment sheet.
If AI is actually going to do all the work it's going to take some interesting government approaches to supporting /employing people. Killing them is not an acceptable answer. When you consoder the various versions of "socialism" which the govenment aleady successfully suports , it can't be that hard....
Really lovely piece, Jim. Having thought about this subject a bit and coming from a labor background (my Dad was a union official, and I grew up in a house that never crossed a picket line), I think capitalism is a necessary evil. As you say, what's the alternative? The problem is how to live with this 'greed is good' philosophy while maintaining some semblance of fairness. I always thought the best answer was one we constantly try to pick apart: the graduated income tax. I'm not talking about our current tax system with all of its loopholes that you know well. Just a tax schedule that taxes income, as in the more you make, the more you pay. No loopholes. No exemptions. Just straight-up taxes on income. period. Such a scheme doesn't make capitalism any better. It would just make it easier to digest.
Jim, thanks for the kind words. I'm wondering whether part of our shared bias on this issue comes from a common moral view based on our differing religious affiliations. Using the words tax and fairness in the same sentence is an ongoing challenge cheers.
Capital by Thomas Piketty is very good, very hefty.
Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty is a landmark book that analyzes historical data to argue that capitalism naturally generates extreme wealth inequality, a trend that is accelerating as the rate of return on capital (r) consistently exceeds the rate of economic growth (g). The book posits that the mid-20th century's reduced inequality was a temporary anomaly caused by world wars and the Great Depression, and that the world is returning to a "patrimonial capitalism" dominated by inherited wealth, which threatens democratic values. Piketty proposes a global wealth tax as a solution to this growing disparity.