tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26706564.post465007498199007169..comments2024-03-25T07:51:47.758-04:00Comments on Thoughts On Economics: The State Is "The Executive Committee Of The Bourgeoisie"Robert Vienneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14748118392842775431noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26706564.post-11454639617361456172013-03-08T09:24:28.217-05:002013-03-08T09:24:28.217-05:00ds also distances himself from the argument he pre...ds also distances himself from the argument he presents. I think we ought to take him as pointing out the existence of an argument, not advocating it, until he says otherwise.Robert Vienneauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00872510108133281526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26706564.post-60817748629175471822013-03-07T16:25:16.495-05:002013-03-07T16:25:16.495-05:00«The tax system in the United States favors income...«The tax system in the United States favors income from property, while taxing wages more heavily.»<br /><br />In the distant past this was not the case, but a large majority of USA voters love that because they own a small amount of shared or some properties and they want massive tax free capital gains thanks to endless credit bubbles.<br /><br />Once upon a time most USA voters regarded themselves primarily as working people, now they regard themselves primarily as property speculators.<br /><br />Grover Norquist put it very well:<br /><br />«<i>And that is, in 2002, on the investor class stuff … you could have said, just drop $7 trillion in stock market value with the collapse of the bubble … $7 trillion, trillions with a T … Americans had $7 trillion less than they used to have, you can expect them to be very irritated and in trouble.<br />[ ... ]<br />They were mad at having lower stock prices and 401(k)s, but they didn’t say Bush did this and that caused this. Secondly, the Democratic solution was to sic the trial lawyers on Enron and finish it off. No no no no no.<br /><br />We want our market caps to go back up, not low. The 1930s rhetoric was bash business — only a handful of bankers thought that meant them.<br /><br />Now if you say we’re going to smash the big corporations, 60-plus percent of voters say “That’s my retirement you’re messing with. I don’t appreciate that”. And the Democrats have spent 50 years explaining that Republicans will pollute the earth and kill baby seals to get market caps higher.<br /><br />And in 2002, voters said, “We’re sorry about the seals and everything but we really got to get the stock market up.</i>»<br /><br />And the same even more so for property prices.<br /><br />Many if not a mjority of USA voters dream of the plantation economy, with a layer of (mostly lady) rentiers at the top.Blissexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26706564.post-42946329016377500322013-03-07T16:18:43.360-05:002013-03-07T16:18:43.360-05:00"ds" seems to me amazingly good at misdi..."ds" seems to me amazingly good at misdirection because he cleverly omits several really important "details":<br /><br />* All capital income sources are very lowly taxed, not just those from company dividends.<br /><br />* It does not matter how many times an income stream is txed, what matters is the total take and most companies pay very little corporate income tax which is very low anyhow, for a combined take still much lower than that of earned income.<br /><br />* Earned income is subject to double or treble taxation too, as workers have to pay sales tax and excise taxes on what they buy, because as a rule workers are resident where their income originates.<br /><br />* It is easy but expensive, and thus only done by the those with very large incomes, to turn ordinary income into steady capital gains via accounting "technology", and then to enjoy those capital gains abroad.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26706564.post-37339593441414278652013-03-06T01:21:13.831-05:002013-03-06T01:21:13.831-05:00The argument that many use here is that capital in...The argument that many use here is that capital income is double-taxed. A firm must first pay taxes on its net income before it can distribute that income to its shareholders. The shareholders are then taxed again at the capital gains rate. A firm can deduct both labor and interest income so the idea is that workers and bond holders should pay more since that income is taxed only once.dshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09502812166565140434noreply@blogger.com