112
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by ccunning@lemmy.world to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world

I’m looking for serious answers to understand the mentality. Please avoid the snark. I know it’s low hanging and tempting but I’m pretty sure most, if not all, of use here on Lemmy “get it”.

I just can’t get out of my head how absurd it is that we, in the U.S. anyway, put so much of the tax burden on working class folks instead of those most benefiting from our economic system.

It seems to me the standard deduction should be at least the median personal income (~$40k) if not the mean(~$60k) with progressive tax brackets adjusted to cover costs thereafter and possibly a supplemental wealth tax.

But I’m not an economist so trying to understand why I’m wildly wrong and this would be a terrible idea either from an economic perspective or from a political perspective.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 month ago

Something I never see mentioned is the risk of "brain drain". If you tax the rich too heavily, there's a possibility that they'll just move to another country with lower taxes, taking their companies (and jobs) with them.

[-] Waryle@jlai.lu 9 points 1 month ago

That's not brain drain. Brain drain is when high qualified people leave their country, mostly because of the lack of infrastructures costing them opportunities for studying or working in their respective field.

What you're talking about is capital flight. This is an issue that is systematically raised as a counter-argument by liberals in debates on taxation. The problem is that it is seriously overestimated:

  • Leaving a country is a lot more complicated than it sounds: you lose your family, your friends, your culture, your habits. Many millionaires who leave their country end up coming back after a few years.
  • You can't relocate your real estate investments.
  • Going abroad doesn't exempt you from paying taxes (especially exit taxes).
  • A country that wishes to do so can prohibit the relocation of a profitable company, or even nationalize it.
  • Many rich people who threaten to leave if taxes are raised end up doing the math: if there's a profitable business, they'll stay. And in a country that finances its infrastructure soundly and has a good distribution of wealth, there's profitable business to be had.
[-] GrammarPolice@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

raised as a counter-argument by liberals in debates on taxation.

Which liberals are defending heavy taxation of the working class?

[-] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

Not so much defending heavy taxation on the working class specifically, instead focusing solely on why the wealthy and mega corps have to have a low tax rate

[-] Waryle@jlai.lu 1 points 1 month ago
[-] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago

Not sure if I agree. If you'd do that you'll lose CEO's, not the highly skilled workers that actually do the work..one might wonder howuch would be lost there.

Also, where would they go? Any developed country will have it much, MUCH "worse" for them than the US and the alternative is moving to heavenly places like Russia or China. Good luck with that.

[-] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 month ago

You're equating wealth with intelligence. Bad take.

this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
112 points (93.1% liked)

No Stupid Questions

36057 readers
1203 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS