No you can’t tax wealth, it does not make any fucking sense.
If I own a peice of land that, for some wild reason, is valued 1 billion, why the fuck would I pay taxes on 1 billion ??? especially if I just work at the starbuck for minimum wage. Like, it’s only gonna make the wealthy even wealthier. Only rich people are gonna be able to pay taxes on nice things.
What do make sense is to pay taxes when I’m gonna sell that land 1 billion. That is sound. You pay tax on income, not on wealth. Maybe pay taxes on transactions.
If you wanna tax the rich, start by reforming how capital gains are taxed.
Funny that you should pick land, considering that property tax exists and is based on a valuation of your land. There’s a very simple solution if you can’t afford the tax on your wealth, which is to sell that wealth. If you can’t afford the tax then you can’t afford the wealth.
And as soon as that happens, those companies will start generating massive profits and paying their pittance (still in the billions btw) to other countries. It will also destroy the American job market and leave millions of people destitute.
As much as it sucks, these billion (now trillion) dollar companies produce the lion’s share of America’s wealth. If they take their profits elsewhere, you can say ‘goodbye’ to the world order that the US is almost solely propping up.
they take their profits elsewhere, you can say ‘goodbye’ to the world order that the US is almost solely propping up.
I’m fairly sure in some way that’s what most of this sub should want explicitly, but while you imagine that necessarily as a slide backwards, I’m fairly convinced if the US ever gets to a wealth Tax their world order is already collapsing, and we are collectively transitioning to a better one. A world order based on actual global democratic decisions, instead of US Neo-imperialist domination perhaps.
You assume that most of these companies wouldn’t just move to a single destination that wouldn’t do the same shit that America did, which is to cater to rich people so that they can generate massive wealth for themselves and the governments of that nation. Unless the entire population of the world decides on a system that’s not like this one, it won’t happen; period. It’ll just shift elsewhere.
And no matter how bad America is, I can imagine worse alternatives (hint: China)
…are you fucking serious right now? Do you really think that offshoring your manufacturing means ‘moving out of America’, or that it’s done to ‘avoid paying taxes’? Do you not understand that the vast majority of a company’s value isn’t created in the sweatshops where laborers are paid nickels and dimes, but in the boardrooms of megacorps where marketing departments put thousand-dollar labels on smartphones that cost a hundred dollars to make?
Yes how about trying to imagine better alternatives instead of assuming everything impossible then.
If the US led world order collapses that might be bad temporarily for US residents and it would be a great win for almost everyone else, almost by necessity. Again many winners few losers, much like the wealth tax. And not everyone needs to actually take up a better system, this is completely true in our current system already.
That’s such a narrow take. It won’t just be ‘bad temporarily for US citizens’ if the only country that’s a counter to China ceases to be a pre-eminent world player.
You know the world has other places than China and the US right. And that the us can still be a very powerful country without being the current hegemon. Certainly a welath tax wouldn’t achieve such impressive collapse in less than a few decades. The only real problem with a complete downfall of us hegemony might actually be the Taiwan situation.
But literally all of africa and south America would be in a much better situation if the US wouldn’t continue to have the power to protect some of its more historic foreign assets large parts of SEA and the middle east would also have much to celebrate.
You seem strangely scared of china while having little empathy towards anyone that might be suffering under US aligned rule. My take isn’t narrow but your view of the world might be. If you are at least from the US I might understand somewhat, if not then yikes.
Please don’t tell me you actually believe any of that. How does a company like Apple, which essentially vacuums up consumer money around the globe, converts it into American profit, and then directly injects it into the American economy through high-value employment in software/marketing/sales etc to pump up the values of American stock exchanges through its stock valuation (stocks that, btw, make up the bulk of 401k’s of American citizens) not generate wealth for the US? Do you not know how this whole chain works?
Also, these companies do pay billions in taxes annually. Sure, they use loopholes to not pay their fair share, but they do pay taxes that they otherwise wouldn’t need to pay if they weren’t operating within America.
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No you can’t tax wealth, it does not make any fucking sense. If I own a peice of land that, for some wild reason, is valued 1 billion, why the fuck would I pay taxes on 1 billion ??? especially if I just work at the starbuck for minimum wage. Like, it’s only gonna make the wealthy even wealthier. Only rich people are gonna be able to pay taxes on nice things.
What do make sense is to pay taxes when I’m gonna sell that land 1 billion. That is sound. You pay tax on income, not on wealth. Maybe pay taxes on transactions.
If you wanna tax the rich, start by reforming how capital gains are taxed.
Funny that you should pick land, considering that property tax exists and is based on a valuation of your land. There’s a very simple solution if you can’t afford the tax on your wealth, which is to sell that wealth. If you can’t afford the tax then you can’t afford the wealth.
Then take a company that is highly valued ? You understand the point and won’t engage with it. That is funny.
To expand on that, you should also pay tax on unrealized gains used as collateral for a loan.
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And as soon as that happens, those companies will start generating massive profits and paying their pittance (still in the billions btw) to other countries. It will also destroy the American job market and leave millions of people destitute.
As much as it sucks, these billion (now trillion) dollar companies produce the lion’s share of America’s wealth. If they take their profits elsewhere, you can say ‘goodbye’ to the world order that the US is almost solely propping up.
I’m fairly sure in some way that’s what most of this sub should want explicitly, but while you imagine that necessarily as a slide backwards, I’m fairly convinced if the US ever gets to a wealth Tax their world order is already collapsing, and we are collectively transitioning to a better one. A world order based on actual global democratic decisions, instead of US Neo-imperialist domination perhaps.
You assume that most of these companies wouldn’t just move to a single destination that wouldn’t do the same shit that America did, which is to cater to rich people so that they can generate massive wealth for themselves and the governments of that nation. Unless the entire population of the world decides on a system that’s not like this one, it won’t happen; period. It’ll just shift elsewhere.
And no matter how bad America is, I can imagine worse alternatives (hint: China)
deleted by creator
…are you fucking serious right now? Do you really think that offshoring your manufacturing means ‘moving out of America’, or that it’s done to ‘avoid paying taxes’? Do you not understand that the vast majority of a company’s value isn’t created in the sweatshops where laborers are paid nickels and dimes, but in the boardrooms of megacorps where marketing departments put thousand-dollar labels on smartphones that cost a hundred dollars to make?
deleted by creator
Wow, rock solid argument. ‘Yeah, idc if the US economy loses literal trillions if companies like MS and Apple move out! Who cares right?!’
Seriously, thanks for reminding me that, while things are already pretty fucking bleak, we’re still not living in the worst-case scenario.
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Yes how about trying to imagine better alternatives instead of assuming everything impossible then.
If the US led world order collapses that might be bad temporarily for US residents and it would be a great win for almost everyone else, almost by necessity. Again many winners few losers, much like the wealth tax. And not everyone needs to actually take up a better system, this is completely true in our current system already.
That’s such a narrow take. It won’t just be ‘bad temporarily for US citizens’ if the only country that’s a counter to China ceases to be a pre-eminent world player.
You know the world has other places than China and the US right. And that the us can still be a very powerful country without being the current hegemon. Certainly a welath tax wouldn’t achieve such impressive collapse in less than a few decades. The only real problem with a complete downfall of us hegemony might actually be the Taiwan situation.
But literally all of africa and south America would be in a much better situation if the US wouldn’t continue to have the power to protect some of its more historic foreign assets large parts of SEA and the middle east would also have much to celebrate.
You seem strangely scared of china while having little empathy towards anyone that might be suffering under US aligned rule. My take isn’t narrow but your view of the world might be. If you are at least from the US I might understand somewhat, if not then yikes.
Oh shit, now I get it. Sorry, didn’t know you were a tankie.
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Please don’t tell me you actually believe any of that. How does a company like Apple, which essentially vacuums up consumer money around the globe, converts it into American profit, and then directly injects it into the American economy through high-value employment in software/marketing/sales etc to pump up the values of American stock exchanges through its stock valuation (stocks that, btw, make up the bulk of 401k’s of American citizens) not generate wealth for the US? Do you not know how this whole chain works?
Also, these companies do pay billions in taxes annually. Sure, they use loopholes to not pay their fair share, but they do pay taxes that they otherwise wouldn’t need to pay if they weren’t operating within America.
deleted by creator
Yeah, either lick boots or keep hoping for the downfall of America! No middle ground here, no sir!