I still believe tax rates are too low for people in my income bracket. Also one should ponder that the marginal effect of donations to the government by me are neglible but when done on the scale of millions of people they end up not being negligible. I don’t think me paying an extra $x thousand will actually help anyone. I do think that millions of people paying $x thousands more will. In this case, size matters.
Then by the same logic, doing so when other people pay won’t actually help anyone either.
Replace the word other in your comment with everyong in the tax bracket I’m in and you’ll see that your conclusion is wrong. Consider this analogy. Me pooping in the local lake isn’t going to adversely affect the lake’s ecology. A million people doing so will.
It sounds like you think government waste implies $1000 is meaningless. Certainly $1000 in some private folks' pockets will materially help them.
We're talking about marginal returns here, i.e. whether or not the author should donate that extra $1,000 to the government. Donating that extra $1,000 when other people don't will help just as much, if not more, as when other people do.
You are consistently confusing marginal effect and aggregate effect in your posts. You are consistently misunderstanding that there is a huge difference in effectiveness in everyone in a tax bracket having increased taxes versus a single person paying the increase in taxes. There’s big difference in me wanting to pay $1,000 more in taxes versus wanting everyone in my tax bracket to pay $1,000 more in taxes.
What I’m discussing is precisely marginal effects and not aggregate effects. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18836313. Read more carefully next time.
Your emphasis on marginal vs. aggregate is why you are wrong and why your statements are wrong.
Nowhere did I make that claim.
> Your emphasis on marginal vs. aggregate is why you are wrong and why your statements are wrong.
No. You just can't read, apparently.
..you're not actually willing to do yourself."
That should be:
...you're not actually willing to do solely by yourself.
As I said, what does it matter if I'm a hypocrite? My belief that taxes should be higher for people like me is true or false independent of my hypocrisy. The question of taxation levels should not be determined or influenced by the level of my own personal hypocrisy.
I don't think you believe you should pay higher taxes, I think you believe other people in your income bracket should,..
You inserted other. This is wrong. I believe all people in my income bracket should pay more in taxes. This includes me. I do believe that government should tax me more. I'm also not going to donate more to the government if it isn't forced. Free rider problem and all that.
There's no special pleading in my position and I don't claim that my position on taxation levels is some sort of moral action on my part. All I've said is the following 2 things:
1. Taxes should higher for people in my income bracket.
2. I'm not going donate more to the government than what is required.
Make of this what you will. I'm a hypocrite. But I still think taxes should be higher for people in my income bracket and this obviously includes myself.