Re:The Oppression of the Supermajority
by tathougies on Tuesday March 05, 2019 @02:30PM
(#19313429)
> We have income earned by labor, and "income" expropriated as a Rentier - rent, interest, profit. We know this as workers pay higher taxes on their earned income than heirs do for their unearned income.
It is incredibly difficult to interpret this as a critique of what the commenter wrote, when he explicitly called for a flat tax rate.
It refers to a flat tax on income and wages, which matter little to the wealthy. Capital gains are where the real money lies, and they're so hard to define that you can't call "no loopholes" on them.
Re:The Oppression of the Supermajority
by tathougies on Tuesday March 05, 2019 @04:18PM
(#19314351)
> Capital gains are where the real money lies, and they're so hard to define that you can't call "no loopholes" on them.
Well the government does quite the job right now and also taxes them at a lesser rate.
>Hand outs and taking people's money at the point of a gun is what the heirs do from those who work and create wealth. Larry Page talks about how the police encircled the auto plant his hammer-armed grandfather was [striking].
Would Larry appreciate a 75 - 90% tax on his earnings over ${rich_dude_income_threshold}? I'm not sure we can pass a law that taxes proletarian-grandkids-made-good at a lower rate than trust fund babies.
I will agree with your implicit point that if we tax income, we treat wages and capital gains equally.
The majority are those who work and create wealth. The minority are the heirs who expropriate surplus labor time from those who work. It is an old idea, James Madison wrote the initial draft of the US Constitution and said it was meant "to protect the minority of the opulent from the majority".
Hand outs and taking people's money at the point of a gun is what the heirs do from those who work and create wealth. Larry Page talks about how the police encircled the auto plant his hammer-armed grandfather was on strike at.
"By the time your (sic) 30, it's mostly what you did in life that got you there" - sure like Trump and his small million dollar loan from his dad, W. Bush and his drinking and failed businesses before a government deal for a sports stadium. We see these self made by 30 men as our recent presidents.
We have income earned by labor, and "income" expropriated as a Rentier - rent, interest, profit. We know this as workers pay higher taxes on their earned income than heirs do for their unearned income.
The parasitism is by the heirs who do not work upon us who do work. It has not much to do with money or material - it is a relationship - the expropriation by the heir of the surplus labor time of the worker.