News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Del.icio.us by mbay on Wednesday July 29, 2020 @09:35PM (#23993415)
marginal utility is much higher for the government (and the public) than for you
Re:Del.icio.us by kbutler on Wednesday July 29, 2020 @11:59PM (#23994507)
I think that statement is backwards.

Are you asserting that the government (and the public) will get more utility (benefit) from the extra 1 dollar on its $2.7 billion budget (increase of .000 000 04 percent), than I would from the extra dollar in my net annual income (on the order of a thousandth of a percent)?

That's a pretty incredible contention.

Re:Del.icio.us by webmaven on Thursday July 30, 2020 @03:50PM (#24002202)
On a per-dollar basis, you indeed get more marginal utility from the extra dollar than the government would.

But on a percentage basis (in a progressive taxation scheme, and especially in the higher tax brackets) the government gets more marginal utility from a 1% tax increase than you would from a 1% tax break.

Re:Del.icio.us by kbutler on Thursday July 30, 2020 @08:33PM (#24004418)
Nope.

In any bracket and at any percentage, the government will be adding $x to it's huge budget by taking $x from an individual or organization's much smaller budget.

(* Note that it really isn't valid to compare marginal utility between entities. It's an individual, relative measure, rather than an absolute quantity.)