Re:What to know about the stock market (2007)
by sokoloff on Monday February 14, 2022 @06:31AM
(#30330780)
That reduces social inequality, but that is not the singular goal of a society. Producing goods and services and wealth for the nation is a goal that competes with “tax away almost all the gains of these activities”, which is why there’s debate about how to balance these things.
Re:What to know about the stock market (2007)
by hnbad on Tuesday February 15, 2022 @05:09AM
(#30344658)
Frankly, who is "the nation" if not its people? As long as even a single individual suffers poverty, "the nation" has failed. If "the nation" is its people, protecting every single person from hardship is a higher goal than allowing a minority to live in excessive luxury.
If you think the "wealth of a nation" is measured by the luxury of a few rather than the poverty of the many, you might as well just revert to feudalism.
Low inheritance taxes are actually a great predictor for maintaining social inequality over generations. If you wanted to reduce social inequality you'd instead want to drastically lower VAT (which disproportionately affects poorer people), adjust income taxes to lower the tax burden on lower incomes and raise it on higher incomes, and drastically raise taxes on income from capital (rather than labor). This isn't even simply an opinion, this is scientific consensus.