(06-29-2020, 04:09 PM)randomq Wrote: [quote='eightfingers2.0' pid='324887' dateline='1593417750']
You can NOT tax your way to prosperity.
There is some evidence to challenge that assumption. Nordic countries have very high taxes, for instance, but their education, social programs, job training programs, universal healthcare, and safety nets are a form of prosperity. They are both more wealthy on average than other European countries, and have less economic inequality. They are also much more engaged in their elections than we are here in Hawaii, have better education, and their leaders are held to task by the population and unions.
I think the problem we have here in Hawaii is that our leaders suck, and also we haven't established enough resilient economic activity to support a high-tax, high-service model. We have systemic incompetence and corruption, and they already squander our tax money on themselves and their cronies, so why would we want to give them more? But if we elected proper leaders, and they cleaned house, and enticed sustainable industries to move to Hawaii, moving workers over from the public sector to the new private sector jobs... Maybe then we could think about raising taxes for the common good. Green infrastructure projects that would reduce our dependence on oil and lower electric bills. Free education and job training to reduce the welfare rolls. Better teachers, more and better medical specialists...
A very apples and oranges comparison. I'll use Denmark for example because it has the highest tax rate of about 60%. The population of Denmark is 5.73 million. New York City has some of the highest taxes in our country and is 8.623 million people. The outcomes are nothing alike, so obviously taxing people more doesn't produce the same outcome.
Lets phrase this a different way: Let's say that we taxed every billionaire in the USA at 100%- no, go even further and not just tax them at 100%, but confiscate 100% of their wealth. All 500+ of the billionaires. All their money, stocks, real estate, trust funds, every last penny. Make them all homeless. Take all their money and spend it. It would net the country about $3 trillion (a trillion is 1,000 billion) dollars, which is less than the federal government has spent this year, and probably about half of what the country has borrowed this year, and half of what the federal reserve added to it's balance sheet this year (and it's still adding).
I agree that our tax system needs to be overhauled, a lot of things do, (a tax code with 80,000 pages needs to be wiped clean and start over). But we don't have a problem of not taxing people enough, we have a bureaucracy and spending problem. Taxation is theft.
“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.” (Margaret Thatcher)
Yes, and apparently in about 6 months.