So JP Morgan’s heirs still control world finance? Carnegie’s heirs still control steel? Rockefellor’s heirs still control world oil?
Those big evil entities are mostly publicly traded, thus subject to votes. The government flavor are subject to votes as well. But the biggest thing they’re subject to is competition. Greatness and business acumen doesn’t necessarily flow from one generation to the next. Especially when gen 2 is raised soft.
Uhhhh
Those were busted during TR’s time… 110 years ago.
This fact often goes entirely unappreciated whenever the wealth gap or any inherited wealth issue arises.
The nice part is that this turnover occurs fairly naturally(estate tax aside) so we can or at least should avoid the more complex moral issues regarding inherited wealth.
" I’m still not sure what people expected."
Something less bad than Hillary. Legislation is hard to pass on the best days. None of that surprises me. Be we don’t have rubber stamped, destructive obama era policies.
We were going to lose in this election regardless. I think we lose less with the game show host.
America already lost when trump and hillary were the only viable candidates. It’s a matter of how bad.
So name a family where inherited wealth is a problem today. Surely the Jobs heirs are screwing up Apple and ruling the world? Seeing as how their estate included a chunk of the largest market cap company to ever exist… My point is inherited wealth is not a problem in today’s world.
Using tax policy for social engineering is really dumb in the first place. You can’t prevent “aristocracy” with taxes any more than you can promote stable families with marriage tax breaks.
Losing battle with the NFL? I think he is actually winning. Ratings are dropping. Revenues have dropped too. Maybe it’s an aberration and I hope it is. But he won that fight. It’s hard to lose when you are supporting the flag and national anthem.
I hate it. I want my sports and my politics seperate. I watch sports as a respite from news and politics. Trump reigniting a dying issue pissed me off. There were 6 players protesting. That is an ignorable amount. Now they are all doing it.
The flag is greater than one man and it saved my ass personally. So I will stand until I die or am shot for doing it. It doesn’t mean I liked trump jumping in the fray. Without his help, we’d hardly speak of it now.
When the topic is the POTUS getting into a twitter fued with the NFL, I can’t think of a word that is less accurate than “winning” for literally everyone involved.
Question I’ve been asking my right leaning acquaintances. Do you think America’s attention span will last through until next season on this topic?
If you would read my original post, @thunderbolt23 statement of financial aristocracy, or at least considered oligopolies - which also extend to personal fortunes, when not checked by governments - you might present a more reasonable argument.
As it is, we live under a taxation system that half assedly stifles the robber barons of today. Notice l say half assedly. Because the uber rich have gamed the system as noted by you and others to hang on to billions accumulated.
I also said others who were crafty would snatch up accumulations they didn’t build - ex. the Murdoch family.
So how do you propose to use government tax policy to build a more-fair society? I’m not trying to be argumentative here, but the estate tax doesn’t cut the mustard if your goal is socially engineering out having a powerful upper class.
The world has always operated on “he who has the gold makes the rules”. Power will always rest on the hands of a select few. The best way to mitigate the problems of concentrated power seems to be (imho) representative republic government (early rome/early US) and ownership of the means of production by all classes = capital markets.
Even the communists just shifted control of the means of production to the politburo and the select few oligarchs there. They only shifted the problem, they didn’t solve it. You can’t get more progressive in taxation than communists.
To ask the question in a non-loaded fashion if you were omnipotent king of the US:
What would your tax policy look like?
What goals do you want it to achieve?
@thunderbolt23 same question
I don’t think you fix it with tax alone, or really even primarily, but I do agree that the American system is set up for a “property owning” democracy, with property/wealth dispersed among the many and not concentrated in the hands of the few. It currently is not.
I don’t think the estate tax is a big change agent there - I suppose it could be, but I think the policy fix lies elsewhere, primarily in ensuring competition in markets, which, increasingly, we don’t have. First easy thing to do is revive antitrust policy, which has been dead since the Reagan administration.
As for taxation generally, it needs to reward productivity more and investment/speculation less. Reduce income tax rates, move up capital gains rates.
My only real concern here is that you’re potentially reducing access to capital for companies that utilize said capital to pay for the “productivity” jobs so to speak. How much would this affect jobs? Hard to say, but it’s cheaper than taking on more debt.
I think a discussion should be had on how to treat income from hedge funds and carried interest.
There are certainly loopholes to close that could drastically increase tax receipts. For instance LIFO is only legal in the US for tax purposes, nobody else allows it. Don’t get me started on loss carry forwards.
I don’t disagree, and as king for a day I wouldn’t make the CG rate punitive - just closer to the income rate. Right now, investment gets a privilege over productivity, and it’s too out of wack.
Completely agreed on hedge funds and carried interest.
Nope… No fucking way. The Congress softball shooting seems like ages ago, it’s just been a couple of months.
I wouldn’t call them loopholes, but, ya, there are always things worth tinkering with.
I don’t have a problem with loss carry forward at all. I’m curious what your reasoning is?
I also don’t have a problem with the various inventory valuation methods including LIFO as long as companies are restating properly if they switch methodologies as per GAAP.
he’s not winning anything. On Sunday most teams came out to take a knee then they stood for an anthem. Which I agree with… Brings attention to issue and doesn’t disrespect flag. Keep in mind it’s a protest against police misconduct not anti America. We all have a right to live in an America where we don’t get killed or abused by people we pay to protect us… If anyone anti-America its agent orange. He campaigned on how much America sux plus he’s a Russian puppet… NFL is giant business he won’t put a dent in it with his twitter rants
You haven’t been paying attention on social media. Any and all protests during the anthem or in front of the flag can ONLY mean you hate America and you hate the troops.
What if they kneel for the Mexican Anthem when they play in Mexico City? After all, police corruption in the U.S. isn’t even in the same ball park as the corruption in Mexican law enforcement. The corruption, discrimination and murder in Mexico is, after all, quite legendary…
You could be kidnapped in Mexico City by a gang, or the police…
So, as in it’s still their right to sit, stand or flip off the Mexican flag in as much as the U.S. flag, how do you think the country of Mexico will receive that? I think we know what the results would be and the relentless slamming and accusations of racism in the media would be never ending.
Good post. I’d be amenable to this above if they actually did…but they won’t because “1% rhetoric” so I’d rather have half nothing than nothing (meaning I like friendly cap gains taxes). Sure the the rhetoric in this case (don’t lower income taxes on them! They’re rich!) is ignorant, but it’s still there and politically active