re: #466 iossarian

The thing is, the language we use to discuss taxation is all wrong. We don’t tax the rich. We tax high incomes. We don’t tax wealth at all.

And while we talk about income taxes, we need to simultaneously talk about capital gains taxes. Right now, as Buffet has pointed out, many of those with incredibly high incomes pay a lower amount of taxation on their income than their secretaries do.

Taxation is not about fairness, it is not about justice, it is not about anything high-falutin’. Taxation should be about doing the most good with the least harm.

We have experienced a large growth in income disparity in this nation over the past decades. Even Alan Greenspan has seen it as an incredibly big problem. I’m not saying it’s a problem in terms of social justice, or ethics, or fairness, but a problem of system engineering; capitalism will not continue to work if wealth becomes stratified, because capital is, in capitalism, a barrier to entry.

This is a really, really excellent ten part series that looks at the income disparity, and soberly, deeply analyzes possible causes and outcomes.

slate.com

I urge everyone to read it.