re: #518 Obdicut

Well, yes. Taking off my unemployed grouchy hat, and putting on my somewhat dusty Rational hat with the little tassle -

As a tax scheme, its incentives are actually not all bad by comparison to what most developed countries have now. Day traders do not add to liquidity as much as they think, just as a semi-informed committee of 100 is often not smarter than a well-informed committee of 4. Day trader behavior is easily modeled to look kind of like gazelles on the savannah - running all this way or that when a few get spooked/greedy . Is this the parasitical rent seeking you were thinking of? You are stretching my distant memory of terms from Econ class.

My biggest objection is that well designed taxes seldom replace bad ones. They are added on top, and increase the total burden. By analogy, states that add an income tax do not replace sales taxes. Over time, they just take more. My suburb’s schools are about as ethnically mixed as Dallas and spend 1/4 less, but are among the best in the state. Dallas is pathetic, and has a dozen extra sneaky niche taxes. The local government and schools analogy is apt for federal spending as well. It is better to just keep the moderately well designed tax scheme on the books.

In other news I agreed with you twice yesterday, I had to go wash my hands over and over but it just wouldn’t come off. ///