Wealth & Income Inequality

Pogue Mahone said:
So what’s the craic with this 1% “Global Wealth Tax” suggested by Pickety? Anyone know what he has in mind?

Seems obvious that there should be some sort of cap on how wealthy any one individual can be, with punitive taxation above that point. It could be set very high too, so will never be an issue for the vast majority of people no matter how ambitious/successful they are.

How about setting the cap at assets of £10m per individual? Anything above that and you’re giving most of it away as taxes. Can anyone really object to this with a straight face?!?
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I can see the merits of a higher marginal tax rate for the ultra wealthy, but a cap is simply a ridiculous idea.

Also £10m? Seriously? A lot of properties in London, New York, Hong Kong etc are worth much much more than £10m.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
So what’s the craic with this 1% “Global Wealth Tax” suggested by Pickety? Anyone know what he has in mind?

Seems obvious that there should be some sort of cap on how wealthy any one individual can be, with punitive taxation above that point. It could be set very high too, so will never be an issue for the vast majority of people no matter how ambitious/successful they are.

How about setting the cap at assets of £10m per individual? Anything above that and you’re giving most of it away as taxes. Can anyone really object to this with a straight face?!?
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It wouldn't work since there's no world government to enforce it. Each state will have to continue taxing people as feels is appropriate.
 
In Star Trek they don't use money any more so it'll all work out in the end.
 
Cal? said:
I can see the merits of a higher marginal tax rate for the ultra wealthy, but a cap is simply a ridiculous idea.

Also £10m? Seriously? A lot of properties in London, New York, Hong Kong etc are worth much much more than £10m.
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A cap is a not just a ridiculous idea but it would never ever be ratified and enforced worldwide so it’s basically worthless to even entertain it as an idea.
 
SirAF said:
A cap is a not just a ridiculous idea but it would never ever be ratified and enforced worldwide so it’s basically worthless to even entertain it as an idea.
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Agreed, it's similar to people advocating caps on EPL players wages, the players who are good enough will just go to another club.
 
Probably the biggest issue of our times (climate change excepted), and any politician who seizes on it over the next few years could be on to a winner. Can’t go on unchecked.

(Edit): also there are indications the populist right are beginning to understand this.
 
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VorZakone said:
This is just like Occupy Wall Street some years ago. A few weeks of protesting and rage by a very small part of the population, then it's back to business as usual. Nothing's gonna happen.
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Totally agree. You get only what you are prepared to stand up for and that is why nothing will change.

The industrial strife that we saw during the 1970's (and some of us lived through) is still very much in the public contiousness and is not going to be repeated.

As a result, we now have a very apathetic population who are perfectly happy to moan on their social media but are not prepared to do anything tangible.

We see what is happening in France for example where some people have tried to get things done and we have seen the Macron government back down.
However, I do agree that people are getting pretty fed up with the government and politics in general and if Brexit goes badly it is possible that this could act as a trigger for protest.

The question is whether such protest would have any affect; which I very much doubt.
We are where we are for a very good reason.
 
2cents said:
Probably the biggest issue of our times (climate change excepted), and any politician who seizes on it over the next few years could be on to a winner. Can’t go on unchecked.

(Edit): also there are indications the populist right are beginning to understand this.
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Yes. They've moved into that vacuum abandoned by the left unfortunately. The left now need to be bold and seize back their ground.
 
Cal? said:
Agreed, it's similar to people advocating caps on EPL players wages, the players who are good enough will just go to another club.
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It's not similar at all because EPL players have a clearly marketable skill that will generally translate to other situations.

What skill does a banker have? What skill does an corporate lawyer have? They have highly specialized knowledge in a very limited scope which has no practical value unless a society is set up to reward those skillsets. A society that is set up differently doesnt need investment bankers and corporate lawyers.
 
The Clintons net worth in 1992 while running for President was 700,000

In 2016 it was around 55 million.

If only the working class and middle class could have seen tremendous out of this world economic growth as a Presidential pair trying to enrich themselves.
 
Eboue said:
It's not similar at all because EPL players have a clearly marketable skill that will generally translate to other situations.

What skill does a banker have? What skill does an corporate lawyer have? They have highly specialized knowledge in a very limited scope which has no practical value unless a society is set up to reward those skillsets. A society that is set up differently doesnt need investment bankers and corporate lawyers.
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The world needs bankers and lawyers a lot more than a lot of other jobs.

Anyway, the point isn’t if their skills are transferable, but that any cap will just result in mass immigration to countries without said caps.
 
Cal? said:
The world needs bankers and lawyers a lot more than a lot of other jobs.

Anyway, the point isn’t if their skills are transferable, but that any cap will just result in mass immigration to countries without said caps.
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No it doesnt. If all the investment bankers and corporate lawyers in this country moved to Hong Kong to pal around with you, America would be a better place.
 
oneniltothearsenal said:
If only the working class and middle class could have seen tremendous out of this world economic growth as a Presidential pair trying to enrich themselves.
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You can say the same about any celebrity profession, tbh. Are you saying companies should offer a middle class man $500k to make an appearance or that celebrities should not make any paid appearances?
 
oneniltothearsenal said:
The Clintons net worth in 1992 while running for President was 700,000

In 2016 it was around 55 million.

If only the working class and middle class could have seen tremendous out of this world economic growth as a Presidential pair trying to enrich themselves.
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55m really isn’t that much for possibly the most famous couple in the world
 
Eboue said:
No it doesnt. If all the investment bankers and corporate lawyers in this country moved to Hong Kong to pal around with you, America would be a better place.
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:lol: I’d love to see that.

How big a drop do you expect to see in the DJI?
 
Eboue said:
It's not similar at all because EPL players have a clearly marketable skill that will generally translate to other situations.

What skill does a banker have? What skill does an corporate lawyer have?
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Banking has been a necessity to society far earlier than football :lol: You can have a functioning world without football, can't do so without banking. From the basics of lending to money transfers to basic trade, bankers have always been integral to society.
 
Edgar Allan Pillow said:
Banking has been a necessity to society far earlier than football :lol: You can have a functioning world without football, can't do so without banking. From the basics of lending to money transfers to basic trade, bankers have always been integral to society.
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He has an irrational hatred of people in high paying jobs.
 
Edgar Allan Pillow said:
Banking has been a necessity to society far earlier than football :lol: You can have a functioning world without football, can't do so without banking. From the basics of lending to money transfers to basic trade, bankers have always been integral to society.
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Banking can be done through the postal service and other government run entities. A society does not need investment bankers making seven figures every year to function. You are your ilk are leaches.
 
Cal? said:
The world needs bankers and lawyers a lot more than a lot of other jobs.

Anyway, the point isn’t if their skills are transferable, but that any cap will just result in mass immigration to countries without said caps.
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Hardly. If you set the cap at say, £50m, you're only talking about very small numbers of people. I also don't think their absence would be noted from wherever they're living now.

I can see how taxing the hell out of anyone who earns, say, 100k+ each year (and pays PAYE on that income) is a bad idea, as you'll lose a lot of highly qualified experts in a load of different fields that directly benefit citizens (e.g. medicine) which would mean their former country loses their expertise and the massive amounts of tax they're already paying.

If the idea is to go after the very top 1% - the people with enormous wealth based on capital - then who cares if they leave? Most of them have tax avoidance schemes coming out of their ears and their day jobs will invariably consist of nothing more than finding new ways to inflate that capital. If/when they take that day job overseas, how does anyone else lose out?
 
Edgar Allan Pillow said:
You can say the same about any celebrity profession, tbh. Are you saying companies should offer a middle class man $500k to make an appearance or that celebrities should not make any paid appearances?
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Odd red herring.

Anyone complaining about Trump using the Presidency for personal profit must also blame the Clintons for the same.
 
VorZakone said:
This is just like Occupy Wall Street some years ago. A few weeks of protesting and rage by a very small part of the population, then it's back to business as usual. Nothing's gonna happen.
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It’s nothing like occupy Wall Street. You can now do it while eating microwave dinners with a keyboard in your lap.
 
Guy is like Timothy Mcveigh minus the intelligent part. Hope he is on some sort of watchlist.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Hardly. If you set the cap at say, £50m, you're only talking about very small numbers of people. I also don't think their absence would be noted from wherever they're living now.
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You'll just see big companies like Facebook and Amazon migrate to countries without wealth cap. People like Eboue would be happy but not really good for economy.

Also setting a arbitrary number hinders development. Once cap is hit the companies would have no incentive to do better. Whether good or bad, research and pushing limits are linked intrinsically to profit. Medical research, new fuels etc attract billions in investment simply because of the return potential. Put a cap to that and you'll just be slowing down development.
 
oh my god facebook and amazon will move somewhere they pay less tax, which is extremely different to right now when they pay all the tax, this has never been brought up before
 
Edgar Allan Pillow said:
You'll just see big companies like Facebook and Amazon migrate to countries without wealth cap. People like Eboue would be happy but not really good for economy.

Also setting a arbitrary number hinders development. Once cap is hit the companies would have no incentive to do better. Whether good or bad, research and pushing limits are linked intrinsically to profit. Medical research, new fuels etc attract billions in investment simply because of the return potential. Put a cap to that and you'll just be slowing down development.
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Most research breakthroughs have been funded by governments in some way.
 
Edgar Allan Pillow said:
You'll just see big companies like Facebook and Amazon migrate to countries without wealth cap. People like Eboue would be happy but not really good for economy.

Also setting a arbitrary number hinders development. Once cap is hit the companies would have no incentive to do better. Whether good or bad, research and pushing limits are linked intrinsically to profit. Medical research, new fuels etc attract billions in investment simply because of the return potential. Put a cap to that and you'll just be slowing down development.
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Well Facebook, Twitter and a bunch of other tech companies already have their headquarters in Dublin and I’m willing to bet that not one employee with personal capital of £50m+ is living here. They’ll all still be living in Silicon Valley.

In your second paragraph you seem to be conflating running a profitable business with individuals accumulating enormous wealth. They’re not the same thing. At least they don’t need to be.
 
Eboue said:
Most research breakthroughs have been funded by governments in some way.
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Not really. In fact, not at all.

There’s definitely been a trend towards corporations buying more and more of their IP from academia in recent times but we’re nowhere near a point where that would constitute the origin of “most” research breakthroughs.
 
it's true, probably the most pertinent research to our time, the effect of climate change and ongoing destruction of the planet was discovered by the oil industry 60 years ago, where they shrugged and chose to destroy the planet knowing there would be no consequences in their lifetimes
 
Eboue said:
Banking can be done through the postal service and other government run entities. A society does not need investment bankers making seven figures every year to function. You are your ilk are leaches.
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Seven figures? That's lacking ambition...
 
Pogue Mahone said:
In your second paragraph you seem to be conflating running a profitable business with individuals accumulating enormous wealth. They’re not the same thing. At least they don’t need to be.
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What is the point of running a business, if not to accumulate wealth?

As for inequality, Oxfam's stat doesn't mean anything. There's not a fixed amount of wealth we're all fighting over so it doesn't matter who 'owns' what percentage of it.
 
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