Jeff Bezos would owe $2B a year under proposed Washington wealth tax

Discussion in 'Budget & Taxes' started by Lil Mike, Feb 11, 2021.

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  1. a better world

    a better world Well-Known Member

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    Er...the private sector can never create real full employment (see NAIRU).

    Nothing like increasing social unrest...
     
  2. Seth Bullock

    Seth Bullock Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Don't be surprised if Bezos says he's moving out, and Washington drops the idea.
     
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  3. Bullseye

    Bullseye Well-Known Member

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    Theoretically. Which doesn’t justify hundreds of thousands of useless functionaries living off others taxes.
    I saw a figure a few weeks ago that said with have almost 6 million unfilled job opening currently. Sounds like a target rich environment for unemployed bureaucrats. :cool:
     
  4. a better world

    a better world Well-Known Member

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    Obsolete Friedman supply-side economics.

    Fact: there are sufficient resources and productive capacity to employ and pay everyone an above-poverty-level wage (at a minimum) . Full stop.

    Courtesy of Friedman's obsolete neoliberal supply-side economics which ensures government cannot properly educate and match the nation's available workforce with available jobs.
     
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2021
  5. Bullseye

    Bullseye Well-Known Member

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    What makes this a “fact”?


    So you solution is to let government tell us what job we should have?
     
  6. a better world

    a better world Well-Known Member

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    Well...simple observation?

    Let's see.... we need sufficient housing and utilities (Internet, energy, water ) , sufficient food/clothing, and sufficient public transport.....duh.....

    (link)

    The Case for a Job Guarantee | Wiley

    "One of the most enduring ideas in economics is that unemployment is both unavoidable and necessary for the smooth functioning of the economy. This assumption has provided cover for the devastating social and economic costs of job insecurity. It is also false.

    In this book, leading expert Pavlina R. Tcherneva challenges us to imagine a world where the phantom of unemployment is banished and anyone who seeks decent, living-wage work can find it - guaranteed. This is the aim of the Job Guarantee proposal: to provide a voluntary employment opportunity in public service to anyone who needs it. Tcherneva enumerates the many advantages of the Job Guarantee over the status quo and proposes a blueprint for its implementation within the wider context of the need for a Green New Deal".
     
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2021
  7. Bullseye

    Bullseye Well-Known Member

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    LOL, the myth of “sufficient”. How do we create “sufficient”? Maybe have half the unemployed dig holes and the other have fill them in?
    Sorry, this sounds more like utopian dreams than any coherent economic theory.
     
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  8. a better world

    a better world Well-Known Member

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    Er... actually there is enough housing and food for everyone even now; so the problem is a lack of jobs to enable everyone to purchase the housing and food.

    Note my underlined: so you don't bother to read links....go back to sleep.
     
  9. Bullseye

    Bullseye Well-Known Member

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    Going to sleep would probably be a better use of time than reading utopian folderol.
     
  10. a better world

    a better world Well-Known Member

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    It's certainly a better use of YOUR time, if you refuse to learn.. and prefer to spout uneducated nonsense like " having half the unemployed dig holes and the other have fill them in?" , in this forum.
     
  11. Bullseye

    Bullseye Well-Known Member

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    I fine with learning, blinding swallowing the stuff you’re peddling would fit that category. Sorry, my hole digging comment is far from uneducated, it illustrates the “everyone gets a job” lunacy exactly; the difference from productive labor and “doing something to get paid”. You’re hinting at a managed (or more likely MISmanaged) economic system.
     
  12. a better world

    a better world Well-Known Member

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    So you are content to identify your uneducated " having half the unemployed dig holes and the other have fill them in?" with a real economist's Job Guarantee proposal...on the basis of obsolete Friedman supply-side economic ideology.

    Enjoy the riots; I posted an article yesterday highlighting that 60% of the Capitol rioters have financial difficulties relating to wage and employment issues.
     
  13. Bullseye

    Bullseye Well-Known Member

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    obsolete vs mythical - “obsolete still works.
    How exactly did they come up with that data? Sorry, not buying this nonsense.
     
  14. a better world

    a better world Well-Known Member

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    Works for you maybe, not for the c.10% un/underemployed (U6), plus those not registered because they have given up looking...and this was the best Trump achieved before the pandemic, with the so-called "unemployment rate" of 3.7%. (Total fiction, as outlined above)

    Can We Exit This Road to Ruin? - CounterPunch.org

    3. According to the Washington Post, nearly 60 percent of the people facing charges related to the Capitol riot had serious money troubles, including bankruptcies, notices of eviction or foreclosure, bad debts, or unpaid taxes. The group’s 18 percent bankruptcy rate percent was nearly twice as high as that of the American public. Twenty percent faced losing their home at one point. Frankel, Tom. “A Majority Of The People Arrested For Capitol Riot Had A History Of Financial Trouble,” Washington Post (Feb. 10, 2021): https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...surrectionists-jenna-ryan-financial-problems/

    In any case, 40% of Americans can't find $400 from savings in an emergency (google it) ...the very definition of chronic financial insecurity, which is why the average life expectancy in the US declined even before the pandemic:

    "The average life expectancy in the U.S. has been on the decline for three consecutive years. A baby born in 2017 is expected to live to be 78.6 years old, which is down from 78.7 the year before, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. Jul 9 2019".

    Obsolete Friedman supply-side economics.
     
  15. Bullseye

    Bullseye Well-Known Member

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    LOL, sure. “Outlined” according to some esoteric ivory tower theory.


    So then my question becomes how did WaPoo come up with that number?
    Think how poor they’ll be when the government has to tax them to pay guaranteed wages.
    LOL, a tenth of a year - sounds like noisy data.
     
  16. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Apparently Bezos spends the majority of his time living in Washington D.C., rather than Washington state where he grew up and founded his company (yes, I know that is confusing), so it would not be that difficult for him to evade this tax.
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2021
  17. Distraff

    Distraff Well-Known Member

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    Washington will be getting $0 per year because these guys will just move out.
     
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  18. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    Maybe Washington State needs to learn that lesson.
     
  19. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    While I don't disagree with you there, personally, I feel the problem, and solution, is probably bigger than just taxing the rich.

    Let me try to clarify a little bit: If there's something bad going on it's probably a result of something going on (an issue) in the economy, and trying to just throw more money at it isn't necessarily going to be addressing the root cause.
    Not only that, but it's very likely any tax increases are mostly going to get sucked up in bigger bureaucracy and more individuals employed on the government payroll, and very little of it is going to actually go to the people that need it.

    I don't know if we should be viewing taxing the rich as the solution to increasing poverty and economic insecurity.

    Do you think it was the rich amassing more money that was what led to this problem??
     
    Last edited: Feb 27, 2021
  20. a better world

    a better world Well-Known Member

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    I agree of course ....you should know that, because you know I am an MMTer...(the OP about taxing the rich was posted by Lil Mike).

    S.Kelton: "Money doesn't grow on rich people"....a clever spoof on the mainstream claim that MMT amounts to an assertion 'money grows on trees'.

    No. The problem is breathtakingly simple, namely: the failure to eliminate economic insecurity by guaranteeing above poverty employment (and if necessary, subsidizing housing, health, and transport costs).


    "PAVLINA R TCHERNEVA PhD
    is an Associate Professor of Economics at Bard College and a Research Scholar at the Levy Economics Institute NY. She specializes in Modern Monetary Theory and public policy. Tcherneva is the author of recently published and highly acclaimed book A Case for A Job Guarantee".
     
  21. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I don't think they really know what the underling cause of the economic problems really are, nor do they know the solution, so they're just going to throw all the usual go-to 's at it, and hope the problem goes away.
    Ever lower interest rates, more deficit spending and stimulus, and "higher taxes on the rich" (actually higher taxes overall).

    That's my very cynical take on it.
     
    Last edited: Feb 27, 2021
  22. bringiton

    bringiton Well-Known Member

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    Wrong. They are aware that the problem is privilege, and that the solution is to abolish or tax it. But they will not do that because they serve the privileged, and will not hesitate to sacrifice everyone else in the narrow financial interest of the privileged.
    Relative to their net worth, the rich pay lower taxes than any other group. This relationship is monotonic: tax burden as a fraction of net worth is highest for the poorest (whose net worth is often negative), and declines monotonically, reaching its lowest level for the richest 0.0001%.
     
  23. joesnagg

    joesnagg Banned

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    The ignored word, "PROPOSED". When it will "REALLY" happen... pig.jpg
     
  24. Daniel Light

    Daniel Light Well-Known Member

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    We've already tried much higher income taxes on the wealthy - it was called the 1950s and 60's. The country and
    wealthy individuals survived just fine. Conservatives act as if raising taxes is the end of the world.
     
  25. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    Not me. I welcome states raising the income tax, or having a wealth tax, as high as they want. States are the laboratory of democracy after all so I would enjoy seeing how these experiments play out state to state.
     

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