| > Are you talking about taxes or ransom? Some people would ask what is the difference. Im not quite there, but sympathetic to the idea. > I am all for progressive tax rates and as a poor person I do not support tax cuts for the wealthy (just wanted to clarify that) This is a technically problematic issue that i think the public does not quite understand. There is a concept called the statuatory incidence of taxes and the economic incidence of taxes. The first one is who signs the check to the government, the second one is who ends up paying for it. So if for example someone said that "now employers will pay 100% of the social security tax)", it might look to the untrained eye, that taxes are lowered on employees. But actually, it will reduce wages just as much, and in the end, the employee is still paying for it. Progressive taxation has this debate in economics: the excess wealth of the rich always get invested, which increase competition for labor, which rises wages. (very classical economics). At the same time, when the government seizes that money, a huge chunk is eaten out by the machinery. For example, some goes to the military, some goes to the government machination, some goes to the collector. Add to that, that now the wealthy will spend money to avoid the tax, which reduces the amount you will tax in comparison to what would have been spent or invested. I'm not sure if it technically holds true, and this is a debate amongst economists, but the thinking that taxing the rich will help the poor is not as simple at its stated, and I strongly opposed the mentality of "that guy has to much, lets shoot him". > I think all companies should be required to make compensation (salary, bonus etc) information public for all employees and contractors I think its even easier for the IRS to do it, since they already collect that data, and it will also inform on the effective tax rates people are paying, leading to a more informed society. I am all up for public salaries, after all ,mine was already forcefully disclosed in the US as an immigrant, lets get the rest in. |