[jandrewrogers]

> Heavily tax speculation

Like startups?

[tharmas]

Are startups not "productive activities"? I said to REDUCE taxes on productive activities which in my definition includes Startups.

Perhaps my definitions of "speculation" and "productive activities" go against conventions?

[rickydroll]

Like most financial engineering. Put a tax on every transaction

[ETH_start]

This reduces economic coordination, which makes the economy less productive.

[rickydroll]

Reduces economic coordination? Do you mean collusion? Price-fixing?

Yes, there are advantages and disadvantages to financial transaction taxes. I like them because they are progressive and reduce the profitability of share flipping. In theory, they would also reduce high-frequency trading, which seems like it's casino adjacent.

[ETH_start]

Transactions are not needed for collusion or price-fixing. Those happen through regular communication channels. Economic coordination happens through price signals and commercial exchange. The more friction is attached to commercial exchange, the less people trade, and the fewer opportunities to coordinate for the benefit of all involved parties can be exploited.

In other words, taxing transactions reduces division of labor, which is one of the main sources of productivity:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_labour