Tax and other discussions
Posted by John, February 10th, 2015 - under Labor Left, Labor Party, Tax.
Tristan Ewins has written a piece called “Debate on tax and ‘small government’ flares again” in the ALP Socialist Left Forum, with a revised version in Online Opinion. In it he makes some sensible suggestions about tax re-jigging that could raise tens of billions from the rich and powerful although much more could be added to the program such as a net wealth tax on the top ten percent without impacting at all on the capital accumulation process. It is worth a read. I disagree fundamentally with Tristan’s comment that many or most “socialists today [recognise] the place of ‘the market’ as a medium by which workers and citizens in their capacities as consumers hold corporations accountable through the play of market signals and forces.” Maybe the figures are correct but I at least am one socialist who doesn’t believe that at all. The market is part of the problem, not a solution. I digress.
As readers would know I have written extensively on tax on this blog and this link to the tax archive will give you a tax cornucopia.
In addition two recent articles in two socialist newspapers also give you an idea of how easy it would be to tax the rich. This is the link to an article called Tax avoidance: the rich get off scot free in the January issue of Solidarity.
This is the link to an article in Green Left Weekly called “Tackling tax avoidance at the G20“.
For taxophiles, socialists and others enjoy.
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Comments
Comment from Kay
Time February 10, 2015 at 3:39 pm
I like your little tale, Brian. Says it all!
Comment from Brian
Time February 10, 2015 at 1:08 pm
The socialist mantra, tax the rich.
below is a story by David Kamerschen professor of Economics Uni of NSW.
This explains why taxing the rich more will never work.
Suppose every night we have 10 men who go out to dinner, the bill comes to $100. They decide to pay the same way we pay taxes, so the bill was split, the first 4 pay nothing (the poorest), the fifth man $1, the sixth $3, the seventh $7, the eight $12, the ninth $18 and the richest man $59.
All were very happy with this arrangement. One day the owner of the restaurant said, as you are good customers I will give you a $20 discount off the bill, so only $80. The group still wanted to pay as they had always paid, but how could they divide 6 into $20 (remember 4 paid nothing), So the restaurant owner suggested the fifth man pays nothing (saving him $1 or 100%) the sixth man paid $2 (instead of $3 saving 33%) The seventh $5 (28% saving) the eighth $9 (saving 25%) the ninth paid $14 (saving 22%) and the richest man paid $49 instead of $59 (saving 16%)
When they left the restaurant, the men compared their savings. I only got $1 out of $20 said the sixth man and the tenth man got $10!
Yes, said the seventh man, why should he get $10 when I only got $2 savings? The rich get all the tax breaks. Wait a minute said the 4 poorest people, we got nothing at all, the system exploits the poor. The nine men surrounded the tenth man and beat him up..
The next night only nine men showed up for dinner, the tenth was missing. They sat down to dinner, but when it was time to pay the bill, they didn’t have enough to pay half!
That’s how our system works, the people who pay the most tax get the most out of a tax reduction. Tax them too much and they wont show up at the table any more, there are lots of good restaurants in Monaco and Caribbean.
Stop blaming the rich for your own shortcomings