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Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Robert Reich Why We Need a Wealth Tax — Robert Reich Why We Need a Wealth Tax

A wealth tax is not needed to "pay for" anything, since the US funds itself directly using currency issuance. That is, the US is a currency issuer rather than a user of currency. 

The purpose of taxation is to:
  1. control for inflation 
  2. discourage taxed behavior 
  3. address social needs
A wealth tax would address 2 and 3. Regarding 2, the negative behavior being discouraged is rent-seeking and a wealth tax would serve to preempt rent extraction. Regarding 3,  the social need being addressed is relative equality in a liberal democracy in order to obviate falling into oligarchy as a kind of neo-feudalism based on ownership.

Robert Reich
Why We Need a Wealth Tax
Robert Reich | Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies; formerly Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration
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1 comment:

  1. Andrew AndersonMay 14, 2019 at 12:45 PM

    The purpose of taxation is to:
    1. control for inflation ...     Tom Hickey

    By taxing the non-rich, the bulk of consumers, till it hurts.

    Meanwhile, what about privileges for the banks and, by extension, for the rich, the most so-called "credit worthy"? Do these not use up precious politically acceptable price inflation space that might otherwise be use for the common welfare?

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