Watchhttp://news.yahoo.com/economist-advises-mitt-romney-rich-taxed-enough-022030464--abc-news-politics.html Hubbard gave us the tax breaks under Bush that helped blow the housing bubble.
Hubbard. While steering clear of specifics, Hubbard told the audience at the Intelligence Squared Debate that "higher tax rates won't necessarily produce enhancements in revenue." "We can and should achieve fairness and growth without taxing the rich more than they are today," he said.
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Hubbard seems to have very little understanding of the fundamentals of our economy:
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63 male
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Yes Hubbard is a supply side housing bubbler.
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I wonder if Hubbard even believes his own assertions. No valid empirical argument can be made that current progressive tax rates are high enough for the top earners/capital gainers. I love how he references "fairness" as if he has any ownership of that concept.
The fact that supply side housing bubblers or anyone associated with the 2007 collapse still have any legitimacy in this country indicates that we really are just preparing for another bubble.
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Don't fall for that old canard.
The poor pay a much higher percent of their income as payroll taxes and sales taxes than the rich do. Income tax is less than half of all gov't revenue.
Anyway, I say there should be zero income tax on productive work. What should really be taxed is non-productive rent seeking because it is by definition not productive. For example, income derived from mere ownership of land.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking
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Sales taxes pay for that stuff too.
But anyway, I'd also ban sales taxes because that's a penalty on commerce just like income tax on real work is a penalty on labor.
The appropriate object of taxation is income derived from expropriating other people's labor via mere ownership of things not created by anyone's labor, like land, natural resources like oil, wireless spectrum, and excessive claims to "intellectual property".
A tax on ultra-fast trading also seems appropriate, since it's not productive.
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Melmakian says
There's no way a day trader is going to be deterred by a penny per trade tax. Those computers that buy and sell a stock within 50 milliseconds however... And it might make the stock market less of a casino.
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Patrick says
I would like to see lower payroll taxes and a wealth tax once in awhile to balance the budget. That sounds close to your view Patrick!
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Patrick says
Patrick, a Tobin tax on trades would be great. The problem is that the politically independent Square Mile of the UK, which has no control on it from Parliament, will never go for it. So the trades will all go there. This should be a world rule, but I am against one world government so what are you going to do? It is a catch 22.
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I don't think we should care much what foreigners do. American law does not have to recognize trades on foreign exchanges.
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bgamall4 says
I'm a fan of Henry George and think we should distinguish between unproductive wealth like landowning and productive wealth like investment in capital goods.
The first should be taxed, but the second should not, in general.
Inheritance might be the biggest exception. If you inherit wealth you probably did not produce it, so it seems fair game for taxation too.
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Patrick says
The banks always say they will be uncompetitive and lose business. It is a game they play with congress. Eurozone wanted a Tobin Tax. The UK refused to go along. As Jamie Dimon found out the real trading platforms exist in the Square Mile.
But I would not be against the tax here.
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BananaSlug says
Another econalchemist.
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Melmakian says
I don't claim to know what "fair" is. I find when intelligent debate between informed individuals falls into the subjective realm very little is satisfactorily resolved. I do find it bitterly amusing that Hubbard thinks America is a "welfare state" for maintaining Social Security and Medicare but not for assuming the debt burden of America's fiscally inept bankers.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-10-24/hubbard-good-chance-obama-puts-u-dot-s-dot-over-fiscal-cliff
If you accept the assertion that the history of the American socioeconomic system can be extrapolated to the present day, then would you agree that during the eras of most widespread prosperity, tax rates were much higher for the wealthy? "Prosperity" can be a subjective term, but the wealthiest individuals today are doing pretty well.
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Melmakian says
Nice mix and match. So how much of the income do the top 20% make? About 85% while only paying 70% of the income taxes.
100% of revenues aren't from income tax. Income taxes are 42% of revenue, Fica is 40% and cuts off at 100k so the top 20% on average pay fica on 1/3 of their income. The most of the other 80% pay on their full income. Romney's 47% that don't pay income tax at all pay FICA. Corporate taxes (oh those poor overtaxed corporations) is 9%. The other 9% is various other taxes.
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To a liberal no amount of taxes are ever enough. To them "profit" is a four letter word.
BTW, "fair share" is a slogan, as such it has a subjective definition...exactly what liberals want. It can mean anything they want it to mean. It can mean "the current truth, as dictated by us".
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Abe, do you ever get sick of just being 100% flat out wrong?
Nobody likes taxes, especially us well to do elitist liberals who are funding a majority of 'red states'.
If you really see the world like this, I feel sad for you. Your sense of reality is really really messed up.
If you want to have a debate on whether our tax dollars are used efficiently or if an increase will cripple the economy, lets have that debate. If you are just going to spew stuff that normally comes out another hole, then dude.. Keep it shut!