Comments 1 - 10 of 10 Search these comments
Wouldn't a tax on high earners and an end to labor unions fix this, by creating social mobility for the poors?
The foremost issue I see is the $500B/yr trade deficit.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=qAQ
After that, the $2T rent-tap in real estate.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/DHUTRC1Q027SBEA
Without addressing these outflows, we're just rearranging deck chairs.
People voluntarily part with their money to go see Beyonce or buy her music. Nobody will die, lose their job, or freeze to death if they don't buy her latest album.
What she does is actual wealth creation, providing NEW wealth that people want to enjoy, too.
So she's on a higher plane, compared to so much of our rent-seeking economy.
Even in the perfect economy, some rebalancing from high-earners would be needed, since it is financially impossible for 1%ers like Beyonce to return-spend the money she receives from the paycheck economy back into it, and without this symmetry, the system will eventually seize up I suspect.
(need to actually model this like Steve Keen is working on to more fully understand how the economy actually works)
People voluntarily part with their money to go see Beyonce or buy her music.
What she does is actual wealth creation, too.
She's on a higher plane, compared to so much of our rent-seeking economy.
1% is the 1% ....
Even in the perfect economy, some rebalancing from high-earners would be needed, since it is financially impossible for 1%ers like Beyonce to return-spend the money she receives from the paycheck economy back into it, and without symmetry, the system will eventually seize up I suspect.
buying $ 10,000 cell phone $100K Vacations $2M cars... $50M islands ... Tricle down economy ... i dont think so.... were is here $$$ going to for investments to create more industries..
Let them eat cake.... Let the little people worship the queen ...
(need to actually model this like Steve Keen is working on to more fully understand how the economy actually works)
more like Howard Hughes.. millions/billions of profits are reinvested into new ventures... film industry, hotel and leisure, aerospace, defense, air travel, medical research. and electronics. Therefore new industries are made, jobs created and continue to grow even when HH is long long gone.
I unignored you to see if you had anything interesting to say, but I see that was a mistake.
Suffice it to say that I would tax people who actually work for the money -- Beyonce, pro ballers, last.
First we need to close the $500B trade hole and the $2T rent taps each in housing and health care.
The sky-high salaries of a few thousand media superstars is a much, much smaller tap on everyone compared to that.
I personally have lost $0 to Beyonce's wiles. Wish I could say the same about my landlords (~$100,000+), Blue Shield and our corrupt medical sector (tens of thousands), OPEC, PG&E, etc etc.
The sky-high salaries of a few thousand media superstars is a much, much smaller tap on everyone compared to that.
Seriously... you need to look up who are the 1%... to just claim its Rent Seekers is naive on your part...
For someone to talks of Economics, you of all people should understand "Disposable Income" and choices we make...
I dont buy any Beyonce, therefore my savings is much higher than yours.
Blue Shield and our corrupt medical sector (tens of thousands), OPEC, PG&E, etc etc
Your choice to disconnect and not use their services.. its not a human right for
you to have these services...
Therefore new industries are made, jobs created and continue to grow even when HH is long long gone.
we're not in a capital-constrained regime any more, and private money has no greater claim on future wealth-creation than government seed capital investment for that matter.
Our core financial crisis is the $4T part of our economy being raked off in housing and health care. This is why things suck here.
And housing is also why things suck everywhere else, too, from Japan to Norway.
Ironically, the Soviet Union just signed over title to everyone in 1990, so the former communists aren't mortgaged to their eyeballs like everyone else.
http://taxfoundation.org/article/summary-latest-federal-income-tax-data
Top 5% made 33.8% of all AGI in 2010, rising to 33.9% in 2011.
Total filers was up 1.15% YOY and Total AGI was up 3.45%
Top 1% saw +2.54% AGI
1-5% +5.35%
5-10% +4.47%
10-25% +15.64%
25-50% +19.86%
Bottom 50%: +34.64%
Of course, income is top-loaded in an L-curve (top 1% makes 18.7% of all AGI), so the larger % increases aren't that massive in the global view, in fact, the bottom 75% lost ground.
Share of total AGI
Top 1%: -1.06% YOY
1-5%: +2.01%
5-10% +0.88%
10-25%: no change
25-50%: -0.48%
bottom 50%: -1.28%
So the big winners of 2011 were the 1-5% cohort.
But because the bottom 50%'s income recovered so much, they paid a much larger % of the income taxes.
Top 1% share of income taxes, 35.1%, fell 6.15% YOY
1-5%: share of 21.4% fell 1.38%
5-10% share of 11.8% rose 1.72%
10-25%: share of 17.4% rose 5.45%
25-50%: share of 11.5% rose 9.25%
bottom 50%: share of 2.89% rose 20.42%
Average tax rates
Top 1% paid 23.5%, up 0.47% YOY
1-5%: paid 17.7%, up 3.09%
5-10% 12.8%, up 6.48%
10-25%: 9.7%, up 11.49%
25-50%: 7%, up 16.47%
bottom 50%: 3.13%, up 32.07%
To make it into the 1% required $388k AGI, up 5.2% YOY
Top 5% took $167k, up 3.81%
Top 10% took $120k, up 3.01%
Top 25% took $70k, up 1.98%
Top 50% took $34k, up 1.41%