tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264937.post1625930459174153149..comments2024-03-26T12:23:29.784-04:00Comments on Philosoraptor: Is It Impossible To Tax The Wealthy?Winston Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08780746334199630779noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264937.post-33674833166300229312014-08-18T07:54:35.985-04:002014-08-18T07:54:35.985-04:00Wow, thanks everybody.
The argument smells of rat...Wow, thanks everybody.<br /><br />The argument smells of rat (obviously), and I had some guesses, but, ignorant of economics as I am, I didn't trust any of my hypotheses.<br /><br />The excess capacity point, of course, makes perfect sense. <br /><br />Econ is coolWinston Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08780746334199630779noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264937.post-38946712263472019712014-08-18T00:56:08.932-04:002014-08-18T00:56:08.932-04:00Caveat: I am a physicist by training, not an econo...Caveat: I am a physicist by training, not an economist. So, I may be quite wrong in this comment!<br /><br />First off, I think Aaron Boyden nails the simple succinct answer.<br /><br />Second, I think it is worth considering how the great depression ended for the US.<br /><br />Mr. Landsburg would have you believe that “For the government to consume more goods and services, somebody else must Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264937.post-38633335353759767542014-08-17T19:37:05.944-04:002014-08-17T19:37:05.944-04:00Winston,
An implied part of that answer that I le...Winston,<br /><br />An implied part of that answer that I left out is that there is an assumption that the wealthy person in question would *consume* or spend every last dollar that they have. We know this is generally not true, and that the wealthy have a much lower 'marginal propensity to consume'.<br /><br />So the last million dollars that a 9-firgure net worth individual has is a Lewis Carrollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264937.post-90597198934487827562014-08-17T18:26:30.132-04:002014-08-17T18:26:30.132-04:00I like this, too: "'Taxing the rich'...I like this, too: "'Taxing the rich' cannot work unless you do it in a way that induces the rich to consume less."<br /><br />That simply, obviously, makes no sense. If a rich old miser has $84 million and does nothing with it, taxing that and repurposing it for the use of the public obviously works.<br /><br />This author needs to view money as a good, and not as a completelyThe Mystichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00813641115915460692noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264937.post-66949692960070958362014-08-17T18:19:01.615-04:002014-08-17T18:19:01.615-04:00That would be kind of true if we faced a situation...That would be kind of true if we faced a situation where our economy was restrained by limited capacity, where if the government bought more that would have to come from there being less somewhere else. But we are in a recession, with badly under-used capacity, so more demand, say from Mr. Kendrick's money being spent, could be used to employ some of the currently unemployed people and idle Protagorashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12645042531440559735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264937.post-55337837135514354782014-08-17T18:17:07.424-04:002014-08-17T18:17:07.424-04:00Well, I'm no economist, but I have taken two e...Well, I'm no economist, but I have taken two economics courses, so get ready for some armchair economic professorhood.<br /><br />If you ask me, basically, the guy who wrote this article is trying to be clever with his "for the government to consume more goods and services, somebody else must consume fewer" position.<br /><br />Such a position is only true, of course, if you assume The Mystichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00813641115915460692noreply@blogger.com