Taxes Should Reward What We Want, Punish What We Don't Want
Taxes Aren’t the Problem. It’s the Hypocrisy and Abuse of Power.
Taxes Aren’t the Problem. It’s the Hypocrisy and Abuse of Power.
For better or worse we have adopted a Modern Monetary approach in this country. When we need money for things like banking crises or pandemics, we dole out however much cash we feel is necessary without concern for how we’ll pay for it. It’s essentially indiscriminate spending. But when we’re not in the throws of a crisis, spending comes to a standstill and how we’ll fund projects takes center stage.
There’s an existential struggle in this country between getting things done and paying for them. At the national level, except in times of crises, politicians have to justify how a project will be funded. At a corporate level, it’s a struggle between management and unions. In both cases, the focus ends up being about the cost, not the investment.
Infrastructure spending is no less important or needed than bank bailouts or pandemic spending. Do we have to pay people to do that work? Yes. But the money being paid circulates back into the economy. The projects they work on help increase economic efficiency. We don’t have to raise income taxes to pay for that work anymore than we need to raise income taxes to pay for pandemic spending.
Unions are viewed through the same faulty lens. If labor wasn’t seen as a cost to begin and instead considered an investment in human capital, there wouldn’t be a need for workers to organize in the first place. If the same value were placed on investing in workers as is placed on stock buybacks, the wealth disparity plaguing our country wouldn’t be nearly as egregious as it is.
There are real, honest to goodness costs in life. Things we spend money on simply to exist, entertain or pass the time are costs. Then there are investments. Investments are anything that offer a return. Infrastructure spending is an investment.
Laborers are an investment. Costs are when we have to bail out AIG because they got too cute for their own good. Costs are CEOs, paid based on stock performance, who then solely focus on increasing share value at the expense of the people who keep the company productive. Taxes are not the problem. Politicians who weaponize taxes, and abuse their power, that’s the problem.
You can always tell what a society values by what it incentivizes. With respect to taxes, clearly we value stock buybacks and CEOs more than we value those whose labor is exploited. This statement says it all IMHO: "If the same value were placed on investing in workers as is placed on stock buybacks, the wealth disparity plaguing our country wouldn’t be nearly as egregious as it is." Thank you Dylan for making it so simple to understand, again.
Thank you Dylan -- and so correct. Seventeen (17) years of immense crimes against Syrian people in close cooperation with Al Qaeda on behalf of soo democratic Saudi Arabia and Israel:
-- The US worsened the suffering of Syrians by backing Jihadist terrorists against them, burning their wheat fields and looting their oil and gas. Now the US wants to “help” the Syrians by suffocating them with brutal sanctions!
-- Queues all over Syria for bread and fuel after the US and NATO looted Syria’s oil and burned its wheat. The US is a sadistic regime that thrives on the misery of nations. Syria was once a self-sufficient country. Before America decided (remember 17 years ago !!) that secular socialist Syria needs “democracy and freedom”.
-- ALL chemical attacks in Syria were staged by CIA/Al Qaeda partnership to trigger US direct attack
This is where our taxes go !! Against populations of Venezuela, Yemen, Syria, now even against "genocide" fabrications in China. And -- the immense US corruption in and destruction of Ukraine is covered up by hatred of Russia -- Biden family and DNC oligarch leadership is committed to silencing sources and total censorship.
This just in on what is missing from Hunter Biden's book:
Hunter Biden blew tens of thousands on prostitutes, drugs and luxury cars | Daily Mail Online
HTTPS://WWW.DAILYMAIL.CO.UK/NEWS/ARTICLE-9339527/HUNTER-BIDEN-BLEW-TENS-THOUSANDS-PROSTITUTES-DRUGS-LUXURY-CARS.HTML
What Hunter Biden left OUT of his 'tell-all' memoir revealed | Daily Mail Online
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9445105/What-Hunter-Biden-left-tell-memoir-revealed.html?ito=push-notification&ci=122693&si=22590609&ai=9445105