Are the very wealthy paying their share?

[Provost Harrison]

Actually everyone (under 57?) here speaks perfect english (except immigrants?).

I am occasionally bothered by the low value of the work I do. But than I think of myself more as an artist than as an engineer, and I feel less bothered.

JM

It's if you are being underpaid for what you do you need to worry. If you're being overpaid for it, relax, sit back and enjoy it while it lasts...hopefully until retirement

[Provost Harrison]

And in terms of taxing the extreme rich is that they can evade tax because they are not really bound by international borders, and there's always some tax haven out there. However this could be a problem if they wish to do business in much higher tax economies so it is hard to catch them until there are more comprehensive international treaties on this matter, and I just don't see that happening any time soon.

[DanS]

It's not as if these fat cats are spending much of that money. Likely, they are just reinvesting the capital gains. This benefits us.

[rah]

It is funny when I talk to my father about the 70s when the upper level tax rates were really high. He laughed and said no investment seemed silly since if it tanked it didn't really cost you much so you could do all sorts of high risk ones. And most people in his group did. All that investing helped lower unemployment which eventually led to surpluses.

[Dinner]

Also instead of taking money out of a business a business owner usually reinvested it to expand the business rather then taking so much of it out as personal income. The tax rates were so high keeping it in the company often seemed like a good thing to do.

[rah]

Yep. dat too. But a lot of companies back then also gave a lot of it back in salaries and bonuses figuring better to give to employees then uncle sam.

[MrFun]

What do others think?

JM

No, they are not paying their fair share, and historically, they never have.

[KrazyHorse]

Please define "fair"....

[KrazyHorse]

It is funny when I talk to my father about the 70s when the upper level tax rates were really high. He laughed and said no investment seemed silly since if it tanked it didn't really cost you much so you could do all sorts of high risk ones. And most people in his group did. All that investing helped lower unemployment which eventually led to surpluses.

Is this some kind of joke?

[KrazyHorse]

Also instead of taking money out of a business a business owner usually reinvested it to expand the business rather then taking so much of it out as personal income. The tax rates were so high keeping it in the company often seemed like a good thing to do.

I repeat my above comment. Is the claim that investment is a Giffen good?

[Felch]

Reinvestment isn't necessarily the best way to use capital. It seems to me that a tax structure that encourages profits to be poured back into a company rather than taken out and applied to another purpose would stultify an economy.

Let's say you have a profitable accounting firm in a small town. Since there's a limit to the market's need for accounting services, and since there are very few capital intensive aspects of accounting (no heavy machinery or the like), reinvesting profits might lead to a less ideal outcome than taking those profits and investing them in another venture, or depositing them in a bank.

[notyoueither]

I am not surprised at all. People are stupid mules.

The fact that we did not follow you into socialist utopia might lend to you giving pause to think that maybe you aren't a good picker of winners.

[Dinner]

I repeat my above comment. Is the claim that investment is a Giffen good?

No one is making an argument about supply and demand. Instead we are discussing how businesses used to make decisions about what to do with available capital.

[Dinner]

Reinvestment isn't necessarily the best way to use capital. It seems to me that a tax structure that encourages profits to be poured back into a company rather than taken out and applied to another purpose would stultify an economy.

Let's say you have a profitable accounting firm in a small town. Since there's a limit to the market's need for accounting services, and since there are very few capital intensive aspects of accounting (no heavy machinery or the like), reinvesting profits might lead to a less ideal outcome than taking those profits and investing them in another venture, or depositing them in a bank.

Very true. That said, the accounting firm could open up a second office in a different market. There are pluses and minuses to the incentives of both tax system layouts.

[Provost Harrison]

It's not as if these fat cats are spending much of that money. Likely, they are just reinvesting the capital gains. This benefits us.

A very salient point, and that is why there should be tax incentives for reinvestment of money, especially those which are the most productive to society.