|
|
On September 11 2012 08:21 Savio wrote:Show nested quote +On September 11 2012 08:02 ticklishmusic wrote:On September 11 2012 07:41 tofucake wrote: I apologize to the world for NonCorporeal. I guess he's now... noncorporeal. YEAAAAAAAAAAH. In other news, my favorite election tracker has Obama's chances of re-election at over 80%. Generally I'd dismiss it as a convention bounce that isn't very important, but given the lack of bounce for Romney, well, I think its much more significant. http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/ Wow, September polls must be SO ACCURATE huh?
I would say that the DNC on the whole was a bit better(even though I watched Condie's speech and damn, good stuff) and therefore the bump should be in the Dems favor - but the next checkpoint where the candidates can and have to score massively are the debates.
Really looking forward to watching them 
|
On September 11 2012 07:09 Roe wrote:Show nested quote +On September 11 2012 06:41 xDaunt wrote:On September 11 2012 06:02 ImAbstracT wrote:Let's look at the extreme case, where taxes are say, 90%. I'm not recommending that, but just using that as an example. In that case, a business has a huge incentive to continue to invest in the business (which creates deductible expenses) instead of taking money out of the business.
High tax rates favor business investment. Lower tax rates encourage owners to not invest, not hire, and to take money out of the business as fast as they can.
I sure wish just once somebody would explain this basic business principle in the MSM. Whoever wrote this is just dumb. Calling someone dumb is a good argument... What he wrote is factually correct. When taxes are low, business hire less (in fact they lay off more), when taxes are high they invest in their company more and the economy of the country is much healthier because you have people actually spending their money instead of hoarding it off shore. Are you simply aware that businesses aren't competent and won't be able to invest their money appropriately, so you argue for these types of regressive policies? I really do want to know from where you get this distorted view of reality. No. If taxes are high people are incentivized to think "I could work really hard and start a great business ... but I'd lose most of the profits in taxes anyway so why bother?" Or, they think "I'm going to invest my money, should I invest it here where the govt will take a ton of my profits? Or should I invest it offshore where I'll get to keep most of the profits myself?"
Starting a business is a big risk. Many businesses fail. So when a smart person is trying to decide if they will start one or not they look at the possible outcomes, and reasistically assess the risk/reward ratio. For example, say I am considering $1,000,000 in a business and I see the following possible outcomes:
Scenario 1 - 10% chance that this will happen - Huge success - I make $500,000 a year from this business
Scenario 2 - 50% chance that this will happen - moderate success - I make $200,000 a year from this business
Scenario 3 - 40% chance - business fails, I lose my investment
You can make up whatever numbers you want, but if the tax rate is really high a lot of people will simply look at the numbers and decide its not worth it. If tax rates are low people are encouraged to start businesses because the rewards are that much greater if they are successful.
|
|
On September 11 2012 08:28 Defacer wrote:Show nested quote +On September 11 2012 08:21 Savio wrote:On September 11 2012 08:02 ticklishmusic wrote:On September 11 2012 07:41 tofucake wrote: I apologize to the world for NonCorporeal. I guess he's now... noncorporeal. YEAAAAAAAAAAH. In other news, my favorite election tracker has Obama's chances of re-election at over 80%. Generally I'd dismiss it as a convention bounce that isn't very important, but given the lack of bounce for Romney, well, I think its much more significant. http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/ Wow, September polls must be SO ACCURATE huh? Not just this poll. Four separate polls point to a trend of Obama gaining favor. I'll try to find links later. It doesn't mean that Obama will ultimately win, but considering that Romney has spent the past 5 years and hundreds of millions of dollars trying to be president he should be polling better by now.
talking about polls for prediction, Romney was predicted to win by the CU analysis which has correctly predicted with winner since 1980. http://digitaljournal.com/article/331390
I'm not saying that you believe that Romney will win. I'm just saying that he was a very good chance to win this election and it is going to be very close.
|
Even if Obama does alot of things wrong voting for the current GOP would just be madness , especially a superrich corperate robot like Romney . Unless of course you're a billionaire or a corperate excecutive or someone like that. He's the lesser of the two evils .
|
There were some significant differences between Carter's loss and this election though. Carter refused to participate in a debate, sustained some damage from Ted Kennedy during the primary, and Reagan was arguably a much stronger candidate than Romney.
Obama is far from perfect and has not met the expectations that were thrust upon him in 2008 (who could have?), but I think he's a lot more honest and pragmatic than the republican alternative. IMO its far from "choosing the lesser of two evils" as the republicans essentially are trying to frame the election as. I don't even have to say better the evil we know than the evil we don't, because that's not what the election is to me.
|
People that 'vote Romney' this year will not be voting for Romney at all, they'll be voting for a white male duplicitous proxy; a NOT-OBAMA-BOT.
Romney actually represents and stands for very little. If he wins with the campaign he has -- a well-funded mishmash of misinformation, vague promises, cynicism and voter suppression -- it will be the most depressing victory in American politics ... well, ever.
I don't know enough about American history. Has there ever been another president that won just by showing up?
|
On September 11 2012 08:47 ticklishmusic wrote: There were some significant differences between Carter's loss and this election though. Carter refused to participate in a debate, sustained some damage from Ted Kennedy during the primary, and Reagan was arguably a much stronger candidate than Romney.
Obama is far from perfect and has not met the expectations that were thrust upon him in 2008 (who could have?), but I think he's a lot more honest and pragmatic than the republican alternative. IMO its far from "choosing the lesser of two evils" as the republicans essentially are trying to frame the election as. I don't even have to say better the evil we know than the evil we don't, because that's not what the election is to me. Let's not forget about the hostage crisis.
|
On September 11 2012 08:35 ziggurat wrote:Show nested quote +On September 11 2012 07:09 Roe wrote:On September 11 2012 06:41 xDaunt wrote:On September 11 2012 06:02 ImAbstracT wrote:Let's look at the extreme case, where taxes are say, 90%. I'm not recommending that, but just using that as an example. In that case, a business has a huge incentive to continue to invest in the business (which creates deductible expenses) instead of taking money out of the business.
High tax rates favor business investment. Lower tax rates encourage owners to not invest, not hire, and to take money out of the business as fast as they can.
I sure wish just once somebody would explain this basic business principle in the MSM. Whoever wrote this is just dumb. Calling someone dumb is a good argument... What he wrote is factually correct. When taxes are low, business hire less (in fact they lay off more), when taxes are high they invest in their company more and the economy of the country is much healthier because you have people actually spending their money instead of hoarding it off shore. Are you simply aware that businesses aren't competent and won't be able to invest their money appropriately, so you argue for these types of regressive policies? I really do want to know from where you get this distorted view of reality. No. If taxes are high people are incentivized to think "I could work really hard and start a great business ... but I'd lose most of the profits in taxes anyway so why bother?" Or, they think "I'm going to invest my money, should I invest it here where the govt will take a ton of my profits? Or should I invest it offshore where I'll get to keep most of the profits myself?" Starting a business is a big risk. Many businesses fail. So when a smart person is trying to decide if they will start one or not they look at the possible outcomes, and reasistically assess the risk/reward ratio. For example, say I am considering $1,000,000 in a business and I see the following possible outcomes: Scenario 1 - 10% chance that this will happen - Huge success - I make $500,000 a year from this business Scenario 2 - 50% chance that this will happen - moderate success - I make $200,000 a year from this business Scenario 3 - 40% chance - business fails, I lose my investment You can make up whatever numbers you want, but if the tax rate is really high a lot of people will simply look at the numbers and decide its not worth it. If tax rates are low people are encouraged to start businesses because the rewards are that much greater if they are successful.
Yet you're forgetting an important part of the equation. Are you fucked if your company does not succeed or not? The higher the taxrate the less likely you are to be fucked if your business fails. I actually find your argument highly lacking due to this.
Also, people are, in general, risk averse, which means that a safer society (one where you don't fail at life if your company fails in this scenario) would make people more willing to start a new company, not less.
|
On September 11 2012 08:50 Defacer wrote: People that 'vote Romney' this year will not be voting for Romney at all, they'll be voting for a white male duplicitous proxy; a NOT-OBAMA-BOT.
Romney actually represents and stands for very little. If he wins with the campaign he has -- a well-funded mishmash of misinformation, vague promises, cynicism and voter suppression -- it will be the most depressing victory in American politics ... well, ever.
I don't know enough about American history. Has there ever been another president that won just by showing up?
In recent memory, George H. W. Bush's win over Michael Dukakis seems most similar to the scenario you're describing. H.W. barely had to do anything, while Dukakis repeatedly made gaff after gaff. Reagan beat Carter by a wider margin though, and while I'm not thoroughly familiar with the election of 1980, I'm fairly certain practically any Republican could have beaten Carter that cycle.
|
On September 11 2012 08:57 Derez wrote:Show nested quote +On September 11 2012 08:47 ticklishmusic wrote: There were some significant differences between Carter's loss and this election though. Carter refused to participate in a debate, sustained some damage from Ted Kennedy during the primary, and Reagan was arguably a much stronger candidate than Romney.
Obama is far from perfect and has not met the expectations that were thrust upon him in 2008 (who could have?), but I think he's a lot more honest and pragmatic than the republican alternative. IMO its far from "choosing the lesser of two evils" as the republicans essentially are trying to frame the election as. I don't even have to say better the evil we know than the evil we don't, because that's not what the election is to me. Let's not forget about the hostage crisis.
*facepalm*
Oh yeah, that little matter. I can't believe I missed that. Gracias.
But yeah, point is its very different situations. Carter showed poor leadership and a bad attitude on a series of things that happened, Obama is showing humility.
|
The polls out there aren't really worth the paper that they're written on. They are oversampling democrats, which skews the results. Just go look at the latest CNN poll. In fact, the pre-election day polling has been pretty bad in terms of skewing democratic since the 2010 elections.
|
On September 11 2012 09:24 xDaunt wrote: The polls out there aren't really worth the paper that they're written on. They are oversampling democrats, which skews the results. Just go look at the latest CNN poll. In fact, the pre-election day polling has been pretty bad in terms of skewing democratic since the 2010 elections.
Can you cite a source that explains this bias for at least a significant amount of the polls that are used by 538? I don't buy into the vast lamestream media conspiracy thing.
If anything, I don't understand why people would want to have inaccurate polls. Being wrong ruins their credibility. Also, it acts as a double edged sword. For the trailer, supporters might think "we need to help our guy cuz he's losing", while the frontunner's supporters might think "we want to hop on the victory parade" or worse, "its okay, we're gonna win I don't need to vote."
|
On September 11 2012 09:24 xDaunt wrote: The polls out there aren't really worth the paper that they're written on. They are oversampling democrats, which skews the results. Just go look at the latest CNN poll. In fact, the pre-election day polling has been pretty bad in terms of skewing democratic since the 2010 elections.
Normally I would agree with you, but Even the Rasmussen Report Polls, which is notorious for leaning right and had Obama behind Romney for most of the year, indicates that Obama has a 5% lead after the election.
This doesn't mean Obama is going to win, but it does raise the question of whether or not there is something with the Republican's strategy.
A strong performance by Romney during the debates would make a big difference, but both Ryan's and Romney's recent statements to some of the criticism levelled at them during the DNC having them doing backflips.
I get the sense that Clinton speech suddenly reminded journalists and broadcasters what their jobs actually are, and they're finally starting to ask -- gasp -- follow up questions in interviews. Whenever Romney gives some kind of nebulous response to his position on healthcare and tries to move to the middle without alienating the right, it only reinforces Obama's assertion that they don't actually have a real position or plan at all.
What's really depressing is watching Ryan getting flummoxed by the platform and it's agenda. I know the Ryan nomination is one of the reasons you feel more comfortable voting for Romney, but it seems like Ryan is being Romnified, and not the other way around.
|
On September 11 2012 08:58 HellRoxYa wrote:Show nested quote +On September 11 2012 08:35 ziggurat wrote:On September 11 2012 07:09 Roe wrote:On September 11 2012 06:41 xDaunt wrote:On September 11 2012 06:02 ImAbstracT wrote:Let's look at the extreme case, where taxes are say, 90%. I'm not recommending that, but just using that as an example. In that case, a business has a huge incentive to continue to invest in the business (which creates deductible expenses) instead of taking money out of the business.
High tax rates favor business investment. Lower tax rates encourage owners to not invest, not hire, and to take money out of the business as fast as they can.
I sure wish just once somebody would explain this basic business principle in the MSM. Whoever wrote this is just dumb. Calling someone dumb is a good argument... What he wrote is factually correct. When taxes are low, business hire less (in fact they lay off more), when taxes are high they invest in their company more and the economy of the country is much healthier because you have people actually spending their money instead of hoarding it off shore. Are you simply aware that businesses aren't competent and won't be able to invest their money appropriately, so you argue for these types of regressive policies? I really do want to know from where you get this distorted view of reality. No. If taxes are high people are incentivized to think "I could work really hard and start a great business ... but I'd lose most of the profits in taxes anyway so why bother?" Or, they think "I'm going to invest my money, should I invest it here where the govt will take a ton of my profits? Or should I invest it offshore where I'll get to keep most of the profits myself?" Starting a business is a big risk. Many businesses fail. So when a smart person is trying to decide if they will start one or not they look at the possible outcomes, and reasistically assess the risk/reward ratio. For example, say I am considering $1,000,000 in a business and I see the following possible outcomes: Scenario 1 - 10% chance that this will happen - Huge success - I make $500,000 a year from this business Scenario 2 - 50% chance that this will happen - moderate success - I make $200,000 a year from this business Scenario 3 - 40% chance - business fails, I lose my investment You can make up whatever numbers you want, but if the tax rate is really high a lot of people will simply look at the numbers and decide its not worth it. If tax rates are low people are encouraged to start businesses because the rewards are that much greater if they are successful. Yet you're forgetting an important part of the equation. Are you fucked if your company does not succeed or not? The higher the taxrate the less likely you are to be fucked if your business fails. I actually find your argument highly lacking due to this. Also, people are, in general, risk averse, which means that a safer society (one where you don't fail at life if your company fails in this scenario) would make people more willing to start a new company, not less.
A stronger social safety net would make investors more willing to make riskier investments but less likely to save and invest in general (less need to save). That is not a good combination.
Social safety nets offer a lot of value, but increasing investment is not one of them.
|
On September 11 2012 09:49 Defacer wrote:Show nested quote +On September 11 2012 09:24 xDaunt wrote: The polls out there aren't really worth the paper that they're written on. They are oversampling democrats, which skews the results. Just go look at the latest CNN poll. In fact, the pre-election day polling has been pretty bad in terms of skewing democratic since the 2010 elections. Normally I would agree with you, but Even the Rasmussen Report Polls, which is notorious for leaning right and had Obama behind Romney for most of the year, indicates that Obama has a 5% lead after the election. This doesn't mean Obama is going to win, but it does raise the question of whether or not their is something with the Republican's strategy. A strong performance by Romney during the debates would make a big difference, but both Ryan's and Romney's recent statements to some of the criticism levelled at them during the DNC having them doing backflips. I get the sense that Clinton speech suddenly reminded journalists and broadcasters what their jobs actually are, and they're finally starting to ask -- gasp -- follow up questions in interviews. Whenever Romney gives some kind of nebulous response to his position on healthcare and tries to move to the middle without alienating the right, it only reinforces Obama's assertion that they don't actually have a real position or plan at all. What's really depressing is watching Ryan getting flummoxed by the platform and it's agenda. I know the Ryan nomination is one of the reasons you feel more comfortable voting for Romney, but it seems like Ryan is being Romnified, and not the other way around.
Well, it's hard to tell what the polls are doing unless you look at the internals. Again, from what I have seen, the sampling base in these polls is lopsided by 5 points towards democrats. My understanding is that this bias is intentional because the pollsters are modeling the 2008 election environment. Of course, this is problematic for obvious reasons. As was demonstrated by what happened in 2010 and even by some of the individual elections like the Scott Walker recall.
With regards to your final point about Ryan being "Romnified," I unfortunately have to agree. Hopefully this changes soon.
|
On September 11 2012 08:58 HellRoxYa wrote:Show nested quote +On September 11 2012 08:35 ziggurat wrote:On September 11 2012 07:09 Roe wrote:On September 11 2012 06:41 xDaunt wrote:On September 11 2012 06:02 ImAbstracT wrote:Let's look at the extreme case, where taxes are say, 90%. I'm not recommending that, but just using that as an example. In that case, a business has a huge incentive to continue to invest in the business (which creates deductible expenses) instead of taking money out of the business.
High tax rates favor business investment. Lower tax rates encourage owners to not invest, not hire, and to take money out of the business as fast as they can.
I sure wish just once somebody would explain this basic business principle in the MSM. Whoever wrote this is just dumb. Calling someone dumb is a good argument... What he wrote is factually correct. When taxes are low, business hire less (in fact they lay off more), when taxes are high they invest in their company more and the economy of the country is much healthier because you have people actually spending their money instead of hoarding it off shore. Are you simply aware that businesses aren't competent and won't be able to invest their money appropriately, so you argue for these types of regressive policies? I really do want to know from where you get this distorted view of reality. No. If taxes are high people are incentivized to think "I could work really hard and start a great business ... but I'd lose most of the profits in taxes anyway so why bother?" Or, they think "I'm going to invest my money, should I invest it here where the govt will take a ton of my profits? Or should I invest it offshore where I'll get to keep most of the profits myself?" Starting a business is a big risk. Many businesses fail. So when a smart person is trying to decide if they will start one or not they look at the possible outcomes, and reasistically assess the risk/reward ratio. For example, say I am considering $1,000,000 in a business and I see the following possible outcomes: Scenario 1 - 10% chance that this will happen - Huge success - I make $500,000 a year from this business Scenario 2 - 50% chance that this will happen - moderate success - I make $200,000 a year from this business Scenario 3 - 40% chance - business fails, I lose my investment You can make up whatever numbers you want, but if the tax rate is really high a lot of people will simply look at the numbers and decide its not worth it. If tax rates are low people are encouraged to start businesses because the rewards are that much greater if they are successful. Yet you're forgetting an important part of the equation. Are you fucked if your company does not succeed or not? The higher the taxrate the less likely you are to be fucked if your business fails. I actually find your argument highly lacking due to this. Also, people are, in general, risk averse, which means that a safer society (one where you don't fail at life if your company fails in this scenario) would make people more willing to start a new company, not less. No, I think you have it all wrong. If my business fails I'm not fucked -- unless I invested every last cent I own into it, which few people would do. Even if I did, I can always go out and get a job.
I doubt the social safety net is much of a factor. The highly motivated people who are going to start successful businesses are not likely to end up on welfare no matter how bad the economy is. But the fact the govt will take half of any money I make is a huge disincentive.
|
On September 11 2012 13:00 ziggurat wrote:Show nested quote +On September 11 2012 08:58 HellRoxYa wrote:On September 11 2012 08:35 ziggurat wrote:On September 11 2012 07:09 Roe wrote:On September 11 2012 06:41 xDaunt wrote:On September 11 2012 06:02 ImAbstracT wrote:Let's look at the extreme case, where taxes are say, 90%. I'm not recommending that, but just using that as an example. In that case, a business has a huge incentive to continue to invest in the business (which creates deductible expenses) instead of taking money out of the business.
High tax rates favor business investment. Lower tax rates encourage owners to not invest, not hire, and to take money out of the business as fast as they can.
I sure wish just once somebody would explain this basic business principle in the MSM. Whoever wrote this is just dumb. Calling someone dumb is a good argument... What he wrote is factually correct. When taxes are low, business hire less (in fact they lay off more), when taxes are high they invest in their company more and the economy of the country is much healthier because you have people actually spending their money instead of hoarding it off shore. Are you simply aware that businesses aren't competent and won't be able to invest their money appropriately, so you argue for these types of regressive policies? I really do want to know from where you get this distorted view of reality. No. If taxes are high people are incentivized to think "I could work really hard and start a great business ... but I'd lose most of the profits in taxes anyway so why bother?" Or, they think "I'm going to invest my money, should I invest it here where the govt will take a ton of my profits? Or should I invest it offshore where I'll get to keep most of the profits myself?" Starting a business is a big risk. Many businesses fail. So when a smart person is trying to decide if they will start one or not they look at the possible outcomes, and reasistically assess the risk/reward ratio. For example, say I am considering $1,000,000 in a business and I see the following possible outcomes: Scenario 1 - 10% chance that this will happen - Huge success - I make $500,000 a year from this business Scenario 2 - 50% chance that this will happen - moderate success - I make $200,000 a year from this business Scenario 3 - 40% chance - business fails, I lose my investment You can make up whatever numbers you want, but if the tax rate is really high a lot of people will simply look at the numbers and decide its not worth it. If tax rates are low people are encouraged to start businesses because the rewards are that much greater if they are successful. Yet you're forgetting an important part of the equation. Are you fucked if your company does not succeed or not? The higher the taxrate the less likely you are to be fucked if your business fails. I actually find your argument highly lacking due to this. Also, people are, in general, risk averse, which means that a safer society (one where you don't fail at life if your company fails in this scenario) would make people more willing to start a new company, not less. No, I think you have it all wrong. If my business fails I'm not fucked -- unless I invested every last cent I own into it, which few people would do. Even if I did, I can always go out and get a job. I doubt the social safety net is much of a factor. The highly motivated people who are going to start successful businesses are not likely to end up on welfare no matter how bad the economy is. But the fact the govt will take half of any money I make is a huge disincentive.
Is there any evidence that this is true? I don't think it's at all self-evident that people wouldn't want to be more successful if it means being not as much more successful than they might be. The more money you make, the more money you make, even with taxes. Taxes are a percentage. Maybe if the top tax bracket were 90% or something this might come into play, but even when the top tax bracket was that high, an entrepreneur was far from certain to reach it anyway.
|
On September 11 2012 13:10 HunterX11 wrote:Show nested quote +On September 11 2012 13:00 ziggurat wrote:On September 11 2012 08:58 HellRoxYa wrote:On September 11 2012 08:35 ziggurat wrote:On September 11 2012 07:09 Roe wrote:On September 11 2012 06:41 xDaunt wrote:On September 11 2012 06:02 ImAbstracT wrote:Let's look at the extreme case, where taxes are say, 90%. I'm not recommending that, but just using that as an example. In that case, a business has a huge incentive to continue to invest in the business (which creates deductible expenses) instead of taking money out of the business.
High tax rates favor business investment. Lower tax rates encourage owners to not invest, not hire, and to take money out of the business as fast as they can.
I sure wish just once somebody would explain this basic business principle in the MSM. Whoever wrote this is just dumb. Calling someone dumb is a good argument... What he wrote is factually correct. When taxes are low, business hire less (in fact they lay off more), when taxes are high they invest in their company more and the economy of the country is much healthier because you have people actually spending their money instead of hoarding it off shore. Are you simply aware that businesses aren't competent and won't be able to invest their money appropriately, so you argue for these types of regressive policies? I really do want to know from where you get this distorted view of reality. No. If taxes are high people are incentivized to think "I could work really hard and start a great business ... but I'd lose most of the profits in taxes anyway so why bother?" Or, they think "I'm going to invest my money, should I invest it here where the govt will take a ton of my profits? Or should I invest it offshore where I'll get to keep most of the profits myself?" Starting a business is a big risk. Many businesses fail. So when a smart person is trying to decide if they will start one or not they look at the possible outcomes, and reasistically assess the risk/reward ratio. For example, say I am considering $1,000,000 in a business and I see the following possible outcomes: Scenario 1 - 10% chance that this will happen - Huge success - I make $500,000 a year from this business Scenario 2 - 50% chance that this will happen - moderate success - I make $200,000 a year from this business Scenario 3 - 40% chance - business fails, I lose my investment You can make up whatever numbers you want, but if the tax rate is really high a lot of people will simply look at the numbers and decide its not worth it. If tax rates are low people are encouraged to start businesses because the rewards are that much greater if they are successful. Yet you're forgetting an important part of the equation. Are you fucked if your company does not succeed or not? The higher the taxrate the less likely you are to be fucked if your business fails. I actually find your argument highly lacking due to this. Also, people are, in general, risk averse, which means that a safer society (one where you don't fail at life if your company fails in this scenario) would make people more willing to start a new company, not less. No, I think you have it all wrong. If my business fails I'm not fucked -- unless I invested every last cent I own into it, which few people would do. Even if I did, I can always go out and get a job. I doubt the social safety net is much of a factor. The highly motivated people who are going to start successful businesses are not likely to end up on welfare no matter how bad the economy is. But the fact the govt will take half of any money I make is a huge disincentive. Is there any evidence that this is true? I don't think it's at all self-evident that people wouldn't want to be more successful if it means being not as much more successful than they might be. The more money you make, the more money you make, even with taxes. Taxes are a percentage. Maybe if the top tax bracket were 90% or something this might come into play, but even when the top tax bracket was that high, an entrepreneur was far from certain to reach it anyway. Let's wait and see what happens to France when Hollande enacts his confiscatory 75% tax rate on the rich.
|
On September 11 2012 13:21 xDaunt wrote:Show nested quote +On September 11 2012 13:10 HunterX11 wrote:On September 11 2012 13:00 ziggurat wrote:On September 11 2012 08:58 HellRoxYa wrote:On September 11 2012 08:35 ziggurat wrote:On September 11 2012 07:09 Roe wrote:On September 11 2012 06:41 xDaunt wrote:On September 11 2012 06:02 ImAbstracT wrote:Let's look at the extreme case, where taxes are say, 90%. I'm not recommending that, but just using that as an example. In that case, a business has a huge incentive to continue to invest in the business (which creates deductible expenses) instead of taking money out of the business.
High tax rates favor business investment. Lower tax rates encourage owners to not invest, not hire, and to take money out of the business as fast as they can.
I sure wish just once somebody would explain this basic business principle in the MSM. Whoever wrote this is just dumb. Calling someone dumb is a good argument... What he wrote is factually correct. When taxes are low, business hire less (in fact they lay off more), when taxes are high they invest in their company more and the economy of the country is much healthier because you have people actually spending their money instead of hoarding it off shore. Are you simply aware that businesses aren't competent and won't be able to invest their money appropriately, so you argue for these types of regressive policies? I really do want to know from where you get this distorted view of reality. No. If taxes are high people are incentivized to think "I could work really hard and start a great business ... but I'd lose most of the profits in taxes anyway so why bother?" Or, they think "I'm going to invest my money, should I invest it here where the govt will take a ton of my profits? Or should I invest it offshore where I'll get to keep most of the profits myself?" Starting a business is a big risk. Many businesses fail. So when a smart person is trying to decide if they will start one or not they look at the possible outcomes, and reasistically assess the risk/reward ratio. For example, say I am considering $1,000,000 in a business and I see the following possible outcomes: Scenario 1 - 10% chance that this will happen - Huge success - I make $500,000 a year from this business Scenario 2 - 50% chance that this will happen - moderate success - I make $200,000 a year from this business Scenario 3 - 40% chance - business fails, I lose my investment You can make up whatever numbers you want, but if the tax rate is really high a lot of people will simply look at the numbers and decide its not worth it. If tax rates are low people are encouraged to start businesses because the rewards are that much greater if they are successful. Yet you're forgetting an important part of the equation. Are you fucked if your company does not succeed or not? The higher the taxrate the less likely you are to be fucked if your business fails. I actually find your argument highly lacking due to this. Also, people are, in general, risk averse, which means that a safer society (one where you don't fail at life if your company fails in this scenario) would make people more willing to start a new company, not less. No, I think you have it all wrong. If my business fails I'm not fucked -- unless I invested every last cent I own into it, which few people would do. Even if I did, I can always go out and get a job. I doubt the social safety net is much of a factor. The highly motivated people who are going to start successful businesses are not likely to end up on welfare no matter how bad the economy is. But the fact the govt will take half of any money I make is a huge disincentive. Is there any evidence that this is true? I don't think it's at all self-evident that people wouldn't want to be more successful if it means being not as much more successful than they might be. The more money you make, the more money you make, even with taxes. Taxes are a percentage. Maybe if the top tax bracket were 90% or something this might come into play, but even when the top tax bracket was that high, an entrepreneur was far from certain to reach it anyway. Let's wait and see what happens to France when Hollande enacts his confiscatory 75% tax rate on the rich.
Aspiring entrepreneurs are not going to be rich unless they inherited a bunch of money already in which case the incentive for making more money is already reduced. Your post is a total non-sequitur.
|
|
|
|