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European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread - Page 1182

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Although this thread does not function under the same strict guidelines as the USPMT, it is still a general practice on TL to provide a source with an explanation on why it is relevant and what purpose it adds to the discussion. Failure to do so will result in a mod action.
Plansix
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
United States60190 Posts
September 19 2018 15:48 GMT
#23621
On September 20 2018 00:34 RvB wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 19 2018 05:15 Gorsameth wrote:
Unregulated markets lead to monopolies and exploitation.
Every
single
time

Lefties have no problem with markets. They have a problem with human greed leading to inevitable exploitation of people.

Any source for the claim that an unregulated market leads to monopoly?

Isn’t a regulated market the only thing preventing the existence of a monopoly? The natural course of self interest in a market is to secure as much of the market as possible until the actor control all of it. I suppose death would naturally lead to the potential end of a monopoly.
I have the Honor to be your Obedient Servant, P.6
TL+ Member
Big J
Profile Joined March 2011
Austria16289 Posts
Last Edited: 2018-09-19 15:56:37
September 19 2018 15:51 GMT
#23622
On September 20 2018 00:48 Plansix wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 20 2018 00:34 RvB wrote:
On September 19 2018 05:15 Gorsameth wrote:
Unregulated markets lead to monopolies and exploitation.
Every
single
time

Lefties have no problem with markets. They have a problem with human greed leading to inevitable exploitation of people.

Any source for the claim that an unregulated market leads to monopoly?

Isn’t a regulated market the only thing preventing the existence of a monopoly? The natural course of self interest in a market is to secure as much of the market as possible until the actor control all of it. I suppose death would naturally lead to the potential end of a monopoly.


Not if you assume a neutrality of property and money, which means that capital cannot be used to secure more capital. Only providing the better service can then lead to a monopoly, which is then completely justified (and cannot be abused).

Edit: Basically if you take the invisible hand of Adam Smith literally and assume its (longrun) perfection.
Plansix
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
United States60190 Posts
September 19 2018 16:10 GMT
#23623
On September 20 2018 00:51 Big J wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 20 2018 00:48 Plansix wrote:
On September 20 2018 00:34 RvB wrote:
On September 19 2018 05:15 Gorsameth wrote:
Unregulated markets lead to monopolies and exploitation.
Every
single
time

Lefties have no problem with markets. They have a problem with human greed leading to inevitable exploitation of people.

Any source for the claim that an unregulated market leads to monopoly?

Isn’t a regulated market the only thing preventing the existence of a monopoly? The natural course of self interest in a market is to secure as much of the market as possible until the actor control all of it. I suppose death would naturally lead to the potential end of a monopoly.


Not if you assume a neutrality of property and money, which means that capital cannot be used to secure more capital. Only providing the better service can then lead to a monopoly, which is then completely justified (and cannot be abused).

Edit: Basically if you take the invisible hand of Adam Smith literally and assume its (longrun) perfection.

If you cut human nature out of the equation an unregulated free market works great.
I have the Honor to be your Obedient Servant, P.6
TL+ Member
warding
Profile Joined August 2005
Portugal2397 Posts
Last Edited: 2018-09-19 16:56:42
September 19 2018 16:56 GMT
#23624
Monopolies exist when there are factors that make it really hard to compete with the leading company, usually leading to a point where that company completely controls the market. They're usually bad because without competition they are free to set whatever price they feel like, reducing the economic well being of consumers.

Now, the factors that lead to monopolies vary, they include:
- When a company has access to natural resources that others don't;
- When the amount of investment to get into a market is really big, and the market only really can afford to have one company doing that (ie. power plant on an island);
- When you have intellectual property that prevents the entrant of new players into that field until that patent expires;
- When you have network economies like in most social networks, where new entrants don't have any users and thus they're of no value to the users.

I'd argue that monopolies don't exist in the vast majority of consumer goods and services you guys purchase every day. They don't exist because the nature of those markets is naturally competitive, not because of regulation.

In fact, regulations are a tool that incumbent businesses love to use to limit competition and create their own little monopolies. That explains why in some countries you need a license to open a barber shop and that sort of thing.

Most posters here are talking economics in a heavily politicised way. The vast majority of economists favor using government authority to limit monopoly power. There's no question about that. As for regulation, it should be viewed as a technical issue, not a political one anymore. Only silly people think markets should never be regulated OR that we should regulate everything that moves.

Finally Plansix your take on supply side economics really doesn't portray it fairly. I'm not saying it's right, but you haven't really represented the legitimate arguments supply-siders make on the importance of looking at incentives of workers and companies when thinking about taxation - which I believe is their main claim.
Plansix
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
United States60190 Posts
September 19 2018 17:30 GMT
#23625
I think my take is colored by being American and living with post Reaganomics tax policy. My understanding is that most EU countries are not cutting their taxes to the point there they can’t keep public schools open for a full week. We have rural states with shrinking populations that are cutting their taxes grow the economy, showing a basic misunderstanding that economies are based on the number of workers putting in labor. Cutting taxes won’t make up for the young workers leaving the state. That is the point that the US has reached, which is so far beyond what I believe anyone in this thread is arguing. It takes decades of work to move the needle on what is sound economy policy to get to the level of delusion the US functions under.
I have the Honor to be your Obedient Servant, P.6
TL+ Member
warding
Profile Joined August 2005
Portugal2397 Posts
Last Edited: 2018-09-19 17:45:59
September 19 2018 17:45 GMT
#23626
Sure, the understanding of taxation is really going to be different between an American and, say, a Portuguese. I pay 23% sales tax. Or lets say that you get paid an annual salary of 22 834€ after tax. If a company has 1000€ extra to increase your salary, a whopping 644€ will get taxed with your net salary increasing only 356€ - an effective marginal tax rate of 64%. Hence, I'm always a bit baffled when Europeans start talking about the need to start taxing the rich.
Plansix
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
United States60190 Posts
September 19 2018 17:56 GMT
#23627
My state is known for its crazy high taxes and pay an amazing 6% sales tax. I'm not even kidding, we are known as the crazy liberal, left leading state filled with socialist. They advocate for taxing the rich to avoid ending up like America. Because the rich are advocating that they should pay way less than they do now, because they create jobs(or whatever other reason they can come up with).
I have the Honor to be your Obedient Servant, P.6
TL+ Member
Gorsameth
Profile Joined April 2010
Netherlands22679 Posts
September 19 2018 18:05 GMT
#23628
On September 20 2018 02:45 warding wrote:
Sure, the understanding of taxation is really going to be different between an American and, say, a Portuguese. I pay 23% sales tax. Or lets say that you get paid an annual salary of 22 834€ after tax. If a company has 1000€ extra to increase your salary, a whopping 644€ will get taxed with your net salary increasing only 356€ - an effective marginal tax rate of 64%. Hence, I'm always a bit baffled when Europeans start talking about the need to start taxing the rich.

The rich tend to find ways not to pay 'their share' through the use of creative means of financial accounting.
If they just earned a salary and payed the nominal rate on it there wouldn't be a call to tax them more.

As Warren Buffet said. His secretary pays more in taxes then he does.
It ignores such insignificant forces as time, entropy, and death
warding
Profile Joined August 2005
Portugal2397 Posts
September 19 2018 18:33 GMT
#23629
On September 20 2018 03:05 Gorsameth wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 20 2018 02:45 warding wrote:
Sure, the understanding of taxation is really going to be different between an American and, say, a Portuguese. I pay 23% sales tax. Or lets say that you get paid an annual salary of 22 834€ after tax. If a company has 1000€ extra to increase your salary, a whopping 644€ will get taxed with your net salary increasing only 356€ - an effective marginal tax rate of 64%. Hence, I'm always a bit baffled when Europeans start talking about the need to start taxing the rich.

The rich tend to find ways not to pay 'their share' through the use of creative means of financial accounting.
If they just earned a salary and payed the nominal rate on it there wouldn't be a call to tax them more.

As Warren Buffet said. His secretary pays more in taxes then he does.

The US is the US. I'd love to know these methods of escaping taxes in European countries with modern tax authorities. Disclaimer: I run a company and pay or have paid every single type of tax in the books.
Big J
Profile Joined March 2011
Austria16289 Posts
September 19 2018 18:39 GMT
#23630
On September 20 2018 02:45 warding wrote:
Sure, the understanding of taxation is really going to be different between an American and, say, a Portuguese. I pay 23% sales tax. Or lets say that you get paid an annual salary of 22 834€ after tax. If a company has 1000€ extra to increase your salary, a whopping 644€ will get taxed with your net salary increasing only 356€ - an effective marginal tax rate of 64%. Hence, I'm always a bit baffled when Europeans start talking about the need to start taxing the rich.


Tax the rich, not the high earners.

A person has a personal wealth of w(t). Income is the derivative w'(t). A derivative always eliminates the level part of wealth, only the change remains.
That's why income taxation is stupid. A hard working person pays more taxes than someone who is lazy but born rich.
Additionally only taxing work income and not other value increases gives speculation a huge incentive over work.

High income =\= being rich; we live in capitalism. What you have is what counts, nothing else.
Sent.
Profile Joined June 2012
Poland9334 Posts
Last Edited: 2018-09-19 18:59:41
September 19 2018 18:46 GMT
#23631
On September 20 2018 03:33 warding wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 20 2018 03:05 Gorsameth wrote:
On September 20 2018 02:45 warding wrote:
Sure, the understanding of taxation is really going to be different between an American and, say, a Portuguese. I pay 23% sales tax. Or lets say that you get paid an annual salary of 22 834€ after tax. If a company has 1000€ extra to increase your salary, a whopping 644€ will get taxed with your net salary increasing only 356€ - an effective marginal tax rate of 64%. Hence, I'm always a bit baffled when Europeans start talking about the need to start taxing the rich.

The rich tend to find ways not to pay 'their share' through the use of creative means of financial accounting.
If they just earned a salary and payed the nominal rate on it there wouldn't be a call to tax them more.

As Warren Buffet said. His secretary pays more in taxes then he does.

The US is the US. I'd love to know these methods of escaping taxes in European countries with modern tax authorities. Disclaimer: I run a company and pay or have paid every single type of tax in the books.


Don't think IKEA's owners are willing to share those secrets but you can try asking them.

Ikea’s association with Swedishness and Swedish values is so ironic that one would be hard pressed to know where to begin. One obvious place to start would be to note that the Swedish government is using taxpayer money to give free advertising to a corporation that left Sweden to avoid paying taxes. Ikea contributes next to nothing to Sweden in the form of corporate tax, all while making billions off of its Swedish image. In fact, the company has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid giving anything back to the national budgets of their host nations.

Ikea’s corporate structure is complicated, but the key point is that Ikea is a Netherlands-based “charity.” For many years, the vast majority of its outlets have been controlled by the Dutch company Ingka Holding, which in turn is owned by the not-for-profit Stichting Ingka Foundation, which was created in 1982 by the founder of Ikea, Ingvar Kamprad, for the purpose of ”furthering the advancement of architecture and interior design.” The Stichting Ingka Foundation is often listed as the wealthiest charitable foundation in the world, with assets in excess of $35 billion. As a result, Ikea pays a minuscule 3.5 percent nonprofit tax rate, far lower than its for-profit counterparts. In addition, recent revelations from LuxLeaks, an investigative project by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, show the company has made deals with the government of Luxembourg in order to pay as little tax as possible to anyone, anywhere.

http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/11/ikea-swedish-furniturecompanyidentitytaxavoidance.html
You're now breathing manually
Plansix
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
United States60190 Posts
September 19 2018 18:47 GMT
#23632
Tax policy that is often ignored in discussions is the ability of the government to consistently collect the taxes and punish citizens who fail to pay taxes. Which is one of the major reasons income tax is still used, despite the clear flaws with it. It is hard for the government to tax any personal wealth that isn’t going through some transaction. The transfer of money is the time when the government can capture tax revenue accurately. It would be nice to tax the lazy rich person more, but there are few opportunities to do so unless they are transferring all their wealth in a manner that requires them to declare it to the government.
I have the Honor to be your Obedient Servant, P.6
TL+ Member
warding
Profile Joined August 2005
Portugal2397 Posts
September 19 2018 19:07 GMT
#23633
Sent. the problem I have with the idea that IKEA is avoiding paying taxes by having the hq in the Netherlands as opposed to Sweden is that the corporate tax rate in NL is 25% and in Sweden it's 22%. Something else is going on there.
farvacola
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
United States18870 Posts
September 19 2018 19:13 GMT
#23634
Probably the parent company's charity designation, perhaps that's easier to make work in the Netherlands than Sweden?
"when the Dead Kennedys found out they had skinhead fans, they literally wrote a song titled 'Nazi Punks Fuck Off'"
Sent.
Profile Joined June 2012
Poland9334 Posts
September 19 2018 19:17 GMT
#23635
The article I found says they're paying 3.5 % as a fake charity organisation but I have no idea if it's credible. Just thought it's one of the most famous examples of European billionaires doing the same kind of tax magic as their American colleagues.
You're now breathing manually
Plansix
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
United States60190 Posts
September 19 2018 19:22 GMT
#23636
Yeah, that is some American tax policy in action(if true). And I’m sure they make up a huge part of the Netherland’s total GDP, allowing them to really scare the hell out of any elected officials.
I have the Honor to be your Obedient Servant, P.6
TL+ Member
warding
Profile Joined August 2005
Portugal2397 Posts
Last Edited: 2018-09-19 19:27:37
September 19 2018 19:24 GMT
#23637
IKEA the group pays corporate tax and is in turn owned by a charity. Which means that Ikea's profits don't go to any individual's pockets, they presumably go into charitable things.

Edit: P6 IKEA pays just over 1B in corporate tax and the Dutch GDP is 777B. I wonder what kind of nefarious policy they must impose on the Dutch.
farvacola
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
United States18870 Posts
September 19 2018 19:27 GMT
#23638
Not all countries tax subsidiary entities the same though, so to assume that IKEA pays a corporate tax even though it's a component of what appears to be a complicated web of different entities is to put the cart before the horse. The same goes for what constitutes a charity, I'm sure there's potentially significant variance there too.
"when the Dead Kennedys found out they had skinhead fans, they literally wrote a song titled 'Nazi Punks Fuck Off'"
Plansix
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
United States60190 Posts
September 19 2018 19:59 GMT
#23639
On September 20 2018 04:24 warding wrote:
IKEA the group pays corporate tax and is in turn owned by a charity. Which means that Ikea's profits don't go to any individual's pockets, they presumably go into charitable things.

Edit: P6 IKEA pays just over 1B in corporate tax and the Dutch GDP is 777B. I wonder what kind of nefarious policy they must impose on the Dutch.

35 Billion is a pretty good chunk of change for one company in a country that pulls is +700 billion total. 1 billion is taxes seems very low for a company with that sort of revenue.
I have the Honor to be your Obedient Servant, P.6
TL+ Member
Big J
Profile Joined March 2011
Austria16289 Posts
Last Edited: 2018-09-19 21:10:46
September 19 2018 20:40 GMT
#23640
The typical reason for mother companies to be located in the Netherlands is that revenues from licenses is lower taxed in the NL.
So the NL parents only job is to own the licenses and then to collect all profits from foreign daughters as license fees. These daughters now do not pay any profit taxes in their countries, because they have no profit anymore. And the mother company makes all profits from licenses, patents etc. and pays a much lower tax on such profits, than the usual company taxation in europe.
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