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[metalhead]

I stealth edited that bit, because they do get a lot of silly tax deductions too, but it's difficult to picture WalMart buying extra buildings for the purpose of writing off the depreciation on their taxes. But that is an added incentive to open more WalMarts.

 

[civver_764]

But the part you're missing is that investing in new stores, or extra employees, or higher wages, or an updated fleet of trucks, or a streamlined supply chain all generate tax deductions. If you raise taxes on businesses, then they have incentives to spend more money on tax deductible business activities, and tax deductible business activities employ people, either directly or indirectly. That's why they're tax deductible. Well, that and lobbying.

And I mean that's fine, but you're contradicting yourself. Are we raising taxes to in order to get money for the basic income system, or are we raising taxes to push businesses to reinvest their money? If we need money then we really don't want businesses to reinvest and avoid the higher taxes.

Then there's the consideration that every WalMart shopper in America would have an additional $7,000 or more to spend every year under my hypothetical basic income scheme. Surely you can see that even in a higher tax environment, WalMart is going to end up doing very well in that scenario. Some people might complain about the effects of a basic income; I guarantee you that retailers would not.

Well I agree with you there. A basic income would very much be a redistribution towards businesses like Walmart that tend serve poor people.

 

[Lexicus]

Personally I'm awaiting an explanation of how hoarding billions of dollars in Swiss bank accounts is a job creating activity though

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Personally I'm awaiting an explanation of how hoarding billions of dollars in Swiss bank accounts is a job creating activity though

Well, it creates jobs in Switzerland.

 

[rah]

I'm starting to get a strange feeling of deja vu from discussions about Reagan's economic plan.

 

[metalhead]

And I mean that's fine, but you're contradicting yourself. Are we raising taxes to in order to get money for the basic income system, or are we raising taxes to push businesses to reinvest their money? If we need money then we really don't want businesses to reinvest and avoid the higher taxes.

We're raising them for the purposes of implementing a basic income. I'm merely pointing out that tax deductible activities become more attractive as taxes go up. That's not a goal of the policy, but merely an effect the policy will have. That can be positive or negative, depending on how the tax code is structured, and what kinds of activities companies can do in order to reduce their tax burden.

I personally don't favor higher corporate taxes to pay for a basic income, but I don't think it's necessarily a terrible thing. Any corporation that sells things to consumers, or supplies those who do, are going to see a huge boost from it, so it's reasonable to expect them to kick some of that back to the government. You'll also see a nice trickle down to most states and cities, in the form of higher sales tax receipts.

 

[civver_764]

Personally I'm awaiting an explanation of how hoarding billions of dollars in Swiss bank accounts is a job creating activity though

Lol you're blowing holes in your own position here. This is yet another negative effect of raising taxes.

 

[Farm Boy]

Eh, it'll go to Amazon-like things Metal, less trickledown than I think we think. Trickling down is inefficiency, and capture is increasing.

 

[Borachio]

Sure we can, people just need to flip their own burgers.

Competition leads them to pay workers more, not less.

You're assuming that workers are a scarce commodity.

They haven't been properly that since the Plague years took 1/3 rd the population of Europe.

Make no mistake, untrammelled capitalism is a real nightmare.

 

[civver_764]

That doesn't make any sense. The workers will gravitate toward the competitor with the highest wages.

 

[metalhead]

Eh, it'll go to Amazon-like things Metal, less trickledown than I think we think. Trickling down is inefficiency, and capture is increasing.

Perhaps. States really do need to do a better job of collecting sales tax on Amazon purchases and the like. But we will have to cope with the automated retail future sooner or later anyways.

 

[Borachio]

That doesn't make any sense. The workers will gravitate toward the competitor with the highest wages.

I edited my post. (sorry bout that)

As I say, you're assuming workers are a scarce commodity. They aren't.

 

[Farm Boy]

Perhaps. States really do need to do a better job of collecting sales tax on Amazon purchases and the like. But we will have to cope with the automated retail future sooner or later anyways.

I suppose. I do find it hilarious that the federals are just getting around to laying the groundwork that would make states inhibiting the legality of automated vehicles on their roads illegal. Oh wait, that isn't hilarious and it isn't inevitable, it's something being intentionally done.

 

[Traitorfish]

That doesn't make any sense. The workers will gravitate toward the competitor with the highest wages.

Yes, the workers will want to hang the richest capitalists first, good insight.

 

[Farm Boy]

What workers? There will simply be the useless.

 

[Borachio]

Ah. Remember the hunger games. There's glory for you.

edit: Good grief. Even I don't know what I mean.

 

[Farm Boy]

I dunno!

https://xkcd.com/652/

 

[Traitorfish]

What workers? There will simply be the useless.

They'll stay busy hanging capitalists.

 

[civver_764]

Yes, the workers will want to hang the richest capitalists first, good insight.

And then they'll get another communist dictator to rule over them. Nice one, workers.

 

[Berzerker]

they might have to hang all the people who keep feeding the machines