The US's resistance stems from concerns that a global wealth tax might deter investment, prompt capital flight, and potentially impede economic growth.
' We are to selfish to impose such a thing, here's our pretend stance on why; We will refuse to invest if you force us to help humanity. '
in brazil we are paying 100% in some cases. not income, of course, but some goods are twice as expensive for us to obtain as they should because of crazy taxation.
meanwhile our rich pay among the lowest taxes in the world (they pay zero tax in some investments). shit even when tax is due, some of our richest won't pay it and get away with it. (thanks, neymar!)
What does that matter? 2% of a billion is 20 million. Do you seriously think their wealth doesn't grow by at least 20 million a year? Do you think their wealth doesn't grow by more than 2% every year? It should not be growing, it should be diminishing!
I'll repeat myself: 2-6% is a fucking joke.
To be fair though, it's not nothing (unlike the USA). They have to start somewhere, I'll give 'em that.
They're going to take everything they can, in every way they can, whether or not they're taxed the 2%. Don't act like this is going to be their motivation for sticking it to the little guy.
Wealth taxes have been tried and later rescinded. They are extremely hard to administer for rich people. They usually have their wealth tied up in assets, not cash. Valuing those assets is itself expensive. What is a painting worth? Their entire stock portfolio? It is much easier to tax money as it moves through capital gains, income, and estate taxes.
The fact that even this largely performative measure is being opposed by the US makes it pretty clear that no real action will be possible under the current regime.
Okay, and how is that a rebuttal? Wealth taxes cost a large amount to administer and don't provide much revenue. Any tax should be weighed against its side effects. If a type of tax has a history of being mainly performative with little revenue, what's the case for swallowing the side effects?
Again, it's much easier to tax wealth as it moves because typically that movement involves putting a value on it. Estate taxes also require appraising the value of assets, but they are literally once in a lifetime.
if third party sites can come up with someone's net worth without access to any tax returns/financial data, I'm sure the US government can do the same. Honestly they could just give a broad estimate and if its wrong have the taxee fight it with the data proving its wrong. The system for this already exists on tax forms. The administrative costs part of the argument seems really weird, it's not like the US is like most other established governments and gives a bill/check. It requires citizens to calculate their own taxes so they technically don't even need to do the math outside a simple "does this look right? ah probally" or audits
Those are estimates based on published data that are often wildly inaccurate. Taxation would need real numbers. The way that things have typically worked in the past is that taxees self-report their assets, which leads to widespread cheating.
If they could get totally global coordination to work, sure. Every single nation signing up is a pipe dream though. If that's how the proposal was actually written it was never intended to pass.
Capital flight only exists where it is allowed to exist. It is possible and, in fact, advisable to have laws allowing for the seizure of assets in such a scenario.
What this means in practice, is that someone will make a billion dollars in Brazil, and then move and spend it all elsewhere, so they can continue becoming richer. This is bad for Brazil, since developing is expensive.
Wealth taxes have been tried and later rescinded. They are extremely hard to administer for rich people. They usually have their wealth tied up in assets, not cash. Valuing those assets is itself expensive. What is a painting worth? Their entire stock portfolio? It is much easier to tax money as it moves through capital gains, income, and estate taxes.
It's absolutely hilarious to see blueAnon types continue trotting out their Russiagate conspiracy theory. Americans are absolutely incapable of owning what their own political system is doing, and always have to blame the rest of the world for their problems. It's a nation of petulant children.
Replying with a bunch of debunked Russian propaganda to dismiss Russian interest in steering US policy seems like putting your head in the sand. You are so far down the rabbit hole of misinformation that I hope you are able to make it back to reality at some point down the road.
And good luck in the future, I'm done with this thread as I'm not going down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and misinformation.
This sounds like recycled Cold War I hysteria. How much Democratic party Kool-Aid have you drunk?
First of all, where did Russia get so many US dollars from that they were able to outbid all of their US petit bourgeois and corporate competitors in buying the US Republican Party?
Jacobin: Why the Twitter Files Are in Fact a Big DealOn the Left, there’s been a temptation to dismiss the revelations about Twitter’s internal censorship system that have emerged from the so-called Twitter Files project. But that would be a mistake: the news is important and the details are alarming.