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Paul
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Re: Wealth tax

June 26th, 2017, 6:38 pm

No, you've both got a sense of humour and can take anything thrown at you!
 
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Cuchulainn
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Re: Wealth tax

June 27th, 2017, 9:16 pm

No, you've both got a sense of humour and can take anything thrown at you!
I wonder; what about an upper-left cut? Don't think that's nice!
 
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Pat
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Joined: September 30th, 2001, 2:08 am

Re: Wealth tax

December 5th, 2017, 3:19 pm

In many areas of the US (eg, Oregon), property taxes are local taxes paying for schools, city police, fire, roads, administration, and most of these levys are voted on seperately for each school district , fire district, ... And they do get voted down if the voters dont think it's good value for money. Since the quality of public services relate to the property value, most people are ok with it. But the part of the tax which is state wide (or country wide!) has little visible connection to the community, let alone the property in question, which makes it just another source of revenue. Worse, in many places it's based on the "highest use" of the property ... which means if you have a farm that could be subdivided into schlock housing lots which would be worth more money, the tax is on the latter value
 
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Pat
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Re: Wealth tax

January 11th, 2018, 5:14 pm

Presumably a wealth tax would force people to deploy their assets in the economy, not allowing them to sit unused or in low return endeavors. The negative is that you're mixing capital with current accounts, equivalent to borrowing long term to pay monthy bills.If the tax on capital went to public capital (roads, sewers, ...) instead of salaries, there might be economic sense to it
 
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Cuchulainn
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Re: Wealth tax

January 11th, 2018, 8:09 pm

Worse, in many places it's based on the "highest use" of the property ... which means if you have a farm that could be subdivided into schlock housing lots which would be worth more money, the tax is on the latter value.

In some (planning-driven) countries land is zoned or not for development while in others (more wild west) farmers hold out for as long as possible before selling while the land remains at 5K/acre.

In neither case can we speak of a market-driven economy. 

The housing market is creaking at the seams, just like in 2006. It's hard to distinguish real wealth from virtual wealth.
 
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Traden4Alpha
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Joined: September 20th, 2002, 8:30 pm

Re: Wealth tax

January 11th, 2018, 10:27 pm

Presumably a wealth tax would force people to deploy their assets in the economy, not allowing them to sit unused or in low return endeavors. The negative is that you're mixing capital with current accounts, equivalent to borrowing long term to pay monthy bills.If the tax on capital went to public capital (roads, sewers, ...) instead of salaries, there might be economic sense to it
The US has that problem already.  There's all these fees for using public infrastructure such as ports and canals that are siphoned off for social spending.  The infrastructure really is falling apart, but ships and trucks aren't voters.