• nifty@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        It’s not about capitalism, it’s about greed. There were and are plenty of greedy people in communist regimes

        • 24_at_the_withers@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Except capitalism could otherwise be called “Greed: The Game”

          Capitalism takes greed and puts it to work as the center of an economic system. While greed has either destroyed or deformed communism any time it’s been tried at scale, there’s 100% no separating greed from capitalism - they’re inexorably linked.

          • nifty@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            The Nordic model proves that you can have robust welfare states while engaging in free markets.

            China also shows that there’s some value to market socialism, but I am no economist so idk 🤷‍♀️

            Oligarchy-esque politics, monopolies, and favoring short term gains over long term benefits are the main issues currently, I think.

            I think many people would agree with welfare states like we have under the Nordic model, but many would not agree with Stalin-like Marxist-Leninism, or similarly extreme economic system.

  • JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I haven’t looked at any numbers, but surely if we taxed billionaires enough to turn them back into millionaires, we’d probably not have to tax anyone else at all.

    • elrik@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      The combined wealth of the ~750 US billionaires at the end of 2023 was about $5.2T. Total individual federal income tax revenue in 2023 was $2.2T.

      So it seems non-billionaires could go federal tax free for 2 full years.

  • Cosmonaut_Collin@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I think the better option is to close loopholes. Even if we increase taxes, they still have ways of avoiding taxes. We need to make it less avoidable for the rich.

    • dohpaz42@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I disagree because there will come a day in the future, however distant it may or may not be, that folks of all classes will have affordable access to space tourism, and most folks (read: the non-rich) do not need to be taxed any more than they already are.

      Now, taxing those who own space tourism is something I can get behind. Tax them for the pollution they generate for fueling their rockets. Tax them for any space debris they generate. And tax them for simply existing in the first place.

  • Seraph@fedia.io
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    4 months ago

    But how will we push so much money through lobbying without a ‘fuck you i’m going to space’ class?

  • wheeldawg@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    Just find everything from their pockets first before you even ask us. Your tax rate is now related to the amount of the country’s wealth you have. Counting all the stuff you moved out of country specifically to avoid this. That should actually count against them double to further disincentives doing so.

    Maybe even worse in the first few years of the change so it will be extremely difficult for them to move back quickly enough to dodge some of the impact of this.