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While Tax the Rich is fair and accurate, I wish we could point out that this isn't some undue burden. This is just reclaiming the surplus wealth they've extracted from the economy.
We can and should do far more, but this is a good start.
Libertarians think taxation is theft. Be sure to tell them every time they use a road, a hospital, a sporting ground, drink clean water they are stealing from the government and any one who paid more tax than them
Also every time they use anything that involves radio transmission, eat food that is safe, breathe air that is clean, flush their poop into the sewer system, or work in a safe environment.
I was gonna link to The New Yorker's Libertarian Police Department story again, but fuck it. I'm pasting the whole thing here.
-------------------------
I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.
“Bad news, detective. We got a situation.”
“What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?”
“Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.”
The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?”
“Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so.”
“Easy, chief,” I said. “Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair.”
He laughed. “That’s why you’re the best I got, Lisowski. Now you get out there and find those bitcoins.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m on it.”
I put a quarter in the siren. Ten minutes later, I was on the scene. It was a normal office building, strangled on all sides by public sidewalks. I hopped over them and went inside.
“Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®” I said, flashing my badge and my gun and a small picture of Ron Paul. “Nobody move unless you want to!” They didn’t.
“Now, which one of you punks is going to pay me to investigate this crime?” No one spoke up.
“Come on,” I said. “Don’t you all understand that the protection of private property is the foundation of all personal liberty?”
It didn’t seem like they did.
“Seriously, guys. Without a strong economic motivator, I’m just going to stand here and not solve this case. Cash is fine, but I prefer being paid in gold bullion or autographed Penn Jillette posters.”
Nothing. These people were stonewalling me. It almost seemed like they didn’t care that a fortune in computer money invented to buy drugs was missing.
I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth. Just then, a man in glasses made a break for it.
“Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled.
Too late. He was already out the front door. I went after him.
“Stop right there!” I yelled as I ran. He was faster than me because I always try to avoid stepping on public sidewalks. Our country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen.
I was losing him. “Listen, I’ll pay you to stop!” I yelled. “What would you consider an appropriate price point for stopping? I’ll offer you a thirteenth of an ounce of gold and a gently worn ‘Bob Barr ‘08’ extra-large long-sleeved men’s T-shirt!”
He turned. In his hand was a revolver that the Constitution said he had every right to own. He fired at me and missed. I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose.
“All right, all right!” the man yelled, throwing down his weapon. “I give up, cop! I confess: I took the bitcoins.”
“Why’d you do it?” I asked, as I slapped a pair of Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs® on the guy.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Afraid?”
“Afraid of an economic future free from the pernicious meddling of central bankers,” he said. “I’m a central banker.”
I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner. Instead, I shook my head.
“Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom.”
He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me for arresting him.
That's hilarious.
I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose.
This bit really got me :D
That's a joke, but I have talked to libertarians who think that if the road is full of potholes, neighbors should come together and pay for the road to be repaved.
Yeah, we should actually all pool our money together for the repairs and maintenance. I wonder what we could call such a thing? Hmm 🤔
A community, coming together communally, to pay for something the community uses, as a community? Hmmm, it's right on the tip of my tongue...
I tend to somewhat agree: if someone believes that infrastructure should be privatized, I think their neighbors should come together and use that person to build a new speed bump on the road.
Honestly, libertarians are free to do that now. Where I live there are loads of both potholes and libertarians. What’s stopping them from practicing what they preach and fixing the problem themselves? They’d get more street cred (literally) that way. Be the change.
But no. The real answer is it’s always someone else’s problem, and that’s why government exists.
I grew up in a college town where repaving did actually work like that: streets didn't get repaired at all unless a majority of the homeowners voted to approve a surtax to pay for it. In areas that were mostly college student rentals, the scumlord "homeowners" always voted against the surtax and the streets were nearly un-drivable, more like uneven dirt roads with big chunks of broken asphalt embedded in them.
I remember arguing with some guy on Reddit who thought the entire judicial system should be private and people would just go along with it because their reputation would be hurt if they didn't accept whatever punishment the private judges said they should get.
Abritrationists
It's beyond me why Americans, who scream about government taxation, can't see how large corporations essentially have added a hidden, ever increasing line item tax to their paychecks to extract wealth.
And then we fawn over billionaires donating their money to causes we perceive as beneficial to society - they're just returning stolen money without interest or penalty, which could have been better used when money was actually earned.
It’s beyond me why Americans, who scream about government taxation, can’t see how large corporations essentially have added a hidden, ever increasing line item tax to their paychecks to extract wealth.
It is largely because they see these price increases as consequences of some hidden government hand, while price cuts are attributed to a competitive marketplace. In short, its propaganda.
We train people, from an early age, to believe that competition brings prices down and regulation forces prices up. We don't learn about the profit motive as an upward price impulse or spend significant amounts of time on monopolies and their impact on marginal pricing. We absolutely 100% do not ever discuss the difference between Exchange Value and Utility Value when discussing economic productivity. The impact of speculative investments on retail prices is straight out never mentioned ever.
So all anyone has left to go on is "gas prices are up because the government did a war" and "computer prices are up because the government did a tariff" and "food prices are up because the government did a tax".
And then we fawn over billionaires donating their money to causes we perceive as beneficial to society - they’re just returning stolen money without interest or penalty, which could have been better used when money was actually earned.
Philanthropy is when a single incredibly rich guy gives money away for free.
Public Spending is when a soulless bureaucracy steals Peter to pay Paul.
Therefore, public sector bad and private sector good.
Yeah. This is a good first step. But it needs to go further. A lot of the wealth is not in direct income. We should be including in this capital gains, and perhaps imposing a similar tax on people with assets totally $10M+ or so. A lot of valuation comes at people holding huge assets and stocks, increasing in value and they take loans out on those assets to actually buy anything.
You feel no burden when compound interest carries you on angel's wings
It's basic economics .... if you pay to have healthy children ... they'll grow to to be healthy adults.
Healthy children are cheaper to take care of than unhealthy adults.
It doesn't matter if you are conservative or liberal or even socially minded or libertarian..... if you don't take care of your children and everyone else's children, they'll all grow up to be everyone's problem for decades to come.
Basic logic with a side of math? Many conservatives' only weakness! 😵
Oh, but I was told the rich would just move if they were taxed! You mean to tell me rich people in Massachusetts don't want to give up their mansions on Martha's Vineyard and their luxury apartments in Boston?
The amendment was narrowly passed via a statewide ballot initiative in 2022 despite claims by opponents that it would force wealthy residents and businesses to leave the state.
Props for getting it passed.
despite claims by opponents that it would force wealthy residents and businesses to leave the state.
That would lower housing costs. Probably not the smartest pitch for the opposition to take.
All the wealthy residents who give that much of a shit are in New Hampshire already, anyway.
Oh no what will we do without all the wealthy robber barons exploiting us.
Seriously, what a dumb threat.
This is also the crowd whose second favorite book that they've never read is a fantasy about the wealthy robber barons making their own society ~~with blackjack and hookers~~ and leaving the rest of us to rot.
Thank you. I was stoked to vote for it, and very happy to see it pass. That said, there was a truly silly amount of misinformation that the opponents were running. At one point I got fed up with their bullshit propaganda texts and just responded by trolling them back. I know it’s a bot, but it was cathartic.
I just can't follow the logic, I'm sorry. These people and businesses are worth millions, aren't they? However 4% of millions could mean the difference between affluence and living on the street is beyond me. I mean, what other threats could realistically force millionaires to leave a place? Being butthurt? I'm betting they certainly won't be too afraid to pick up the phone and call their wealth managers to tell them to start making their money work even harder for them than before.
I'm torn between "...and nothing of value was lost" and "...but of course those fears never materialized." But I guess por que no los dos?
The fear mongering and misinformation in the campaign against this ballot initiative was ridiculous. Opponents tried to take advantage of ignorance about how marginal taxes work.
If you sell your house for $1,000,010.00, under this new law you pay an extra 40 cents on top of what you'd have normally paid.
Actual GOOD news? Wtf Internet, I came here to get mad!
This is an outrage. Billionaires should be corralled and milked like rodents for school lunches
I don't think well-off mice milk is FDA approved or nutritionally complete. Maybe privileged capybara is, but I can't be bothered to look at the study to confirm.
But but but conservatives said that if you raise taxes on the wealthy then they'll just move away and we'll wind up with even less! Could the conservatives have been wrong?!? Does it actually turn out that wealthy people can afford to live wherever they like even if that area is more expensive to live in?!!? Impossible!!!
/s
So they're saying we need a steeper exit tax too? OK, let's goooooooo
Let’s go! Massachusetts on top