Spain and Brazil push global action to tax the super-rich and curb inequality

How are they going to do this? If they increase the tax burden on people's salaries, they'll start working informally (I live in Brazil and currently see that people look for various ways to escape income tax, whether by opening a company or choosing not to register formally (and they're not rich, but the state considers them rich, even earning ~$32k per year)). If they force companies to pay, the tax burden will be diluted into products/services, falling on the poorest. The right path is to reduce the size of the state - these policies will only make life worse for the poor. In a world with scarce resources, this problem has no solution.

The state is the solution to this type of problem. Reducing the size of the state only serves to take resources away from democratic control and into the hands of private entities.

In a perfect world without greed and corruption, I would agree with you. However, I live in Brazil, where the state is constitutionally mandated to provide all basic necessities (healthcare, education, etc.) and we have one of the highest tax rates in the world. Additionally, corruption here is absurd.

Despite having enormous budgets, the services the state provides are inadequate. Many people choose to sacrifice an additional portion of their income (on top of what they already pay in taxes) to access these services privately. Even with extensive social policies and taxes on virtually everything you do — salary, consumption, transfers, inheritance, literally everything — quality of life remains poor. High tax rates actually breaks development.

We must be cautious about supporting policies that tax the wealthy more heavily, because when the state considers someone earning $2,000 per month to be 'rich'—which already happens, as evidenced by the current income tax brackets (IRPF)—these measures won't improve anyone's life.

> Reducing the size of the state only serves to take resources away from democratic control and into the hands of private entities.

The state is just private individuals with a monopoly on violence. The incredible degree of corruption in Brazil wouldn't exist if people working for the state didn't have any special privileges.

The state is anything but the solution in the Brazilian scenery. Full of incompetent/ignorant people who only have ambitions of further enriching themselves.

The brightest minds leave the country or aren't able to reach its full potential.

We're talking about a country where the government has repeatedly been found of the largest corruptions schemes in human history.

Absolutely spot on:

> Many people choose to sacrifice an additional portion of their income (on top of what they already pay in taxes) to access these services privately.

In Brazil you pay taxes which are supposed to grant you health care, education, safety. None of that happens, so you pay (again) for private school, healthcare, insurance and so on. Anyone that lives/lived there knows this.