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131 points Traces | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.456s | source
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samiv ◴[] No.44442587[source]
I hope this works. The only way to save the economy and the society is by taxing the rich.

Think about it for a minute. The rich people hoard all the resources, financial assets, means of production and in the competition for resources they will (and are doing so) displace everyone else in the economy (and really from society also).

This means that those who are displaced have no means to participate in the economy. And not only that but also they will be pushed to the fringes of the society and exists in slum conditions. This will stiff the economy and hollow it out.

Let's say for arguments sake that the government taxes X hundred of millions of $ from the bezos/musks/gates/etc. and put that into the economy by

  - indirectly or directly hiring people
  - building infrastructure
  - providing services for the citizens (education, health care etc)
  - providing benefits to those who need. 
All that money will immediately go back into the economy stimulating all kinds of economic activity. And essentially two weeks later that same X hundred million is back in the bank account of bezos/musk/gates and it can be taxed again!

By letting the uber rich hoard the wealth that wealth is essentially away from the economy providing very little economic activity.

In economy this is known as the "high propensity to spend". The "poor" (i.e. working/middle class people) have high propensity to spend, the rich have low propensity to spend.

Tax the wealth, not the work!

This has been done before and it can be done again!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal

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Arnt ◴[] No.44443141[source]
Really rich people don't have a lot of money, they have a lot of assets that are considered to be worth a lot of money, typically companies. Companies are work. If you make the big owners ask for higher dividends, you tax the work indirectly.

You could of course tax the non-work wealth. Most of that is home ownership, few home owners consider themselves rich.

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justonceokay ◴[] No.44443180[source]
The modesty of the landlord knows no bounds
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freefaler ◴[] No.44449733[source]
The landlord can raise the price because the supply of new apartments is low. With limited supply, the supply/demand equilibrium is going to a higher point.

Why is there a limited supply if people need places to rent? Governmental regulation, financial regulation (e.g. Freddie Mac & Fanny Mae), zoning laws, overregulation on building that eats the margins and the with low supply the most profitable market is for "luxury" apartments with wider margins.

So if you want cheaper rent it's not that the landlord is greedy, it's that his greed can thrive because the market forces aren't working.

As Adam smith in 1776 wrote: "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest."

e.g. it's not from the benevolence of the landlord that we expect low prices, but from their regard of their own interest to rent the property that competes with many other properties available to rent.

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1. bradlys ◴[] No.44449763[source]
Collusion is a thing.