Man, if only you were this opposed to populist nationalism.
I agree with you about the problems with populism.
The wealth gap is partly populist boogey man, but it's also real. Our tax code is a tangled web of sham. It totally favors the super wealthy. Call it Buffet's paradox - low earning admin workers paying a higher rate than billionaires with lots of investment earnings and armies of tax pros. Fix the tax code by making it a flat tax explained in a pamphlet.
But taxing earnings after they've been earned doesn't get at the essential issues. To some extent we are in one of those transitional times, like the industrial revolution, that gives rise to spectacular wealth for the lucky few. In part there may be some inequities with opportunities in the marketplace, like poor application of anti trust laws in the info age, which is one convincing argument I heard recently. Fix that to address unequal opportunity. And understand that "fair share" from a tax standpoint means "if I earn twice what you earn I pay twice what you pay". If I earn 100 times more, I pay 100 times more. Fix the inequities that have me paying less than that, but things like AOC's suggestion are about wealth paying a punitive share, not a fair share.
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In response to this post by Hoodafan)
Posted: 01/29/2019 at 6:42PM