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Comment by elzbardico | Hacker News Reader

Or they could pay taxes like everyone else and let the elected governments tackle those issues.

Zuckerberg has undoubtedly paid billions in taxes, far more than practically any of us ever will. If everyone else paid taxes like Zuckerberg, we’d have a lot less money in our pockets.

Moreover, the US government collects more than a trillion in taxes each year — is a few additional billion in tax revenue really what’s stopping the feds from tackling those issues?

I doubt it. They lobby (i.e. bribe) to have the tax code shaped to where they have a access to a bazillion loop holes. Between holding money in a tax haven to holding large amounts in company stock or whatever...there are lots of tricks. Sure he may pay more absolute dollars, but percent wise it's surely far less than those of us paying 40%. They then form their own charities to control exactly where their money goes instead of it going to taxes like all of us.

> If everyone else paid taxes like Zuckerberg, we’d have a lot less money in our pockets.

People whose income comes mainly in the form of capital gains pay much lower taxes on income than everyone else.

Sure, but the total is still enormous.

Because of the concentration of income-earning power in the capital-rich class driven by the favorable tax treatment of capital income; they pay little for the income they earn from capital. Its a really good deal for them, and a bad deal for everyone else.

I don't think we are going to settle questions of the ideal capital gains rate from an economic or moral standpoint over comment.

Good deal or bad deal is relative to some counterfactual alternative.

The topic is far too entwined with what one thinks the point of taxes or even the government is, and who should pay for it.

Really? Long-term capital gains tax rate at upper income levels is 20%. Most households have a lower effective income tax rate than that after accounting for all deductions.

> If everyone else paid taxes like Zuckerberg, we’d have a lot less money in our pockets.

Tell ya what, you give me enough money for me to pay taxes like Zuckerberg, and I will /happily/ give you back half of whatever is leftover.

Yes, and undoubtedly a far lower percentage of his gains and income than practically any of us ever will.

You’d have to be a bit naive to think we’re going to allocate more funds to medical research because we took in more taxes.

The government is run like a Ponzi scheme. We’re $33 trillion in debt paying a trillion in interest this year.

Of course the entitlements time bomb is an even bigger problem:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucemccain/2016/10/14/the-enti...

Logical fallacies are your superpower. Bravo.

Because that's what governments are for. A lot of these pet causes of the ultra rich is just reputation laundering.

Maybe start with making sure your platform does not spread anti-vaccine, anti-science misinformation?

That would require taking an ad impressions hit and a monetary loss, a sacrifice too steep to make for the public good.

And tax dodges.

Many would disagree with your premise. Governments are not for curing all diseases. Governments are for protecting my rights, enforcing the law, and providing basic services and a safety net.

If we’re talking about the US (reasonable because that’s where Zuck is) the role of the govt is defined in the constitution.

If you search for “disease” or “curing disease” you get 0 hits.

Meanwhile the thing they advocate for is protected as the 1st amendment.

> Maybe start with making sure your platform does not spread anti-vaccine, anti-science misinformation?

So they have it almost as close to backwards as you can get it.

It is not appropriate for social networks to censor legal speech, even if we consider it misinformation.

There is absolutely no rule or law like that. This is completely made up. Elon Musk censors people on Xitter all the time.

(Pretty sure you are a fan of his)

WTF

Zuckerberg famously paid a fortune in taxes because he didn't do an 83b election.

Can you name some issues governments have solved with taxpayer funds?

Need for defense, education, water, fire fighting/regulations, sewer, trash/recycling pickup, and once in a while workers rights and anti-trust. (Depending on ones definition of 'solved'.)

Yes thank goodness those monopolies are gone and our cities are all clean and safe from fires and our sewage and road infrastructure is in top condition

I'd agree those needs haven't been solved permanently. Hence the need for vigilance and a strong government that's controlled by the people, not the rich or high born.

These discussions are exasperating for me because I always go where? Where in this world is this strong government that's controlled by the average joe and not by the rich or high born. It seems like some enlightenment era utopian fantasy that people haven't grown out of

It's an ideal to strive for. Rarely reached. Yet things get better the closer we are to it, and worse the farther away.

All of those sit on the shoulders of private business and enterprise. Government (and bureaucracy generally) only prevents them from efficiently executing on what the market demands of them.

Before workers rights, regulation, and public education the industrialized world was much more privatized and also quite bleak.

Private industry has its place. Doesn't mean it's a good idea to outsource governance to them in all but name.

Smallpox is no longer a disease (anywhere in the world) thanks to public health services funded by governments. Likewise polio is on the way out (with an unfortunate recent spike due to some parents not vaccinating their children for "reasons").

Water-spread diseases like cholera which used to kill thousands every few years in in places like New York or London in the 19th century are basically unknown today in the developed world, thanks to modern water treatment plants and sewers. While you might say there was some contribution to these efforts by private philanthropists, the vast majority of these public health efforts were government (taxpayer) funded.

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