Hacker News Reader

Comment by asdff | Hacker News Reader

Lets just let it go to the limits of the argument then. Why tax them at all right? Why have them pay a dime in taxes? They could get scared and shoo off like startled birds after all. Lets not let them pay a dime in taxes then. Free tax USA if you clear a billion dollars.

You have no problems with that proposal, right? Or, are you going to argue in favor of taxes? But, what if they leave?

View on HN

This is why you should read up on the Laffer curve.

The logical limit of your argument is communism and everyone with the ability to read a history book knows that results in corruption and death.

I’m having a hard time understanding why you’re going so hard for the Laffer curve for your defence here. Like, a quick look at the Wikipedia page says that something along the lines of 70% is probably optimal for revenue generation, and I GUARANTEE you these billionaires aren’t paying anywhere close to that. So why not let’s move them significantly closer? If anything, the Laffer curve would tell us we SHOULD be significantly raising taxes on billionaires.

How do you do it? I'm a billionaire - I'll pay myself $10,000 a year and I then loan against my stock so it's not income assessable.

What's the plan?

Forced revaluation and selling of assets once per year?

Who values privately held assets?

No, we've never seen a proper communist government, that's no argument. Capitalism also leads to corruption and death fwiw.

Most people actually do have lived experience with communism, just that it's within the scope of their own family unit.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com