I used to think that real estate taxes were the most unfair in the world. Eventually I realized that they are actually very fair. We individuals must pay the public an annual fee for the use of a piece of property. If there were no such taxes, rich people would end up owning all land and most of us would be serfs.
I just read a chapter in "The Tau of Abundance" about money and interest. It twisted my head. It is forcing me to try to see with fresh eyes from outside of a culture and financial system that all of us are immersed in.
It lead me to contemplate the concept that real tangible property rights shouldn't be treated any different from intellectual property rights. Ownership of money and goods should eventually time out and revert to the public.
Because it doesn't, in the US CEOs get 400 times the average workers pay. The richest 1% own 34.6% of all private wealth. The wealth gap keeps getting bigger because we allow people to keep assets forever. Then, like feudal lords, they charge us (their serfs) huge percentages of our income for the privilege of using that property.
(The average household pays about 18% of disposable income just to service debt.)
A MORE FAIR SYSTEM...
We could tax people based on assets that they own. For example...
If your net worth is 100% of the median net worth, you would pay 1% of your net worth as tax.
If your net worth is 200% of median, you pay 2% tax.
If your net worth is 5,000% of median, you pay 50% of it as tax.
The dynamics of this tax method are fascinating...
This lets you be substantially better off than average, but not by ridiculous factors.
It also decays wealth at a fair and reasonable rate, keeping an incentive to work hard while preventing undue concentrations of wealth.
It lets you pass a reasonable amount of wealth to your kids, but prevents situations like Paris Hilton.
To get large capital, a company would have to be owned by large numbers of stockholders, or be a co-op or non profit.
Later maybe we will explore how this would reduce debt and lead to lower total taxes.
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4 comments:
i like how you see things from all the perspectives... not just one but all
By the way, My Norwegian sister in law tells me that Norway taxes wealth, and it works quite well for them.
this is VERY wrong! I am a Capitalist at heart
Actually, this is very capitalist too. There is nothing here that would prevent a capitalist from building empires. It just encourages them to share the ownership a little more.
By the way, the exact formula can and should be tweaked and improved.
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