Posts by James Butler
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Cracker: Another Capital Idea..., in reply to Damian Christie,
I was working to list the various failures of Telecom management – but hey, I don’t need to
Exactly – imagine how bad they’d be if they only got paid 1/20th of what they get now….
I don't buy that it would have any (negative) impact at all. Perhaps if their making a fortune was properly contingent on success - rather than success being the difference between a huge fortune and a slightly huger fortune, or there being no difference at all - I would have more sympathy.
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Hard News: The Orcon Great Blend 2011 in…, in reply to Jackie Clark,
You know you can do that anyway, right?
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Cracker: Another Capital Idea..., in reply to uroskin,
If a low (or no) tax rate is the main attraction for migration, why aren’t all the Randians on a Greek beach?
Because they'd have to elbow their way through all the drunk English retired taxi drivers?
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Hard News: The Orcon Great Blend 2011 in…, in reply to Bart Janssen,
What attach button ... where?
No shit, it's gone again. Couldn't handle the awesome, I guess.
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Cracker: Another Capital Idea..., in reply to Rik,
As for all the “rich pricks fucking off” it might be worth noting that their contributions to the tax take would fuck off with them and make it that much harder to fund social welfare, health, etc.
Really, would they? Surely someone, somewhere has some data from a country where the introduction of an extra top tax rate caused the total take to drop, as all the Atlases shrugged their way overseas? Anyone?
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It is obvious that neither of these men would be attending if they did not think there was something to be gained in their presence; either an opportunity to explain themselves to a hostile audience and dull criticism, or the opportunity to bolster support.
In an ideal world you might hope they were there to bolster their support amongst those of their supporters with brains, by standing up in front of these dickheads and refusing to pander to their neanderthal prejudices (IOW what Metiria Turei said she would have done if invited to speak to Destiny - and I believe her, which is why it was never going to happen).
Not holding my breath.
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Speaker: John and Phil meet Bob, in reply to Stephen Judd,
You’re going to have to imagine me seething with incoherent rage.
Rage, I can imagine. Incoherent – I doubt it very much :-)
ETA: Reply fail, meant for Craig. 100% certain I didn't press the wrong "Reply" button.
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Cracker: Another Capital Idea..., in reply to Russell Brown,
Use it wisely :-)
Too late.
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Cracker: Another Capital Idea..., in reply to Damian Christie,
And yes, that’s what I’m in favour of (proportional) – I think the more money you earn, the more tax you should pay, but other than some low threshold levels to help with a minimum standard of living, I don’t agree with higher and higher rates at the upper levels. I simply don’t see what’s so evil about that.
I think the gut feeling of a lot of people who tend left is that a) unrestrained market capitalism allows salaries at the top end to grow beyond the bounds of what is instinctively reasonable, and b) progressive taxation provides an easy counterbalance to this tendency, by decreasing the marginal utility of pay increases at the top end.
I’m uneasy about the rigorousness of a, but I wonder if it’s a function of people who earn higher incomes being, on the whole, the same people who have the most influence on pay rates (sometimes I want to do an economics degree just so I can win arguments on the Internet). I also think that if a, then b is reasonable.
(Unrelated: w00t! Attachments on comments! Just because I can…)
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Hard News: A Capital Idea?, in reply to Simon C,
In at least some cases it’s not so much delibrately setting the rent at a lower level to make a loss and more that the property costs so much that the maximum rent you could reasonably get still makes a loss.
Well, in an ideal free market those are both the same thing, right? Property costs heaps because of capital gains, which in turn allows rents to drop by offering an alternative avenue of profit, which in turn encourages investors to invest for capital gains, and so on...
