D&D and the rising pandemic

[tomBitonti]

It’s also a bad thing for certain individual workers. Like someone who is in the later stages of their working life and would find retraining for a new job difficult or impossible. Especially if they’re not in a good position to retire.
It could also be disastrous in areas where the local economy is not diversified.

This is all true. But transitions aren’t the problem. Transitions are unavoidable. The problem is how we handle issues from a social policy perspective.
Be safe, be well,
Tom Bitonti

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Not if the people are supported.

The job is still getting done.

The idea that a person needs to be punished because work is no longer required is ridiculous.

There are people in this world for whom a job isn’t just about making money. It is an element of their life that helps determine their sense of self worth.* For them, becoming unemployed directly and negatively impacts their mental health. The idea that they would be “supported”- even through benefits they paid for by taxes on the income they earned by the sweat of their brow- is anathema.

i don’t necessarily agree with that mindset, but it exists.



* I count several family members among those numbers

 

[Eltab]

(Notably, no research has EVER been done on the actual shape of Laffer’s curve, so nobody has any idea if it’s even symmetrical.)

We can be confident that Laffer's curve is not symmetrical. Of course it begins at (0,0) and climbs steeply to its peak - exact location not known but probably in the range of 10% to 20% tax rates, at a guess - then slopes down where we can place IRL historical data points. I've figured it would look like a playground slide with the ladder attached to the (0,0) point.

P.S. The house font needs a zero with a slash in it, what I'm seeing in my post looks like the 'night owl' icon.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

This is all true. But transitions aren’t the problem. Transitions are unavoidable. The problem is how we handle issues from a social policy perspective.
Be safe, be well,
Tom Bitonti

Transitions are inevitable, but that doesn’t make them non-problematic.

 

[Eltab]

Farmers keep working and selling as normal, people buy as normal, but the money you get to pay for the food comes from the government if you can't afford to pay for it on your own.

Weimar Germany tried that, 100 years ago. They told millions of working people to stay home, not work, and collect unemployment benefits instead. For reasons that seemed good at the time. (Look in a history book for more details.) And they ran the printing presses to provide the money. The result was a hyperinflation where you would bring in a wheelbarrow full of money to buy a loaf of bread.

That is no solution, it is a dead end.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

We can be confident that Laffer's curve is not symmetrical. Of course it begins at (0,0) and climbs steeply to its peak - exact location not known but probably in the range of 10% to 20% tax rates, at a guess - then slopes down where we can place IRL historical data points. I've figured it would look like a playground slide with the ladder attached to the (0,0) point.

We’ve had historical tax rates in the 40%+ range that didn’t conform to the left side Laffer’s curve, so we know the curve’s peak is to the right of that. Like I said, the last time we actually had tax cuts resulting in increased revenues was when the top marginal rates were dropped from 90%+ to the mid 70%s and then 50%s- right around the end of WW2.

 

[Zardnaar]

Personally I think the top tax rate should be around 40-50%.

It was higher once upon a time but very few people actually paid it. Taxes on luxuries are different.

Once taxes get to high things tend to go the other way. I think serfs in Russia were paying 95% at one point..

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Personally I think the top tax rate should be around 40-50%.

It was higher once upon a time but very few people actually paid it.

In America, the average millionaire/billionaire actually spends a smaller percentage of taxes than the middle class.

 

[Zardnaar]

In America, the average millionaire/billionaire actually spends a smaller percentage of taxes than the middle class.

I know. I don't think the % matters to much but the amount you can actually extract.

Sometimes putting up taxes gets less tax as well as business just shuts up, moves or whatever.

 

[Jester David]

Man, it's extra frustrating as a Canadian.
Our economy is intertwined with America, so it's in both of our interests if the pandemic is managed and business can resume. But America seems dead set in resuming too soon and too fast, which will likely cause a spike in cases that hurts our economy and extend the duration we have to keep the border closed.
There's this whole extra layer of impotence as we sit and watch things unfold.

At least we're getting more than a one-time payment. I don't think I would have been able to make rent if I just got $1200 once...