Tuesday, July 10, 2018
The Petty Man
"The petty man ... is utterly disorderly but hates for people to criticize him. He us utterly unworthy but wishes for people to consider him worthy. His heart is like that of a tiger or wolf, and his conduct like that of beasts, but he ates for people to consider him a villain. To those who flatter and toady to him he shows favor, those those who would admonish him he keeps at a distance. Those who try to be correct he considers laughable, and those truly loyal to him he considers villains." Xunzi c. 310—c. 220 B.C.E. Quoted from Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy by Ivanhoe and Van Norden
Sunday, June 17, 2018
Meritocracy or Aristocracy?
When the estate/death tax was being publicly debated some years ago, I had a politically active cousin ask me with wonder why I think it's a good thing. My answer at the time was because I don't believe in having an American aristocratic class. My cousin countered with asking why someone shouldn't be able to pass their hard earned assets on to their children. I responded with the that I'm not worried about their children being rich, I'm worried about their great grand children being rich through no virtue of their own, that I prefer we live in a meritocracy where people have a chance to get ahead. Neither of us saw a belief conversion that day.
My answers haven't changed and, while I don't agree with everything, this article lays out the argument better than I can. I think it makes much more sense to give everyone a their first three or four or five or six or times the poverty rate (or some other number that makes sense) dollars tax free and to tax all other income above at the same rate. And by all I mean everything. Interest, long and short term capital gains, income from all financial devices, salaries, inheritance-- any situation where someone ends up with money or assets counts as income to me.
Why? Without something more fair than what we have now, there will eventually be violent revolution in our future and I don't want anyone, especially my children or grandchildren, to live through that.
My answers haven't changed and, while I don't agree with everything, this article lays out the argument better than I can. I think it makes much more sense to give everyone a their first three or four or five or six or times the poverty rate (or some other number that makes sense) dollars tax free and to tax all other income above at the same rate. And by all I mean everything. Interest, long and short term capital gains, income from all financial devices, salaries, inheritance-- any situation where someone ends up with money or assets counts as income to me.
Why? Without something more fair than what we have now, there will eventually be violent revolution in our future and I don't want anyone, especially my children or grandchildren, to live through that.
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