$50,000,000,000,000 federal debt by the time Biden (or Harris) leaves office?

Yeah, I don't like double taxation either and I'm actually supposed to know something about it. (I don't really.) There are some serious risks in eliminating taxation at the entity level but double taxation, among other things, gives a significant advantage to debt as opposed to equity finance. Debt finance carries its own systemic risks to the economy. I am not a tax analyst. I think it would be a fascinating line of work but at my age I'm not looking to earning degrees in economics or public administration. But based on the little I do know, I think I'd like to see Congress consider a few reforms. First, corporations and all other business entities should pay taxes on an equal footing. Second, the taxes paid should be distributed to the equity owners (partners or members or shareholders or whomever) as some sort of credit against their personal tax liability. Third, no interest paid by anyone, individual, investor, estate, trust or business, should ever be tax deductible. Period. Not allowed. Fourth, no business entity may ever borrow money for the purpose of buying out equity stakes.

Unconnected with these but while I'm on the subject, I'd eliminate the charitable deduction for all purposes, both for corporations and individuals, and I would end the granting of tax exemptions to so-called "Private foundations" and "Donor advised funds."

Well, criticize away if you want; I don't have enough real understanding to know whether I'm right or wrong. But that's how it looks to me.

 

Mostly its a matter of collecting at the source which is easier to verify and taxing U.S. source income to foreign entities. All the books are here, you see.

 

There's also the non-trivial problem of sheltering accumulated untaxed earnings.

 

"Politics" is literally defined as an art of making decisions in groups of humans. Emphasizing individuality is one reason a "one nation under God, indivisible" that used to be able to defeat the Nazis and put a man on the Moon now can't agree to wear a piece of cloth to defend against a deadly virus.

Try to guess the source of this:

 

"Being able to do stuff" is not "magical times of consensus". It's more like, you know, being minimally functional. Not being wiped out by plagues, etc. I'd argue that freedom to be an ass to thy neighbour is the core appeal of the red hat propaganda.

Sure, sure. I'm just saying concepts and attitudes expressed are neither new nor particularly left-wing. I wonder how eg. Paul Ryan reconciles his brand of policy with this.

 

That's your basic government incompetence, versus the loss of "we are in it together" idea I am talking about. I hate to agree with Steven Harper on anything, but just maybe these mean "he's Just not ready" ads were on to something. Pity, because if Mr. Sunny Ways finally loses government, it will fall onto Conservatives. Blegh.

No, it wasn't - but I really don't think this was all it was. I believe the distaste for common good became one of the core ideas in Conservative discourse, and that attracts hordes of people with some kind of flaw in their psyche.

On the topic of "school choice" - I get that Internet warriors overreact, I really do. But there are things to overreact to. School choice promoters online are vegans of parenting in smugness, for one. The idea itself, though... Individually, I will go for any option that gives my kids the best chance in life - but there's no reason to ignore darker consequences. Big part of the "school choice" movement arose in reaction to school integration, and the whole idea is hostile to any sense of "collective" that exists in this country. I love my daughters' charter schools, they are delightful and not at all "racist". However, they cater to this nice little neighborhood that is visibly whiter (and Trumpier) than the city and the regular school district (Hispanic-majority). Are we to postulate that their very existence has 0% to do with race?

I don't think I agree with that. Besides, my ancestral faith is Eastern Orthodoxy, and you should hear how heavily some in these corners push "obedience" as highest virtue. Certain legalism and defined "chain of command" in RCC tends to work better in practice, or so I feel at the moment.

 

Two biggest US Crime families...Dems/Reps

 

Biden's push for a global minimum corporate tax rate is a step in the right direction if they can all make it work.

 

If a government could solve this problem of people sheltering earnings from taxes, that seems to increase exponentially as one grows more wealthy, many national debt and social-economic problems would probably be resolved to a great extent. Still astonished at the recent reports of ROTH IRAs being used for this purpose, never would have thought a middle class tax shelter could be exploited so well.

 

I am not fond of any tax exemption for a social purpose. Congress prefers to grant tax advantages to one or another activity or institution in order to subsidize that institution or activity without actually seeming to do so. But from an economic standpoint, there is ZERO difference between granting favorable tax treatment and simply cutting a check on the Treasury to an individual or corporate taxpayer. Basically, granting a tax advantage is intellectually dishonest but politically expedient. That's what I liked about the new Tax Code (though it needs considerable adjustment even now). The suspension of various itemized deductions and exemptions went a long way toward the goal of making the Code fairer and simpler.