Some knee-jerk thoughts after engaging with Thomas Pikkety’s key points from his book Capital in the 21st Century.
Ideas of progressive income tax make sense to the bourgeoisie academics that propose them because they will benefit from them directly through redistribution of wealth towards “social” programs like education. They produce nothing of real value and so to exist they must redistribute value towards themselves under the veil of economic equality. I’m not entirely sure if this is conscious or unconscious but it is a clear dynamic.
Having grown up poor, and working in service industries and the trades, I can tell you that labourers in these fields do not want more taxation.
All these solutions intentionally ignore the foundational problem of money printing because to acknowledge this would be against their own self interest as those who have a seat near the printer.
The idea of higher capital gains tax as punishment for the capital accruing wealthy classes ignores the fact that ordinary citizens now MUST invest their income to try to preserve it. The democratization of investment through apps like Robinhood etc. means that Jimmy the plumber now invests in the S&P (along with riskier plays like meme coins) to preserve/grow his wealth. The money is broken so he has to flee somewhere.
Increased capital gains taxes and wealth taxes punishes ordinary citizens for trying to preserve their capital in the face of the debasement of their currency. Taxation is inherently immoral but capital gains is the most immoral in that you are forced into investment because your money is melting, and then you’re taxed for trying to stop the melting.
We don’t need more taxation. We need money that doesn’t fucking melt.
But what do I know, I’m just a lowly pleb in the face of ivory tower economists.