Tag Archives: taxation
To become rich, one does not need to be smart, or tough, or caring. One needn’t be honest, principled, or spiritual. Being cultured, humble, or impatient are not requirements either. You can be all of these things, none of these things or some of these things, and become rich. Becoming rich doesn’t even require having a good idea; as one can be born into money, born with fine athleticism, or be taken by the hand of an a rich person…..
I have no idea of what I’m going to eat tonight. I’ll probably go along with the type of food that the rest of my family wants. It’s easy, politically, emotionally, logistically, to go along with the crowd. On Wall Street we counsel our clients to take the emotion out of investing. There, sometimes what’s best isn’t easy. There, I’m wired to be logical, rational. For this reason—and as a dyed-in-the-wool, free-market-loving capitalist—I can’t figure out why we accept the reality…..
There is an economically neutral tax. There is a tax that doesn’t have the effect of making you poorer than you should be or richer than you should be; but only one. My previous blog entry discussed one way in which taxing capital distorts the degree of our being poor or rich. It’s why taxing capital is a big mistake. However, the one tax that is economically neutral is a tax on the value of land. It is not a…..
Capital is what results from work: anything we have invented, moved, or built that finds a value in the marketplace. It is this search for value that drives free markets. Trading one’s capital for better value is what leads to profits. Or if one is the end user, the goal is trading for some satisfaction in having used one’s money well. Market efficiency depends upon this sorting through the relative values of whatever we have offered. So if an…..