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Fallacies about Pro-Market Viewpoint

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rideforever
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25 Jul 2007, 7:56 am

jimservo wrote:
Awesomelyglorious wrote:
I think that George Lakoff wrote something somewhat similar in his book Moral Politics, I haven't read it though so don't take me as absolutely true on the matter. I think he wrote politics under the metaphor of views of the family, like nurturant parent and strict father. I think that the traits might be different but a similar division is described I think.


I have heard a phrase "the tyranny of good intentions." Part of the issue arises I think from, well intention, but short term thinking. For example, the fact the CEO of MegaCorp (who works in an office) makes 100x more then your neighbor (who work a blue collar job). So the idea of punishing him via high taxes seems fair not to mention politically attractive.* Yet the fact that this could cause the MegaCorp to decide to move his company and therefor cause your neighbor to lose his job is less considered and even if much farther down the line (especially for a politician dealing with constituents).

*The same people that support higher taxes for people who make more then them also tend to heavily underestimate the tax rates people higher incomes then them incur. Generally, when polled on what the "fair" rate of tax for the wealthy, the average from Americans is lower then the current average.


I am sure there are cases of the tyranny of good intentions but I am not sure this is one of them.

Today I think most people are disgusted at the earnings of big city bosses and would like to change things. If society is scared that MegaCorp would move offices, move to another country, and in fear does nothing, well that's terrible ... clearly this is exactly the fear that MegaCorp and friends tries to instill today - playing one country off against another. This is simply a failure in democracy -i.e. we no longer have any control- which needs fixing.

On the tax rate thing : it's clear that wealthier people have access to tax evasion etc... that means the actual rate of taxation that high earners pay is low - there was a news article 1 month ago about how high earning city bosses pay less effective tax than the average cleaning lady, becasue the average cleaning lady does not have accesss to expensive accountants. And then there is the Private Equity thing going on at the moment.

In all these things my view is that instead of conceding control of our society and giving up, we should still be trying to actually make it in our own image.



Awesomelyglorious
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25 Jul 2007, 9:02 am

rideforever wrote:
Today I think most people are disgusted at the earnings of big city bosses and would like to change things. If society is scared that MegaCorp would move offices, move to another country, and in fear does nothing, well that's terrible ... clearly this is exactly the fear that MegaCorp and friends tries to instill today - playing one country off against another. This is simply a failure in democracy -i.e. we no longer have any control- which needs fixing.

A failure in democracy that we do not control the actions of others? To be honest, even though there are negative effects, this is not a failure that needs fixing. Most attempts to fix this problem will be more disastrous than not fixing the matter as it requires a negation of the very choices that make our system work.
Quote:
On the tax rate thing : it's clear that wealthier people have access to tax evasion etc... that means the actual rate of taxation that high earners pay is low - there was a news article 1 month ago about how high earning city bosses pay less effective tax than the average cleaning lady, becasue the average cleaning lady does not have accesss to expensive accountants. And then there is the Private Equity thing going on at the moment.

Nobody denies that they have tax evasion, in fact that is the biggest argument for tax simplicity something that I promote with great vigor. Private equity does need reform as well, some of it might be overstated given that the actual capital invested has already been taxed under corporate taxes.
Quote:
In all these things my view is that instead of conceding control of our society and giving up, we should still be trying to actually make it in our own image.

My view is that we should not really seek to have control over society, and that trying to make society in our preferred image is often dangerous. Really though, I consider society to naturally reflect most of our beliefs, and reflect the ideas therein. Even the high CEO pay is reflective of our values, even though many blench at what is going on. The pay reflects our use of the market to select CEO pay to a good extent, I am not denying that there can be corruption in the groups selecting the pay, however, I believe that the major US difference is CEO mobility.