What do people here think of Progressive Taxation I for one

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Generational Poverty? So I take it you have never heard of NAIRU. You must not read my posts for I go on about it all the time. What about the existence of low wage work. Someone has to do that work. Moreover, I said that taxes give value to currency. That's what's called the State Theory of Money. So you hard money fanatics should be supporters of high taxes. Practically, the value of money is tied to the size and health of the internal market when the currency is used. Destroying demand in the name of punishing the poor, in the name of virtue, this is another great way to destroy the value of the currency.

A slightly more defined version which you use part of that definition before when describing it as a tool.

It's not simply just an accepted tool for trading goods but it's also a very tenuous phenomenon that requires, at times, as much faith in it as one might have in a deity. The flow of money is important to retaining its value. This is hampered by legislation that keeps the top 1% of earners (in an already extreme spectrum of income) safe from all the required taxation which allows the money to flow back through the system via government programs focused on building, innovating, and maintaining infrastructure. Which, the definition of infrastructure continues to grow as a society progresses and there is a higher demand on all aspects of society.

If conservatives really wanted to return to the successes of the 1950s, they'd demand 1950s style taxation (significantly higher than today) and government spending on infrastructure (also significantly higher than today); which, is higher today since there's more maintenance needed on top of the innovation and construction.

But also, for all this to succeed, there needs to be free markets...trust busting and legislation to put an end to the mergers of the 90s that created today's massive mega conglomerates. Take, for a broad example, the media: in 1983 over 50 companies owned media outlets whereas today about 6 own all of the media...which is very odd because this kind of centralization is so frowned upon in every other aspect of American culture.

A person can enter into a contract with another person and specify barter. But to sell to the public one must accept legal tender. To restore the Republic to fiscal sanity, legal tender laws must be modified or repealed.

ruveyn

Just go to haiti, there no government and no taxes and no firemen and no police and no hospitals .....

So, you're saying that Haiti's misery was caused by an excessive amount of libertarian policies, not the generations of brutal dictators and corrupt government?

The current absence of government doesn't seam to be an improvement.

A former Haitian defence minister says that Haiti's the most privatised country in the world. Everything was privatised and liberalised under the auspices of Leslie Delatour and Delatour's widow has married the current president. It's almost as if he had to do this to get development aid! As Delatour was dead Preval had to show his devotion to his memory in some other way so why not through matrimony.

Agreed. Workers produce the wealth and then capitalists steal/filch it.

Mexico has low taxes as well. It's a great place for corporations and the wealthy. But the government provides few services and are grateful that their poor have another country to run to.

I will never undestand the delusional mindset of the extreme rightwinger who think's rich people are responsible for the production and creation of all wealth. Try removing every company employee from their jobs and then see how much wealth those people are able to generate on their own.

Take away the capitalists and the technicians and see how much industry you will have. The misadventre of the Soviet Union and North Korea ought to give you a clue. Obviously both capital and labor are required to make an economy go. The question is who gets what share of the surplus that is produce.

ruveyn

If that's your question then why is your answer less progressive taxation? You can quite easily take away capitalists and have productive factories as worker owned and operated co-op's in argentina prove.

The productivity of Argentina just takes my breath away.

How many new inventions have Argentinians produced?

I have no doubt that a co-op based squishy co-op based socialist system can function (looked at Sweden) but it will never be much beyond mediocrity.

ruveyn

There was plenty of industrialisation in the Soviet Union.

And the people still stood around for 6 hours a day because of the shortages. It was a very inefficient industrialized economy and thanks to Stalin's crackdown on the kulaks it had a chronic food shortage.

ruveyn

They did not queue up for six hours, certainly not during most of the Soviet times. People just remember things breaking down near the end because of perestroika being wrongly done.

This suggestion that technological advancement and industrialisation is impossible under the east bloc system is absurd. I mean are you going to credit the Tsarist regime for Sputnik? I mean we can give the Tsarist era the theramin, but not Sputnik.