[GJM] [Intertax] What Would YOU Really Do? 8.

Fri Nov 3 13:03:36 MST 2006

--- Michel Tremblay <micheltremblay at gmail.com> wrote:

> My own answer would be that according to basic
> economic theory of a mixed
> private and public goods-generating economy, and
> also from the fact that the
> inputs (capital, labour, environment(land,
> ressources), etc)  used to
> produce goods and services have an intrinsec mix of
> private and public good
> economic qualities (non-exclusivity, non rivality in
> use, externalities and
> so on), (usually a ratio of 40%-60% generally
> accross societies at this
> moment of history --prem's making a good point about
> the timeframe of
> analysis) it doesn't make any sense to lower your
> taxes to almost nothing in
> the case of many corporation and very low taxes in
> the case of particular
> types of individuals. Those are basics tenets of
> economic theory, accross
> the spectrum. Even institutional neoliberals such as
> Joseph Stiglitz, Dany
> Rodrik or A. Sen (read institutional neoliberals as
> more progressive
> neoliberals) argue in favor of solid and well
> developped public goods and
> institutions. And we're just talking about economic
> reasons for believing
> the importance of paying one's fai piece (according
> to his material
> capacities relative to others) of the public good's
> pie. Even that is a
> mistake in arguing against this "basic instinct"
> since it puts
> philosophical, sociological, political,
> anthropological and etc.al arguments
> aside.
> 
> Since "rich businessmen" make their money from good
> with mixed intrinsic
> public/private good values and inputs, economically
> they have to pay their
> part at the level of which they benefit from this
> mixity of private and
> public and mixed goods.
> 
> Like a teacher always say, even a pair of jeans (an
> apparently private good)
> have some intrinsic elements of a public good, if
> you think that despite of
> it being an exclusive good (I can't wear it when you
> wear it) parts of the
> inputs had intrisinc public good properties such as,
> the health of the
> workers or the manager engaged in the production,
> the stability of the
> financial market (need of public oversight---self
> regulation is often a
> disaster), the education put into the worker, the
> political and social
> stability (read public programs, well developped
> state apparatus and so on),
> ... and you find this mixity from the moment the raw
> materials are extracted
> to the moment the good is consumed...at the moment
> of which the products or
> services still have some public good
> externalities... take the paint or the
> bricks of a house... I might not be able to you your
> bricks when it's all
> bricked up on the outside walls of your house
> (consomption) but I will
> benefit (public good externalities) from it in my
> neighbourhood, since it
> will be a prettier neighbourhood than if you had a
> very uggly house (non
> econnomic externalities--or social externalities)
> and it might give more
> value to our neighbourhood since more house with
> nicer exteriors will give
> more value to it.
> 
> For me, from a political economy perspective, to
> understand why taxes are
> vital to our kind of societies (i say "our" because
> other societies depended
> on intrisec human qualities, instead of economic
> incentives or disincentives
> to do things-- take Karl Polanyi for instance), it
> is important to take into
> account many aspects, an one of those many aspect is
> this mixity of
> public/private properties of the goods and services
> we produce and how we
> can sustain and reproduce our society in the same
> way.
> 
> Sorry for the length, I hope my point got through.
> 
> Best regards from Québec to you, Robert, and to all.
> 
> Michel
> 
> P.S. Big cheers for (i feel weird to say that but
> anyway) our conservative
> (and minority) canadian government which has just
> begun to curtail income
> trust companies with a new legislation. I wrote
> about that lately and I must
> say that I feel better today now that something's
> really happening.
> 
> 
> 
> 2006/11/2, Sikka, Prem N <prems at essex.ac.uk>:
> >
> > Robert,
> > I doubt if there is anything innate or genetic
> about the proposition. It
> > is all learnt and socially constructed.
> Anthropologists (Malinowski,
> > Levi-Strauss and others) have written about
> societies which had no
> > concept of private property and some (Aboriginals)
> had no concept of
> > ownership of land.
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Prem Sikka
> > Professor of Accounting
> > Department of Accounting, Finance and Management
> > University of Essex
> > Colchester, Essex CO4 3SQ,UK
> >
> > Tel: +44(0)1206 873773
> > Fax: +44(0)1206 873429
> > Mobile: +44(0)7866 139390
> > AABA website: http://www.aabaglobal.org
> > Tax Justice Network: http://www.taxjustice.net
> > The Tribune - The Thinking Person's Magazine:
> > http://www.tribweb.co.uk/index.htm
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: intertax-bounces at listen.attac.de
> > [mailto:intertax-bounces at listen.attac.de] On
> Behalf Of robert searle
> > Sent: 02 November 2006 16:16
> > To: intertax at listen.attac.de
> > Subject: [Intertax] What Would really YOU do?
> >
> >
> >
> > Dear All,
> >
> >          If you were a super-rich businessman, or
> > woman would you not want to keep as much of your
> > profits from taxman as possible? Is this not a
> normal
> > instinct?
> >
> > I do feel Intertax is very one-sided.
> >
> >
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Robert Searle
> >
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