[GJM] #845, Re: [lbo-talk] The flat tax and income inequality

[E. Crockett]

--- wesburt at juno.com wrote:

> My thanks to Ken Hanly for the first, and  last two,
> 
> of fourteen lbo comments on Kenneth Rogoff's Nov. 10
>  
> article, "To Have And To Have Not," in The Guardian.
> I share completely the opinions expressed below by 
> Hanly, Rogoff, "cristobal," and "dougbamford;" but 
> there was no mention anywhere in the fourteen 
> comments of the fact that only unit prices can 
> be equal in a free market. 
>  
> Figure 8i.gif, the attached file, illustrates
> several 
> ways our present tax and disbursement structure 
> subverts a free market to create a shortage of 
> purchasing power for low incomes (50% capitalism) 
> and an excess of unearned income at high incomes 
> (100% capitalism). Earned incomes should be 
> what ever a free market will pay.  The US should 
> have restored the free market when the first 
> Federal income Tax was proposed in the1890, but 
> the money lenders said: Not now!
> 
> Wes Burt
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> On Fri, 16 Nov 2007 06:36:32 -0800 (PST) ken hanly
> <northsunm at yahoo.com>
> writes:
> > 
> > This guy is a Harvard economist. Does he belong to
> the
> > flat earth society as well as the flat tax
> society?
> >   As China illustrates opening markets far from
> > solving the inequality of wealth distribution in
> China
> > has made it much worse, so much according to the
> > article that inequality is greater in China than
> the
> > US.
> >   How on earth is the flat tax supposed to help
> reduce
> > income inequality? It does the opposite by doing
> away
> > with a progressive tax system..
> >    The URL is...
> >
>
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/kenneth_rogoff/2007/11/to_have_and_to
> _have_not.html
> > 
> > Cheers, Ken Hanly
> > 
> ~~~~~~ Start Ken Hanly's quote from Rogoff's Article
> ~~~~~~
> > To Have And To Have Not
> >
> > Fundamental tax reforms and open markets are
> needed to
> > balance the global distribution of wealth. It
> doesn't
> > look likely in our lifetime. 
> > Kenneth Rogoff
> >
> ~~~~~~ Snip balance of quote from Rogoff's Article
> ~~~~~~ 
> 
> ~~~~~~~ One Comment On Rogoff's URL ~~~~~~~~~~
> cristobal, writes inpart:
> 
> Comment No. 918563
> November 11 9:10
> Rogoff piece is another example of the poverty of 
> economics to say anything meaningful. There are 
> failed states and failed professions, economics is 
> one of them. Feel sorry for his students at that 
> overrated university named Harvard, who don't have 
> some one to teach them how wealth inequality comes 
> about and all he can come up with is the trite and 
> discredited flat tax rate. Mr Rogoff is a sorrow
> case 
> of an apologist for the establishment. He even went 
> out his way to insult Joe Stiglitz in a public
> speech 
> because he dared to criticize the shock therapies 
> of the IMF/WB. The following year, Stiglitz got the 
> Nobel prize. Rogoff will never get one. 
> ~~~~~~~~~ End One Partial Comment ~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Start Second Comment ~~~~~~~~~~
> dougbamford, wrote in part:
> 
> Comment No. 919313
> November 11 19:24
> I would want to see gains upon sale of stock counted
> 
> as income. So if someone has stock worth $100bn 
> they pay no tax. Its only if they sell the stock at
> a 
> profit that it counts as income and they pay tax on
> it. 
> If they got the stock for nothing then the whole lot
> is 
> gain/profit/income. So basically - I wouldn't take
> anyone's 
> stock away from them. I support a progressive 
> comprehensive income tax, not a wealth tax. 
> ~~~~~~~~~ End Second Partial Comment ~~~~~~~~~~
> 
>    TOP and TWP are cognoscible by sixth graders from
>          Fig. 7-9.gif on Dr. W. Curtiss Priest's web
> site:
>          
> <http://www.epie.org/cyber-soc/default.htm>
>  TOP = 100% Capitalism --- TWP = 0 to 50%
Capitalism>
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