He would vomit if he were forced to run his operation the way the government does, yet he wants to give more of my money to the government. Here are some of his recent tweets in favor of higher taxes on the "rich":
Yes, effective tax rate inc. FICA, state, local matters. But another 3% will change how hard you work? Don't believe it
Seriously? You will beaver away with a 35% tax rate and stop working with a 40% one? Come on...
Absurd. RT@zerohedge: RT@FoxNews: GOP Rep. Paul Ryan accuses Obama of waging 'class warfare' with millionaire tax planNo one is proposing GREATLY higher taxes.Sorry, But The Republican Arguments About The Horrors Of A "Millionaire's Tax" Are Just Preposterous
I will be impressed with Blodget's call for my being taxed more (by say 5%) when he allows me to take 5% of Business Insider's budget and run it in government fashion for BI.
Guys like Warren Buffett and Blodget, who call for higher taxes on the "rich" are technocrats, who are so stuck on looking at cash flow statements that they never lift their head up to see the difference between a private sector cash fow statement and government bureaucratic spending.
So Henry is it a deal, can I institute at BI 5% of the BI budget with the type of spending programs I find in the Federal government?
But further, aside form the inefficiency of government, there are two great problems with further taxing of the rich that green shade, head stuck in government financial statements types ignore.
1. It is the savings of the rich that create the products that raise the standard of living for all of us.
2. Government operations are not geared toward raising the standard of living of a country. The SEC, the FDA, the FTC do nothing but hamper free markets. Balancing a budget by raising taxes to keep these outfits running is absurd.
In addition, as Ludwig von Mises has written:
It belongs to the very essence of a society based on private ownership of the means of production that every man may work and dispose of his earnings where he thinks best.Buffett's and Blodget' s call for higher taxes violates this fundamental principle of private ownership. Here's Mises on the alternative to a private property society:
The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning. Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.And Mises specifically on high taxes:
Some experts have declared that it is necessary to tax the people until it hurts. I disagree with these sadists.
Blodget makes a fallacious argument in his tweets. The question is not "will you stop working as hard?" if you're taxed more. The question is, "Do taxes place additional cost burdens on the structure of production and thereby lower total output?" If they do, this results in a real loss of wealth to society and means taxes are not an economic good but an economic bad.
ReplyDeleteThe answer to this question was clearly and absolutely answered "YES!" by Murray Rothbard in Man, Economy and State, particularly the sections on taxation in the supplemental Power and Markets material. Perhaps Blodget needs to familiarize himself with this before he makes a bigger fool of himself going forward.
What a non-argument. Debating with people such as this is incredibly frustrating when they continually spew out ill-informed one liners, and aren't interested in conducting any intellectual discourse.
ReplyDeleteEven if he's correct, how is saying they can absorb the higher rate supposed to be a justification that they should?
@Taylor Conant
ReplyDeleteTaxes on income do not necessarily have an impact on production. If the tax payer cuts consumption and does not change his investments, it will have no influence on the production structure.
He is right for the employee that earns a salary but for those of us that own a flow through businesses entity we have options.
ReplyDeleteIn my case I will start off working with my tax advisor to determine the additional costs and what steps I can take to offset them. What ever I can't offset via tax strategy maneuvers, I will make up in price increases(very hard in my business) and cost cuts that will range from cutting nice to have but not necessary expenditures to delaying capital expenditures and even using more offshore labor in our employment mix. I have to imagine most business will do some of the same things.
My ultimate desire is to sell my business in 2012 and walk away with a nice big check at a low tax rate. This isn't something I was planning to do, but I think I would be a fool not to try to sell out before tax rates go to who knows what levels on capital gains.
Henrys economic ideology is something along the lines of
ReplyDelete"Pillage the rich, give to the corrupt"
Is not Blodgett a felon? I remember reading he was involved in stock scams and was convicted of something related....
ReplyDelete