Re: [DFC] Tax Cuts Favor Those Who Pay The Taxes

Dan Sullivan wrote:

Perhaps the problem is in thinking that richer people should not  contribute to the well-being of poorer people.

It's unlibertarian to advocate in the abstract that wealth should be transferred from A to B simply because A has more wealth than B.

If land value tax is the proper general-revenue tax, most high-income  people are grossly undertaxed, as most high incomes come directly or  indirectly from land and natural resource monopolies

Instead of debating where we think high incomes come from "directly or indirectly", let's just end privilege and then correct demonstrable past injustice. The former should be done through the legislature; the latter should be done through the courts.

Income from privilege should absolutely be redistributed

No, privilege should just be ended.  One man's redistribution of privilege-fruits is another man's rent-seeking.  It's hard enough to get working agreement on what constitutes a relatively privilege-free legal system.  It's utterly impossible to get working agreement on what constitutes a just system of compensating for various kinds of alleged (un)privilege by transferring income among people according to their gross income levels.  That's just a straightforward recipe for more rent-seeking.  You don't fix unjust rents by piling more rents on top of them.

What if a just system would take more from you?

Bring it.  I'm eager to take the chance that my total tax burden would be higher if I were only taxed for consuming, polluting, congesting, and monopolizing the commons.

On the other hand, I have absolutely no doubt that my total tax burden would be much higher if the Democrat Party were in charge of deciding how much of my income should be confiscated because of my purported privileges.  Joe Biden tells us there's no such thing as "redistribution"; it's just "fairness".

what tax rate, if any, on high earners would be too high?     

Do you have a position on how much unearned income would be too little?

Yes, and I've posted it here, but I asked you first.  Do you have an answer?

Jeremy asked:

JM) Would an unjust system (e.g. income tax) that taxed all people at the exact same levels as a just system (e.g. land-value tax/geotax) be just? (JM

Would a broken clock be inaccurate if someone always adjusted its hands every minute to show the current time?

cf. the Systems Reply to the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_room