(urth) Gene Wolfe's Politics

brunians at brunians.org brunians at brunians.org
Tue Mar 31 03:23:17 PDT 2009


> brunians at brunians.org wrote:
>> This is why 'raising taxes on the rich' doesn't work, for those of you
>> who have been paying attention.

>>>> I'm talking about the gummint going bankrupt, silly boy.

>>> Gummints don't go bankrupt, having produced nothing in the first
>>> place.  They may print money, which will devalue all the goods and
>>> services of the society and bring about its ruination, of course.
>>> They have that power, but they don't have the power to create money
>>> in the original sense of the word, as a store of value.  You may or
>>> may not be aware that businesses don't pay taxes either, individuals
>>> do.  Businesses pass them along to their customers to pay.

> Who do estate taxes get passed on to?

As far as I know, estates are only left by natural persons, that is, they
are not paid by businesses.

Estate taxes are basically a means of limiting social mobility: the idea
is to prevent middle-class families from becoming upper-class. The way a
middle-class family becomes upper-class, of course, is by increasing
wealth from generation to generation. This can be useful in limiting the
influence of undesireable ethnic groups with a demonstrated ability of
making money.





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