From: altamira (altamira@ecpi.com)
Date: Thu Jun 29 2000 - 19:10:01 MDT
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-extropians@extropy.com
> [mailto:owner-extropians@extropy.com]On Behalf Of
> phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu
>
> What's the evidence that this is actually the case, to any
> significant degree?
> I mean, 90% marginal rates, sure, but I think even Sweden's
> backed off from
> that.
Well, you either have to tax or mess around with the money supply to come up
with the funds to make the welfare payments. Like you say, TANSTAAFL.
> > The reason I say this discourages innovation is that it tends
> to preserve
> > the staus quo. This is intuitively obvious, and I've seen it
> operate time
>
> Not to my intuition.
Well, I didn't do a very good job of writing that paragraph (in fact I'd go
so far as to say it sucked), but I'm not sure it would have been that much
more convincing even if it had been a brilliant piece of writing. It
probably seems obvious to me because I've worked with so many people who
were struggling to start businesses and I've started businesses myself, and
so many times the money that goes for taxes would have made all the
difference between success and failure. Does it help to say that the new
business owner is financing the whole thing with "after tax" dollars?
There was another thing I didn't like about that message. It gave a
misleading impression about the business failure I was describing, in that I
still had a livlihood even after the business went belly-up. I was running
a law practice on the side, and I still had it going. So there's another
way to have a cushion, like Emlyn is doing by taking a part time job--keep
more than one project going at a time.
BTW, the business failure wasn't the end of the world, in fact in some ways
it was a relief. As I was pedalling away into the night, I was singing the
song _Me and Bobby McGee_ which has the line, "Freedom's just another word
for nothing left to lose."
It seems as though these political discussions never go anywhere but around
and around. There doesn't seem to be anything that everyone can agree on.
Too many variables, I guess.
Bonnie
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