On 6/15/2010 11:40 AM, Spehro Pefhany wrote:
On Tue, 15 Jun 2010 06:52:10 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

On Jun 15, 7:26 am, "Ed wrote:

When did we start taxing capital or savings in the US, Dan? Some states have
asset taxes on business property, but there are no federal taxes on either
capital or savings -- only on income. And if people object to the asset
taxes, they can move to another state. There's no need to move overseas to
avoid that.

--
Ed Huntress

We started a long time ago. If I bought some industrial property
thirty years ago for say $50,000 and now sell the same property for
say $400,000, I pay taxes on $350,000 dollars. But the gain is really
just because of smaller dollars because of inflation. ( I said same
property. ). So that is a tax on capital.


Dan

In capitalist jurisdictions such as Hong Kong, there is no tax on bank
interest. After all, the zero-risk return from a bank account won't
exceed inflation.


What you find in all the areas touted by the free marketeers like Hong
Kong, Singapore etc. are places where every possible advantage is
granted to businesses. They pay low or no taxes, no one tells them what
they can or can't do, and the governments work hand in hand with them to
help them make a lot of profit. Along with that you get a country that
is an ecological disaster zone, is overcrowded, has a small elite of
businessmen and government leaders with immense wealth, and a large
population of people living in poverty and in slums with no chance of
moving up. You also have no middle class. Very similar to the old
aristocracies, you have a two tiered society of a huge poor and
uneducated mass living horrible lives and a small group of elites living
like royalty. To me, that is a trade off that isn't worth it. I'd rather
see a large class of moderately well off people and virtually no
extremely wealthy individuals. It's all just a choice each society has
to make. Divide up the nation's wealth in a fair way or not. Those free
market havens have chosen to distribute the wealth extremely unjustly.
Most Americans don't want our country to be anything like them.

Hawke