A socialist polity, in my opinion, would not run itself only or even mainly on income taxes. It would operate largely via self-financing public industry, which should be targeted to outcompete the most odious private ones. Beyond that, of course, there would have to be a salary cap for everybody. For starters, everything above $1 million per year should be taken by the public, IMHO.
Your main problem here is not logic; it's barriers to political movement-building. You will not create socialism by explaining tax justice. We need to start with viable public programs that employ workers and solve problems.
-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of linette at taxwisdom.org Sent: Friday, October 01, 2004 6:50 AM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: [lbo-talk] Socialists and taxes
Is it possible to explain why politically-inspired liberal intellectuals would be [apparently] indifferent to the existence within the public domain of a cogent and penetrating defense of the Progressive Income Tax?
Whether you are a liberal or a socialist even a neo-Marxist---if you have ever complained about income inequality or poverty or unemployment---you must certainly have some kind of interest in the means by which an enlightened government could use its taxing and spending powers to benefit economic victims.
How else might a true socialist government achieve its worthy humanitarian goals except by taxing the wealthier citizens of the nation far more heavily than they are being taxed now?
If this is clearly true, then how might a socialist polity be able to win the public support it would need to be able to effect such a policy?
Isn't it rather obvious that a socialist government would have to win the support of at least a large minority of the upper class if it is to have any chance at all of achieving its "Big Government" agenda?
Is there, in fact, any way to persuade wealthy people to support a socialist agenda, and therefore a dramatic increase in their share of the tax burden?
The answers to most of these questions can be found at <www.taxwisdom.org>
The answer to the first question is one that I hope some of you out there will be able to provide for me.
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