“It's interesting to rephrase taxes as disincentives. For example, gas taxes are gas consumption disincentives, tax on interest is a savings disincentive, tax on earned income is a work disincentive, capital gains tax is an investment disincentive, sales tax is a consumption disincentive, etc.”
August 9 at 5:11 pm
- Link
Dan Hsiao, Rob Hoeting, Evan Brown and 27 other people liked this
Of course everything is connected to everything else, so the reality is somewhat more complex, but it's an amusing exercise nonetheless. - Paul Buchheit
With all those disincentives, no wonder there are so many jobless / homeless - Michael Hylkema
Well yeah, it would be too extreme to actually make it illegal to create U.S. jobs, but things like the payroll tax encourage people to find creative ways to send jobs overseas. - Bruce Lewis
Import/export duties are disincentives to trade; property taxes are disincentives to own a home. Great little idea. Sales tax sounds so much more reasonable. - Emmett Shear
the only other way to consider it is aberrant social policy - Stowe Boyd
via twhirl
Don't forget cigarettes, etc, where the tax is very clearly intended to discourage people from consuming the product. - Louis Gray
The irony is that most people probably still have no idea how much of the price they pay for gasoline is tax, since it is hidden in the price. for instance in California the total tax on a gallon of gasoline is 63.9 cents and diesel is 72 cents. - Jeff P. Henderson
I much prefer a use tax such as that on gasoline than a flat tax on income. Also, if you look at the tax rates, the disincentive for employment income is the worst. Investment income is taxed at a much lower rate. This should tell us something, working for someone else for a living is not going to make you rich, unless you are drawing a CEO's salary, or are one of the few lucky people who have significant stock equity in their company and it goes public. - Jeff P. Henderson
Gasoline tax is a driving disincentive, but the roads that are funded are a driving incentive. - Hutch Carpenter
Gasoline really evens out. But income tax is annoying. Wasn't the income tax one the reasons the US broke from Britain in the first place? "I'm better at what I do than others and I can do something that others can not, therefore I am paid more. What's that? Because I'm better I get more money taken away from me? Well fine, I'll just go into business for myself doing next to nothing and make so much money it won't matter. What's that? You'll tax me less if I do that? Really? Hrm." - xero
This is why it makes sense to support the "death" tax. It gives people an incentive to stay alive. - Jim Norris
if all things were equally disincentivized, you would have a fair tax system. Put another way, relative disincentives may be more important in this world you've postulated, Paul. - Rob Schonberger
How about a military tax? - Amit Patel
A tax on staples is a disincentive for survival. - ⓞnor
The most efficient solution I think would be taxing everything at a rate inversely proportional to its elasticity of demand, so that overall patterns of consumption and spending wouldn't change. - Jim Norris
taxation without representation ... except what is equitable to tax? how do we measure it? intellectual property presents exciting controversy ... - Wiley Coyote
& equity means you work for yourself ... debt means you work for someone else ... tax that! - Wiley Coyote
Wiley Coyote? Yes, even if you are able to escape the Laws of Physics it appears your observations concerning taxes are quite REAL ... great material on your feed! - Scott Moskowitz
utilities tax (elec, water, sewer), library tax, police tax, fire protection tax, - all disincentives. - MikeAmundsen
voting disincentives, all. - Slippy Lane