Post
by Forty Two » Mon Jun 26, 2017 8:48 pm
Hermit wrote:Forty Two wrote:Hermit wrote:Best police force/justice system money can buy.
I also love how income gained through long term (12 months) capital gains is taxed at no more than 20% in the USA, no matter how rich or poor you are.
There's good reason why capital gains should be taxed fairly low. If you were tax "capital gains" at 50%, for example, then when you opened up a TD Ameritrade account, put $500 in -- taking 100% of the risk -- and investing in a stock or bond. Then you leave that money there for two years and it turns into, say $1000, if you are taxed at 50% then the $500 that you gained, would be cut in half. You now have only $250 for your risk and loss of use of funds for 2 years. If you invested that $500 and it went down to $400, nobody is reimbursing you. Nobody else is bearing that risk.
So, as a matter of government policy, if you want people to invest their money, and increase the money available for lending to businesses and industry, then you don't want to eliminate the benefit to the people taking the risk.
Utter bullshit. Nobody with a spare $500 and a sound mind would stick that money under their mattress because capital gains were taxed at the same rate as whatever their marginal income tax is instead of a discounted one. At worst they'll deposit it into a bank savings account, and guess what'll happen to that money then?
No, but they might prefer to put it in a bank account and earn interest, rather than in an equity investment earning capital gains.
Guess what will happen to the money then? It will not be lost, because it is guaranteed. There is no risk. You get a low interest rate, but a guarantee.
If capital gains were not taxed at all, then it would be a very attractive investment, and people would really want to do it. Tax gains at 1% and it wouldn't bother people much, because it's such a small amount. Tax it at 100%, and people would look for other uses for their money that aren't taxed at 100%. Tax it at 50%, and it's much better than 100%, but much worse than 0%. However, it will certainly impact a person's decision-making.
“When I was in college, I took a terrorism class. ... The thing that was interesting in the class was every time the professor said ‘Al Qaeda’ his shoulders went up, But you know, it is that you don’t say ‘America’ with an intensity, you don’t say ‘England’ with the intensity. You don’t say ‘the army’ with the intensity,” she continued. “... But you say these names [Al Qaeda] because you want that word to carry weight. You want it to be something.” - Ilhan Omar