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Assorted links
1. How much did the Irish government subsidize housing?
2. Service discrimination by race? (Warning: Daily Mail story)
3. If taxes hurt less, would they be higher?
4. Africa's gift to Silicon Valley.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on March 13, 2010 at 01:00 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink
Comments
Where's the allegation of service discrimination by race? It claims that it's by wealth.
Posted by: dearieme at Mar 14, 2010 10:35:25 AM
A wonderful quote from the Ireland article.
"Independent of how many fingerprints a forensic analyst can collect at any economic crime scene, invariably, there will be one set of fingerprints always present - that of the State"
Posted by: DanC at Mar 14, 2010 10:40:59 AM
2. and discrimination:
This is an apartheid system and certainly preferential to their wealthier customers.
It's a Tyler joke. A business that treats customers differently based on their ability to pay for more expensive services or products has "an apartheid system".
Hahahaha
Since those mortgagees who have lower credit scores must pay more in origination and interest presumably what we have in mortgage lending is "an apartheid system".
Just as I suspected: Fannie and Freddie and Barney Frank are all part of "an apartheid system".
Posted by: anon at Mar 14, 2010 1:28:12 PM
If the US were truly capitalistic, short term capital gains would be higher because it never hurts a true capitalist. Warren Buffett pays little to no capital gains, short or long term, because he is one of the truest capitalists.
That short term capital gains are lower than working is because so many Americans are speculators, which is to say gamblers looking for something for nothing. Clearly for Americans, working is so highly taxed because so few think they will be doing it for long, instead looking for the quick fortune from pump and dump lotto winnings.
Posted by: mulp at Mar 15, 2010 5:15:48 AM
"If the US were truly capitalistic, short term capital gains would be higher because it never hurts a true capitalist."
If the US were truly capitalistic, all capital gains, long or short term, would not be taxed at all.
Posted by: Russ R. at Mar 15, 2010 10:14:46 AM
3. If taxes hurt less, would they be higher?
If tax forms were easier to fill out then people would be a lot happier. I would like it if life was a little less stressful. It is in the government’s interest for the general population to still have money to spend on other things to keep the economy going. Even if tax prices did rise, due to easier taxation process, Americans would have more income to afford higher tax prices since they are not spending so much money paying other people to fill out their tax forms. Also it would be much more efficient if tax forms were prefilled, people would have more time to be productive elsewhere or spend money on other things and that could stimulate the economy a little more.
I would think that the biggest problem with an easier tax process is that the many people who get paid to help people pay taxes will lose their jobs. Taxes probably would not rise much, not only because the state of the economy is in the Government’s interest, but also because if taxes are too high then people would vote for policies that reduce taxes. The population will always take in interest in how much money they spend in taxes despite the difficulty of the process. The fact that our government is a democracy our government cannot take advantage of the population, not in the long run.
Posted by: Marina at Mar 15, 2010 6:37:59 PM
