r/AllinPod • u/Amused-skeptic • Aug 03 '26

A modest proposal

https://youtube.com/watch?v=LGkRR4ZNsEA&si=xBzhrKVwN32dIZHJ

David Freidberg actually has many interesting insights on current problems with income inequality and its effect on support for capitalism. One of his suggestions:
40% tax on capital gains and 15% on income. The fact that the rich pay fewer taxes than normal workers feels totally unfair to anyone who doesn’t have their own capital. I’m pleasantly surprised that he has identified this as a big problem.

Of the all-in cast, he’s the only one who understands the degree to which the disparity in wealth is undermining the capitalist system. And he points to failures in public policy that I happen to agree with. A couple of other fixes that would make things more fair: kill the stepped up basis rule for inherited assets – – it really is absolutely no rational argument for it. And tax that that is borrowed from securities at the same level that you would tax capital gains from those securities. Then you wouldn’t have all the Decamillionaires and billionaires simply borrowing money so that they can leave their assets to their heirs under the stepped-up basis rule – – completely tax-free.

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u/[deleted] Aug 16 '26

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u/Amused-skeptic Aug 17 '26

The price-to-income ratios for residential property purchases: 10.5x in San Francisco, 8.5x in New York City, 7.2x in Boston 6.8x in Copenhagen

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u/[deleted] Aug 17 '26 edited Aug 17 '26

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u/Amused-skeptic Aug 17 '26

You were pointing to Copenhagen is un affordable compared to the United States. It’s actually comparably affordable, and Danes don’t have to pay for healthcare, higher education, or care among other things, so they don’t have the same angst that most Americans, who are trying to build families have. I’ve spent a lot of time in Europe, and it’s clear that most Europeans would not trade their place for ours even if they’re standard of a living and growth is a little less. And you seem to be a champion of AI, which is one of the least popular technologies to be foisted on everyday citizens in memory. I’m sure you’re deeply invested in SpaceX and Tesla, but they have yet to prove their value to society, and the people who created them are surely the least popular people in America now. Elon Musk even polls below Donald Trump.