CIRCLE WITH A DOT

@neil *Groan*

@regordane @digitalraven Somebody knew enough to do CPR but not enough to check for a pulse? Yikes

@digitalraven Most sensible places you can't be charged with anything for attempting to save someone's life in any case. In fact, in some places, *not* helping can get you charged

@mattblaze Surely Elizabeth wasn't banging cocktail waitresses two at a time? Although with the British Royals you never know.

@darkling @feorag The point is not to "fund government" since any country with a sovereign currency can never run out of money, so the conversion percentage really doesn't matter. The point is to remove power from a bunch of toxic psychopaths, so that the government can perform its basic function of stopping its citizens from dying unnecessarily

@devin_and_earth @codinghorror @justenoughducks There are countries that have done that, and it can fuck over small entrepreneurs and people who receive any kind of stock options or RSUs. So it would have to be carefully designed. Probably not by a politician and definitely not by an economist

@devin_and_earth @codinghorror @justenoughducks I think we should *prevent* people from hoarding vast quantities of wealth in the first place. One way of helping with that is ensure that all forms of income are taxed at approximately the same rate, and that there are no loopholes only available to those with large amounts of money. I'd also like a pony

@justenoughducks @codinghorror In most European jurisdictions, setting up companies solely for the purpose of avoiding tax is very much frowned upon, and often treated as though those companies did not exist.

@codinghorror @justenoughducks One proposal that I'm a fan of is a minimum tax rate for corporations and people: "If you have >$x income, then we don't care what loopholes your smart tax lawyers and accountants have found, you must always pay at least 15% tax, even if it's actually earned in a tropical paradise with no taxes".

Although the inheritance tax change I proposed would massively reduce the number of billionaires over the next few decades, so mechanically reducing the problem anyway.

@codinghorror Yes, it's a problem, but the answer is not taxing their wealth, it's taxing their income, and making sure they pay inheritance tax at eye watering rates, eg 100% on anything over 10 million USD