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posted by takyon on Friday February 15 2019, @04:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the marginal-opinion dept.

At the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a panel moderator asked Michael Dell, America's 17th-richest man, what he thought about the idea of raising the top marginal tax rate to 70 percent.

This idea has been in the headlines since Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez floated it in a 60 Minutes interview on January 6 as a way to pay for a Green New Deal.

The Davos panel found the question hilarious. When the laughing died down, Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, dismissed the idea out of hand, claiming it would harm U.S. economic growth.


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday February 15 2019, @05:56PM (5 children)

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Friday February 15 2019, @05:56PM (#801684) Journal

    No, what they need is what they already have: Mandatory reporting from the companies about what capital distributions they have made and to whom, and certified auditors reports showing the books match up to what they disclosed to the government. Sure, a company can get away with a lot of shit, but sooner or later it will catch up to them if the accounting isn't proper. Witness Enron. Madoff. Others. And what caused Arthur Andersen to fail was that while the company writes the check the work of an independent auditor is actually for the government and general public, as well as its investors.

    A company who fails to do report correctly will find its assets frozen and men with guns and padlocks on their doorstep. And there are plenty of hungry agents looking to take down a big one to make their name.

    That's why when you start talking capital gains hikes you get a shitstorm of complaining about "limiting investment" and restricting economies: You can get away with something, but not much.

    But the problem is the same as increasing income tax: In theory the investors will find better havens for their money. In theory.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by canopic jug on Friday February 15 2019, @06:00PM (1 child)

    by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 15 2019, @06:00PM (#801687) Journal

    A company who fails to do report correctly will find its assets frozen and men with guns and padlocks on their doorstep. And there are plenty of hungry agents looking to take down a big one to make their name.

    What defines correctly at this point? They'll simply shrug their shoulders and remind inverstigator, accurately, that pretty much everyone does it that way. Heck even business schools are teaching MBAs to keep two sets of books, one for investors, one for the government. Go after those schools first or they'll keep churning out crooks.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 15 2019, @07:01PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 15 2019, @07:01PM (#801719)

      lets stick with the idea that laws are fairly enforced in actuality so that we can talk about "taxes on capital" vs "taxes on income". :)

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Thexalon on Friday February 15 2019, @06:26PM

    by Thexalon (636) on Friday February 15 2019, @06:26PM (#801702)

    A company who fails to do report correctly will find its assets frozen and men with guns and padlocks on their doorstep. And there are plenty of hungry agents looking to take down a big one to make their name.

    Except that what actually happens is that the company who has been lying like crazy to the government says to the investigator in one of their many wine-and-dine sessions something along these lines: "We really appreciate the diligence and thoroughness of your efforts to investigate us. How about you come work for us as a regulatory compliance consultant for 7 figures instead of 5? Plenty of flexibility you can't get as a government bureaucrat - we're totally fine with you taking time during the day to take care of your kids or something, and you'll have no need to worry about job security. All we ask in return is that you go ahead and find that what we're doing is A-OK."

    If they don't bite, they make a similar pitch to the person further up their food chain with the power to kill the subordinate's investigation, and so on until somebody decides to be bought off. This is now common enough that a lot of the people we have working in government enforcement arms are looking for evidence not to generate indictments but to push their targets into precisely this kind of job offer. Especially when we have, as is not infrequent, people running the regulatory agencies who want to ensure that those agencies fail to do their job.

    Oh, and this is all legal.

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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Friday February 15 2019, @08:11PM (1 child)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday February 15 2019, @08:11PM (#801754) Journal

    They laugh at the idea of higher income taxes because that's not how they make their money.

    Capital gains is how you make the wealthy pay. That's how you reduce the massive economic inequality.

    Naysayers still mock and say that the wealthy will simply move their money and operations elsewhere. It's an empty threat. Really, Michael Dell, you're going to move your computer operations to the Seychelles? Yes, I'm sure that the Seychellese will easily and effortlessly transition from harvesting coconuts to building computers; also, I'm sure the Seychellese will have no problem whatsoever importing the skilled foreign labor that can build computers. "China!" you say? Hahaha yeah, if you believe that I got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

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    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday February 16 2019, @12:37AM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 16 2019, @12:37AM (#801863) Journal

      Naysayers still mock and say that the wealthy will simply move their money and operations elsewhere. It's an empty threat.

      The empty threat has been going on for a while. This study [bbc.com] says $21 trillion in various tax havens, including places in the US. I think it's pointless to talk tough when rich people have been rocking your strategy for a century or more.

      "China!" you say?

      You do realize that a huge portion of US business has already been there, done that.