On this question of Biden tax proposal. He raises income tax rates just back to where they were pre-Trump, relatively minor shift. The bigger deal is taxing capital gains at the same rate as wage income. Rates aside this has always struck me as a elementary matter of equity.
2/ Why should super wealthy people who make most of their money from capital gains pay a lower rate than middle class families with wage income. Makes no sense. Yes, there are arguments abt growth. But those arguments have very little empirical evidence behind them.
3/ And if nothing else it leads to a lot of what is in effect upper end wage/salary income being repurposed into capital gains. What's unclear to me in the write ups I've seen is whether the proposal is simply to tax wages and gains at the same rate up and down the scale ...
4/ just for people who make over a million a year. In practice, it's not a huge difference, at least not at an economy wide level since capital gains are overwhelmingly paid by the super wealthy. But if anyone has clarity on this point let me know.
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