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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   31609 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 16, 2023

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Other examples include the 'Great Reset' (a WEF paper that primarily advocates an agreement on a global minimum corporation tax, hardly revolutionary dystopian policy here) and so on.

That does seem concerning to me.

Governments defecting against other w.r.t. taxes creates downwards pressure on tax rates, a race to the bottom, which is one of the things that prevents the governments from taxing as high as the market can bear, and therefore capturing all the produced value. Dismantling this mechanism by coordinating a global price fixing scheme on taxation; worse, creating an institution that facilitates these kinds of agreements — doesn’t look good to me. It will lead to higher taxes worldwide, if successful.

That said, I don’t know whether the WEF actually promotes this idea, or if it was a one-off paper of no consequence. Would be interesting to read your thoughts on it, 2rafa.

Governments defecting against other w.r.t. taxes creates downwards pressure on tax rates, a race to the bottom, which is one of the things that prevents the governments from taxing as high as the market can bear, and therefore capturing all the produced value.

Seems like neither is really desirable - letting corporations threaten to run to some other country in a legal fiction about where your headquarters is located to not have to pay taxes while reaping the benefits of access to the higher-tax market. I don't know what the better solution is, though.

Gatekeeping access to a market is a questionable practice in and of itself. So, one day you want to buy something useful to you from a company producing that thing. But.. isn’t there somebody you forgot to ask?

Gatekeeping access to a market based on willingness to obey laws and pay taxes is essential to a functioning market.

And yet, a democratic nation means that nominally, the will of the people is that a company does not get access to the market. I don't think that's nearly as tyrannical as implied.

That said, I don’t know whether the WEF actually promotes this idea, or if it was a one-off paper of no consequence.

The OECD have certainly promoted it. It was big news here in Ireland when we agreed to a minimum corporation tax rate of 15% along with 136 other countries, a 2.5% increase on the old rate.

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