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[Reelya]

https://taxfoundation.org/why-capital-gains-are-taxed-lower-rate/

The justification for a lower tax rate on capital gains relative to ordinary income is threefold: it is not indexed for inflation, it is a double tax, and it encourages present consumption over future consumption.

First, the tax is not adjusted for inflation, so any appreciation of assets is taxed at the nominal instead of the real value. This means investors must pay tax not only on the real return but also on the inflation created by the Federal Reserve.

Second, the capital gains tax is merely part of a long line of federal taxation of the same dollar of income. Wages are first taxed by payroll and personal income taxes, then again by the corporate income tax if one chooses to invest in corporate equities, and then again when those investments pay off in the form of dividends and capital gains. This puts corporations at a disadvantage relative to pass through business entities, whose owners pay personal income tax on distributed profits, instead of taxes on corporate income, capital gains, and dividends. One way corporations mitigate this excessive taxation is through debt rather than equity financing, since interest is deductible. This creates perverse incentives to over leverage, contributing to the boom and bust cycle.

Finally, a capital gains tax, like nearly all of the federal tax code, is a tax on future consumption. Future personal consumption, in the form of savings, is taxed, while present consumption is not. By favoring present over future consumption, savings are discouraged, which decreases future available capital and lowers long term growth.

[RedKing]

Came back after almost four years, and surprised on two counts:

1. Continuous unlocked thread since early 2017. Like, how the hell? (Probably helped that I left)
2. Nothing about election prognosticating. Sons, I am disappoint.

Should I start a separate thread to discuss the electoral math wonkiness, or is here okay?

[Max™]

If i work for 1 hour, i have a ~100% chance of getting my 1 hour worth of wages.

Thanks, that's the funniest thing I've seen in a while.

It's almost cute acting like wage theft isn't one of those forms of theft which we americans decriminalized, or did you not know about that?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Welcome back to the nightmare.

[Lord Shonus]

If i work for 1 hour, i have a ~100% chance of getting my 1 hour worth of wages.

Thanks, that's the funniest thing I've seen in a while.

It's almost cute acting like wage theft isn't one of those forms of theft which we americans decriminalized, or did you not know about that?

Wage theft is heavily criminalized. A former supervisor of mine almost went to jail for threatening it. Companies just count on people not knowing the law or deciding it isn't worth the bother.

[Maximum Spin]

(He also explicitly said ~100% anyway.)

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Sure, but the fact is that 90% of people can't bother and the other 10% rarely get swindled because they're high up enough that it's dangerous. I think "decriminalized" is probably the right word for that situation - it's like living in a state where weed is illegal but the DA just throws out all the arrests anyway. Except terrible.

[Max™]

https://twitter.com/djmckenna00/status/1269218616861437952

[Reelya]

If i work for 1 hour, i have a ~100% chance of getting my 1 hour worth of wages.

Thanks, that's the funniest thing I've seen in a while.

It's almost cute acting like wage theft isn't one of those forms of theft which we americans decriminalized, or did you not know about that?

Wage theft is heavily criminalized. A former supervisor of mine almost went to jail for threatening it. Companies just count on people not knowing the law or deciding it isn't worth the bother.

It depends how we're defining wage theft. I found a report about that, but the figure was about being paid below the legal minimum wage. In those cases however, people have agreed to take cash money, but for jobs below minimum wage, rather than the boss promising X amount but withholding actual pay. It's harder to find any figures for that. however for the broader category of people being paid below nominal minimum wage that worked out as 8 billion. Which, when put against total national income of 13 trillion, is on the scale of a rounding error, and why I wrote ~100% rather than just 100%. People not being paid their wages happens, but on the scale of the entire population, the vast majority of people receive their pay each week when they actually worked.

[Max™]

^Said by someone who isn't living in a pre-fascist nation run by a narcissist who previously bragged about using exactly that method to boost his margins.

You never hear about bigger companies doing it because they've got bigger legal teams and bigger pocket books to settle cases with and big enough pull to buy politicians outright to get the relevant laws tweaked, weakened, or repealed entirely.

[Lord Shonus]

Bigger corporations pull wage theft all the time, mostly in the form of "you have to do this work now, but can't clock in yet" or "we're relaxed, so we don't have time clocks (and are payimg you for a lot fewer hours than you're working)". They just temd to pay up when they get the first threat because most people don't know that's an option, so losing on occasion doesn't hurt.

[MrRoboto75]

^Said by someone who isn't living in a pre-fascist nation run by a narcissist who previously bragged about using exactly that method to boost his margins.

You never hear about bigger companies doing it because they've got bigger legal teams and bigger pocket books to settle cases with and big enough pull to buy politicians outright to get the relevant laws tweaked, weakened, or repealed entirely.

I've heard the IRS is too underfunded to even audit megacorps these days anyway.

[Reelya]

The reason those happen is because the legally mandated wage is out of whack with the actual market driven wage.

Whenever you get a situation like that, you get corruption, which is what this is. For example if the government mandated that a tube of toothpaste costs $50 then literally everyone would be buying black market toothpaste, thus circumventing the law, since it's not realistic that a tube of toothpaste is worth $50. This is the same reason you get wage issues when the government sets a wage which isn't in line with the actual economic pressures / labor demand.

As well as payment below legally mandated levels you get payment over legally mandated levels (see the battle against "fringe benefits"). These occur when the legally mandated value of labor is below the legislated value in some area, so they spend money on other incentives to attract people.

[Max™]

Uh, Reelya? The US has been experiencing 0 wage growth since the 70's and we STILL end up with most theft in the US being stolen wages.

Bigger corporations pull wage theft all the time, mostly in the form of "you have to do this work now, but can't clock in yet" or "we're relaxed, so we don't have time clocks (and are payimg you for a lot fewer hours than you're working)". They just temd to pay up when they get the first threat because most people don't know that's an option, so losing on occasion doesn't hurt.

Don't forget other things from that info packed thread I linked: "going above and beyond" off the clock to stay employed, the sticky issues of properly responding to it not being "cops roll up and bust your boss, they go to jail, you still aren't paid", and as you noted most people not knowing it's an option, and most of those who DO know about it can't even afford the legal fees in jurisdictions where it isn't particularly onerous to even file to have the case heard, if those still exist in the US.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

"Now, we all know the minimum wage isn't enough to live off of. But what if we made it even lower?"