wsj.com

alextecplayz, to privacy in PayPal Is Planning an Ad Business Using Data on Its Millions of Shoppers
@alextecplayz@techhub.social avatar

@badelf Well, shit

sabreW4K3, to privacy in PayPal Is Planning an Ad Business Using Data on Its Millions of Shoppers
@sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al avatar

I’m not surprised. Just disappointed.

Rapidcreek, to politics in A Global Tax on Billionaires? Janet Yellen Says ‘No’

This type of tax would just result in wealthy people moving their money into 3rd world countries. they will not pay a dime in the end and the USA would get less tax money from them… hence why its a no for now. come up with a better strategy for taxing these assholes, not something that will result in them paying even less and hiding their money other places. FFS, it’s fairly simple yet forest/trees

givesomefucks,

Except we started this years ago and it’s working…

A 2021 agreement between 140 countries will limit the scope of multinationals to reduce tax by booking profits in low-tax countries by setting a global 15% floor on corporate taxation from next year.

“Something that many people thought would be impossible, now we know can actually be done,” Zucman said. “The logical next step is to apply that logic to billionaires, and not only to multinational companies.”

www.cnn.com/2023/10/23/business/…/index.html

Like, what you’re doing is the same as when billionaires/corporations claim if they pay more tax they’ll leave for a third world country with low tax…

You know what never happens?

Billionaires/corporations moving to third world countries after we raise their taxes.

Rapidcreek,

There is a big difference between corporate wealth and personal wealth and there are more than 140 countries.

givesomefucks,

There’s a reason they’re not already hiding money in 3rd world countries with shit tier banking systems, regulations, and protections for their money…

You think some rich jerk off wants to hid millions of dollars in a country where at any moment civil war can break out, the government could seize their money, or their banking system can just go insolvent?

You don’t think those 3rd world countries would want to keep the developed world happy?

There is just sooooo much obviously wrong with your train of thought.

Like you realize if this takes off and the wealthy do what you think…

Developed countries could just remove non participating countries from their market?

Putting money there would be just as “smart” as burying it in the sand somewhere and then living it there and hoping if you ever need it you can go get it and it’ll still be there…

And it would be much much worse for people legitimately living there. I want going to mention that because it would be obvious…

But it feels necessary now

xhieron,
@xhieron@lemmy.world avatar

Tell us then. Where are they currently hiding their money?

givesomefucks,

Now?

Not in Panama…

apnews.com/…/panama-papers-odebrecht-trial-50e8e6…

Because united international actions works…

xhieron,
@xhieron@lemmy.world avatar

But that wasn’t the question, was it? United international action works and also doesn’t really exist. You think billionaires are going to just throw up their hands and give governments their tax dollars if enough nations agree they should. Doesn’t work that way.

Read the article you linked. Who’s going to jail in Panama? A few bankers–maybe. Panama changed its rules, and the billionaires just moved all their money elsewhere–exactly as predicted.

The solution to tax evasion isn’t more tax law. That’s like saying that if only everyone agreed rapists should go to jail, people would stop committing rape.

I’m in favor of a wealth tax just because any action beats no action, but it is absolutely a half measure. The real solution to this problem is not financial. It’s personal.

gregorum,

Some moved their money. Then they got caught. Kinda silly how you’re ignoring that part.

givesomefucks,

From the very comment chain you’re commenting on:

A 2021 agreement between 140 countries will limit the scope of multinationals to reduce tax by booking profits in low-tax countries by setting a global 15% floor on corporate taxation from next year.

“Something that many people thought would be impossible, now we know can actually be done,” Zucman said. “The logical next step is to apply that logic to billionaires, and not only to multinational companies.”

www.cnn.com/2023/10/23/business/…/index.html

So yeah, it does exist.

Dont expect more replies.

xhieron,
@xhieron@lemmy.world avatar

140 != all

Dont expect more replies.

Thank Christ.

JDPoZ, to politics in A Global Tax on Billionaires? Janet Yellen Says ‘No’
@JDPoZ@lemmy.world avatar

deleted_by_author

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  • Igotz80HDnImWinning,

    Legit. Sick off the bluemaga bullshit. “The other guy is terrible so I don’t have to align with the ‘leftist’ views held by 60% of constituents” is all worn out.

    baru,

    “both parties are sometimes the same”

    The usual claim isn’t that. What people object to is claiming that both parties are the same.

    Serinus,

    A wealth tax is dumb. Luckily, Biden has never advocated for a wealth tax.

    You can call me a neolib if you want, but I still want a 80% marginal tax bracket, and I want capital gains taxes to be higher than payroll taxes.

    blazera,
    @blazera@lemmy.world avatar

    A wealth tax is dumb

    riveting counterpoint

    Serinus,

    It’s almost like you intentionally missed my point because you wanted me to elaborate on something that’s been well covered elsewhere.

    Or you simply wanted a pithy, empty quip and would have latched onto anything you could find.

    blazera,
    @blazera@lemmy.world avatar

    Yeah elaborating on claims is how these discussions work.

    Serinus,

    lemmy.world/comment/10185336

    lemmy.world/comment/10183600

    lemmy.world/comment/10183893

    I don’t know why you needed me to link you other comments in this post, but here you go.

    A wealth tax just isn’t good policy, especially when there are better alternatives, like capital gains taxes and income taxes. Those also fix deeper issues than just a wealth tax that encourages spending outside of the country.

    But really this post is just about ranting against Biden and fudging any details necessary to make it fit.

    blazera,
    @blazera@lemmy.world avatar

    Do you just not have a reason for thinking a wealth tax is dumb? The first link just…is not whatever you think it is, its someone ranting against biden and someone else saying biden didnt mean to say wealth tax. But nothing in there criticizing a wealth tax itself. The second link i also responded to, and the third link is debating whether or not it would be legally allowed.

    a wealth tax that encourages spending outside of the country.

    You didnt even read the second word of the title man. This is an international proposal specifically for this reason.

    dhork, to politics in A Global Tax on Billionaires? Janet Yellen Says ‘No’

    The devil is in the details here. For the super-rich, wealth is an extremely hard thing to quantify. Once a true wealth tax is established, all it will do is increase billable hours for financial professionals who know how to hide wealth in tax sheltered vehicles. And that will get litigated every year, when the bill is due. If you want to go after the extremely wealthy, I think the right place to do it is with a strong inheritance tax. That only gets litigated once, and the bill is paid by people who did not accumulate that wealth themselves. It also dilutes generational wealth, which is a good thing.

    Plus, the US is unique in that it taxes citizens on their worldwide holdings, anyway. While there are offshore tax havens, they work a lot differently than the tax havens a wealth tax would target.

    It’s easy to say “We should tax the wealthy”, but hard to make good policy that can’t be gamed, especially when attempting to do it across multiple wealthy countries.

    Dagwood222,

    There’s an actual simple solution.

    Overfund the IRS and subsidize the tax agencies of other nations the same way we subsidize their militaries.

    iirc every dollar invested in the IRS brings in about $300.00. That’s with them avoiding the super rich because they have super lawyers.

    givesomefucks,

    It’s easy to say “We should tax the wealthy”, but hard to make good policy that can’t be gamed, especially when attempting to do it across multiple wealthy countries.

    That’s literally what Yellen is refusing to participate in…

    Like, the reason we can’t do it, is we’re not doing it…

    If that sounds confusing, it’s because there isn’t a logical reason not to do it, besides the wealthy may donate less money to politicians

    BraveSirZaphod,
    @BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social avatar

    There are very real constitutional issues with explicit wealth taxes. It took a constitutional amendment to authorize the federal government to collect an income tax, and it's quite possible that it would take another to authorize a wealth tax. Particularly with this Supreme Court, Congress probably doesn't have the legal ability to impose a wealth tax even if it wanted to, to say nothing of the general complexity and costs of collecting it. There are plenty of economists who support the general idea of taxing the wealthy more but who prefer other taxation schemes.

    blazera,
    @blazera@lemmy.world avatar

    wealth is an extremely hard thing to quantify.

    it is very commonly quantified in net worth.

    xmunk,

    There’s a lot of bullshit in those numbers though including things like unrealized capital gains and real estate. Trump is in trouble for wildly misvaluing his real estate (including openly lying about factual information like square footage) but it’s almost impossible to accurately value real estate outside of a sale happening - things like depreciation and local market prices fluctuations are all just guesses. Most real estate is valued as low as the owner can justify (outside dumb pride and weird tax tricks) just to dodge property taxes.

    Net worth is an easy number to guess at within an order of magnitude but it’s really difficult to actually calculate - even for Americans in America… guessing at the wealth of some Bhutanese millionaire who has a deep in with the local government and can bribe officials to undervalue or misassign property would be extremely difficult.

    blazera,
    @blazera@lemmy.world avatar

    Trump is in trouble for wildly misvaluing his real estate (including openly lying about factual information like square footage)

    And people lie about income for income taxes. And then they get audited. A wealth tax doesnt have to be accurate to the dollar, its about dissuading gross wealth hoarding. A billion and 40 thousand can still round to a billion and be a very effective tax estimate.

    guessing at the wealth of some Bhutanese millionaire who has a deep in with the local government and can bribe officials to undervalue or misassign property would be extremely difficult.

    I dont think people in small low income countries like bhutan are going to affect this tax much. I would also assume this international tax would come with some form of international auditing.

    Thats the one thing working in our favor dealing with the people that have concentrated the worlds wealth into a few hands: its in a few hands. Its easy to keep track of.

    xmunk,

    And people lie about income for income taxes. And then they get audited.

    The difference here is that we definitively know how much income people make by collecting that number at several steps in the process - since wealth isn’t transferred we only have the reporting party and estimations.

    If we’re okay being approximately correct that’s much more reasonable though.

    guessing at the wealth of some Bhutanese millionaire who has a deep in with the local government and can bribe officials to undervalue or misassign property would be extremely difficult.

    I dont think people in small low income countries like bhutan are going to affect this tax much.

    Bhutan was meant to be a non-controversial example let’s instead consider Russia, do you think Russia will aide or hamper the ability for the international community to tax their oligarchs… please keep in mind that their government is entirely composed of oligarchs that are currently sanctioned by most western countries. What about Brazil, do you think some millionaire with close ties to the government is going to be accurately reported? Or do you think Brazil has a motivation to keep that money underreported in favor of bribes - bear in mind Brazil’s long history of corruption.

    ShittyBeatlesFCPres,

    Wealth isn’t that hard to quantify. An assessor comes to my house every few years and quantifies what it’s worth for property tax reasons and most people’s wealth is basically their house and maybe a retirement account. Private companies almost all have a valuation. When a start up raises a round, they literally set a valuation for the round. When a traditional business gets a loan, the bank estimates what it’s worth.

    But no one even wants to tax small business owners. Every wealth tax proposal is on the super wealthy who can sure as fuck value their net worth. Donald Trump just went on trial for lying about his. If we had a formal assessment system, he would have never even been able to do frauds.

    Professorozone,

    While I agree that billionaires need to start paying their way, I cannot get on board with taxing someone for dying.

    I think a better way is to remove all of the mechanisms in place that made them that wealthy in the first place.

    Corkyskog,

    Think of it as taxing the people getting the windfall, not the person dying.

    Professorozone,

    When my mother died ( not a billionaire) I sure as hell didn’t think that was a valid reason for the government to collect a payment.

    I stand by what I said. Tax the crap out of them when they are alive and remove all of the mechanisms that got them this insane wealth.

    Corkyskog,

    One of the biggest mechanisms that people get insane wealth is through inheritance though.

    Iampossiblyatwork,

    Also with taxes going to the government… There is a lot of corruption designed to bring those taxes back in the form subsidies, projects, funding etc. No guarantee taxes end up where they are needed.

    givesomefucks, to politics in A Global Tax on Billionaires? Janet Yellen Says ‘No’

    Crazy how Biden’s admin is full of people 70+ years old who are incredibly conservative and keep going against all of the things he keeps saying he wants to do…

    Like, Imagine if you boss hired a bunch of shitty assholes, and when you complain about them he says “what am I supposed to do. They’re already hired!”

    Like, you can fire them Joe…

    When you hire someone and they consistently do things you (supposedly) don’t want them to do, you fucking fire them and hire someone who will do what you tell them.

    Unless of course you don’t actually want to get anything done and what you’re telling them to do is what they’re doing.

    FlowVoid,

    keep going against all of the things he keeps saying he wants to do…

    When did Biden say he wants a global wealth tax?

    givesomefucks,

    US President Joe Biden’s 2024 budget included plans for a 25% minimum tax on the wealthiest 0.01%, but that proposal has since fallen by the wayside with lawmakers in Washington preoccupied with government shutdown threats and looming funding deadlines.

    www.cnn.com/2023/10/23/business/…/index.html

    In fairness, it’s hard to keep track of all the times Biden says he wants to do something to appease voters and then never tries while his appointees fight the party platform.

    But Biden wanted it for America, just stopped mentioning it, and now his appointees are fighting any wealth tax from anywhere.

    FlowVoid, (edited )

    Yes, Biden has his own tax proposal for the wealthy. It’s a modified income tax, not a direct tax on overall wealth.

    Wanting to tax the wealthy doesn’t mean he supports a wealth tax. And it definitely doesn’t mean he wants a global wealth tax. Neither of those are in the party platform.

    The details matter. One Democratic proposal is to tax unrealized capital gains. So if Tesla stock went up in value, Musk would owe taxes. But unlike a wealth tax, Musk would owe nothing if the stock went down.

    nelly_man,

    I can’t read this article due to a paywall, but I know that Janet Yellen has been leading an effort to set a minimum corporate tax rate worldwide. I don’t know what her stance is on wealth taxes in general, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s just trying to ensure that a minimum corporate tax rate work is not derailed by changing the target to something more controversial.

    FiniteBanjo, to science in Flood of Fake Science Forces 19 Journal Closures

    I remember a bunch of people critically reviewing a scifi movie where knowledge is currency, but looks like that’s where we’re going.

    Catoblepas, to science in Flood of Fake Science Forces 19 Journal Closures

    I can’t read it all because paywall, but is 119 a typo? The only portion I can see mentions 19 journals.

    Cyv_,

    Yeah I see 19 journals as well. Must be a typo.

    Powderhorn,
    @Powderhorn@beehaw.org avatar

    Fixed the hed. Archive link should be viewable.

    Catoblepas,

    Oops, if the archive link was there before I missed it. Thanks!

    Diplomjodler3, to world in Roku says hackers gained access to 576k accounts in latest data-breach incident

    It’s like they do everything they can to destroy their reputation as much as possible.

    FenrirIII,
    @FenrirIII@lemmy.world avatar

    Because there are no repercussions.

    empireOfLove2, to world in Roku says hackers gained access to 576k accounts in latest data-breach incident
    @empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    Announced immediately after they updated their terms to require forced arbitration and removes all your rights to sue for damages.

    HOW FUCKING CONVENIENT.

    Throw your roku devices in the trash.

    dubyakay,

    I don’t think those terms are binding in court.

    wintermute_oregon,

    Arbitration clauses are very binding in court.

    themeatbridge,

    Depends on the court, but the problem is you have to go to court to challenge whether the arbitration clause is valid. Usually it’s less expensive just to engage with arbitration.

    BubbleMonkey,

    Well, now there’s 576k people who can do it as a class action :)

    xhieron,
    @xhieron@lemmy.world avatar

    But asking a party to amend the contract after you’re in breach and the other party doesn’t know it is a good way to get your contract rewritten by the court or worse.

    Bakkoda,

    I don’t remember signing any contract.

    wintermute_oregon,

    Then you’ve never used a Roku.

    Bakkoda,

    Clicking accept on a EULA does not a contract make.

    misspacific,
    @misspacific@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    they aren’t.

    wintermute_oregon,

    I think forced arbitration should be illegal. I’m suing an old employer. They had an arbitration clause hidden in the contract. It just allows them to ignore federal Eeoc laws since they can just arbitrate it.

    partial_accumen, (edited )

    It just allows them to ignore federal Eeoc laws since they can just arbitrate it.

    That sounds suspect. EEOC is federal. I find it doubtful a company can simply choose to opt-out of those laws.

    wintermute_oregon,

    They can. The Feds can sue on behalf of you but thy rarely do. They admitted in writing they ignore the ada since they can’t be sue. Judge still forced it to arbitration.

    wintermute_oregon,

    When I talk about working with senators. This is one of the topics I’m discussing. Federal laws should not be forced into arbitration. It allows companies to abuse federal law

    Humanius, (edited )
    @Humanius@lemmy.world avatar

    Personally I don’t think forced arbitration should exist for any law. It’s a way for large corporations to avoid legal responsibility.
    I always find it odd how easy it seems to be to just sign your rights away in the US.

    youngGoku,

    Agreed. Forced arbitration is so shady…

    wintermute_oregon,

    Arbitration should only be allowed when you get something for it. They’ll give you 10k for going to arbitration or something. Otherwise it’s just abusive or you get to pick the arbitrator.

    Humanius,
    @Humanius@lemmy.world avatar

    Signing your rights away should never be possible, even if you get something in return. Allowing that is just making the system ripe for abuse.

    At what point would you say you’ve met the threshold of something being valuable enough for forced arbitration to be allowable?

    ThePowerOfGeek,
    @ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world avatar

    I was one of those stubborn bastards who typed out a physical letter with all the necessary information and snail-mailed it to the address they listed in that bullshit forced arbitration agreement. Though I doubt that will do me much good.

    That said, I agree with you about Roku being garbage now. I used to be a big fan of their products. But that company has made it increasingly clear that they don’t respect their customers in many ways.

    I’m looking at moving to something else. Maybe an Nvidia Shield? I don’t know. I don’t really like Chromecast or the Amazon stick/box options. I need to find some time to look into open source options. I have a decent Raspberry Pi sitting idle.

    Anyone got recommendations or pointers to open source solutions that would give me a decent streaming box with a good UI and remote control functionality?

    empireOfLove2, (edited )
    @empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    Honestly, a Pi or small Intel NUC running Linux + Kodi is probably all most people including yourself need just to access locally hosted/stored content as well as YouTube and netflix. It covers the basics. The only benefits things like Chromecast have is the less “techy” setup process and maybe a little more drm support foe higher quality streams.
    Downside to using nonstandard hardware without Big Brother Media approved drm spyware: streams will be limited to 720p from corporate sources, and some (HBO I think?) Will refuse to work entirely.

    If using a Pi you can buy an IR blaster hat so you can use traditional remotes with it, or use something like a Bluetooth keyboard/TouchPad combo. Or even remote control it from your phone using something like LinuxRemote. There’s a lot of options.

    ThePowerOfGeek,
    @ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world avatar

    Thanks, this is very helpful.

    empireOfLove2, to politics in Trump Leads Biden in Six of Seven Swing States, WSJ Poll Finds
    @empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    WSJ is a billionaire propaganda rag, don’t really care what they think.

    TropicalDingdong, to politics in Trump Leads Biden in Six of Seven Swing States, WSJ Poll Finds

    https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/d1dac31c-3796-41d8-bc50-5d59de021c12.gif

    Jill Biden was on the View or some shit making the same argument that so many apologists here make, “but Trump is worse”…

    Bruh you losing us an election with that argument.

    Linkerbaan, to world in U.S. and Israel’s ‘Unprecedented’ Intelligence Sharing Draws Criticism
    @Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

    Tl;dr: Israel said they aren’t using US intel to commit war crimes so it must be true.

    fuckyou, to canada in Canada Had Designs on Being a Hydro Superpower. Now Its Rivers and Lakes Are Drying Up.

    Hi Actions! Have you met Consequences? I guess not, good thing the stocks go brrrr tho.

    Drusas, to canada in Canada Had Designs on Being a Hydro Superpower. Now Its Rivers and Lakes Are Drying Up.

    Hydro is terrible for fish, anyway.

    fuckyou,

    I thought fish lived in that shit.

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