Quote from: Hawker on March 26, 2014, 05:25:17 PM

Quote from: westkybitcoins on March 26, 2014, 05:00:00 PM

Quote from: am on March 26, 2014, 04:48:20 PM

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Based on these facts, I would say that wealth redistribution is an accidental side effect of tax policy in current societies. The main main function of tax is to raise money to keep the market system running smoothly.

That's a valid point and one folks often forget despite my own opinion that taxes should be as minimal as possible.

It's because the rich are typically the ones in control of structuring the tax system, including any loopholes.

This is why the idea of using taxes as a means of wealth-redistribution is such an eye-roller. You're never going to get the top 1%--or heaven forbid, top 0.1%--to have their wealth drained and given to the poor and needy in some politically-oriented karmic reparation. Real-world weath redistribution always boils down to taking money from the middle class and giving it to ~~the poor~~ various groups, effectively rendering the lower classes, as a whole, poorer than before (due to the inefficiencies, fraud, waste and middlemen that such programs inevitably encounter.)

Still, as far as this thread goes, being upfront about one's intentions regarding taxation does go quite a ways towards explaining the "whys" of one's choices.

I agree and would go a lot further. If you look at tax policies over last 40 years in most of the West, there has been a massive redistribution towards the rich with policies like farm subsidies, mortgage subsidies and the like which redistribute cash from the poor to the rich.

Another excellent argument against taxation. The redistribution idea may be nice on paper, but it doesn't work in the real world.