Gary's Economics - seems to ring true in Australia

[trevorjohnson33]

Recently stumbled on this guy on youtube - former Citibank No. 1 trader who made bets on wealth distribution continuing to flow to the top and is now writing a book about how to fix it. It's all stuff that's probably obvious to a lot of people in the sub, but he has a good way of explaining things.

Does this ring true to how people in sub see things in Australia?

EDIT: there's probably more succinct videos on the channel but they basically all have the same central thesis EG

 

[melissa43]

@trevorjohnson33 He said a lot of waffle, but what he is advocating for is a strong welfare state to ensure a minimum standard of living coupled with a progressive tax system to fund it.

 

[billyboy]

@melissa43 We already have that.

 

[melissa43]

@billyboy We do.

An argument can be made it's been getting eroded due to our individual prosperity. The housing market is a good example where the welfare state has fundamentally failed to provide a minimum housing solution when bad times occur.

Alternatively, with the IGR and the costs of NDIS / aged care, the argument could be made that we've gone too far with providing services without the necessary tax base to support it at current projections.

For us, maybe the best outcome is to re-balance the welfare state.

 

[resjudicata]

@trevorjohnson33 He’s spot on. Great videos!

 

[trevorjohnson33]

After watching Gary's videos and reading some other stuff, it seems like it was a good deal Australia/UK/USA after WWII and getting everyone invested in a system by having people be able to afford a house. Some argue it was a hedge against getting ideas about other systems. But now that's kind of disappearing for an ever growing majority of people.

Gary ain't into to socialism or anything like that though - he just wants to tax the very rich, to stop the ever growing trickle up and rebuild the middle class.

I want to know, do people think that is possible in Australia to tax the rich in Australia without capital flight? Tax enough that people still wanna live here. More tax for the owners of business that can only exist in Australia like mining. Change incentives in other ways?

I guess the dream would be do it slowly enough and have other western countries participate so there's no money for the super rich to run to?

I just don't see any way to stop stuff like this happening hear and world wide

https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/14zgfv3/oc\_are\_the\_rich\_getting\_richer/

https://australiainstitute.org.au/p...-90-get-just-7-of-economic-growth-since-2009/

 

[thaotran4]

@trevorjohnson33 I think the answer will be to start taxing capital, more specially land. Most young people cannot afford homes because the chips are stacked against them by design.

CGT exemptions should also be looked at, though I don't know what would be fair or equitable.

A broad based land tax will make housing more affordable as it promotes efficient use of land. This tax will be higher for R3/R4 zoning.

Examples
The pensioner on a 4 million 6 br house in R4 will think twice when they see their yearly 20k land tax bill. This house can then be used to house a family or bulldozed to make apartments or terraces. Currently this pensioner enjoys full tax payer funded pension as well as any tax free superannuation income streams.

Example 2
A land developer has bought a lot of land with the intention of developing it when apartment prices are super high. Until then they sit on it . Land tax would encourage them to develop sooner.

 

[thaotran4]

@trevorjohnson33 I think the answer will be to start taxing capital, more specially land. Most young people cannot afford homes because the chips are stacked against them by design.

CGT exemptions should also be looked at, though I don't know what would be fair or equitable.

A broad based land tax will make housing more affordable as it promotes efficient use of land. This tax will be higher for R3/R4 zoning.

Examples
The pensioner on a 4 million 6 br house in R4 will think twice when they see their yearly 20k land tax bill. This house can then be used to house a family or bulldozed to make apartments or terraces. Currently this pensioner enjoys full tax payer funded pension as well as any tax free superannuation income streams.

Example 2
A land developer has bought a lot of land with the intention of developing it when apartment prices are super high. Until then they sit on it . Land tax would encourage them to develop sooner.

 

[resjudicata]

@trevorjohnson33

Gary ain't into to socialism or anything like that though - he just wants to tax the very rich, to stop the ever growing trickle up and rebuild the middle class.

Gary is a Marxist and this is fundamentally Marxist ideology..

do people think that is possible in Australia to tax the rich in Australia without capital flight?

Is it possible to tax people (not just the rich) without capital flight - nope. You live in a globalsed world, there's always going to be a relationship between tax and capital flight, at a lot broader income levels than you want to believe.

ore tax for the owners of business that can only exist in Australia like mining.

This always has consequences, it's naive to think you can simply pillage an industry because it can't pack up and leave. You don't have a monopoly on any individual resource, so mining investment can and will shift accordingly. The mines will still run, you will simply see fewer new ones and no expansion - this impacts on all the industries that service mining (which in Australia is significant) and now you have a big problem as you basically starve them of that primary industry.

have other western countries participate so there's no money for the super rich to run to?

There will always be that competition and not just from western or developed countries.