In what way would the wealth tax improve the court system? If you are IBM, how would you suffer if instead of taking your counterparty to court in the US, you were taking them to an EU court? How would US multinational firms suffer if they were to use international venues to settle their disputes?
I disagree that the courts are the main service the government provides to the US companies. I think the primary service that the government provides is the military that cajols other countries into favoring American companies. The other service is the USD.
However, the new American industry is not based on oil, steel, or guns anymore and needs minimal support from the Fed in those regards. In fact multitudes of companies, from AMAT, GOOG, and MSFT to even smaller software firms would actually do better if they were not restricted by the government.
As to the USD, if you have read my posts on the subject you know that I believe it is on its way out and there is nothing the government can do about it. And many make the economic case that printing the reserve currency is no longer in the US best interest as it sells out the US manufacturing base.
Finally, a wealth tax is essentially armed robbery. It says that "you have money that I want. Give it to me or I will send people with guns after you. It doesn't matter that you obtained it legally and paid taxes on, but now I want it."
What the government should do, and I have written about this before, is to get rid of all corporate taxes and instead impose a tax on currency conversion and transfers out of the country. Income and sales taxes are fair game, but treating corporations as people is an abomination. Furthermore the government should stop using tax law as a way of favoring one industry or social segment over another. Flat rules for all companies.
If you run a mental though experiment on the above, you will see that it will bring forth tremendous social and political changes in the US and will resolve many problems that 90% of both the liberals and conservatives complain about. |
