Re: 'Waterhole' and land rents

In sci.econ, Sgt.Sausage
<nobody@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote
on Fri, 19 Jan 2007 02:45:54 -0500
<628d9$45b07741$42a1e6c9$28468@xxxxxxxx>:

"Bob Kolker" <nowhere@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:51av8uF1j1dp8U2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

If talent is taxed, it will disappear, sure as *** runs downhill. Why
would anyone exhibit talent if it means he is punished for it?

Bob Kolker


Bob -- I generally agree with you on most things ... but I gotta
call "shenanigans" on this one.

Income is taxed ... but jobs haven't disappeared.

Haven't they? One issue of course is transport and
communications costs versus wages, but taxes are definitely
causing jobs to vanish overseas. Whether it's 1% of
our economy or 99%, I for one am not sure -- though it's
probably not the latter.

However, when was the last time a phone bank was manned here
in the US, as opposed to somewhere in Asia?

Gas it taxed ... but folks still drive.

Gas isn't taxed as much as it could be (though it's probably
taxed more than it should be). AIUI taxes in the US hover
around 20%, of which about 8% is standard sales tax.

Alcohol is taxed ... but we still consume it.

Wine and spirits are taxed. Denatured alcohol, which has
some extra stuff designed to make drinkers sick, is not.
(The stuff doesn't affect engine performance AFAIK.)

Real estate is taxed ... but a lot of us still own homes

Real estate is a special case. It's very hard to move houses. :-)

Smokes are taxed ... and I'm lighting one up now

Your lungs, man. :-)

Capital gains are taxed ... but folks still invest

Not much else they can do. The notion of throwing all of one's savings
into a 5 1/4% passbook has long gone by the wayside.

A huge chunk of things people buy have sales taxes ... but we keep on buyin'
Estates are taxed ... but people keep on accumulatin'


I'll admit I don't know how much taxes affect the economy, and it may
depend on the economy. The classical curves in an economic textbook
suggest that it depends on the slope of the demand and supply (which
aren't really all that well known though one can estimate them by
plotting sales price points); if the demand curve is sufficiently
inelastic (demand stays relatively constant regardless of price), the
consumer pays most of the tax. If, however, the demand curve is very
elastic (demand drops like a rock if price goes up), the supplier might
bear the brunt of the tax.

--
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Conventional memory has to be one of the most UNconventional
architectures I've seen in a computer system.

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