Tertiary effect of the #coronavirus: International tax competition between countries
As remote work becomes the norm, ppl & businesses will relocate to cheaper places. Those w/ lower taxes will have an edge.
Countries / regions will want to attract these remote ppl & biz, and will lower taxes for them. Similar schemes already exist in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Puerto Rico...
But now with + remote & untethered, the incentive is stronger
The + taxes go down, the stronger the incentive to move, so the + ppl will, the bigger the price will be for regions lowering taxes, and the + taxes will go down.
Countries & regions will compete tooth & nail for them. Taxes will lower everywhere.
The countries / regions that don't lower taxes will either have massive leverage (eg, China, NY, Paris...) or will go bust. The + leverage, the less they will need to lower taxes.
The countries with the most to lose will likely implement global taxation measures like the US to tax their citizens abroad. The only leverage they'll have is the passport.
That means there will be a passports war.
Some countries will at the same time lower taxes and make it easy to get a passport from them.
This already happens.
If the trend grows, countries will have to penalize passports from these tax havens. More importantly, there will be heavy consequences to the citizens relinquishing their citizenship for tax purposes — the way the US already does for its citizens. nytimes.com/2014/12/08/opi…
Ppl, though, are tethered to places for things like education or family.
Businesses have no tether.
If you thought there was already a lot of international business tax avoidance, prepare for what's to come.
Countries should do the same.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Now that Joe Biden is president & the EU has failed again, the West is open to learn how to dance.
Here's how they should do it.
[1/
One of the main issues in managing the #coronavirus is that there are so many things to do that govs don't know what they should or shouldn't do. It's simple.
[2/
There are 4 layers of defense against #COVID19 1. Keep infections out 2. When they do come in, prevent them from meeting others 3. When they do meet others, prevent them from infecting them 4. When that happens, identify and neutralize those infections
Theory on the US urban–rural divide in voting for Dems vs GOP:
Urbanites interact with a lot of different strangers all the time. That means they want regulations to address the new coordination pbms that constantly emerge.
[1/
They also see +ppl different from them all the time, so they empathize with their plights, and are + interested in helping them.
These 2 facts mean they want + regulation & +care of minorities.
Hence +demand for regulation and social justice
[2/
Conversely, rural dwellers tend to interact with mostly the same social circles, usually of the same ethnic group, so they don’t experience other groups’ plights, and don’t empathize with them.
[3/
This is the passage with the details of the measures.
[2/
I wrote a long article about Sweden's failed approach back in June, hoping this could be avoided. Unfortunately, people looked at the Summer recess in caseloads as a sign that the strategy had been successful.
Originally, the article "The Hammer and the Dance" was called "The Lockdown and the Release".
In this email, I explained what I was thinking for the article to a few volunteers who wanted to help
Originally, H&D was originally the name of just one section in the article. I also played with other names, like "Leaders, Buy Us Time" or "The Trigger and the Release".
As I was still debating with the volunteers how to name the article, @shishirmehrotra suggested that it should definitely be H&D. I don't think the article would have stuck as much if I hadn't followed his advice. It shows the serendipity of these things.
Again:
NO COUNTRY HAS STOPPED THE VIRUS WITHOUT CONTROLLING ITS BORDERS
On June 25th, I alerted the EU that their internal border openings due on July 2nd were crazy. There would be a 2nd wave from ppl traveling from one country to the other.[1/
Because they — and other Western countries — weren't paying attention, I wrote a 2nd article with the @NYtimes, on September 14th, going in depth into Fences, the border controls that are necessary to stop the virus.
[2/6]
The media thinks this is a crazy multibillionaire wanting to free himself from the reigns of governments to do as he pleases.
In fact, he is probably trying to pre-empt war and make politics better.
[2/
The logic is exactly the same one as that of the USA's independence.
With a full ocean between the US and the UK, they grew apart. During war, information and troops took too long to travel, and supplies lines were too long.
One day or another, they would have broken apart
[3/