Capitalism was designed for one tax – a property tax.

The average person thinks taxing high incomes makes more sense, and rich folks are happy you think that... because it doesn't.

Quick thread on why income taxes should be low, and property taxes should be high.

<thread> 🧵👇
2/ Adam Smith argued land is a natural monopoly. As people earn more money, the rents of the land scale.

No additional productivity was created on the land, but additional productivity created by the user was leached by the land's lord.
3/ If wages grow faster than the annual rate of property taxes, extra income is captured for non-productive purposes.

This creates incentive to hoard, and it also creates incentive to do literally nothing with the land. This is called land banking. Buy, hold, and pay low fees.
4/ Now, let's circle back to income taxes. People think they have a sweet deal, because the guy in the bracket above them pays way more taxes.

Not exactly. The truly wealthy don't make money through an annual wage. They make money by buying assets, and holding it.
5/ Depending on how they make the wealth, taxes can also be minimized. Dividends, not realizing gains and borrowing against it, etc..

The result is a lot of those dollars are taxed at a lower rate than middle class people pay. In fact, if you're rich enough, you stash offshore.
6/ Now you've got a super rich politician, uh... no one in particular, or wealthy person, making their money in a lower tax jurisdiction. Totally legal.

Except now the high tax rate means they have less incentive to bring the money on shore, and spend or invest domestically.
7/ To put it bluntly, the high tax rate incentivized people to keep their money out of the financial system.

After all, for every dollar they want to bring back, they now have to lose $2. But like, they're already wealthy. They're in no rush to invest or flex spend.
8/ Meanwhile, back to land. You think, I got this 400 sqft condo worth a million dollars. "I pay a lot of taxes already! 40% of my income is taxed, I don't want to pay more."

Except, the guys with billions offshore? They don't have a little bit of property. They have a LOT.
9/ They're already rich. They bought land when it was worth nothing, and in some cases their grandparents were just given the land when they got here.

You've been convinced to give them every tax advantage because it benefits you, but that's not how it works.
10/ The system convinced you a tax on actually working is superior to a tax on holding immoveable profit.

You have practically no land, and you earn your money from labour.

They don't earn money from labor, and own more land than you can imagine. Y'all got played.
bonus land fact about a Russian oligarch in Canada.

Canadian immigration officials at one point expressed concerns he "profits from organized crime."

He owned 111 properties in Toronto. It's unclear if he still owns them, because we have no beneficial ownership registry. 😂
🤷‍♂️

via @georgistmemes

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More from @StephenPunwasi

4 Dec
Has your neighborhood felt empty, even before the pandemic? It's not just your hood. It's a global phenomenon.

I call it the vacant home epidemic.

Here's a quick thread on how on how the Great Recession resulted in a housing crisis that will last generations.

<thread> 🧵👇
2/ Paris had 107,000 vacant homes in 2017, about 7.5% of all houses. 40,000 weren't even connected to the electrical grid anymore.

New York City had 247,977 vacant or scarcely occupied homes in 2018, about 11% of the city's apartment supply.

This is just a start.
3/
Toronto: 99,000

Vancouver: 25,000

India: 11.09 million(!)

China: 50 million.

I know what you're thinking. Seriously? WTF is happening?

Well, after the Great Recession, central banks flooded the market with cheap credit. That cheap credit killed bonds.
Read 11 tweets
3 Dec
Everyone: @AOC is selling a "tax the rich" sweatshirt for $58! That's way too expensive.

Me, a former mass market apparel designer: Made in America. Union printed. Sounds about right. That's what it costs to pay everyone a decent wage along the way.

#TaxTheRich Image
If you made it in Vietnam at a factory that pays workers a fair wage, after imports and duties – you're looking at a market price of about ~$35.

MOQ of 50,000+ units, and a factory discount for repeat orders.

One person's spending is someone's income.
Make it in a foreign sweatshop, at MOQ 100,000, with factories cramped so tight they sometimes burn down and take the whole workforce with it?

You can sell it at a local mega grocery store for $12.
Read 6 tweets
3 Dec
The UK is getting 800,000 vaccines next week? 🤯
Holy shit. I didn’t realize why so many people are fine with a vaccine coming whenever it comes.

You selfish dummies think it’s about you getting a vaccine, and don’t realize it’s about healthcare workers getting vaccinated first.
I'm also realizing you think me stating the UK delivering 800k vaccines is a criticism of Canada, when I didn't mention Canada at all – your insecurities just kicked in and you took offense for some reason.

This is the only normal person that responded.

Read 4 tweets
30 Nov
"you should be shopping local Stephen!"

Oh, you think there's a local factory in Toronto stamping out transistors. Cute.
"Shop local, I buy Canadian grown food at Loblaws!"

Sorry, did you just say you bought food picked by exploited foreign workers in Canada, from a billionaire owned chain?
Folks lecturing me to shop local.

I do 95% of my vegan, ethically sourced grocery from 2 places where I know the owners by name.

I eat at restos in my hood over 12x/week.

I buy computer stuff from big companies.

Now, let's hear about the mug you bought locally in the summer.
Read 5 tweets
9 Nov
Alright, let's do an important investment and career lesson. Opportunity cost.

This is factoring the cost of not doing something in your total loss.

Trust me, you're going to look at money differently after this.

It's also why I don't like real estate as an investment.

🧵👇
2/ Basically, you're not just including any money spent – you're also including money not made.

Let's say you're a student, and you get free tickets to a concert. These tickets are normally $50, so it's like you just got free money.

Unfortunately, you work that day...
3/ So you give your shift to a co-worker, and skip out on a 4 hour shift you normally work.

Most people would think, "I just went to a concert for free, yo. I only spent $50 on drinks!"

True. You only spent $50. Unfortunately, you didn't make $80 at work that day.
Read 13 tweets
8 Nov
Okay, quick explanation of why the arts are just as important as STEM.

No, it’s not because rich people things lead to networking opportunities.

It’s because of how the brain develops.

You’ll understand public ed better than most politicians in a few seconds.

<thread> 🧵👇
2/ Think of the brain as a mess of wires that send information.

These wires are called synapses, and are how electrical impulses communicate information. The more wires, the more information can be processed.

Kinda like internet bandwidth.
3/ Young children have a whack of these wires. They need it. They’re learning a lot of new things, like walking and speaking.

As you repeat tasks, your brain becomes more efficient at doing them. As your brain becomes more efficient, you need less bandwidth to process info.
Read 12 tweets

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