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The ultra-wealthy appear as toxic to me too.

However I believe that incentives need to be marginal. If you already have a lot perhaps you need a big carrot as your incentive? I don't know any billionaires that I can ask how they feel about taxation incentives: I reckon you are making assumptions about what you think they should feel.

What makes Tim Cook make the US more money?

Taxation cliffs are shit. In New Zealand our Green party decided that 1 million was enough. Why would you bother growing a business after you reached 1 million? Retirement? A business is defined as being about making money (albeit some people do run "businesses" for other outcomes - why is Warren Buffett still working?).

High marginal taxation is also shit IMHO.

The hard part is to design the incentives so that productive people build your economy for the benefit of everybody.

If a government discourages business then the economy is crap and everybody suffers. See other economies.

Few people understand the incentives of others, and few people understand how wealth is created for all: the hoi polloi dismiss the wealthy as vampiric money grubbers. Anyone who uses the word capitalist in a derogatory way has been brainwashed. Most everything that makes our economies work is invisible non-monetary rewards. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43162596

I can speak for my own financial incentives. My perception is that I have an effective tax rate of well over 50% in New Zealand (any retirement savings are not safe because our demographics and governments will screw our economy).

I do not feel the incentive to work in a business - My attitude means I now produce marginally less than I could for the New Zealand economy (I still pay taxes so they are advantaged but they could get a lot lot more from me). I now mostly selfishly concentrate on those closest to me. Why should I work if it isn't marginally beneficial enough for me? I'm no more selfish than my retired friends that I know (a wide variety of people from many walks of life).

(Reëdited to expand and clarify).

We can't decide how much is fair. Compare yourself to a dead king - what is fair? We can design systemic incentives so that we each make the world better for everyone. Not that that it is easy... Trite thoughtless dismissals of the most productive members of society are not helpful.

Edit 2: I guess this discussion is as close to work as it gets for me. Too much adulting. Should I get into politics? Are morals an impediment to helping others? There are too few politicians I admire, and too many I wouldn't want to shake hands with or be associated with. Every idiot has political opinions - how much of an idiot am I? Every politician is smart enough to win an election - they are not stupid yet they make too many horrific mistakes. What about the cryptically smart ones? I see how systems affect people that join a system. What would I become if I join our political system? Understanding our different systems is hard because they grow so weirdly with vestigial complexities due to history, complex interactions, and reflexivity.




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