Quote:Original post by Talroth Combine all businesses into sector based monopolies. Streamline everything for highest levels of productivity and public health and safety. Cut the standard work week to less than 30 hours.
Costs drop, quality improves, and people have more free time for themselves.
Yes costs would drop.. for the companies. Prices for customers, on the other hand, would sky-rocket.. after all, there's no competitor you can go to anyway.
As for quality, it becomes irrelevant to the company, since less quality will not lose customers and more quality will not get you more.
I don't think it's totally irrelevant. This is just a nitpick, but people tend to think that monopolies hold a lot more power over price and quantity than they actually do in reality. They're still beholden to the laws of supply and demand. If they raise prices, for instance, demand will go down. If they lower quality, demand will go down. It's still a game of finding that sweet-spot between price, costs, and demand, which are the parameters that determine what supply they manufacture. The same game every company plays, monopoly or not.
Of course, if the demand curve is inelastic (as it tends to be with, say, life-saving medications) then monopolies can pretty much charge what they want. But in general, monopolies just follow the same laws of supply and demand that small firms do in competitive industries, it's just that by virtue of the fact that they're one firm delivering a product a single price for all consumers, this creates a certain dead weight loss whereby prices are slightly higher and supplies are slightly lower than they'd otherwise be.
Quote:Original post by Talroth Combine all businesses into sector based monopolies. Streamline everything for highest levels of productivity and public health and safety. Cut the standard work week to less than 30 hours.
Costs drop, quality improves, and people have more free time for themselves.
Yes costs would drop.. for the companies. Prices for customers, on the other hand, would sky-rocket.. after all, there's no competitor you can go to anyway.
As for quality, it becomes irrelevant to the company, since less quality will not lose customers and more quality will not get you more.
Of course you assume that the monopolies would be allowed to make profit. If they're limited to how much profit they can make, and make bonuses based on customer satisfaction, then a company would be free to drive toward a better product and service, not just a better bottom line.
Old Username: Talroth
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Quote:Original post by tstrimp All of this indicates that the problem that needs to be addressed is the capital gains tax rate, not the income tax. Raising the income tax will largely only effect the middle and upper middle class. The super wealthy are making the majority of their money as capital gains. As the income tax increase, they will make sure a larger percentage of their earnings are capital gains to offset it.
Why not have the government classify long term capital gains (securities held at least for 12 months) as income? No need to change the income tax rates.
Currently short term gains (bought and sold in less than 12 months) are considered income. Why the distinction?
That's how public utilities (i.e. electricity) used to operate in the USA. Over time the public forgot the details of the arrangement (monopoly in exchange for rate regulation) and soon became enamored with the pie in the sky promises of deregulation. The result has been the slow deterioration of infrastructure and a steady rise in prices (at least in California).
"I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes." - the Laughing Man
Quote:Original post by tstrimp All of this indicates that the problem that needs to be addressed is the capital gains tax rate, not the income tax. Raising the income tax will largely only effect the middle and upper middle class. The super wealthy are making the majority of their money as capital gains. As the income tax increase, they will make sure a larger percentage of their earnings are capital gains to offset it.
Why not have the government classify long term capital gains (securities held at least for 12 months) as income? No need to change the income tax rates.
Currently short term gains (bought and sold in less than 12 months) are considered income. Why the distinction?
There are a lot of arguments on both sides of that debate. I have a feeling that most politicians make a substancial portion of their income on capital gains, so they don't want to raise the taxes on it. I'm ok with that, I stand to make quite a bit of money in the next few years on it, and I'll be paying fewer taxes on it then I am my normal income.
I would imagine if long term gains were taxed, then they would be taxed much lower than short term gains. At least to promote a sense of responsible investment (as opposed to the "get rich quick" mentality).
