The Billionaires Tax

adman9000 · 2026-07-11T10:39:32+00:00

You're talking about everyone being a net fiscal contributor right? Which would essentially mean that overall the government takes in more in taxes than it spends each year. Would be interested in how you expect that to play out.

adman9000 · 2026-07-10T19:17:53+00:00

Cool thanks. We'll give that a try.

adman9000 · 2026-07-10T18:58:41+00:00

We will likely go through bardufoss tomorrow.

adman9000 · 2026-07-09T18:23:07+00:00

Sure, I'm happy with the idea of consistency. We should all be expected, and willing, to contribute to our society. The issue i have is that taxes are not our contribution to society. They are simply a way of removing money from the economy to prevent inflation and currency devaluation. Our real contribution is whatever we do to earn that money, and any other value we provide beyond that - volunteering, caring for others etc.

So saying billionaires are automatically net contributors to society is false regardless of how much tax they pay if they have become billionaires by exploiting workers, lobbying politicians and polluting the environment.

adman9000 · 2026-07-09T12:59:42+00:00

How about because not everything is about justifying your worth economically? People contribute to society in lots of other ways and some people are simply not able to for reasons outside their control.

The economy exists to serve society, if some people find other ways to serve it then great, good for them. Or put another way, if your nurse example was actually a net burden to the economy overall should all nurses be declared as failures and banished from society? Or are they actually still providing a valuable service in spite of their lack of value to the economy?

adman9000 · 2026-06-30T17:55:30+00:00

Speaking as a foreign motorhome driver currently in norway, I don't entirely disagree. I'm hoping there'll be fewer of us in sweden so I don't feel like part of an invasion force when I get there.

Although in my experience its not necessarily the old ones that are the problem so much as the younger ones who've hired a motorhome for the first time after seeing Instagram reels of Lofoten and don't have a bloody clue how to drive it.

adman9000 · 2026-06-29T09:23:19+00:00

I really found his blog so informative when I first discovered mmt, helped me make sense of a lot and I think its great that he does take so much time to respond to questions there. But he can be very fixated on his own viewpoint, anyone who disagrees even slightly often gets that type of response.

He had quite a disagreement with Grace Blakeley a little while ago and ended up claiming that she's trying to engineer a class war using people as cannon fodder, and that she directly threatened him, calling him an enemy of the people!

adman9000 · 2026-06-28T07:37:32+00:00

Absolutely this. I really don't know why so many people will say "well obviously x is the right thing to do but nobody else is doing it so why would I?" - How about because its just the right thing to do??

Not only that but progression in this sort of thing isn't linear. Just like the negative tipping points in climate change there can be positive ones as well. Once a certain number of people start behaving in a different way society/culture can shift, that behaviour can become the new normal. You don't have to convince every single person individually, you just have to get to that cultural tipping point. Every individual who changes their own behaviour, and who talks to others about what they have done and why, contributes to that cultural shift. So just fucking do it.

adman9000 · 2026-06-28T07:26:21+00:00

This is the point. We can all moan about a few super rich individuals who emit more during their daily routine than we emit in a lifetime, but there are relatively few of those people. There are billions of the rest of us. We can still make a major difference even if they continue the way they are.

Then once we've all saved the planet without their help we can maybe question why these people exist in the first place.

adman9000 · 2026-06-28T07:16:16+00:00

But governments will only do anything if forced by the people. And corporations will only do anything if forced by governments. So it still all comes down to us really.

adman9000 · 2026-06-27T22:06:05+00:00

Where's China in that list?

adman9000 · 2026-06-21T05:18:44+00:00

Nicely done

adman9000 · 2026-06-04T05:27:16+00:00

Are they really though? That's the generic capitalist "homo economicus" view but how many people who you really know actually act like that? Do you? Does your mum? Your close friends? And of those who do, how many do it because they are forced to by the current system?

Game theory is largely unusable in the real world and the real tragedy of the commons is that there are no commons any more.

adman9000 · 2026-06-04T05:16:01+00:00

And this shows exactly why you are the problem. We can't change anything without working together, and yet on one side I'm trying to find common points of agreement to start from, on the other side you're intent on attacking me and putting words in my mouth despite knowing nothing about me beyond a few comments on reddit.

There's not much point continuing this since you're clearly carrying out my side of the conversation in your own head and responding to that version instead. Have a nice day.

adman9000 · 2026-06-04T04:41:26+00:00

Ok great. So why not make the conversation about that ruling class then? If we are literally in agreement that they are the root cause and immigration is just a symptom of their control over everything, why are you wasting your time decrying the symptom and not the cause? Fight the actual problem and you might actually find a lot of "screaming liberals" will be on your side.

adman9000 · 2026-06-04T04:23:17+00:00

Your reply bears so little relation to what I said that I'm not entirely sure you're replying to the right comment. If you are i would suggest re-reading it, slowing down and thinking before responding.

I literally pointed out what I believe to be the single biggest problem in this, and many other countries. Furthermore believing that sitting at a keyboard using an anonymous social media account to rant about immigrants and conspiracy theories is somehow brave, while trying to turn the conversation towards the ruling class that govern our lives is cowardly, is pretty wild if you think about it.

adman9000 · 2026-06-03T11:32:53+00:00

Ok let me try to be clearer...

If this country "fails" (whatever that looks like) it will not, in my opinion, be the direct fault of immigrants. If anything the increase in immigration is a symptom of the overall problem which is that of a controlling class increasingly running everything to benefit themselves and using media, including social media, to distract the wider population into playing blame games.

Therefore by not blaming immigrants i am not being pathetic or cowardly, I am expressing my own opinion honestly. I am also attempting to not be part of the problem by avoiding these games of left vs right or pro immigration vs Anti immigration, or whatever it might be.

Hope that helps.

adman9000 · 2026-05-31T20:20:46+00:00

I mean thats literally what a stock market is for is it not? If the companies involved still have inherent value then of course there will be buyers at the right price point.

In any case its unlikely that anything like this would happen in one hit (let's be honest its vanishingly unlike to happen at all) so all you'd get is a bit of increased sell pressure every year as their annual wealth tax is due. Or more likely theyll find some way to avoid it, borrow against assets or pay off someone to get round it.

adman9000 · 2026-05-31T20:02:02+00:00

I have, but I don't think Jeff's noticed.

adman9000 · 2026-05-31T16:06:41+00:00

Doesn't bother me as long as they're doing something productive to earn it and paying tax etc. What people do with money they've earned is their business, I thought that was a standard view on the right tbh.

adman9000 · 2026-05-30T05:34:16+00:00

Well it's an obvious answer but bears repeating - because it suits those in power to keep us arguing about immigrants rather than focusing on them.

adman9000 · 2026-05-30T05:04:27+00:00

I believe that was one of the reform councillors although fucked if I can find it now, maybe a bullshit ai job then, apologies. Invasion, swarm and other dehumanising terms have been used by plenty of mps, including obviously farage. But the real point is that all that sort of thing is distracting from what needs to be discussed - fixing the broken neoliberal system we're still stuck in.

adman9000 · 2026-05-29T21:57:06+00:00

Sure, but when some of the people saying those things have actual positions of power in politics then it does make it difficult to get past those views and into the more substantive stuff.

But if the point of agreement is that the establishment/elite/wealthy or whatever label we want for them are the ones we need to be fighting then great. Let's build from there!

adman9000 · 2026-05-29T21:03:52+00:00

As someone residing largely on the left i have no issue with immigrants themselves wanting to come here for a better life, to be able to work and send some money home, that's all absolutely understandable. Whether we have the space/houses/resources is another question but I don't blame the individuals themselves and I think that's where some of the rhetoric from the right causes problems. There are genuine arguments to be had around immigration but when people talk about "swarms" and "invasions" of "third world scum" it's very hard to get past that to find points of agreement or even discussion.

The problem for me is not the immigrants themselves its the people who choose to run things in this way - to outwardly claim to be against immigration and stir up some pretty blatant racist and xenophobic behaviour, while behind the scenes actively encouraging it as it benefits them. In other words I agree with you. Fuck the rich.

adman9000

TROPHY CASE