Pandemic crisis reveals impoverished understanding of solidarity
Ideology is the poster child for culture. I wrote about the culture of Covid-19 a few weeks ago. Libertarians are not all bad. They will even bankroll the cure, although getting sick is still the best one. Hiding old people prior to the virus would also help. Warehousing them has made their immune systems fragile.
There is better way to tax dividends and capital gains. An asset value added tax would be paid using after tax money. In combination with a salary tax in one side and an invoice tax in the other, a fairly high effective rate could be achieved.
The key to enacting this is to convince rich people that it is their children who are going to pay their debt to the nation. Having them do so is not just to raise money for better social democracy. It is preventing them from looting worker paychecks to earn that bonus. If the government taxes away the bonus, wages will be higher for everyone.
A higher unemployment payment means a higher wage later. It may also lead to hyperinflation now, as more money seeks a decreasing supply of goods and labor. Finding a cure fast, or at least not caving in to the new morality of social distancing, may prevent something worse than the consequences of making old people immunologically fragile. That imposed fragility is why they are dying. It is too late to help them now.
The ultimate solidarity is everyone getting sick so that they will all get well, but the doctors will never accept it. Knowing why is what makes culture a better study than ideology or theology.
No comments:
Post a Comment