A fun fact about billionaires.

[Simfan34]

A whopping 6 people had an income over $1 billion in 2013. The total sum of their income over $1 billion was $8.5 billion. Make of that what you will.

[Simfan34]

Is Simfan making up numbers again in the absence of a GM?

http://www.forbes.com/hedge-fund-managers/

[Simfan34]

Psst, this is only for hedge fund managers.

Hedge fund managers are the only people who have cash incomes that large.

[Simfan34]

Psst, this is only for hedge fund managers.

Hedge fund managers are the only people who have cash incomes that large.

Since when do other earned assets not count as effective income? This wasn't stipulated. There are many others who earned much more in 2013 than the guys on your list.

That is true, but they saw larger increases in net worth rather than in terms of taxable income. We could only tax capital gains.

[Simfan34]

Psst, this is only for hedge fund managers.

Hedge fund managers are the only people who have cash incomes that large.

Since when do other earned assets not count as effective income? This wasn't stipulated. There are many others who earned much more in 2013 than the guys on your list.

That is true, but they saw larger increases in net worth rather than in terms of taxable income. We could only tax capital gains.

Perhaps I've missed a Senate debate that revolves around taxable income? I assumed you posted this as an out-of-the-blue defense/rebuttal against the notion that the accumulation of wealth to an extent is harmful to the economy. Yet those effects would be similar whether it is taxable or not - and perhaps, it could be argued that accumulation of non-taxable income is even riskier (due to there being no government mechanism that ensures some redistribution through taxes).

At any rate, we can't be sure how many billionaires or how many people earned a billion dollars last year in Atlasia, due to the fact that the country has taken a fundamentally different course over the past 10 years in regards to economic policy. This is why the office of Game Moderator is important.

The post was in reference to the proposal of a 100% on all income greater than $1 billion. Indeed, that is exactly why the office of GM is important. Alas, when I made steps towards doing just that, I was ousted by your party.

[Simfan34]

Psst, this is only for hedge fund managers.

Hedge fund managers are the only people who have cash incomes that large.

Since when do other earned assets not count as effective income? This wasn't stipulated. There are many others who earned much more in 2013 than the guys on your list.

That is true, but they saw larger increases in net worth rather than in terms of taxable income. We could only tax capital gains.

Perhaps I've missed a Senate debate that revolves around taxable income? I assumed you posted this as an out-of-the-blue defense/rebuttal against the notion that the accumulation of wealth to an extent is harmful to the economy. Yet those effects would be similar whether it is taxable or not - and perhaps, it could be argued that accumulation of non-taxable income is even riskier (due to there being no government mechanism that ensures some redistribution through taxes).

At any rate, we can't be sure how many billionaires or how many people earned a billion dollars last year in Atlasia, due to the fact that the country has taken a fundamentally different course over the past 10 years in regards to economic policy. This is why the office of Game Moderator is important.

The post was in reference to the proposal of a 100% on all income greater than $1 billion. Indeed, that is exactly why the office of GM is important. Alas, when I made steps towards doing just that, I was ousted by your party.

>molds unemployment numbers and other numbers to fit his own ideological/political agenda
>complains about politics elsewhere

>Thinks Marxism is a viable guide for economic policy-making in the 21st century
>Is literally the second most important person in the country at the point
>Seems surprised that someone adhering to mainstream economic thought would assume this has lead to economic catastrophe

Also:

Is there any reason to think that Atlasian policies would actually result in more taxable income by billionaires than IRL?

Yes:

[Simfan34]

Hey, at least I never had the country invaded by Chinese people pretending to be aliens.

[Simfan34]

Consider the ongoing debate over the proposed repeal of New York's scaffold law, for instance.

I haven't read past this, but this is going on? I'm inclined to say good riddance to the ugly things and the make-work union justification for them, but they're godsends when it rains...

[Simfan34]

And this?

Well, someone should at least attempt to assess the costs of such legislation, rather than all of you just paddling around in circles asking, "how much will it cost?".

The last unemployment report put the rate at 8.9%. The target is 3%. We'll assume that to get to a (BLS-style?) rate of unemployment, half of the measured percentage-point difference (being working-age, willing and able-bodied people) would need to be hired. If we roughly assume a country with 315,000,000 people, then such a program would need to hire approximately 9,000,000 people (5.9% / 2 = 2.95; 2.95 * 3,150,000).

So a minimum wage job at $10.50/hour - excluding any sort of benefits or additional costs - would come to around $3.9 billion per week, or $203 billion per year.