> Is it income redistribution when Bezos pays more taxes than the person who served you your coffee
Yes, it is, taxation is a mean of income redistribution!
But I find your example flawed for the purpose of this discussion. More apt would be to say that the coffee clerk (through his taxes) have to help reimburse the Chinese post office when Bezos orders a package from Aliexpress.
But note, I didn’t say income redistribution is always bad! You seem to assume that you are arguing with some tea-party republican with a MAGA cap. But I am not, not even american.
But income distribution through UPU is incredible opaque. If we are going to pay foreign aid, I think we tax payers at a minimum deserve to know exactly how much we are paying and to whom!
>How do you propose we handle international mail with people directly accountable to voters?
I don’t suggest that. What I am saying is that they since they are not directly accountable to the tax payers, the people that are (eg US president) have to hold them accountable.
Also they better stick to their scope or they will lose public support.
I doubt the US will leave UPU in the end, but this will be a huge wake up call for the other member countries.
> miserly to demand that poor people pay as much as we do
But no one is upset with US or France paying more than Zimbabwe. They are upset mostly with Chinas classification, which doesn’t match its new economic powers.
Whether US president should be involved in a
$300 million decision I don’t know, but that is still is a lot of money, and the tax payers deserve that every dollar of their money is spent judiciously.
A corporation writing that off is not an apt comparison because being a shareholder is a voluntarily taken risk position. You can’t opt out of paying tax.
Yes, it is, taxation is a mean of income redistribution!
But I find your example flawed for the purpose of this discussion. More apt would be to say that the coffee clerk (through his taxes) have to help reimburse the Chinese post office when Bezos orders a package from Aliexpress.
But note, I didn’t say income redistribution is always bad! You seem to assume that you are arguing with some tea-party republican with a MAGA cap. But I am not, not even american.
But income distribution through UPU is incredible opaque. If we are going to pay foreign aid, I think we tax payers at a minimum deserve to know exactly how much we are paying and to whom!
>How do you propose we handle international mail with people directly accountable to voters?
I don’t suggest that. What I am saying is that they since they are not directly accountable to the tax payers, the people that are (eg US president) have to hold them accountable. Also they better stick to their scope or they will lose public support.
I doubt the US will leave UPU in the end, but this will be a huge wake up call for the other member countries.
> miserly to demand that poor people pay as much as we do
But no one is upset with US or France paying more than Zimbabwe. They are upset mostly with Chinas classification, which doesn’t match its new economic powers.
Whether US president should be involved in a $300 million decision I don’t know, but that is still is a lot of money, and the tax payers deserve that every dollar of their money is spent judiciously. A corporation writing that off is not an apt comparison because being a shareholder is a voluntarily taken risk position. You can’t opt out of paying tax.