If I’m so smart what is my simple and obvious solution to this global catastrophe? It’s pretty damn hard to put it all on me to solve in one hacker news comment. Sheesh.

Yes, this is known. I just asked you to clarify what it was I said that is so naieve?

I think when the person above suggested eating the rich you literally believed them and you’ve been on a misguided tear ever since. There’s little I can do to help you, but by god I’m glad I tried. Best wishes.

I’m sorry if I got on your nerve with the “worldly and educated” jab, but you were (and have continued to be) quite condescending in your responses.

Have a nice day :)

Backing up a little and answering your next question.

The naivety is that you say “I know vat is regressive but if it’s a low amount…”

Ok.

First thought I had here was:

What a middle class person considers a low amount of tax on a necessity is not the same as what a poor person considers a low amount of tax on a necessity.

At that point - just pondering that, which is only a preliminary consideration, I think - this person, I like them and I care for them but they are a bit naive. I’m not “adversarial” I’m just a bit sorry, thinking, this dude can’t see past their privilege. Fair enough. I make the same mistake multiple times per day. Genuinely.

But then I consider just how extraordinary the gap is, not between low and middle class people but between low+middle class people and “wealthy” people. Low and middle have very different opinions on the impact of 10c on a loaf of bread. But those opinions are utterly insignificant compared to the value a wealthy person places on that same 10c. Logarithmic difference.

There’s so much more to it -/ but yes just saying “vat is regressive but…” is to me a betrayal of a kind of (on the one hand) admirable level of optimism (I genuinely appreciate that) but also a naive/blinkered/privileged eye rolling “here we go again” level of ignorance that is Just. So. Exhausting.

Again - if all things were equal, if people were all starting from the same starting point - then we could “genuinely” engage in simplistic first principles discussions that treat all market participant as frictionless spheres in a vacuum etc — but we’re very far past that point… 10,000 plus years of civilisation beyond that.

Thank you for reading this far. Best wishes.

To answer your point, the thing about prices and taxes is that the price will be basically whatever the market will pay. It is not determined by the cost of service except at the lower end. So a low VAT (compared to no VAT) will come mostly out of the profits and not so much from a price increase.

This is especially true when the current situation is in most places that there is a rather high VAT, so there the lower VAT will actually reduce prices a little bit, but again not by the whole difference because the price of necessities isn’t determined by the cost but by demand.

In any situation however I remain of the opinion that until we get a progressive wealth tax we’ll continue on the same path of increasing inequality that ultimately destroys democracy.

I too am optimistic that markets can work and there are situations where the price will be what the market will pay.

But what I observe is - from the consumer side: a rapid rise of monopolies

From the producer side: an even more rapid rise of monopsonies (this is the sneakier consequence of monopolies that most of us don’t see, but which affects us most)

Those two items damage the premise of free markets

But add this:

From the government pov - these companies are beyond taxation: they can shift profits off shore and or manipulate tax policy such that the playing field is no where near level.