Yes, Let’s Take Away Billionaires’ Amusements
August 20, 2012 6 Comments
Matthew Yglesias says that the fact that a billionaire is spending his money on something that Matthew Yglesias thinks isn’t worthwhile demonstrates ‘why progressive taxation is important’:
As people get richer and richer, it gets harder and harder to think of cost-effective ways of spending the marginal dollar on amusing yourself.
I’ll try to remember this argument the next time I ponder George Soros, who has spent millions of his money on (IMHO) dumb things that apparently amuse him and that he (wrongly) thinks are worthwhile, such as the Center for American Progress, which runs that blog ThinkProgress, which actually gainfully employed Matthew Yglesias for many years. You know, to ‘blog’. Exhibit A that there are lots of billionaires out there wasting their money on truly dumb things and that this must be stopped.
RELATED: Soros buys part of a soccer team. Those billionaires and their stupid amusements!
yes, but you’re forgetting that by giving Yggie money, he (Yggie) spends it, thereby keeping countless others (some in America itself, others perhaps in China) in gainful employment, earning money they in turn spend. However frivolous a pursuit it seems to you, every $ spent on something creates beneficial economic activity. Yglesias probably knows more about it than I do or than you can possibly fathom.
True. Yes it’s bad that billionaires waste money but I also forgot that (simultaneously) maximizing the amount of money people spend is a good thing. My bad.
So it doesn’t matter (especially not to Yglesias) what they spend it on, right? It’s all good then (one less thing for Yggie to worry about), there isn’t even a ‘good thing’ or a ‘bad thing’ to spend things on, though it perhaps is particularly good if they spend it on him, enabling him to do his bit for generating economic activity world wide. I hope soon he’ll condemn them for not spending enough, since just keeping money is like throwing it away.
It doesn’t matter what they spend it on when you need to make an argument for ‘stimulus’ and ‘The Multiplier’, but at the same time it DOES matter when you need to make an argument for progressive taxation. Didn’t you read Yggie’s post?
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I agree. Right and left, doesn’t matter. Tax ‘em all.