From the FT this morning:
US president Joe Biden is this week expected to roll out a series of tax increases on the wealthy, including a near-doubling of levies on capital gains and dividends, in order to fund a new education and child care spending package that could top $1.5tn.
Obviously, as those who have any grasp of MMT will know, this is not going to fund the new education and child care spending package - new money printed by the sovereign state will do that.
However, it has never been just or helpful for some people to pay say 40% on all their earning while some pay 40% on some and only 20% on another proportion of it.
To line up taxation on earned and capital produced income is long overdue. It seems that Biden will do this; it is about time we did the same in our country. This will, in itself, help to tackle inequality. It will narrow the gap between the lowest earners and the highest - the dangerous gap that causes an already unequal society to become even more unequal. It will also help to end the vast amount of tax abuse. If you pay the same on both it is easier to spot the abuse.
I can already hear the screaming from those who have closed their minds to all the explanation about MMT over the last years. Some can give a better explanation than I can but they are more and more explaining to those who just don't want to hear. It may be beyond their comprehension or beyond their politics - who knows - but ignoring the truth is not going to improve the country.
The equality between taxation on income earned from work and income earned from capital is long overdue.
