People believe a lot of different things for a lot of different reasons. So I generally think a wide berth should be given to various beliefs.
If you get together with your neighbors and talk about how to be a better person, or dance or sing or pray.
- Great! I envy you.
If you want to tell other people to join your club because you're right and the others are wrong.
- No thanks; you should be taxed and shunned.
This ideology was and is very successful as a meme or set of memes. It has 1+ billion adherents!
Yet it seems outdated. If everyone fucked without birth control we would exceed the carrying capacity of the Earth within 10 or so years.
Sadly, modern Catholics are almost in a death cult. Long ago this was a successful meme because there was lots of space to move into. But now people cover the planet.
This is probably why Elon Musk sounds like an asshole. He is Catholic in his desire to procreate. His ideology can only be supported if we expand - e.g. by colonizing Mars.
Because income is distributed in a power law, marginal tax rates should also be distributed in a power law.
Here is an example plan: Earn less than $20,000/year, you don't pay income tax. From 20,001 to 100,000 - you pay a 5% marginal rate; from 100,001 to 1,000,000 - 40%; from 1,000,001 to 10,000,000 - 50%; from 10,000,001 to 100,000,000 - 70%; over 100,000,001 - 85%.
Additionally having a savings amount bumps you up this way: from 1M - 10M increase income by 10k above 10M - +20 on income
The approach above seems like a perfectly reasonable starting point to me. 40 or 85% may seem high, but those are marginal rates. I make $190K and my income tax wouldn't change much - about 30%. If you know of a mathematical reason to tweak the rates, I'm interested to hear it. (Aside: If you don't agree on having an income tax or using a power law for marginal rates, please do not contact me.)
In 'On Taxes' I didn't mention a state or country that should create such a tax system. I meant that generally; it is a proposal that matches my ethics.
In the actual world, governments set taxes. If you think about implementing this tax policy, there is a good reason to calibrate the actual bands and rates with the other governments around the world. This requires policy expertise that I don't have. The reason is simple, if the taxes are high compared to similar other countries, people with the means to travel will simply leave. Great way to become poor. Don't do that. That said, I believe minor increases in the tax rate won't push many people out of the USA for example. We have reasonably high tax rates already and a pretty good safety net. People are not leaving, they are trying to come in.
In the US we have increasing rates at the low end of the income spectrum, with rates dropping off for the very wealthy. We could use such a power law of tax rates to fix the inverted U-shaped curve we currently have. In my opinion, this additional income should be used to reduce the deficit and provide poor children with better living standards.
Vote your conscience. Remember people can lie to you. People with money on the line find it easier to lie.
Parties are clubs to weild power. In the USA there are 2 large parties. They are both so large that they can spread the cost of lying across many people with mass media. (Aside: This fact applies to businesses and people as well. If they control media and you aren't paying them for what you consume, they are probably lying to you for money :)
Advertising is a business that converts money into beliefs. It is funny because advertizers don't always know in advance what the belief outcome will be. But they usually do.