Posts tagged “Economy”

Pay your goddamn taxes

Republicans have made it so the IRS can’t collect taxes properly, especially from the wealthy, increasing exploitation and further eroding trust in government. I want Congress to properly fund the IRS and instruct it to make sure wealthy individuals and corporations are paying their fair share. The government’s ability to collect taxes and to do […]

Patents can be beneficial, but are often harmful

One obvious problem [of patents] is that patents, by definition, create monopolies, which impose costs on the rest of society. For example, the patentee could use its technological monopoly to exploit the consumers… But it is not just the problem of income distribution between the patentee and the consumers. Monopoly also creates net social loss […]

Doing state-owned enterprises right

Enterprises in industries that are natural monopolies, industries that involve large investment and high risk and enterprises that provide essential services should be kept as SOEs [state-owned enterprises], unless the government has very high tax-raising and/or regulatory capabilities. … Privatizing politically important enterprises on the basis of dispersed share sales is unlikely to resolve the […]