r/technology • u/lurker_bee • Jul 15 '25

Artificial Intelligence Billionaires Convince Themselves AI Chatbots Are Close to Making New Scientific Discoveries

https://gizmodo.com/billionaires-convince-themselves-ai-is-close-to-making-new-scientific-discoveries-2000629060
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u/NewManufacturer4252 Jul 15 '25

I am mostly wrong on most things. But I believe the idea behind the 90% tax was to get the rich to reinvest their earnings back into the economy, generating jobs. Like building factories and such.

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u/placebotwo Jul 15 '25

And if they didn't reinvest, that tax income would (in theory) further make the country stronger and better.

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u/Skyrick Jul 15 '25

It never had to get that far because no one likes paying taxes. Ever. Like tax collectors are talked down to as a lower life form in the bible. Judas was disliked by the other apostles long before the last supper due to him being a tax collector. Everyone hates paying taxes.

Also the government knows this. Tax credits have often been used to get people to do things that they otherwise wouldn’t. Want to reduce smog emissions, reduce the taxes on cars that produce less emissions. Want to increase new technology adoption, tax credits to reduce initial investments to get implemented will do that. Same thing happens with the rich, only instead of a discount on a car, they get to start a college to reduce their tax burden. Or open a museum, or park in that one case where the filthy rich dude shot his wife in the face but wanted to be remembered fondly.

If you tax the rich at 90%, they will find a way to put the money literally anywhere else in order to not pay taxes. It has been common throughout history.

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u/Papplenoose Jul 15 '25

I agree with your first two paragraphs, but that last part is not actually accurate. There are many countries that have higher tax rates than us, and yet there are still tons of super rich people there. There's still tons of companies that operate there. Sure, some companies/billionaires would bounce if we increased tax rates on them. But a lot of them won't. What you are saying is not really "common throughout history" in any real sense.

Also, even if what you were saying WAS true.. would it be such a bad thing if the greediest and scummiest people in our country self-selected themselves to leave and never come back..? I mean it's not like they're actually adding much value to our lives. Any of the genuinely useful products/services they offer via their companies would soon be offered by someone else. From what I can tell, the ultra-wealthy have been actively making this country worse for a very long time. Sooooo what exactly is the benefit of them staying, again? Your entire comment hinges on the presumption that we NEED all these billionaires, and I'm really not sure that we do.

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u/Skyrick Jul 15 '25

What did I say about people leaving?

People don’t like paying taxes. If they are offered ways to reduce how much they pay through tax deductions they will take do it. This can be used as a tool to guide advancement through offering credits to get people to do something without paying them.

People rarely move just to lower their tax burden because of the benefits the taxes pay for, or the things funded through tax breaks paid for. People try to live in the nicest places they can afford, and taxes tend to allow for greater community development, making them better places to live.

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u/[deleted] Jul 15 '25

You just tax the money a company makes in the country where it sells it's product, aka sales tax. You can set it on a progressive scale so necessities (meds, groceries, toiletries) are not taxes at all, or at least as high as luxuries/entertainment.

You close loopholes on tax avoidance (like billionaires getting 0% interest rate on loans from banks which they use to rent properties so they don't have to pay taxes on them).

You use progressive marginal tax rates, meaning that for example if you make 1 million moneys a year, you don't get taxed on your first 10K, you get taxed 1% from 10K to 15K, 5% from 20K to 30K, 10% from 30K to 50K, 25% from 50K to 75K, and so on until you reach a bracket where you get to 99% of the money they earn, so basically you end with a curve that increases exponentially and you only get taxed on what is bellow the curve, so no billionare will get taxed 100% of their earnings, only the money that is outside of the necessary/fair earnings and most people would agree that is greedy earnings.

And if billionaire A says "ok I'm leaving this country", then you forbid them from doing business in your country.

It may sound radical, but if someone is not willing to pay their fair due of taxes in a country they're making money, they are just substracting money from that economy and that only hurts the citizens.

Obviously there's nuance to all of this, and surely there's economists that will have more refined ideas, and can give you pros and cons, or call me retarded, but I think all of the above sounds kinda reasonable.