Economics

Rich People Used To Pay All The Taxes

Listen to the second half of the first segment -- Michael Hudson from U of Missouri, part of Harper's "How to Save Capitalism" article, relays an important perspective on how, when the US was at its most productive, the non-productive real estate and financial sectors used to pay all the taxes, and now they pay very little. Wealth has shifted taxes from itself onto labor and industry, and shifted the center of the economy from production to finance. The rise in real estate value, for example, doesn't make your house better to live in, it just means that more of your income goes to rent or the bank.