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Budwick You don't really have to back up. You have said nothing wrong... but it kinda feels you came out swinging even tough I didn't attack you. If one of your believes feels threatened by what the guy in the movie says (or I say) you can have a diffrent opinion. Just nice if the conversation isn't packed with emotions tough.
I just don't know how the tax system works over there. Bregman (in Davos) was also talking about a general flight of really rich companies that avoid taxes at all costs. So I can't really imagine this phenomena doesn't take place in the US.
The only thing what I have on the US... is that I travelled Georgia for like 5 weeks. I just travelled around in that one state. And on the coastline, there were a lot of nice mansions and there were people with money. Atlanta was also beautifull. But I was more intrested in the other parts, so I kinda travelled around, met my first "redneck" and "hillbilly" (on the border of North-Carolina). Had my conversations. There was this teacher that asked me how things were going in my part of the world, and after that I asked her about how she believed it was going over there. According to her, and her companions... one of the biggest troubles in Atlanta (because the US is a big place) was schooling. Kids couldn't afford schooling, public schools weren't funded enough and were described as marginal. Kids that had qualities could later go to have higher education or university, but the entrance fees were so steep that hey were in depth. I also remember on diffrent locations that lawyers were specifically targetting students with student loans to help them if they had troubles paying them off. Then she asked me what I did for studies... and then she asked me what the entrance fee is over here to get into uniersity. I calculated it (in 2013) to be around 720 US dollar. She and her 4 companions went: "whaaa :o " and then she started talking abouw how good it would be for the people if it was easier to get into higher education. Then she asked me how we could afford it all... and I answered we had a thing called "taxes". The moment the word slipped out of my mouth only the word "socialism" followed, and the conversation was over. So we talked about other stuff. Pretty much the same happened in Athens and in Savannah. There is this incredible fear of the word "taxes" even in areas that are incredibly poor over there. I've seen people work 2 , 3 jobs... most of them in restaurants really little in production. I encountered 3 people that actually worked an assembly line. Guys (mainly guys) work in construction, but in certain areas there was nothing to construct. It was all kind of a culture shock, and again... this isn't something I want to build my arguments on, but the culture shock was pretty severe when it comes to vieuws how to manage the economy in relationship to the people of the nation.
But again, the system we have here creates it's own problems... not saying what we have is great. But most people kinda go to the doctor when they need too, can afford their meds and their kids go to school. During the financial crisis, our poverty problems didn't increase drastically, and most of it was due to our social-safety nets (not socialism, social-democracy). But again, there are problems, and this libertarian view has had it's impact amongst policy makers. But a lot of people out here still are okay with a high tax rate as long as we get something for it in return.
