Let Them Collect

I do not think that compensation caps for executives of companies accepting federal largesse are worth the trouble.  Set aside that they would either come too late (and so not apply to plenty of high payers) or would be retroactive (raising litigation risks).  It seems to me that they will be hard to monitor or enforce, and those costs are not worth incurring.  It also seems to me we would be better off putting into place -- rather, returning to law -- a more seriously progressive taxation system.  Make $14 or $50 million, but tax income at genuinely progressive rates, e.g., marginal rate of 70% of income about $5 million (or some such).  Short memories at work -- that ws the state of the world during the long growth of the fifties and sixties and seventies.  It was in the eighties that progessive tax lost its place.  So be conservative, revive the pre-Carter tax structure.

Comments

[Stephen]

No, the caps make sense. It's really quite simple: if you want to get the federal revenue, the taxpayer's money, to bail out your business, then you must comply with the rules. Just as with poor people's welfare, when the recipients must report changes, spend only on certain items (food stamps), etc., the big shots of business must do the same with this. In short, beggars can't be choosers. There's no need or rationale for litigation; comply with the rules, toe the line, or you don't get the money. It's all very simple and logical.

In fact, the requirements need to go further. I say that the funds should be disbursed, monitored, and controlled by hiring people to do this, who have been laid off, fired, or "outsourced" by these corporations. The big shots got to draw the line on the map, now let the workers and displacees get first pick.

[Tiberius Gracchus]

I was not quite clear enough. I do not mean tax just the executives at companies taking federal funds, I meant change to a progressive tax for everyone. Everyone making millions should be paying much higher percentages of their incomes.