Useless Comparisons
2026 06 22
These two issues have little in common except their uselessness
Apparently Jeff Bezos is of the Twitter opinion that the US tax system is more progressive than “Europe’s.” Now why anyone should pay special attention to what Bezos thinks about taxation – he is just a good businessman, not an economist, after all -- is pretty odd. Yet Gabriel_Zucman and Justin Wolfers thought it was worthwhile to reply (and on Twitter no less!). The idea of comparing any aspect to US vs European tax systems in 144-character bites is ludicrous. A Tweet or two is, however, sufficient to point out that Bezos was using an extremely limited concept of “Income” an of “tax” leaving the FICA tax on wages out of total taxes and the increase in net wealth out of total income.[1]
But suppose we decided to burn enough tokens to produce per capita tax distributions for both entities (Does it even make sense to aggregate “Europe?), we woud be left with a great “so what?” The US is richer on average than Europe and we have a huge gap between deficit and public investments whose finance with borrowing is justified. Maybe we should have a more progressive system, (if we do). Who is supposed to do what if Bezos is wrong? Repeal the Once Budget Bashing Bill and replace it with a progressive consumption tax? We shoud do that anyway!
Useless discussion. Sorry.
What about the comparison of heat deaths and gun deaths in the US and Europe. https://www.reddit.com/r/charts/comments/1ucejpp/european_heat_deaths_vs_us_gun_deaths_20152025/?utm_source=chatgpt.com?
Ignore the problems of defining what IS a “heat” death and a “gun” death. Why the cross-cause comparison? Does it not make more sense to compare heat deaths US vs Europe (with the same caveat abut aggregating “Europe.”) and gun deaths US v Europe?
But again, we left with a “So What?” Death is a pretty serious matter and it’s not unreasonable to think that the number of European heat death and the number of US gun deaths are grater than optimal. But knowing that does not suggest “who should do what” in either jurisdiction to reduce the numbers of each kind of death. Should people in US/Europe shrug and say, “Well, at least we have fewer heat/gun deaths than they have gun/heat deaths?”
Again. Useless!
Image Two people, each pouring water into a bucket {two buckets} with a hole in the bottom.
Although my style is know-it-all-ism, I know that I can be mistaken and am prone to overstate my points. Also, there is an amazing range of views and experiences among readers. Bring those to bear by commenting on these posts. Both other readers and I will benefit.]
[1] Some folks think FICA is not a “tax” but a contribution to a retirement plan. It just isn’t. [https://thomaslhutcheson.substack.com/p/social-security-is-not-a-savings] FICA taxes (which also go to pay for Medicare) would not be “contributions” even if they fully financed the social insurance system.
Why are those buckest levitating? :)
typo: "grater than optimal"