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Joined 3 months ago
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Cake day: August 27th, 2024

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  • One quote that really stuck with me is from the YouTuber “Practical Engineering”

    He was talking about how we often call road construction workers lazy for standing around, while one person is doing the work.

    At one point he says something to the effect of “Next time you’re working, pay attention to the actual amount of time you spend actively doing things, you might be surprised to realize it’s not that much. It’s just natural to need time to break and think to do your job properly - the only difference between them and you is your work activity isn’t publicly visible”

    Similarly I take the stance it’s none of my business what people do at work as long as it doesn’t interfere with me. Results are what matter, and even then that’s between them and their boss.

    I’ve lost count of the times I’ve watched apparent slackers achieve great accomplishments (and not because they got someone else to do their work). Conversely those who complain about the amount of work they are putting in often turn out to be unproductive (sometimes covering up their laziness with that narrative, or just doing their job really inefficiently).

    Another thing I noticed in school is when you’re in an exam, take a look around - you will notice nearly everyone is just sitting staring and doing nothing. You haven’t entered the twilight zone, they’re just thinking, you don’t notice when you do it because you’re too busy…thinking!!








  • Fair question, honestly I think it’s ‘hacky’ and there are cleaner approaches. Regulating unrealized gains stands to cause a headache and costs for those navigating an already very complicated tax system.

    To work the implementation would require everyone’s assets to be monitored and reported - extra work for tax software, brokers and taxpayers. Plus the development costs to comply with these regulations will be passed onto taxpayers and investors. Yes additional taxes would be recovered but are a drop in the bucket on the scale of the US economy.

    To a lesser extent it also discourages regular folk from financial planning since it creates a public perception of “why should I own stock if it’s all going to be taxed anyway?” further concentrating influence on institutional and super wealthy investors.

    While I’m still undecided on it, the solution others have proposed of regulating borrowing against collateral seems fairer as it puts the onus on the borrower to carry the admin overhead - regular investors remain unaffected.

    Now my hot take - I think this is all a distraction from the real problem with the tax system Step up in Basis. If it wasn’t for step up in basis the gains would at least be taxed on the investor’s death anyway, but right now those who inherit stock get to permanently avoid the taxes on the gains that occurred during the original owner’s lifetime (up to a certain limit). I suspect the politicians responsible for passing such legislation would be too directly affected to address that one.