Taxation and the middle class

[ijmorlan]

Even ignoring the fairness of it all - do we want to reward potentially-damaging investing and punish productive labour? Because so much of our productivity issues in the economy seem to come from the fact that only land hoarding and rent-seeking has a meaningful return on investment. That should be changed through taxation - which is essentially just government-mandated incentives against anti-social economic activity.

What about productive investing?

For example, building a factory to make things that people want, subject to appropriate regulations that ensure the operation doesn’t defraud humanity by polluting its environment.