Reflection on The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay by Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman

               This is a very interesting book about new tax ideas that would raise public income and try to fight inequality that has emerged in the economy of the United States since the 1970s. I really liked it but I’m not too motivated to write long posts lately. I am fighting through over a thousand pages of the last Winston Churchill book and it’s tough. I’m just gonna put some interesting facts below. One interesting thing though that I learned about is “economic substance doctrine,” which is a legal concept that makes “illegal any transaction that has no other purpose than a reduction of tax liability.” I think that is a really important and good idea that should be forcefully applied.

Miscellaneous Facts:

• 20% of shares of US corporations are owned by foreigners.
• Every income group in the USA funnels between 25 and 30 percent of their income into tax coffers except for the ultra-wealthy, who pay 20%.
• Massachusetts implemented a property tax in 1640.
• Apparently economists used to believe that the shares of national income that came from capital and labor were a constant 25 and 75 percent. However, from 1980 to 2018, they have changed to 30 and 70 percent.
• Today about 60% pf profits made by US multinational companies are booked in low-tax countries like Ireland and Bermuda.