Interesting Links for 08-10-2023

[andrewducker]

1. Did the Good Law Project just kill carried interest?

(tags:law tax UK )

2. Scientists have discovered a sixth basic taste detected by the tongue

(tags:taste )

3. Scottish Public Library Annual Survey 2023

(tags:libraries Scotland survey )

4. Finland has no fee-paying schools - and its pupils perform better than British children

(tags:school Finland business )

Comments

[captainsblog]

I did not know your Masters of the Universe had gotten themselves the same hideous "carried interest" trick that ours have managed to retain. Here, it's a difference between a top earned income rate of 37 percent and the "carried interest" capital gain rate of only 15. That's what we pay on most of our much less mastery-universy annual income.

It is a frequent target for reform- even gagillionaire Warren Buffett would welcome the elimination so his secretary doesn't pay a higher effective tax rate than he does- but every time Democrats come close to it, some fence-sitter gets lobbied into blocking it. Before the crazies took charge of half of Congress last January, Biden proposed eliminating it as part of a "reconciliation" bill that, once a year, can bypass the usual bullshit 60-percent "filibuster" threshold in the Senate. On paper, the Dems had the 51 votes there to do it, but Kristen Sinema of the "I Do Things My Way, Yours If You Donate" party wouldn't go along, and there it remains.

[andrewducker]

It would be lovely if the Dems could get a decent majority for a bit. Sadly not likely with the electoral system.

[anna_wing]

Given the vast differences in educational systems globally (the countries/territories ahead of Finland in their 2018 PISA scores in reading are China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, Estonia and Canada), I'd be very hesitant about trying to identify any specific policy as a solution to the UK's educational issues...

[andrewducker]

Oh yes, I don't think any one thing will fix it all.

But I do think that fee-paying schools are a way for rich parents to avoid having to engage with their local schools, which is unhealthy for the system as a whole.

[anef]

I think you would need to look at how much money per child is spent in each country as one of the other factors. And how much that is worth economically etc.