> tax would be effectively based on payment volume, rather than profit
Playing SimCity as a young kid taught me that raising taxes too much means people and businesses leave. Maybe the SF lawmakers did not play SimCity growing up.
> Playing SimCity as a young kid taught me that raising taxes too much means people and businesses leave. Maybe the SF lawmakers did not play SimCity growing up.
That may be so, but SimCity didn't teach you about the real world, it taught you about SimCity. The simplified worlds of simulations often have ideological assumptions baked in, either deliberately or inadvertently.
SimCity definitely reflects the values of its creators. After being brainwashed by SimCity as a kid it took me a while to realize that things like for example zoning are not some law of nature governing how cities are organized and the real world is infinitely more varied.
> How do you explain the influx of businesses to places like Austin? It has nothing to do with taxes?
Dude, SimCity isn't the real world, and cherry-picking some correspondence doesn't change that. Even a stopped clock will sometimes give you the right time.
It's not because you use simple models for reality that the models are wrong. They may be wrong in extreme circumstances but still generally true - like all models.
It completely ignores that tax rates do not exist in a void. Rather, states are in tax competition against each other, so it's not about absolute tax rates but relative tax rates.
If you say to residents, ‘tax the rich’ without providing much background, of course you’ll get their vote. Legislators are responsible for making the messaging clear and fair.
> Maybe governance simulation can be worked into some standardized test for basic competence for lawmakers. Or is that not democratic?
It would be profoundly anti-democratic. Just, as a thought experiment, imagine if the game was "Socialist Utopia: Central Planning Works." A requirement like you propose would amount to a program of ideological indoctrination, either deliberate or inadvertent.
Playing SimCity as a young kid taught me that raising taxes too much means people and businesses leave. Maybe the SF lawmakers did not play SimCity growing up.