I might have been ticking off my bothers liberatis lately, but the truth is I keep sliding left. I’m not a full-blown lefty snowflake, yet the cracks in the current economic model, aka
After reading (and re-reading) Technofeudalism, I found the final stretch to be somewhat underwhelming. I want more options, and I don’t believe that the world will magically change for the better, especially when “change” means shaving off fortunes from people who have been investing selfishly over the decades.
A (slightly) less painful road for most
The only path I see today is a top-down, government-level (or multi-government-level) mindset flip. The European Union, time and again, tiptoes that way far more elegantly than the United States could ever dream, because the so called “land of the free” sells freedom like a used-car dealer, right?
So what’s my crappy proposal being sold here?
Taxes. The snag lies in that taxes on companies and individuals always seem to boomerang back as higher costs for ordinary folks. My goal is to build a tool that juices the state at the expense of those who claim they already “created value”. And please take the “juiced state” with its idea of the state being able to return back with free healthcare, transportation, education, housing.
But this is the next utopian step, first the state needs money!
Zero tax for the broke
Picture a country where the minimum wage is UKN 100 a week. Wondering what UKN is? Made-up currency, sit tight.
Say our citizen burns UKN 85 weekly on basics (rent included). In a year they pocket UKN 5.200 (52 weeks). How much tax should they pay? Nada, zip, zilch, ない. The state doesn’t get a penny from this tiny human.
They only start paying once annual income hits UKN 15.000, using this ladder:
| Tax rate | Annual income |
|---|---|
| 0% | < 15.000 |
| 1% | ~ 30.000 |
| 2% | ~ 60.000 |
| 5% | ~ 120.000 |
| 10% | ~ 240.000 |
| 15% | ~ 580.000 |
| 30% | ~ 1.160.000 |
| 60% | ~ 2.320.000 |
| 80% | > 3.640.000 |
“Okay, cool numbers, but how do you even calculate that? And why is it fair that high earners end up with less take-home?” Hold my beer, I’ll explain!
If 100 a week (or 400 a month) is minimum wage, those 400 cover rent, food, healthcare, utilities, etc. We’ll break that down with real-world price tags, when possible.
Meet Satoshi Nakamoto
Never heard of him? Time to meet the guy who unleashed a disruptive tech, sadly used, IMHO, for the wrong ends. Hope this post doesn’t repeat that fate.
Satoshi is a productive member of society, hustling in a field swarming with “disruptive” tech. He dreams of buying a home from his craft of coding software. Right now he is living solo in a downtown studio, quite rough. Remember, weekly minimum wage of 100 (monthly 400). Satoshi has just moved to Berlin, family-less, living on that alone. Tough gig, but maybe doable.
A quick search shows a flat outside the center at EUR 900. Minimum wage in Germany is ≈ EUR 2.800, so rent sucks up one-third. In UKN-land, 1/3 of 400, something like 133, round up to 150. 20m2 is tight, but Satoshi grinds on. Luckily, he pays zero tax, so every coin lands in his account.
Enter the bills & invoices combo, the Nebenkosten Satoshi says, electric, heat, water, trash for 20m2 run about EUR 120 (far less than EUR 300 for an 85m2 pad). Magic-rate converts that to UKN 17, rounded to 20 for a Berlin winter straight out of Game of Thrones.
Food (groceries + a small döner + 3am snacks) hovers around EUR 250, or UKN 40 a month (I’m still using the quick search for this). If our hero goes full organic-tofu-oat-latte, it can hit EUR 300, but we’ll keep the pleb-fitness diet at UKN 40.
To move around, he’s got options. The Deutschlandticket costs EUR 49 (≈ UKN 7). The BVG AB pass runs EUR 29–81, split the difference at EUR 70 (≈ UKN 10) for unlimited monthly rides. (If Berlin jacks up prices, multiply by 0.15 and update your sheet).
Survival kit: Rent 150 + Utilities 20 + Food 40 + Transport 10 = UKN 220. That leaves UKN 180 of his 400 for internet (~ 10), phone (~ 5), mandatory health insurance (~ 35), and a few craft beers. That bumps total expenses to roughly 270 out of 400, not 100% realistic, but it gives us a baseline.
Again, no princely life, but proof that the 0% up to 15.000 bracket matters.
A few years later…
Satoshi gets bumped to mid-level dev, raking in UKN 19.000/year (~1.600/month). Four times the minimum! Now he can share a nicer flat with his partner, plan a wedding, maybe eye a mortgage, dream stuff.
“What about tax? Does 1% over 15.000 shaft him compared with someone on 14.000?” Nope. Tax hits only the chunk above 15.000, meaning 11 tax-free months, in the 12th, he pays 1% on the surplus. Deductions come after that nibble.
Taxing big money
Who funds the rest? Those who can, oligarchs, ultra-rich, CEOs who paid millions to lay off folks like Satoshi (tighten that belt, buddy). Meanwhile, they waltz off with obscene bonuses.
Let’s pick a random rich guy, Bobby destroyer of games Kotick. When he was
Hence my pitch, slap up to 80% on any income, direct or indirect, of the mega-rich. One swing like that funds 600 years for a single Satoshi or 7.500 Satoshis for a single month, all courtesy of one dude who nuked the game industry.
Companies? Forget accounting voodoo, 5% flat on gross revenue. If a firm pulls 10.000 and burns 12.000 to run, it still owes UKN 500 to the local government. Maybe rethink that biz plan. And bumping my
Keep in mind that this 5% can’t be dodged, just as ordinary people can’t avoid paying taxes. So no “governmental help” or similar loopholes to shave that 5% off total revenue. This will force companies to return the gross to their countries. Imagine how much a country like the Philippines or Vietnam would benefit from such an action, recouping the cost of low-wage labour for thousands.
Rich-versus-poor ratio
So the rich will stash cash elsewhere, parking it inside the company is cheapest (and least painful), in the face of whatever shady tricks these clowns play on regular people.
Stashing wealth in private jets, yachts, or other consumer toys to dodge income tax is pointless. Nobody needs four yachts to stay alive, one is already ludicrous.
Leave the money inside the firm? Since any withdrawal gets a +50% smack, yes. The 5% revenue tax is peanuts. But cash can’t just idle, firms aren’t banks, so it has to circulate. The least-worst fix in a capitalist world choking on a model that’s been
How much do we charge?
Let’s strip it down. Poor is roughly one minimum wage per month. Rich is ten times that. Not super-rich, but way above the floor. According to the World Inequality Database, only 8–10% hit the “10x minimum” mark—roughly one in ten people.
Heads-up, I’m only slicing rich vs. poor, middle class floats in-between.
| Tier | Share of people | Yearly income (in minimum wages) |
|---|---|---|
| Rich | 1 / 10 | ≥ 120 minimum wages/year |
| Middle | 7 / 10 | 12–120 minimum wages/year |
| Poor | 2 / 10 | ≤ 12 minimum wages/year |
Those rich folks could bankroll lifting the poor out of poverty, while the middle muddles through, paying its modest share and dodging super-rich costs. Roughly 70% of workers earn above one minimum per year yet still fall below the 80% bracket.
What does that mean for the tax table?
Basically, 20% of workers never pay tax. When they do, it’s on bonuses or one-off prizes. A light nibble for the middle class, about 5%, hits the other 70% of the workforce, mirroring the firm tax. Funny, right? It almost feels like I actually have done some research on the topic.
A nice bite from the rich, around 10%, and a massive chomp out of the top 1% hoarding real wealth, the Bobbys suckling the industry. An even bigger chomp for the ultra-rich, carve a hefty chunk off those butts and funnel real value back to society. A few mega-rich paying for thousands of mere mortals.
And how much money?
Let’s assume our made-up currency serves a made-up country of 1.000.000 people, a fairly big place, I’d say. Using the same population splits as before, we get roughly the following head-counts:
| Tier | Amount | Yearly income (minimum wages) | Tax collected per head | Tax collected total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poor | 200,000 | ≤ 12 | ≈ UKN 0 each | UKN 0 |
| Middle | 700,000 | 13 – 120 | ≈ UKN 100 each | UKN 70,000,000 |
| Rich | 90,000 | 121 – 240 | ≈ UKN 500 each | UKN 45,000,000 |
| Super-Rich | 9,000 | 241 – 600 | ≈ UKN 280,000 each | UKN 2,520,000,000 |
| Ultra-Rich | 1,000 | ≥ 601 | ≈ UKN 2,100,000 each | UKN 2,100,000,000 |
With just 1% of the population (the super and ultra-rich) covering almost 90% of the UKN 4.7 billion haul, the table shows why each higher tier shoulders a radically larger slice, the levy only bites on surplus, so modest earners keep nearly everything while the wealth hoarders finally return a chunk to the society they’ve exploited.
I know that “ultra-rich” feels like Dragon Ball with its Ultra Instinct, but please keep your focus on the numbers… Oh no. I should’ve added a half-screen of some random gameplay to keep you engaged.
Sadly the reality of the world isn’t going into a nice place, another couple of quicky online search and I’ll keep using Germany knowing that this distribution is better than a huge load of places, in special compared to United States, which this split is far worse than the average develped world. (Yup, I’m calling United Stated underdevelop world in this sense).
According to Germany’s Federal Statistical Office, roughly 20% of residents were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2022. Around 70% clustered in a broad middle-income band between that poverty line and Germany’s top decile. Entry to the richest 10% starts at about EUR 3.700 net a month (≈ EUR 70.000 gross a year), while the top 1% earn EUR 250.000+, and the ultra-rich 0.1% pass the EUR 1 million-a-year mark.
I’ll use a similar scale (i.e., reducing the population to 1 million) and average tax-collection figures from official data, rounded for clarity):
| Tier | Amount | Yearly income (EUR) | Tax per head (EUR) | Total tax (EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poor | 200,000 | ≤ 12,000 | 0 | 0 |
| Middle | 700,000 | 12,000 – 45,000 | ≈ 2,500 | ≈ 1,700,000,000 |
| Rich | 90,000 | 45,000 – 250,000 | ≈ 30,000 | ≈ 2,800,000,000 |
| Super-Rich | 9,000 | 250,000 – 1,000,000 | ≈ 220,000 | ≈ 2,000,000,000 |
| Ultra-Rich | 1,000 | ≥ 1,000,000 | ≈ 600,000 | ≈ 700,000,000 |
It’s not the same currency, I know, but what matters is the distribution, not the absolute values. As you can see, the ultra-rich lie well outside the scope, they consume society yet barely return value. Even paying nearly three times the super-rich’s tax, they remain a minor contributor overall.
The middle and rich tiers pay for most of the country’s infrastructure, despite having little decision-making power. And remember, this still looks far better than the United States distribution.
Does this solution work?
Of course not. The folks who could pass this type of law would be first on the chopping block. But as a mental sandbox, it’s delicious to picture a world where the gap between the super-rich and us regular schmucks (me, you, and Satoshi) finally shrinks.
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