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December.18.2021 KIP Forum "A Study of Capitalism from the Story of “The Straw Millionaire”: How Money Circulates in Individuals and Society"
Mr. Tetsuro Tada
Profile:After graduating from the University of Tokyo (Faculty of Law) in 2019, he engaged in international relations as a public servant for two years. He is currently dealing with local taxation in Sendai city. He was a member of KIP committee and participated in many study trips while a student. He is still involved in KIP activities as a KIP Alumni.
【Speech and Q&A】
Mr. Tada introduced some of the thoughts that form the basis of capitalism and the current state of society, using the old tale of “The Straw Millionaire” as an example. He broke it down into three parts, the relationship between religion and capitalism, the overall structure of capitalism, and the value of goods defined by supply and demand. Looking back on the history of differences in capital power between countries of the same religion due to differences in interpretation and the flow of changes in the structure of capitalism over time in response to economic conditions, he stated that a new form of capitalism would be formed while correcting the harmful effects of conventional capitalism.
【Group discussion and ground discussion】
We debated whether to agree or disagree with the salary increase taxation, which is the focus of the tax reform for FY2022. The salary increase taxation is to raise the deduction rate from corporate tax according to the efforts of companies to raise salaries and is a measure to realize the virtuous cycle of growth and distribution.
As a result of the debate, most of the group favored the proposal. Still, there were differences in the conditions, saying that the policy should be implemented with a time limit or in states, verifying its validity and effectiveness. The opposing group pointed out the possibility that only a few large companies would be covered by the revised policy and raised the opinion that the difficulty of lowering salaries could produce disadvantages for companies in the long run. Whether to raise salaries had better to be discussed separately from the question of taxation, with some groups agreeing that employment stability was more important than salary increases.
During the grand discussion, there were discussions on the relationship between salary and people's level of happiness and the perception of inequality. Some pointed out that the debate on minimum wage should be separated from salary increase taxation. Finally, Mr. Tada mentioned that it is the foundation of democracy to continually ask questions, have discussions, and read books.
【Presonal Impression】
Tax is common in our daily lives. However, we don’t often have the chance to pay attention to the fact that capitalism, which seems to be unfamiliar to students, partially consists of taxes that directly affect our livelihood. The timing of the change in the tax system is an opportunity to objectively deepen our thoughts about how economic policies will respond to social changes in the past, present, and future. Through this forum, I figured out that some issues could be accurately understood only by macroscopically observing the fundation of capitalism. On the other hand, problems that cannot be solved by tax reform alone became apparent during the discussion. I keenly felt that the education, as Mr. Tada mentioned, would help us think about how to approach these challenges. The KIP Forum is an opportunity to face the difficulty of having an opinion on something we have not experienced before and the difficulty of considering things from different perspectives. This time, junior and senior high school students, university students, and working adults were mixed in a discussion. We could think about the state of society through the interaction with people in front of us.
(Itaru Ota, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Division of Information Science, 1st year of graduate school)