The rich economics behind the "handsome guy tax"

　　The crooked idea of the "handsome tax"

　　The famous Japanese economist Takuro Morinaga proposed that a "handsome man tax" should be levied on handsome men. According to his vision, the personal income tax of "handsome guys" should be doubled from the current level, while the personal income tax of men who do not look good should be reduced by an appropriate amount of one to two percent.

　　As for why handsome guys should be taxed, Morinaga's explanation is that in the process of choosing a mate, the man's appearance is the most important influencing factor, followed by financial resources and negotiation skills. Therefore, handsome men have a greater advantage in the process of love, and taxing them may provide some convenience for those average-looking, even ugly-looking men, in order to solve the marriage problems of "ugly men".

　　However, if we pay attention to the conditions for choosing a mate in Japan, we will find that this is just wishful thinking by Professor Morinaga. Japanese women's criteria for choosing a mate are "three high men", that is, "high education, high income, and high stature". These three conditions seem to be requirements for education, income level, and physical appearance, but in fact they can be combined. Generally speaking, people's education and income are directly proportional, and the higher the education, the more likely it is to obtain a higher income; According to the American Journal of Psychology, for every 3.3 cm taller, the annual salary will increase by $789, that is, the average annual salary of a man with a height of one meter eight is about $2400 higher than that of a man who is one meter seven!

　　It is not difficult to see that in the criteria for choosing a mate for Japanese women, appearance is not a necessary condition at all, and certainly cannot be the most important condition, on the contrary, the man's financial strength plays a decisive role, so taxing on the grounds that "handsome guys will take away the opportunity for ordinary looking men to choose a mate" is completely unconvincing.

　　In contrast, beautiful women have a greater chance of choosing a mate to take away an ordinary looking woman. If we look at today's entertainment industry, it is easy to find that many beautiful stars end up marrying bald middle-aged business tycoons; And most rich and powerful men, whether they are wives raised at home or red apricots raised outside, are all beautiful people with good looks and figures. It's like letting a beautiful woman choose a handsome migrant worker and a middle-aged billionaire who goes to the city to work in the countryside as a husband, and the possibility of the handsome guy being selected is minimal; But let a rich man choose between a mediocre-looking female doctor and a beautiful village girl, and the village girl has a much better chance of winning.

　　If this is the case, it makes sense to impose a "beauty tax" on "beautiful women", but economists have never made a similar proposal. In fact, this is the result of the inheritance system.

　　Competition mechanism under the Japanese succession system

　　Generally speaking, even if a rich man marries a beautiful woman, his family property must still be passed on to his children, and the beautiful woman can only enjoy a luxurious life and cannot obtain the ownership of property, so there is no need to impose a "beauty tax". And in Japan, the value of a handsome guy is much greater than that of a beautiful woman - it is possible for him to inherit the property of a rich man!

　　It turns out that most Japanese companies practice the "single-child inheritance system", that is, no matter how many young children there are in the family, only one of the family inherits the family business, and the rest of the members do not enjoy the right of inheritance, and if you want to enjoy wealth, you can only work hard yourself.

　　Some people say, what is so strange about this inheritance system? China's primogeniture inheritance system passed down since ancient times is similar to theirs! If you think so, you're dead wrong. Although the ancient Chinese "primogeniture system" and the Japanese "single-child inheritance system" are somewhat similar in form, their essence is very different.

　　For the "primogeniture system", as long as the eldest son is not mentally handicapped, disabled or seriously ill, he can become the first heir, and the child's own ability is not an important criterion. In this way, the heirs of the family business have uneven abilities, and most of the eldest sons have become "sons and daughters" because they have been favored by their parents since childhood, and they will only spend money and will not make money.

　　Japan's "single-child inheritance system" is more like a competitive selection mechanism. Some large family businesses not only encourage competition between the younger generations within the family, but also add new blood to the family by adopting adopted children and recruiting sons-in-law if the current head of the family believes that there is no suitable heir in the younger generation within the family. In this way, under the premise of "total ownership" that guarantees no division of property, elites who are not related by blood also have the opportunity to become heirs of non-family businesses.

　　Handsome guy jumps over the dragon gate

　　From this point of view, if you can become a "son-in-law", you will suddenly "carp leap over the dragon gate" and "pheasant becomes a phoenix"! But it's not so easy to be a "door-to-door son-in-law", just think, if you let you leave your years of hard work to a stranger who is not related by blood, can you make decisions casually?

　　Generally speaking, the "sons-in-law" of large families are the best young people in the enterprise, and after the family head is "liked", he will first marry one of his daughters to him, and then adopt her as an "adopted son" a year later, so that he can change his surname and become the real next generation heir.

　　Although appearance is not one of the explicit criteria for choosing a son-in-law for a large family, being handsome will obviously add a lot of points to the candidate. How can a great young talent in a large company stand out, beat others, and become the ultimate winner? If one of the competitors is very handsome, his success rate will be greatly increased. Moreover, as the head of a large enterprise, you must need to communicate with people on various occasions, and if the head of the enterprise is not good-looking, it is easy to have a direct impact on the corporate image. Therefore, handsome looks are likely to increase a person's chances of gaining a lot of wealth, so it is not difficult to understand that Japanese economists recommend a "handsome tax".

　　However, even if the proposal of the "handsome tax" is passed, whether it can be successfully collected is also a big problem, people's aesthetics are different, and it is impossible to set a standard for what is handsome. It can be seen that the "handsome guy tax" is at best just an "interesting proposal".