Wealth taxes are a symptom of a broken tax system. If you let someone get to hundreds of billions in net worth and then realize they haven’t been appropriately paying back into the system, it’s already too late. Like the article says they can simply say “no” in a variety of ways, from fighting in court to simply leaving.
> If you let someone get to hundreds of billions in net worth and then realize they haven’t been appropriately paying back into the system
This is to once again mistake net worth for money. Net worth is not real. It is not a good measure of the money someone may be able to realise. They do not have hundreds of billions. There is nothing to tax until they sell some shares.
Yeah, it's all illiquid illusory non-wealth when they have to pay taxes, but when they want to buy a newspaper or social network they suddenly have 40 billion in hand.
Forced liquidation hurts more than the sticker price, but with billionaire taxes, that's a feature, not a bug. They make the most sense as a check on concentrated power rather than a revenue driver.
> Yeah, it's all illiquid illusory non-wealth when they have to pay taxes, but when they want to buy a newspaper or social network they suddenly have 40 billion in hand.
Yes, businesses are allowed to buy and sell things without being taxed on the sales. If you want to change that rule, you are going to change a giant number of things purely to get at the billionaires you've spent the last few years being trained to hate.
> Forced liquidation hurts more than the sticker price, but with billionaire taxes, that's a feature, not a bug. They make the most sense as a check on concentrated power rather than a revenue driver.
It's missing the planetwide jungle for the trees if you think giving politicians the ability to reach into ownership percentages of businesses and deciding how much they want to charge you for owning a business is a check on power.
binlog · · focus · HN ↗
philipallstar · · focus · HN ↗
This is to once again mistake net worth for money. Net worth is not real. It is not a good measure of the money someone may be able to realise. They do not have hundreds of billions. There is nothing to tax until they sell some shares.
blargey · · focus · HN ↗
Forced liquidation hurts more than the sticker price, but with billionaire taxes, that's a feature, not a bug. They make the most sense as a check on concentrated power rather than a revenue driver.
philipallstar · · focus · HN ↗
Yes, businesses are allowed to buy and sell things without being taxed on the sales. If you want to change that rule, you are going to change a giant number of things purely to get at the billionaires you've spent the last few years being trained to hate.
> Forced liquidation hurts more than the sticker price, but with billionaire taxes, that's a feature, not a bug. They make the most sense as a check on concentrated power rather than a revenue driver.
It's missing the planetwide jungle for the trees if you think giving politicians the ability to reach into ownership percentages of businesses and deciding how much they want to charge you for owning a business is a check on power.