> If that incredibly wealthy person didn't spend a lot of money and lived well below his means, then why do we care? Because wealth is many different things. T

> If that incredibly wealthy person didn't spend a lot of money and lived well below his means, then why do we care? Because wealth is many different things. Too the poor, wealth is food. This can be increased, within reasonable limits. Too the middle class, wealth is access to inherently limited resources, like properties with a non-atrocious commute. Too the rich, wealth is power and that, by nature, happens at the expense of others. Capital accretion is power accretion, even more so when the rich lives like a monk. And the power you give one person is freedom you take from another. Once they have used their power to own all nice spots of land and use the food to run their boats and jets on "green" fuel, it turns out that all the supposed wealth you have given the lower classes was just money. Taxing capital suddenly looks dead easy when you compare it to taxing power.