It is complicated to account for inflation, and there would certainly be a lot of debates about the details, but I think we should do it anyway. It's ridiculou

It is complicated to account for inflation, and there would certainly be a lot of debates about the details, but I think we should do it anyway. It's ridiculous that in a low-inflation environment such as the one we've been in for several years, capital gains are still taxed at a much lower rate than income. In a normal- or high-inflation environment, we should do our best to estimate the real gain, and tax that at the income rate. But personally, instead of increasing the capital gains tax to match the income tax rate, I'd rather see us lower the income tax to be closer to the capital gains rate, and make up the difference with a federal VAT. Taxing consumption just makes more sense than taxing income.