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"It might require the extreme measure of taxing so much you take wealth from the rich to fund whatever recovery measures you are taking." Punishing capitalists
by charlesdm 9y ago
"It might require the extreme measure of taxing so much you take wealth from the rich to fund whatever recovery measures you are taking."
Punishing capitalists for creating wealth is just stupid. Let's say you live in country X, and country X does this. Generally there are sufficient ways for wealthy people to avoid being taxed at 102%.
However, in the case where they would in fact have to pay such ridiculous tax rates, they would either: 1) stop working and investing and just live off of their capital, to be exempt from the tax (not great for the local economy + because what's the point / why would I risk my money?); or 2) leave (even worse).
Personally I'm not a believer in that wealthy people will easily relocate when taxes are raised, but in this case, I do believe they would. There's a certain cutoff point where it just gets unacceptable and it becomes a no brainer.
- clort 9y agoI think you underestimate the motivation of successful capitalists. None of the self made wealthy people I know would have be able to stop working, they are driven to make money before anything else. Contrast to myself, who certainly knows how to relax I've never made any money at all and the time I lucked into some, I took years off and spent it.
- charlesdm 9y agoI agree they would not. But with a 102% tax rate, the only way for you to make (more) money would be to relocate somewhere else.
- clort 9y agoMaybe in a different society with massively punitive taxation across the board (ie no escape to elsewhere), these people who are driven would be driven to create an organisation that was massive and successful just the same, and their brand would be recognised everywhere but that would be its own goal and the wealth generated would be spread around? I don't know, but its a nice thought..
- charlesdm 9y agoSorry, but that sounds horrible.