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Because millionaires don’t eat a thousand times more food than “thousandaires.” Rich people don’t spend their money in general, they invest it, and then their c
by chongli 7y ago
Because millionaires don’t eat a thousand times more food than “thousandaires.” Rich people don’t spend their money in general, they invest it, and then their children inherit it.
Fine if you want to levy a huge tax on yachts, but very few people who could afford one have the inclination. And from what I gather, those who do want a yacht buy it in Italy, not the US.
If you really want to tax the things rich people buy, then start with a land value tax. Rich people buy huge amounts of real estate. Taxing it at its fair, unimproved value would be ideal [1].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax
- AJ007 7y agoWealthy people also like to buy up large amounts of undeveloped land for conservation purposes. I’m not sure why they don’t just say they are jacking up income & capital gains taxes, and getting rid of tax-free asset transfers to non-profits. I still haven’t seen anyone estimate how much Amazon’s value would drop if Jeff Bezos has to liquidate 6%+ of his Amazon shares every year. Who is even buying those shares? One could claim, well the existing trading volume would support it, but these predicted, yearly fire sales are going to be happening across all asset classes by the ultra wealthy. We may just be switching from paying for current consumption with IOUs (Treasury bonds) to transferring ownership of American assets to foreigners and thus future income.
- objektif 7y agoI don't know why you start buy giving an irrelevant example and then give another that agrees with my point but yeah we can be creative about what type of transactions we want to tax.