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Pretty much all economists agree that a wealth tax is conceptually better than an income tax for all the reasons you described, but a tax has to be practical to
by Analemma_ 6y ago
Pretty much all economists agree that a wealth tax is conceptually better than an income tax for all the reasons you described, but a tax has to be practical to implement. Wealth taxes would be an endless source of problems: how much is this yacht worth, how much is this painting [which sold on the open market only once, 50 years ago] worth, how much is this opaque financial instrument worth, etc. Wealthy people would be dragging the government into court endlessly to fight tooth and nail over every last valuation. Income taxes are an imperfect proxy for wealth taxes but much easier to implement, so that's what we do.
- ralmidani 6y agoLuxury taxes would alleviate this problem to a large extent. Someone who bought a painting just to hide their wealth would eventually want to sell it (or their heirs would). In the long run, society will get its share of the wealth in most cases.
- therealdrag0 6y agoIs there any analysis on how much wealth of the 0.1% is in physical assets vs stock/equity? When I look at something like this: https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/?fbclid=IwAR2j0gxpeOSt5MGdGIrZLlDGedljNsSI6p1QtO5U5RJybSCoH9oZlwoGEj8 https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/?fbclid=IwAR2j0g... The volumes of wealth in equity is so large it seems like the luxury yachts/mansions might matter less.