I'd also like to point out that we already have a wealth tax for everyone who would otherwise put their income taxes into savings. The lower the savings rate, t

I'd also like to point out that we already have a wealth tax for everyone who would otherwise put their income taxes into savings. The lower the savings rate, the higher the effective wealth tax rate on the middle class. Assuming an absurdly high 25% savings rate on your pre-tax income and a 25% tax rate on that income, boom, there's your 50% wealth tax. So the 45% wealth loss over 60 years in PG's toy example that ignores asset growth sounds totally fair to me in this light. And with this "absurd" wealth tax on the middle class, why do we still have educated people from all over the world pounding at the door to get into the US? I would posit that it's for the same reasons that a wealth tax wouldn't suppress startups in this country.