This post is also missing so much. It's almost worse than PG's one, which didn't really pretend to be an in-depth analysis. Some starting points: - Taxes are g

This post is also missing so much. It's almost worse than PG's one, which didn't really pretend to be an in-depth analysis. Some starting points: - Taxes are guaranteed, but growth isn't. It also doesn't come for free, it takes work. You can't just say "hey S&P returned 10% last year, I'll assume that for a given". Also wealth is often non-diversifiable - Elon Musk's or Jeff Bezos' wealth are tied to their companies. They could feasibly take a 50% tumble in a year (can't see how but it's totally possible). Of course these two will still be very rich even then, but what about 'minor' millionaires? - People with these levels of wealth already pay, or should pay, high taxes on other things: CGT, VAT, income tax, corporation tax, land / real estate taxes. If they don't, then this is the real problem, you shouldn't fix it by just adding another patch on top of a stack of leaky patches. Already, in all developed economies I know of, a huge chunk of income tax comes from the top earners. - And further to that, taxation isn't simply about maximal resource extraction from a productive population. Tax is a societal commitment to fund things we all care about. It is generally widely understood and accepted that wealthier people pay more, because the poor can't. But when the rhetoric becomes "let's extract as much as we can from the rich, look here's a notebook that shows we can", I'm not surprised people start looking at tax avoidance. As the rich person, you become dissociated from the society - they are only there to shear you, so why should you make an effort to give back? - And it's not inherently wrong to be rich, also. Sure, some people are rich and abuse other people, possibly with some strong ties between one and the other. But the solution isn't a punitive tax. In a way, that makes it worse - makes it feel like you paid your dues and now you're really above the law. - The point of wealth is that it should be productive. So the business of being rich is to have money, have it return an interest higher than inflation (on which you already pay CGT usually), and consuming the excess. It's not enough for the tax to be below average growth rates. Perhaps I should explain, that I write this from (a) outside US where there doesn't seem to be such a toxic inequality in the society (and not simply because of wealth taxes...), and (b) I'm not rich, but hey, I'm working hard to maybe be there one day. I don't want my hard work to then turn around on someone's misguided notebook.