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I think removing the capital gains tax is a horrible idea. Firstly, there are 2 types of capital gains. Short term gains are just taxed as normal income and lo

I think removing the capital gains tax is a horrible idea. Firstly, there are 2 types of capital gains. Short term gains are just taxed as normal income and long term gains are taxed from 0,15,20% depending on your bracket. The whole purpose of lower taxes for longer gains is to incentivize longer term investments, encouraging people to stay in the market longer since any "lesser gains" could be offset by the lower taxes, and also fostering a much healthier type of growth as opposed to a quarterly focus. If anything, I think short term gains should be taxed more. I think the current environment is quite unhealthy, with lots of speculation and people just getting a quick buck selling options on Tesla week to week.

plutonic 6y ago
The problem here is that when an "investor" "earns" a rate of return due to capital gains, we ought to recognize that these gains are not due to capital performing useful work (e.g., capital used to found a business) but are the result of speculation. Whether the speculation is long-term or short-term is immaterial. Because of this, aside from the company's IPO, stock market "investment" ought to be discouraged in favor of useful investment. Therefore I see no reason to tax capital gains at a rate lesser than that of income.