> To those that say it's to incentivize investment and reward risk; I thought that was the market's job? Why is the government in the business of rewarding an i

> To those that say it's to incentivize investment and reward risk; I thought that was the market's job? Why is the government in the business of rewarding an investor for risk? The asset price should reflect the inherent risk in order to incentivize investment right? That's exactly right, but you're only looking at it from the point of view of someone clicking "buy" on their phone. Instead, look at it through the eyes of someone who has twenty years of working the daily grind saved up and is thinking about building something new out of nothing. Maybe it's worth the risk of losing that savings. If you tax that even more, then the balance tips even more into riskier territory and makes it less likely that you take on that new business venture. You're saying that the market corrects for that, and it does... by disincentiving the investment by making the potential payoff less.