> Rich people that have their money tied up in these things only get taxed when they sell them (in the form of long term capital gain). This is by design, and I

> Rich people that have their money tied up in these things only get taxed when they sell them (in the form of long term capital gain). This is by design, and I'm very curious how a system could be re-designed to tax people when the value of something like a stock increases, but is not sold. This would effect literally everyone who owns property and/or stocks outside of their 401ks. Instead of income taxes, tax wealth. You simply file an affidavit showing your current "snapshot of wealth" at a specific date, say April 15th. If your wealth is less than 10 million, you pay 1% or your wealth. For 500k that's 5k, for 30k that's 300. Then have tiers like: 10-50 million: 2% 50-500 million: 3% 500-5billion: 4% 5billion+: 5% For bezos (assuming 100 billion) this would be 5 billion dollars per year. A shit ton for a normal person, a drop in a hat for him. This tax system could be modified to provide UBI to people, and have zero refunds, loopholes, etc. Everybody is required to pay whether your net worth is 300B, 300M, 300k or 300. The government then is incentivized to create more wealth, more distribution of wealth, and less on jobs/income. Perhaps schools could also be more focused on training good financial education so students know how to manage money after high school.