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The entire net worth (not income) of all billionaires in the United States may be about $1.3 trillion[1]. Therefore, if you took all of the money currently held

by travisp 15y ago

The entire net worth (not income) of all billionaires in the United States may be about $1.3 trillion[1]. Therefore, if you took all of the money currently held from all U.S. billionaires, you would decrease the national debt by about 10%, or cover the deficit for just one year. A high (say, 90%) income tax rate would presumably bring in even less. 1 - http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/interesting-numbers-forbes-rich-list_446045.html http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/interesting-number...

DanielBMarkham 15y ago
Yes. Also note that the super rich, as Buffett points out, make money by investing, not by regular income. The purpose and art of investing is to place money in the best spot. So if you took all the money they had, you'd be a trillion or two ahead, a huge amount of investing would stop, and there would be no more money from them in the pipeline. If, instead of sacking wealth you stuck with income only (perhaps with progressive rates), somebody would simply do the math and put the funds in tax-free bonds or something. Money, especially money of this scale, works for people. It will find the best spot to stay untouched and continue to work. You don't pay an accounting firm and tax lawyers in the six or seven figures for nothing. In fact, many argue that the way you get rich is to be a better steward of money than the other guy. If you took 100 people, gave them each a million bucks, in a year only one of them would probably have kept it and increased it. Odds are that was the guy who was already rich to start with -- who already had good habits and wise spending strategies. I mean honestly, there's a wee bit of irrationality in Buffett's position. You don't get wealthy by putting your money in places where it disappears, so why would somebody who was super frugal and managed to plan where each and every penny went leave his money in a spot were it would decrease drastically if he didn't have to? Buffett's going to haggle and fight tooth and nail over some small sub-percentage points on a huge acquisition and then not manage his own money so that it works optimally? Huh?

by travisp 15y ago

DanielBMarkham 15y ago

Yes. Also note that the super rich, as Buffett points out, make money by investing, not by regular income. The purpose and art of investing is to place money in the best spot. So if you took all the money they had, you'd be a trillion or two ahead, a huge amount of investing would stop, and there would be no more money from them in the pipeline. If, instead of sacking wealth you stuck with income only (perhaps with progressive rates), somebody would simply do the math and put the funds in tax-free bonds or something. Money, especially money of this scale, works for people. It will find the best spot to stay untouched and continue to work. You don't pay an accounting firm and tax lawyers in the six or seven figures for nothing. In fact, many argue that the way you get rich is to be a better steward of money than the other guy. If you took 100 people, gave them each a million bucks, in a year only one of them would probably have kept it and increased it. Odds are that was the guy who was already rich to start with -- who already had good habits and wise spending strategies. I mean honestly, there's a wee bit of irrationality in Buffett's position. You don't get wealthy by putting your money in places where it disappears, so why would somebody who was super frugal and managed to plan where each and every penny went leave his money in a spot were it would decrease drastically if he didn't have to? Buffett's going to haggle and fight tooth and nail over some small sub-percentage points on a huge acquisition and then not manage his own money so that it works optimally? Huh?