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I think the massive difference between income and capital gains taxes plays a huge role - especially when you get into the .1% where a substantial portion of we

I think the massive difference between income and capital gains taxes plays a huge role - especially when you get into the .1% where a substantial portion of wealth and income lie. All of this funny stuff is mostly people trying everything they can to get capital gains instead of income so they can pay a 25% tax rate instead of a 39% tax rate. When you're talking about billions of dollars - 14% is a lot of money. From the perspective of the average person - the tax code probably makes sense. If you already pay 39% tax on your income, and THEN you have to pay 39% on your capital gains and half of your capital gains are actually just inflation - it's like you're getting taxed on your tax! True inflation has likely been ~4% since 2008. The S&P average is ~7.25% per year. So half of the "capital gains" the ordinary index fund investor would pay are just inflation. But the .1% are different. You don't make it into the .1% with a ~7.25% return and a laborer's salary. You need to be making ~30%+ returns for decades. Or, ~10,000% for a few years (a lot of the successful VC-funded entrepreneurs). Half of their capital gains aren't inflation. Barely any of it are. Effectively, there tax rate is ridiculous low compared to the average Joe. And what's worst - the Fed is causing so much of that inflation. Would Tesla be a $1.1T company today if the Fed wasn't pumping up asset prices, lowering interest rates, and making future cash-flows absurdly and artificially valuable? No. And yet, Elon Musk gets to make $100Bn on paper - and he can take loans against those gains with <3% interest and never pay ANY taxes. It really seems like this is a completely separate world - and it's >30% of US wealth - and it should be dealt with separately.

N00bN00b 5y ago
>All of this funny stuff is mostly people trying everything they can to get capital gains instead of income so they can pay a 25% tax rate instead of a 39% tax rate. When you're talking about billions of dollars - 14% is a lot of money. 0.1% doesn't pay 25%. That's well documented. I don't know what the effective rate is, but averaged out over multiple years it's probably somewhere around 5% and then another few % that's spent on avoidance (not taxes). Maybe 10% at most. Just look up Bezos or Musk's tax return. Same with Buffett.
baryphonic 5y ago
> True inflation has likely been ~4% since 2008. The S&P average is ~7.25% per year. So half of the "capital gains" the ordinary index fund investor would pay are just inflation. How does one measure "true inflation?" I am sympathetic to the idea that inflation is nearly unmeasurable, but not the idea that "true inflation" was happening when it clearly, obviously was not. > And what's worst - the Fed is causing so much of that inflation. The Fed causes all inflation (at least in the US – Europeans have the EU central bank and Britishers have the Bank of England). Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.

N00bN00b 5y ago

>All of this funny stuff is mostly people trying everything they can to get capital gains instead of income so they can pay a 25% tax rate instead of a 39% tax rate. When you're talking about billions of dollars - 14% is a lot of money. 0.1% doesn't pay 25%. That's well documented. I don't know what the effective rate is, but averaged out over multiple years it's probably somewhere around 5% and then another few % that's spent on avoidance (not taxes). Maybe 10% at most. Just look up Bezos or Musk's tax return. Same with Buffett.

baryphonic 5y ago

> True inflation has likely been ~4% since 2008. The S&P average is ~7.25% per year. So half of the "capital gains" the ordinary index fund investor would pay are just inflation. How does one measure "true inflation?" I am sympathetic to the idea that inflation is nearly unmeasurable, but not the idea that "true inflation" was happening when it clearly, obviously was not. > And what's worst - the Fed is causing so much of that inflation. The Fed causes all inflation (at least in the US – Europeans have the EU central bank and Britishers have the Bank of England). Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.