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> Is there something unique about capital gains tax in particular? The reason why we are seeing pushes to adopt capital gains tax right now is because Bernie S

> Is there something unique about capital gains tax in particular? The reason why we are seeing pushes to adopt capital gains tax right now is because Bernie Sanders, AOC, et. al. want to "Tax the Billionaires." This is obviously a popular slogan because people think "who the hell needs 1 billion dollars?" But it's not like billionaires literally have 1 billion dollars just sitting in their bank accounts not doing anything. In reality, billionaires are billionaires because they make their money work for them through various investments. Capital gains tax is not "taking some poor billionaire's leftover yacht money," it's a tax on _the businesses they own_. Although capital gains tax disincentives the growth of business (which is a bad thing because we want businesses to grow,) it's marketed as a "tax on fat-cat bastard billionaires."

boublepop 5y ago
It’s not a tax on the business. If Elon musk is forced to sell a percentage of his shares in Tesla that’s not going to change their bottom line, it just means someone else, other than him is buying that ownership. It’s a tax on the billionaires just like it’s intended, and they are forced to either pay themselves a salary that will also be taxed, just like poor people, in order to pay the capital gains tax. They can’t just borrow money against their gains and pretend that it’s fair that they don’t pay any taxes “because Elon Musk has no income”.
- mountainriver 5y ago
  There are a lot of reasons why that may not be a good idea. First off it’s his company, he bought it fair and square and invested literally everything he had in Tesla, bet it all on himself, in my book that means he gets to keep it. Also then anyone could buy up his shares like a foreign government that doesn’t have our best interests at heart. I think this stuff sounds nice but when you look at the implementation it doesn’t hold up.

boublepop 5y ago

It’s not a tax on the business. If Elon musk is forced to sell a percentage of his shares in Tesla that’s not going to change their bottom line, it just means someone else, other than him is buying that ownership. It’s a tax on the billionaires just like it’s intended, and they are forced to either pay themselves a salary that will also be taxed, just like poor people, in order to pay the capital gains tax. They can’t just borrow money against their gains and pretend that it’s fair that they don’t pay any taxes “because Elon Musk has no income”.

mountainriver 5y ago
There are a lot of reasons why that may not be a good idea. First off it’s his company, he bought it fair and square and invested literally everything he had in Tesla, bet it all on himself, in my book that means he gets to keep it. Also then anyone could buy up his shares like a foreign government that doesn’t have our best interests at heart. I think this stuff sounds nice but when you look at the implementation it doesn’t hold up.