> If you applied capital gains tax to grandpa's modest gift to his grandchildren the grand children may very well end up with nearly nothing. That's such a fun

> If you applied capital gains tax to grandpa's modest gift to his grandchildren the grand children may very well end up with nearly nothing. That's such a funny remark. First, this implies the tax rate is 100%. How else could you end up with nothing? Long term capital gains is what? 20%? If the "modest gift" of a $1 million house with a cost basis of $300,000 results in $140,000 in capital gains taxes, you still have $860,000. Hell, you can even have the system defer those taxes until the sale of the property (eg capped at 10 years) if you're worried about undue hardship. But the house has its cost basis reset to $1 million, which in insane. In some places, you even get to inherit the ridiculously low property tax rate, which was another result of homeowners voting themselves massive tax breaks. Second, these completely made up emotional anecdotes about regular people are so often used to defend practices whereby billionaires get to pay nothing. It's an appeal to emotion and a complete distraction. I don't know if you're just an unwitting victim of this propaganda (which it is) or you're one of the many bad faith pundits who use this appeal for the real goal: protecting the wealth of rich people. > This isn't done because the universe of ways you can move, adjust, hedge, and sell stock is too broad. It's a remarkably easy problem to solve. Just tax 1-3% of the net value of your assets based on their value on December 31 of each year. > It honestly sounds like your statement here is actually a thin veil over just letting anyone making under $N exploit the system at (once again) the cost of the middle class. The idea of a middle class here itself is a myth and deliberate propaganda by the wealthy to pit the imaginary middle class against the imaginary lower class. There are only really two classes: those who trade their labor for an income and those who own capital. This idea of "defending the middle class" is 100% propaganda. You, as a software engineer, are in the same class as a neurosurgeon, a profesional basketball player, a waiter, a nurse or a teacher. I hope you realize that someday.