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It seems clear to me that something needs to be done if we want to avoid growing wealth/income inequality pretty much globally. Wealth tax is just one approach

It seems clear to me that something needs to be done if we want to avoid growing wealth/income inequality pretty much globally. Wealth tax is just one approach, but even top income tax rates used to be much higher in the US, and you could argue that politicians since LBJ and Reagan have failed the median citizen completely in that regard (nice visualization: https://mystack.wyman.us/p/tax-brackets-and-rates-1913-2024 https://mystack.wyman.us/p/tax-brackets-and-rates-1913-2024). Wealth tax seems a step in the right direction.

Retric 1y ago
Income taxes are heavily dependent on what’s classified as income. In the US we explicitly have a carve out for long term investment returns into a separation category making simple arguments around the top tax bracket irrelevant. Add some other deductions to what counts as income and sudden the rate becomes all but a joke.
- myrmidon 1y ago
  I do agree that sidestepping income taxes is too easy in the first place, but that is on legislators, too (and lowering those top tax brackets is just unhelpful in any case). I find the notion that you should pay less tax on capital gains asinine, too; it makes no sense to me that people should have to pay less tax on income that they didn't even work for. My belief is that people were blind to growing income inequality and flawed taxation schemes because there was enough growth to paper over the resulting issues, but this stops being the case. Specifically housing, I'd argue, has not become so expensive because of greedy construction workers (or immigrants, or regulation) but because average homeowners have to compete against an increasingly wealthy upper-class that sees real estate as a pure investment/rent extraction mechanism.
hermitcrab 1y ago
>It seems clear to me that something needs to be done if we want to avoid growing wealth/income inequality pretty much globally. World War II was pretty effective at redistributing income (among those that survived). Lets hope it doesn't take World War III.
derektank 1y ago
Capital gains taxes are much easier to administer, as are inheritance taxes, and land value taxes.

Retric 1y ago

Income taxes are heavily dependent on what’s classified as income. In the US we explicitly have a carve out for long term investment returns into a separation category making simple arguments around the top tax bracket irrelevant. Add some other deductions to what counts as income and sudden the rate becomes all but a joke.

myrmidon 1y ago
I do agree that sidestepping income taxes is too easy in the first place, but that is on legislators, too (and lowering those top tax brackets is just unhelpful in any case). I find the notion that you should pay less tax on capital gains asinine, too; it makes no sense to me that people should have to pay less tax on income that they didn't even work for. My belief is that people were blind to growing income inequality and flawed taxation schemes because there was enough growth to paper over the resulting issues, but this stops being the case. Specifically housing, I'd argue, has not become so expensive because of greedy construction workers (or immigrants, or regulation) but because average homeowners have to compete against an increasingly wealthy upper-class that sees real estate as a pure investment/rent extraction mechanism.

hermitcrab 1y ago

>It seems clear to me that something needs to be done if we want to avoid growing wealth/income inequality pretty much globally. World War II was pretty effective at redistributing income (among those that survived). Lets hope it doesn't take World War III.

derektank 1y ago

Capital gains taxes are much easier to administer, as are inheritance taxes, and land value taxes.