4 ms·

Richest People Gained Record $2.2T in 2025, Fueling Calls for Wealth Tax

24 points by robtherobber 10mo ago

jqpabc123 10mo ago
[flagged]
- andsoitis 10mo ago
  > stupid people deserve to poor I don't know how you meant that, but if you repeatedly make bad decisions regarding the income you do get, then yes, you will be poor and I shouldn't have to foot that bill. Personal responsibility is important for a civilized society.
  - bad_haircut72 10mo ago
    When the rich are being impaled by pitchforks I hope they spare thought about how they should have been more personally responsible for keeping society together.
    - andsoitis 10mo ago
      > impaled by pitchforks it would be stupid (and immoral) to impale anyone with a pitchfork, unless it is your only self-defense option.
  - gertop 10mo ago
    Good news then because taxing the wealthy wouldn't increase what you pay in the slightest.
hmmokidk 10mo ago
No reason why my neighbor shouldn’t be able to afford health care for his sick mother. In other words, no reason why all the wealth needs to be hoarded at the top. It needs to be shared. Otherwise good people are suffering needlessly. Really very cruel and heartless to just be transferring wealth instead of allowing it to circulate.
envidiososNo 10mo ago
exactly how did this wealth increase made anyone poorer? no non-mad replies because it didn't
- theknarf 10mo ago
  There's a limited number of resources on the earth. There's limited farmland, limited land for property, commercial properties, etc. Then there is limited amount of water, precious minerals in the ground, oil, etc. If one group of peoples wealth increases a lot faster than everyone else then that means that over time they end up owning a bigger piece of our limited resources. The natural outcome of this is the same thing that happens in every game of monopoly, some people end up owning everything, while other people have to rent everything and have nothing to own of their own. Imagine being born into a world very everything (land and other resources) are owned by a small group of people and you have no outcome in life where you could ever own anything? Never buy your own house, never start and own your own company. A world where everything is divided at birth between the people that own this world and the people that don't.
- estimator7292 10mo ago
  Where did $2.2t come from? There are two options: 1. The money was taken from other people, through means and methods both legal and illegitimate. Those people have less money and are by definition poorer 2. The money was invented from whole cloth. Our money is fiat and we can simply magic more into existence. The rich people now have a peoportiobately larger share of both currency and real value. As new currency is created, its value dilutes. Poor people have the same amount of currency but can buy less with it. Therefore, poorer. Idiot
- _DeadFred_ 10mo ago
  They leveraged this wealth in a way that didn't require they pay taxes, yet gave them access to realize it's value, then used its buying power to bid against others in order to accumulate more resources that they can then use to accumulate more resources. Some of which they will rent to people that couldn't compete with their buying power.
lesuorac 10mo ago
Why wouldn't you just increase the top tax rate instead of a wealth tax? Plus also stop pretending that borrowing $1B against an asset you bought for $500 isn't a realized gain and tax that too.
- kelseyfrog 10mo ago
  Because gains[1] through capital are legally different from income. There are a lot of opinions [2] about this from the usual sources. 1. Unrealized. 2. One of many examples https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41380031 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41380031
  - lesuorac 10mo ago
    But it has been realized, you got $1B dollars from it. Like imagine if in the future when you go to the grocery store you never "buy" any items from them. You just "loan" a banana from them secured by a gold coin. They themselves use that loan as collateral to get money to then pay for their operations. Every example against this is somebody being like "I bought a house for 10k and now its worth $2M; I don't want a large tax bill!". And yeah; you won't get _any_ tax bill because you aren't using the house as collateral on a $2M loan.
digitalsushi 10mo ago
it is difficult for us to agree if there is a threshold to which a person who has accumulated wealth must have shifted from 'earning' it to 'taking' it, and whether 'taking' it is analogous to 'stealing' it. sometimes people believe wealth transfer is a zero sum game, sometimes people believe it never is, and the truth is probably in between if you believe that a single human can earn a thousand billion dollars, it follows you can believe a million people losing a million dollars is its just inverse i dont know enough about people or money to make up my mind i have a roaring vermont castings wood stove running, its -15C outside, and i am fine; i am 14 oak logs away from changing my world view this system is fragile but we measure it instantaneously

24 points by robtherobber 10mo ago

jqpabc123 10mo ago

[flagged]

andsoitis 10mo ago
> stupid people deserve to poor I don't know how you meant that, but if you repeatedly make bad decisions regarding the income you do get, then yes, you will be poor and I shouldn't have to foot that bill. Personal responsibility is important for a civilized society.
- bad_haircut72 10mo ago
  When the rich are being impaled by pitchforks I hope they spare thought about how they should have been more personally responsible for keeping society together.
  - andsoitis 10mo ago
    > impaled by pitchforks it would be stupid (and immoral) to impale anyone with a pitchfork, unless it is your only self-defense option.
- gertop 10mo ago
  Good news then because taxing the wealthy wouldn't increase what you pay in the slightest.

hmmokidk 10mo ago

No reason why my neighbor shouldn’t be able to afford health care for his sick mother. In other words, no reason why all the wealth needs to be hoarded at the top. It needs to be shared. Otherwise good people are suffering needlessly. Really very cruel and heartless to just be transferring wealth instead of allowing it to circulate.

envidiososNo 10mo ago

exactly how did this wealth increase made anyone poorer? no non-mad replies because it didn't

theknarf 10mo ago
There's a limited number of resources on the earth. There's limited farmland, limited land for property, commercial properties, etc. Then there is limited amount of water, precious minerals in the ground, oil, etc. If one group of peoples wealth increases a lot faster than everyone else then that means that over time they end up owning a bigger piece of our limited resources. The natural outcome of this is the same thing that happens in every game of monopoly, some people end up owning everything, while other people have to rent everything and have nothing to own of their own. Imagine being born into a world very everything (land and other resources) are owned by a small group of people and you have no outcome in life where you could ever own anything? Never buy your own house, never start and own your own company. A world where everything is divided at birth between the people that own this world and the people that don't.
estimator7292 10mo ago
Where did $2.2t come from? There are two options: 1. The money was taken from other people, through means and methods both legal and illegitimate. Those people have less money and are by definition poorer 2. The money was invented from whole cloth. Our money is fiat and we can simply magic more into existence. The rich people now have a peoportiobately larger share of both currency and real value. As new currency is created, its value dilutes. Poor people have the same amount of currency but can buy less with it. Therefore, poorer. Idiot
_DeadFred_ 10mo ago
They leveraged this wealth in a way that didn't require they pay taxes, yet gave them access to realize it's value, then used its buying power to bid against others in order to accumulate more resources that they can then use to accumulate more resources. Some of which they will rent to people that couldn't compete with their buying power.

lesuorac 10mo ago

Why wouldn't you just increase the top tax rate instead of a wealth tax? Plus also stop pretending that borrowing $1B against an asset you bought for $500 isn't a realized gain and tax that too.

kelseyfrog 10mo ago
Because gains[1] through capital are legally different from income. There are a lot of opinions [2] about this from the usual sources. 1. Unrealized. 2. One of many examples https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41380031 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41380031
- lesuorac 10mo ago
  But it has been realized, you got $1B dollars from it. Like imagine if in the future when you go to the grocery store you never "buy" any items from them. You just "loan" a banana from them secured by a gold coin. They themselves use that loan as collateral to get money to then pay for their operations. Every example against this is somebody being like "I bought a house for 10k and now its worth $2M; I don't want a large tax bill!". And yeah; you won't get _any_ tax bill because you aren't using the house as collateral on a $2M loan.

digitalsushi 10mo ago

it is difficult for us to agree if there is a threshold to which a person who has accumulated wealth must have shifted from 'earning' it to 'taking' it, and whether 'taking' it is analogous to 'stealing' it. sometimes people believe wealth transfer is a zero sum game, sometimes people believe it never is, and the truth is probably in between if you believe that a single human can earn a thousand billion dollars, it follows you can believe a million people losing a million dollars is its just inverse i dont know enough about people or money to make up my mind i have a roaring vermont castings wood stove running, its -15C outside, and i am fine; i am 14 oak logs away from changing my world view this system is fragile but we measure it instantaneously