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If riches were obtained solely by pulling oneself up by their bootstraps, I would wholeheartedly agree with you. However, the behaviors or methods that got that
by gortok 2mo ago
If riches were obtained solely by pulling oneself up by their bootstraps, I would wholeheartedly agree with you. However, the behaviors or methods that got that person their riches matters, or should matter, especially if it’s unethical or illegal.
- CGMthrowaway 2mo agoWhich millionaires do you want to tax and which will you leave alone? Can you name them?
- TheCoelacanth 2mo agoBillionaires with a b. The difference between a million and a billion is a billion. Tax all of them. No one has ever earned a billion dollars.
- gortok 2mo agoFirst off, billionaires. Although once the Overton window shifts enough maybe we can include them? Second, all of them. And the idea would be to tax high net worth (HNW) individuals. Not on their salary, because part of the game is that capital is taxed less than labor, and stocks aren’t taxed until you realize a gain. So what do ultra rich folks do? They take loans against their stocks (same stocks that public sector unions use to fund their retirement pensions), and can realize just enough to pay off the loan (or roll over the loan) and they get far better interest rates on their loans than you or I do. So we either tax them against the loans they take out against their stock, or we tax their unrealized gains at their face value, or tax those loans as income against HNW individuals. There are several ways to ensure folks that have made billions are taxed, but right now we aren’t willing to make those policy choices to tax them — and we even give their circumstances preferential treatment, even though we’re willing to make no concessions for folks that make $30,000 a year and are fighting for their next meal.