I thought capital gains taxes only applied to gains. You're not taxing savings, and losses can be written off against gains. The inflation problem could be mit

I thought capital gains taxes only applied to gains. You're not taxing savings, and losses can be written off against gains. The inflation problem could be mitigated with a structure that takes this into account. I can think of other reasons that low capital gains taxes are good, like encouraging investment, but the "taxing savings" argument doesn't seem like it works. IMHO what we really need is a way to distinguish rentier income from investment income derived from investing in growth. The former should be taxed as income or maybe even higher, while the latter should be taxed at a lower rate or not at all.