What's your current net worth? How about we set the level to be somewhere less than what you personally are worth?
There are a universe of people who earn and have a net worth much less than you who would be very happy with that ceiling figure. But would you?
Western politicians who float this idea are hilarious too - they're all multi-millionaires themselves, but a wealth tax is always proposed at a level that is "slightly more than what I have", never below.
What's your current net worth? How about we set the level to be somewhere less than what you personally are worth?
If you set the limit much lower than my net worth, the government is going to have to support me.
But I'd think that someone with "only" $100M of net worth could scrape by on their own.
But most of my net worth came from taxable ordinary income that was invested into retirement accounts that are tax advantaged and untouchable until I retire. If Bezos was drawing a salary of 3 billion dollars for the past 30 years, paying 37% income tax on that income, then we probably wouldn't be talking about a "wealth tax"
> If you set the limit much lower than my net worth, the government is going to have to support me.
Doesn't have to be much lower, just low enough to free you of the wealth you don't _need_.
> But I'd think that someone with "only" $100M of net worth could scrape by on their own.
Certainly. Someone with $10k of net worth and a minimum wage job could scrape by too. Nobody _needs_ more than that, surely?
> But most of my net worth came from taxable ordinary income that was invested into retirement accounts that are tax advantaged and untouchable until I retire.
Sounds very wealthy and privileged, to be honest. Surely you don't _need_ that it could be much better spent now helping less advantaged people who have never worked and don't have any savings or retirement. If, when you retire, you need further assistance after selling your house and other possessions, the government would be glad to step in and provide you a subsistence income and housing thanks to this wonderful redistribution scheme.
There are a universe of people who earn and have a net worth much less than you who would be very happy with that ceiling figure. But would you?
Western politicians who float this idea are hilarious too - they're all multi-millionaires themselves, but a wealth tax is always proposed at a level that is "slightly more than what I have", never below.