Wealth Tax Debate
The cluster centers on debates about the advantages and disadvantages of wealth taxes versus income or capital gains taxes, including challenges in measurement, enforcement, and comparisons to existing taxes like property taxes or inflation.
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Why would a wealth tax be a bad thing?
Why not tax accumulated wealth and assets?
No. Capital gains and income taxes are better ways to tax. Wealth is harder to measure, easier to hide, and not as liquid (generally).
Why is it bad to tax based on wealth and not on income?
Sounds like you want a consumption tax, and not a wealth tax then?
No, no - don't tax his income, tax his wealth :)
This is a WEALTH tax. You could have earned that money at any other time in your life, anywhere in the world.
The rich don't make their money off of taxable income. They make their money off of appreciating assets. You can tax them all you want and it won't change a thing. You could try to create a wealth tax, but basically anyone with any assets would fight it tooth and nail and it would never go through without something akin to a communist revolution.
Wealth tax is not easy to implement. This is why current “proposals” introduce arbitrary limits like “we’ll tax unrealized gains but only for people with ____ in assets” which is just silly. There shouldn’t be any laws that define arbitrary limits to pay tax, simple rules can be established such that taxation is the same across the board. In reality all you need to is tax assets that are used to loan (non-taxable as you said) against it. It Elon wants to take out loan against his shares of ____
Why is a wealth tax not a good idea? Seems like it is the right idea.