Consider a few things:
1. The dollar has lost 97% of its buying power since 1970 due to inflation, which some economists consider to be a tax. After all, it means that if you had $1 in 1970, it is lost 87% of its buying power. If that dollar had maintained its buying power, it would be the same as 8.11 today (and that's assuming th CPLie is right). To be taxed on the unrealized games on this, you would end up paying overwhelming taxes on that dollar in spite of the fact that the buying power hasn't gone up or down -- the only thing that happened is the government printed up a bunch of money through the central banks to fund what has become half the economy.
2. The income tax itself began as a tax on people who were the equivalent of multimillionaires today. "Don't worry, we're just taxing the richest people so that they can pay their fair share" they said. How's it working out for you?
3. A lot of people who aren't the richest people in the world are going to end up getting hurt. Your Boomer parents? They are planning on retiring based on the market not permanently collapsing. As well, debt is such as loans or even government debt rely on people being willing to invest in america, and if prices drop every year because the richest people in the world need to drop a significant chunk of their portfolios to pay some arbitrary and capricious tax on money that they don't have in their hands, who's going to want to invest in that?
4. The law of unintended consequences is often surprising. There's no reason to think that rich people couldn't just find ways to suppress their apparent wealth. Or what those might be or what the consequences might be of those ways. Let's say a lot of the rich cash out entirely while they can and move their wealth to countries that will never implement a tax like this. What happens next? Well, it isn't good for the country that suddenly might not just have its money and stuff leave, but have it's talent leave because smart talented people end up chasing the money to wherever it ends up. Ask South American countries which thought they could become rich by having the government take all the wealth. Protip: it didn't end well. The rich stayed rich, the poor don't get to eat anymore.
1. The dollar has lost 97% of its buying power since 1970 due to inflation, which some economists consider to be a tax. After all, it means that if you had $1 in 1970, it is lost 87% of its buying power. If that dollar had maintained its buying power, it would be the same as 8.11 today (and that's assuming th CPLie is right). To be taxed on the unrealized games on this, you would end up paying overwhelming taxes on that dollar in spite of the fact that the buying power hasn't gone up or down -- the only thing that happened is the government printed up a bunch of money through the central banks to fund what has become half the economy.
2. The income tax itself began as a tax on people who were the equivalent of multimillionaires today. "Don't worry, we're just taxing the richest people so that they can pay their fair share" they said. How's it working out for you?
3. A lot of people who aren't the richest people in the world are going to end up getting hurt. Your Boomer parents? They are planning on retiring based on the market not permanently collapsing. As well, debt is such as loans or even government debt rely on people being willing to invest in america, and if prices drop every year because the richest people in the world need to drop a significant chunk of their portfolios to pay some arbitrary and capricious tax on money that they don't have in their hands, who's going to want to invest in that?
4. The law of unintended consequences is often surprising. There's no reason to think that rich people couldn't just find ways to suppress their apparent wealth. Or what those might be or what the consequences might be of those ways. Let's say a lot of the rich cash out entirely while they can and move their wealth to countries that will never implement a tax like this. What happens next? Well, it isn't good for the country that suddenly might not just have its money and stuff leave, but have it's talent leave because smart talented people end up chasing the money to wherever it ends up. Ask South American countries which thought they could become rich by having the government take all the wealth. Protip: it didn't end well. The rich stayed rich, the poor don't get to eat anymore.
- replies
- 0
- announces
- 0
- likes
- 0