LogFAQs > #928861442

Godnorgosh posted...

"See, when you look at the relatively small proportion of income for the extremely wealthy we've decided is taxable

Economic income isn't taxable for anyone, because it would be a very dumb thing to do. You can't tax a person for owning baseball cards when the haven't actually made money off them.

Godnorgosh posted...

So really you're just saying we shouldn't tax the vast majority of income for the top 0.1%, because it's economic income

I'm saying we shouldn't tax money that someone doesn't have. I hate admitting this, but proudclad has a point. You're arguing with emotion and don't really care if the facts support you or not, it's just about blaming the rich for everything.

I will try to make this as simple as possible. Buffett's net worth increases by $5 billion in a given year. That's economic income. The government decides that needs to be taxed, let us say at a very low rate of 1%. 1% of $5 billion is $50 million. He owes the government $50 million based on what he owns. He only earned $10 million that year. You have now established an effective tax rate of 500%.

Do you see why wealth taxes always fail? Do you understand why they never bring in the projected amount of revenue, why they lead to capital flight and why virtually every country that adopted them ditched them? Zucman doesn't actually explain how you tax money people aren't making, he just claims it's needed because... because.

I can't keep arguing reason against emotion. There's no point.