LogFAQs > #948556217

DrunkCaveman posted...

You're almost right. Everything you said until net worth is a shitty metric was accurate. His net worth is treated as real and he can leverage his stock for loans. Jeff Bezos doesn't have a billion dollars cash. He is still a billionaire

Well, technically he does actually have a billion dollars cash -- or did, since he cashed out some of his stock recently. I'm not entirely sure what he's done with the money since.

Regardless, net worth is generally misleading and doesn't always reflect wealth as most people picture it. And, more importantly, evaluations aren't income so we could have a 100% income tax rate on the rich and their net worth could still grow year over year simply because their assets increase in value, something that people with astounding poor economic literacy -- generally the same people who whine the loudest about "trickle down economics" -- don't seem to understand. At that point you'd need to attempt something like a wealth tax, which is a policy that almost every overly-liberal nation has tried, failed, and repealed at this point because wealth taxes are generally a clumsy, stupid idea.

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There are precious few at ease / With moral ambiguities / So we act as though they don't exist.