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Comment by beebmam | Hacker News Reader

Without a doubt, a global wealth tax would significantly improve the quality of life for every human on this planet; even those with the large amounts of wealth being taxed.

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Only if the tax revenues are spent wisely. In the US, some 42% - 57% of the tax base goes to defense spending [1]. It's extremely arguable if that is a good way to spend such a large quantity of tax dollars. One could argue "we should elect representatives who make better spending decisions," however the defense lobby makes sure to get involved with all lawmakers. Once again it comes back to campaign finance reform as the necessary first step to straighten out the political system.

Just to clarify, it is 42-57% of discretionary. When compared to non-discretionary spending like Social Security defense spending is pretty small.

I'd be fine with a wealth tax on a national level with restrictions on offshoring cash, but I don't want to steal wealth from everyone in the west to distribute it globally. You'd also have a very difficult time getting nations like China to agree to something like this.

Edit: sorry, wasn't aware of the exact definition of this. Having everyone pass this sort of thing is a great idea imo.

A global wealth tax does not distribute the tax globally. It just means that every nation collects a wealth tax. This is to prevent a race to the bottom which would penalize the first countries that enacted a wealth tax.

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