>No-one is saying that regular Joe's with $800 in their savings account should be penalized for just letting them sit.

Does no one in this thread understand that there already exists wealth taxes in countries without explicit wealth taxes?

While many countries have explicit wealth taxes (Government agency that will demand you pay x on y), many (almost all) countries have wealth taxes that tax "regular Joe's with $800 in their savings account". The central bank in the USA literally has a charter to print enough money so that asset prices rise at a nominal 2%PA. If a central planner confiscates $16 in purchasing power from regular Joe does it matter if its done through direct taxation (taking the $16 dollars) or indirectly (printing enough money so that his future value of $800 will be only $784)?