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Comment by studentrob | Hacker News Reader

> I 100% agree Thiel has broken no crime and I think you should be embarrassed to say that the people who created the Roth intended this. There is no evidence of that. We should recognize that this Roth IRA is sheltering more money than people expected and make (or refrain from making) regulatory changes in response.

I remember when I was young and maxed out my Roth, also converted a lot into it, and a tax accountant warned me that the government could change the rules so the gains are taxed. I thought, "no way, they couldn't do that!"

Now I see they very well could as a response to arguments such as yours.

I can't say I'm a fan of Thiel's business or writings however many of us rely on Roth remaining as-is. It already has limits. Thiel simply made good investments. We shouldn't punish that unless there was something like insider trading occurring. And that should not impact the existence of the Roth.

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> Now I see they very well could as a response to arguments such as yours.

I think the parent is arguing that a Roth should be limited to some reasonable ceiling, e.g. $1M, $5M, etc.

You would disincentivize good investments and reduce GDP as a result.

You can only put earned income into a Roth, you can only put up to 6K per year, and you are only eligible to put anything at all for a given year if your total earned income was below a fairly modest threshold. Roth IRA already has plenty of restrictions. The fact that one man happened to be some combo of smart/lucky to make the modest initial investment turn into billions is definitely not an indication of whether the Roth is problematic. I think the parent may be confused about the exact details of a Roth.

You can rollover to get around contribution limits [1], and the government gets your money now rather than later,

> A Roth IRA rollover (or conversion) shifts money from a traditional IRA or 401(k) into a Roth. You can get around Roth IRA income limits by doing a rollover. You'll owe tax on any amount you convert, and it could be substantial.

Limiting the max amount would reduce near-term government tax revenue. So I don't think it would happen.

[1] https://www.investopedia.com/how-to-do-a-rothira-rollover-47....

Interesting, I thought there was an income limit on rollover as well but apparently that was axed in 2010. In any event Thiel couldn't have used this.

This is happening because it's Peter Thiel, and he's an enemy of progressives, or at least, he is in their mind.

If it came out this was someone they like and hold dear, there'd be no article. That's why this whole article is pathetic.

By Law of Large Numbers alone, we're almost guaranteed there's another person with another Roth IRA with another outcome almost just like Peter's... but we'll never hear about it because that person didn't vocally endorse Donald Trump for president, doesn't do blood transfusions with 18 year old donors for mesenchymal stem cells, and isn't a thorn in the progressive side.

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