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Comment by abeppu | Hacker News Reader

10 points·abeppu··5 comments

> it's interesting to compare to his wealth tax proposal from a few years ago, which went up to an 8% tax on wealth above $10B

I have less of a problem with a 100% (or very high) income tax for income over $1B because it's at least still an income tax. If a wealth tax is enacted, it may start at $10B but you can be sure it will be gradually lowered until it is not just affecting billionaires.

I agree with the other comment though about giving it to the US government. Don't like that idea at all. I'd rather divide it up so each citizen gets a cut, equally. The government wastes so much money that giving them more is never a good idea IMO.

Yup let's take the capital away from efficient resource allocators like Bezos and Musk and let the inefficient government waste it away... Bernie doesn't understand that this money is tied up in capital investments, which create jobs.

Of course, this wasn't meant as a specific policy proposal, but I think it's interesting to compare to his wealth tax proposal from a few years ago, which went up to an 8% tax on wealth above $10B ... which made it technically feasible for large fortunes to avoid shrinking if they were able to generate returns greater than the tax rate, but generally would nudge large amassed wealth to shrink. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/24/20880941/b...

Why should the US gov get the overflow? Why not local or state?

I think given the options the really wealthy have, the other question is would a US wealth tax really have a large effect on currently US-based billionaires, or would it just cause a shift of those billionaires to be based elsewhere? Can you only have a really effective wealth tax if it's in coordination with a lot of other countries, as with the developments a couple years ago on a global corporate minimum tax?

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