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Comment by dmix | Hacker News Reader

> I've seen nothing to that effect

Even if billionaires don't pay income tax and are only taxed occasionally when they sell assets, there isn't much doubt that the corporations they create and invest in generate massive amounts of tax revenue in the countries they operate. Not to mention all the revenue generated from property tax, income tax from their employees getting paid by the company, local fines and fees, sales tax, import duties, etc.

You can want the super wealthy to pay more tax when they sell stuff to fund their lifestyles, but that doesn't mean their work isn't generating large amounts of economic activity which turns into tax revenue for governments.

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Billionaires don't seem to create anything new when they're billionaires. You look at companies like Google or Meta and they acquire companies and teams but what sort of truly successful projects and products did they create from whole. It seems like a string of failures, canceled projects and lackluster product offerings to me.

If we can tell poor people how to behave for their own good then we can certainly help billionaires out too by taxing them back to creativity.

How is it that concentrating wealth in private pools is better than spreading it around?

> the corporations they create and invest in generate massive amounts of tax revenue

Economic activity does generate tax revenue, billionaires generate economic activity. But if we took the billions (leave them millions, gready as they are) and spread it around it would have the opportunity to generate much more economic activity

The concentration of wealth, and the resulting concentration of income and widespread middle class impoverishment is catastrophic for our economy.

It is why, in real terms, incomes have been static for thirty years whilst the size of the economy has roughly doubled

Billionaires are great for the economy!*

*if you're a billionaire

Recently saw an article where "The billionaires ask to be taxed more". I don't really fall for that PR. :-) The reality is that when a government actually comes for their money, anyone with serious wealth simply ALWAYS finds a legal way out. Capital is completely fluid.

Saying that massive companies pay their fair share just because they create local jobs or pay sales tax completely misses how governments operate. Governments do not care about the side benefits when they want the main pile of profit. You can see this right now with Italy going after Amazon for over a billion dollars and threatening to put its managers in jail.

For years, big companies legally ran their profits through low-tax countries and treated places like Italy as just shipping hubs. Now, Italy is trying to change the rules after the fact to grab that cash. Threatening executives with prison is just a strong-arm tactic to force a quick payout.

This aggressive approach is exactly why wealth is shifting so quickly. If a major country can rewrite the rules to trap you, the only logical move is to leave. It is no surprise that smart founders and wealthy operators are quietly packing up and moving their lives and companies to places like Cyprus. ;-) When you can get total legal clarity, a very favorable tax setup, and year-round sunshine, staying in a high-tax country that treats you like a criminal is just bad business.

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