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Majority of Americans favor wealth tax on very rich: poll

reuters.com

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Re: Majority of Americans favor wealth tax on very rich: poll

#81

Post by sephlietz »

keanzu wrote: post #38
lawnchair_larry wrote: post #4

Alternative title: Majority of Americans are not rich, and therefore see no downside to taking from those who are I do think the inequality gap is becoming more of a problem, but simply asking the population if they want someone else to pay more is going to have the obvious result.

The tyranny of the majority is a weakness inherent to majority rule in which the majority of an electorate pursues exclusively its own interests at the expense of those in the minority. This results in oppression of minority groups comparable to that of a tyrant or despot.

Rich, powerful people are not oppressed. Taxes are not oppression.

Re: Majority of Americans favor wealth tax on very rich: poll

#82

Post by glogla »

keanzu wrote: post #48
nightski wrote: post #3

I feel the wealth inequality issue needs to be addressed. My only problem with the wealth tax is that it takes money from the wealthy and feeds it to the government. I am having a hard time connecting how that improves the situation of the lower and middle classes.

"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help." -Reagan

It's not surprising that monster like Reagan who destroyed millions of lives through his terrible "economic" policies has stupid quite like this.

Re: Majority of Americans favor wealth tax on very rich: poll

#83

Post by munk-a »

ohazi wrote: post #33

I'm skeptical that most respondents understood the questions correctly. Most people are familiar with income tax, because they know that money is removed from their paycheck every month. Many also file tax returns. A wealth tax, where a fraction of your bank balance is removed every month, is a totally alien concept to most people. If you haven't thought about it before, it can take a minute or two to wrap your head…

I think most Americans already get taxed on their bank balance, by their bank, inversely proportionate to how much they have, so it's not alien from that side - and it's also pretty much identical to real estate taxes which people are already used to paying... in fact a good way to sell a wealth tax might be by saying "Hey, you know how you pay taxes on your property? There are people out there so rich that they've got millions not even tied up in assets, maybe that wealth of theirs should be taxed the same as the wealth of yours - And don't forget, you don't even fully own your property, the bank has half."

It's an interesting way to consider the tax.

Re: Majority of Americans favor wealth tax on very rich: poll

#84

Post by 0x8BADF00D »

A wealth tax is unconstitutional. From the Constitution:

“Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.“

How do you calculate a wealth tax on a house? How about a piece of art? This is nonsensical and shows how uneducated the average American is, to support this socialist nonsense.

Re: Majority of Americans favor wealth tax on very rich: poll

#85

Post by SkyBelow »

spamizbad wrote: post #65
ohazi wrote: post #33

I'm skeptical that most respondents understood the questions correctly. Most people are familiar with income tax, because they know that money is removed from their paycheck every month. Many also file tax returns. A wealth tax, where a fraction of your bank balance is removed every month, is a totally alien concept to most people. If you haven't thought about it before, it can take a minute or two to wrap your head…

> A wealth tax, where a fraction of your bank balance is removed every month, is a totally alien concept to most people. If you haven't thought about it before, it can take a minute or two to wrap your head around what it would actually mean. Many Americans already experience a form of wealth tax: property tax. You are taxed a percentage of the value of your property, something not terribly liquid. Incidentally, a ha…

Car tax and land tax are two very common existing wealth taxes. I wonder why they are rarely described as a wealth tax.

Re: Majority of Americans favor wealth tax on very rich: poll

#86

Post by dang »

[deleted] wrote: post #68
seneca wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ha, oh... oh my, that's rich. Please don't post this kind of low quality snark here. This isn't reddit.

[deleted]

For site survival purposes, it's not enough for a comment to contain interesting content, just like it's not enough for food to contain nutrients. It also must not contain poison.

It's helpful when users gently ask other users to stick to the guidelines (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html). Of course it's also off topic, but that is a necessary evil. Out-of-band control signals are what enables the system to right itself. munk-a's response was perfect.

Re: Majority of Americans favor wealth tax on very rich: poll

#87

Post by dx87 »

Frondo wrote: post #25
Bostonian wrote: post #8

If 99% of people vote to impose a tax paid only by 1%, that violates the spirit of "no taxation without representation". That would be universally recognized if, for example, the right-handed voted to raise taxes on the left-handed. Related article: "Millionaires support a wealth tax — as long as they aren’t getting taxed: CNBC survey" https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/23/millionaires-support-a-wealt... . It found that th…

I'm confused. There are many taxes that only apply to a subset of people. Property taxes only apply to property owners, soda taxes only apply to people buying soda, gas taxes to people buying gas. Tax credits apply to certain people, too, like the EITC or mortgage credits. What makes this qualitatively different to you? Also, everyone can vote, so everyone in theory has equal representation. (in practice, the wealthy…

All the taxes you listed are tied to specific things. A generic wealth tax is saying that no matter how you got your money, there should be a cap on it. It's like locality pay, but on a national scale. I don't know if it's the right idea or not, but it's application is arbitrary enough that it's different than the other taxes.

Re: Majority of Americans favor wealth tax on very rich: poll

#89

Post by enraged_camel »

ohazi wrote: post #33

I'm skeptical that most respondents understood the questions correctly. Most people are familiar with income tax, because they know that money is removed from their paycheck every month. Many also file tax returns. A wealth tax, where a fraction of your bank balance is removed every month, is a totally alien concept to most people. If you haven't thought about it before, it can take a minute or two to wrap your head…

>>I don't think most Americans want a tax on their bank balance.

This doesn't apply to _most_ Americans, this applies only to the very rich.

Re: Majority of Americans favor wealth tax on very rich: poll

#90

Post by gdix »

enraged_camel wrote: post #14
nightski wrote: post #3

I feel the wealth inequality issue needs to be addressed. My only problem with the wealth tax is that it takes money from the wealthy and feeds it to the government. I am having a hard time connecting how that improves the situation of the lower and middle classes.

>> it takes money from the wealthy and feeds it to the government. As opposed to...?

Letting people keep the money that they earned.
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