Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thing is we’ve done the experiment and it doesn’t work. France had a wealth tax (called the ISF, impôt sur la fortune) and it never actually garnered the expected revenues. This is because wealthy French people moved to Brussels, where you still have a pretty nice city and you can still speak French. Macron got rid of it and there was a mini-crash in Brussels real estate as people move back. There’s nothing stopping…
I think that's why they put in the provision that you have to keep paying the tax for 10 years after you move.
California plan for wealth tax on anyone who spends 60 days a year in the state
431–440 of 734 posts
Re: California plan for wealth tax on anyone who spends 60 days a year in the state
#432Earlier quoted context omitted.
The underlying counterargument was that it was never completely "your stuff" to begin with.
And we should leave the allocation of who is allowed to own how much stuff to who exactly? Politicians? Your average person on the street? Who are those economic geniuses who will distribute everything with objective correctness? That is the alternative that it sounds like you are promoting.
Re: California plan for wealth tax on anyone who spends 60 days a year in the state
#433Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah, yes, threatening to murder people you're jealous of. This is the content I come to Hacker News for!
I can't say I have much time to engage today, but since this seems to have some support and a fundamental misunderstanding, I want to address this one. Hatred towards the ultra-rich is not based in jealousy but in a moral stance. The argument is not "I want your 30M" it is that "people having this much wealth is bad for all of society". See: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/06/opinion/abolish-billionai... There's much…
Re: California plan for wealth tax on anyone who spends 60 days a year in the state
#434Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which is why the proposal is based on where time is spent, not what you're a citizen of.
Why does a wealthy citizen of another country have to physically spend 60 days in California? You're suggesting that the wording of the law is not trivial to circumvent, especially for people with large amounts of wealth.
Re: California plan for wealth tax on anyone who spends 60 days a year in the state
#435Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that's why they put in the provision that you have to keep paying the tax for 10 years after you move.
That’s why if the tax gets implemented they’re gonna move away before the tax is implemented. Imagine being a slave to a state you don’t even live in for ten years. What a load of garbage, I’ll bet any other state will refuse to enforce it.
> Bill No. 2088 would have created a new annual tax of 0.4% on individuals with worldwide annual wealth over $30 million;
Re: California plan for wealth tax on anyone who spends 60 days a year in the state
#436>Taxing someone who spends only 60 days in the state in any single year—and extending that tax over an ensuing decade—would be something new under the sun. Wow. That's nuts.
How many people do you think have $30M and spend >= 60 days a year in California, that do not benefit from business/property/services/educated employees in California? Very, very few.
Re: California plan for wealth tax on anyone who spends 60 days a year in the state
#437Earlier quoted context omitted.
But that has a related cause and effect. The reason these things have happened in California isn't the geography. If you drive a large fraction of the same people out and into places like Austin through excessive housing costs and high taxes, then the next Elon Musk can build it there instead. Because it's the people, not the place.
Don’t be surprised if Texas (in particular Austin) adopts similar tax measures. I bet there is just as much public support for it—if not even more—then in California.
Re: California plan for wealth tax on anyone who spends 60 days a year in the state
#438Earlier quoted context omitted.
Speaking from the perspective of someone who has had his house smashed into an all of his stuff stolen, none of which was recovered and no meaningful attempt to do so was made, I don't particularly buy the argument that government enforces property rights. In certain cases, maybe. But mostly property rights exist because we all kind of agree they exist, and we generally don't go burglarizing each other.
The point being made above about property rights is much bigger than “does my local police do a good job finding burglars?”. The point is that the government maintains an entire system for tracking, resolving disputes, and enforcing ownership. Think about who has the final say in a dispute over whether you own your car or your house or your company. The government adjudicates ownership disputes and then enforces that…
Re: California plan for wealth tax on anyone who spends 60 days a year in the state
#439Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's probably the stupidest part of it, because then you convince all the people who imagine they're going to be Elon Musk in ten years that they should leave California immediately.
The interesting part is the next question you have to ask yourself- could Elon have built what he did somewhere else?
The end of Silicon Valley’s dominance could have come much sooner had China continued its trend of opening up pre-Winnie the Poo’s reign, but that threat is gone for now. China is crippled under a dictator again
Re: California plan for wealth tax on anyone who spends 60 days a year in the state
#440Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thing is we’ve done the experiment and it doesn’t work. France had a wealth tax (called the ISF, impôt sur la fortune) and it never actually garnered the expected revenues. This is because wealthy French people moved to Brussels, where you still have a pretty nice city and you can still speak French. Macron got rid of it and there was a mini-crash in Brussels real estate as people move back. There’s nothing stopping…
I think that's why they put in the provision that you have to keep paying the tax for 10 years after you move.