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Millionaires call for an emergency tax on billionaires

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Re: Millionaires call for an emergency tax on billionaires

#71

Post by eightysixfour »

yayr wrote: post #45

This may be unpopular, but the hard thing in this discussion is to differentiate between consumption and investment. It does not help much to take wealth in terms of equity paper money away from people who know how to invest it efficiently and distribute it. On the other hand, there are minimum basic needs for consumption of food, health services, shelter, education etc. I agree that the system to finance those servi…

While I think you hit the nail on the head, I think what we're seeing is a belief that the money being invested by billionaires is not doing anything useful, that's why people are calling for it to be taken by the government and redistributed.

Re: Millionaires call for an emergency tax on billionaires

#72

Post by mjburgess »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #58

If i got taxed at the same rate as millionaire and billionaires did, i'd be rich too. Just tax them at the same rate you tax Johnny Average. edit: and tax their companies at the same rate local mom-and-pop stores/bakeries/... get taxed.

Most "billionaires" have no where near a billion to tax.

This is the problem with net worth, its a made-up number. Most billionaires own companies which are "worth in principle" something to someone.

You can only tax that if you force them to sell, and if they can find a buyer.

Do that, and the number of billionaires would precipitously drop from a global few thousand, to a few hundred.

Re: Millionaires call for an emergency tax on billionaires

#73

Post by bcrl »

MichaelRazum wrote: post #40

Honestly so much time is spent on taxes. In terms of avoiding, discussing and modifying. Will there ever be a simple and easy solution?

That's because it's not a discussion about taxes - rather, it's a discussion about the inequity present in capitalism as currently implemented.

Re: Millionaires call for an emergency tax on billionaires

#74

Post by flyinglizard »

JofArnold wrote: post #35
rvnx wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such weird logic; we should level down everyone. I don't live in a nice house, so everyone should be stuck like me in an old flat until everyone can get nice house. I'm not happy -> Everybody should be unhappy

If a person is unhappy with $20m they are unlikely to be happy with any amount of money, surely?

Not sure if they’ll be unhappy with their measly $20mm as much as they’ll be unhappy with not being allowed to continue playing the game. Imagine that any successful entrepreneur would be forced to sit on the sidelines after hitting $20mm of net worth.

Re: Millionaires call for an emergency tax on billionaires

#75

Post by andreilys »

david927 wrote: post #38
rvnx wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such weird logic; we should level down everyone. I don't live in a nice house, so everyone should be stuck like me in an old flat until everyone can get nice house. I'm not happy -> Everybody should be unhappy

You need more than $20 million to be happy? Only having $20 million per person means you need to live in an "old flat?" Such weird logic: I need billions when others have no food.

You need more than $20million to build a reusable rocket company, a cold fusion reactor, or any number of other deep tech startups that require enormous investments which will likely never come from risk-averse governments.

Re: Millionaires call for an emergency tax on billionaires

#77

Post by antaviana »

david927 wrote: post #3

Until there's a wealth floor -- until everyone is fed, sheltered and has access to education, there needs to be a wealth cap. We, as a collective humanity, should not allow anyone to have more than, say, $20 million, until the basic needs of others have been met.

The point I believe you are missing is that this will not meet basic needs of others.

If you distribute the excess wealth, you will create a lot of inflation because if people have twice the money they will be prone to pay a twice bigger rent or a twice bigger restaurant check, or twice the money for the same land plot.

If you decide to somehow destroy the excess wealth (for example, burning cash or the houses they don't need), you will shrink a bit the economy by creating some job losses for those today working on superfluous activities of the rich such as yatch cleaning.

Re: Millionaires call for an emergency tax on billionaires

#78

Post by ajsnigrutin »

david927 wrote: post #3

Until there's a wealth floor -- until everyone is fed, sheltered and has access to education, there needs to be a wealth cap. We, as a collective humanity, should not allow anyone to have more than, say, $20 million, until the basic needs of others have been met.

But once you get $20M, why would you continue working? You've got $20M, and enough passive income from those $20M to cover your expenses... why would you continue growing your business, employing more people, and doing more?

I mean.. a $20M bakery is a huge bakery with a lot of people... but a $20M car factory is basically nothing.

Re: Millionaires call for an emergency tax on billionaires

#79

Post by david927 »

dcolkitt wrote: post #55
david927 wrote: post #3

Until there's a wealth floor -- until everyone is fed, sheltered and has access to education, there needs to be a wealth cap. We, as a collective humanity, should not allow anyone to have more than, say, $20 million, until the basic needs of others have been met.

Imposing a wealth cap like that is a fantastic way to assure that those basic needs will never be met. Over the past two centuries, billions of humans have been lifted out of poverty. Approximately zero percent of that came from the redistribution of existing wealth. All of it came from raising economic productivity. And that vast majority of those productivity gains had foundations built by entrepreneurs seeking gre…

> came from entrepreneurs seeking to build great fortunes

$20 million per person is a great fortune. Show me any innovation that came from someone wanting more.

Re: Millionaires call for an emergency tax on billionaires

#80

Post by flyinglizard »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #53
jonfw wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's say I start a Saas company and it does really well. Somebody offers to invest at a valuation of 25$ million bucks. By most standards of evaluation net worth- I'm worth $25 million bucks now. who seizes ownership of my company? What's to stop me from offering you $10 bucks for .0001% of your company and making you illegally rich? Taxes on net worth won't work because net worth is abstract

The tax could be such that you are forced to turn over shares in the company to the state. The bigger you get, the more shares you have to give to them, the more influence they have on company decisions. In theory, this would act sort of as a general purpose regulation. Instead of using the force of law to make companies comply, it uses the force of its share votes. Of course, there are a bunch of ways this kind of s…

What does the government know about managing tech companies?
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