I don’t follow the debate and situation in the US that closely but isn’t (part of) the point of wealth tax to offset the fact that rich people are routinely avoiding paying income tax and taxes in general? Thus even if we assume the simplistic conversion here, it’s not that they’re moved from 40->60 bracket but more like <30 ?
How to convert between wealth and income tax
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Re: How to convert between wealth and income tax
#22Wealth tax is highly impractical.
Very high and inescapable death taxes is what we need. Like 80% after an initial exemption amount.
https://www.yesigiveafig.com/p/the-summer-slide-part-3-the-t...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mX5U5DNUfBc
Re: How to convert between wealth and income tax
#23I think the assumption that we're looking for an equivalence here is fundamentally flawed and with it the entire post.
For most people income is tied to selling their time. It doesn't scale at all. Unless the income comes from wealth.
The societal problem here is a group with self-reinforcing run-away levels of wealth. And to counter that you do need something more extreme than this nonsensical equivalency of income tax
Re: How to convert between wealth and income tax
#24[flagged]
The post goes out of it's way to mischaracterize the strategy (and purpose) of wealth taxes being proposed.
> Each 1% of wealth tax is equivalent to 20% of income tax.
Mathematically sound.
> Politicians understand that an additional 20% income tax would be a lot. And indeed a US state that added 20% to its top income tax rate would have extraordinarily high taxes.
That's the point.
> In the median case, US state politicians talking about adding a "mere 1%" wealth tax are talking about causing the residents of their state to have the highest taxes in the world. That's not the sort of decision you make lightly.
Not "all of the residents". Specifically the ultra wealthy that have a billion dollars. 20% at that point, is 20% of lots. You still have lots left over.
Mathematical fairness isn't the point, which is one reason there isn't a flat tax rate.
Re: How to convert between wealth and income tax
#25If you want to understand why someone would even propose taking from the rich and complain about inequality, this post titled "Inequality Talk Is About Grabbing " is illuminating: https://www.overcomingbias.com/p/inequality-is-about-grabbin...
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Re: How to convert between wealth and income tax
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
> People usually become billionaires via having “super-powers,” i.e., very unusual abilities, at least within some context. If you count luck, maybe. > But what if most billionaires had super-powers of the traditional comic book sort, like x-ray vision or an ability to fly, etc.? That is, what if people with physical super-powers earned billions in the labor market by selling the use of these powers? Would folks be j…
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> What motivates this?
An element of fairness.
> Why can't you just leave people be?
Because they're making employees piss in bottles to survive the workday? They're buying up the representatives who are supposed to represent me? They're driving services we rely on into austerity? They get bailouts when they fuck up?
Re: How to convert between wealth and income tax
#27I think 1% wealth tax should be a replacement for income tax. That way only the wealthy will pay taxes.
How do you propose we measure a person's wealth, when wealth is easily hidden? When it needs to be done now, it is usually a years long audit.
Re: How to convert between wealth and income tax
#28[flagged]
This seems like such a poor understanding of reality. If you want to rank order people who contribute net taxes, you would put billionaires at the top, as they not only pay taxes themselves, but their businesses pay taxes, and their employees pay taxes, and their customers potentially pay taxes (VAT) as well. The bottom of the list would be anyone who works for the state, as they are a massive net tax negative, follo…
In what reality does a business owner get to claim their customers’ taxes as their own contribution?
Re: How to convert between wealth and income tax
#29The bigger difference between an income tax and a wealth tax isn't the numbers. A wealth tax, for better or worse requires some realization of paper gains that very wealthy folks normally go to great lengths to avoid because their wealth is largely based on a broadly shared polite fiction. So imposing some realization of that wealth requires accountability that doesn't always pan out.
Re: How to convert between wealth and income tax
#30I think 1% wealth tax should be a replacement for income tax. That way only the wealthy will pay taxes.
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