Here’s where things get tricky. The ultra wealthy have most of their wealth tied up in stocks/bonds.
Bill Gates and Bezos are the worlds richest because they have >1% ownership in their founding companies.
The rich get richer because the stock market and their companies are doing well. They own means of production.
Capital gains tax rate means if you hold stock for more than an year and sell it, you get taxed a bit less. There’s an incentive for longer term ownership.
Like property taxes, what if you taxed holding stock? Then that’s unfair as AMT crap. Holding stock is fake money. It could disappear in thin air when market crashes. Gains are only realized when you sell.
But when you sell, you still pay income tax.
So if a billionaire has ownership in his founding company but draws <100k of real income from stock, should they be taxed higher than a person who just makes 100k of salary?
I’m all for higher tax percentages at higher incomes but all of it gets very murky.
America was built on the foundations of if you work hard and build something great and have a pie of ownership, you get to reap the rewards.
Removing this ^ incentive causes all sorts of issues in other parts.
I would love estate tax to have a higher tax rate. Transferring property to kids shouldn’t be cheap since they didn’t do the hard work.
I would also love taxes to be 0 below a certain income bracket.
I would also love some form of aid when unemployed/ on the streets. Some sort of buffer. Better affordable healthcare. Less middleman. More transparency.
A lot of this problems aren’t money related but more about refactoring the current way of things and making more efficient use of what’s currently already there.
Bill Gates and Bezos are the worlds richest because they have >1% ownership in their founding companies.
The rich get richer because the stock market and their companies are doing well. They own means of production.
Capital gains tax rate means if you hold stock for more than an year and sell it, you get taxed a bit less. There’s an incentive for longer term ownership.
Like property taxes, what if you taxed holding stock? Then that’s unfair as AMT crap. Holding stock is fake money. It could disappear in thin air when market crashes. Gains are only realized when you sell.
But when you sell, you still pay income tax.
So if a billionaire has ownership in his founding company but draws <100k of real income from stock, should they be taxed higher than a person who just makes 100k of salary?
I’m all for higher tax percentages at higher incomes but all of it gets very murky.
America was built on the foundations of if you work hard and build something great and have a pie of ownership, you get to reap the rewards.
Removing this ^ incentive causes all sorts of issues in other parts.
I would love estate tax to have a higher tax rate. Transferring property to kids shouldn’t be cheap since they didn’t do the hard work.
I would also love taxes to be 0 below a certain income bracket.
I would also love some form of aid when unemployed/ on the streets. Some sort of buffer. Better affordable healthcare. Less middleman. More transparency.
A lot of this problems aren’t money related but more about refactoring the current way of things and making more efficient use of what’s currently already there.
My 2 cents. Would love to debate.