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Wealth Taxes Will Barely Slow Inequality. So Why Do the Super-Rich Resist Them? (truthout.org)
3 points by robtherobber 15 hours ago | hide | past | favorite | 7 comments




A wealth tax would force business owners out of the majority ownership of the companies they founded even when they don't have income. Many business owners forego healthier lifestyles for a number of years in order to build their business. Business owners tend to work 60-80 hours a week, and they don't get to quit and take a buyout and job hop.

Why can't you just raise regular taxes and/or cap the capital gains exemption?

Why can't you stop pissing money away on debt financing wars and defense/war bs? Why can't you stop killing without due process? Should they afford you if you are killing without due process? Can they ethically be complicit with you without legal liability?

Should you expect them to become civically involved if you're blackmailing them about their medication which you are using their taxes to sabotage quality control of?

Why can't you stop picking fights, losing them, and sticking us with the bill for your bitch junta tirades?

(Kicks insulin away from your seizing body and explains that you don't deserve healthcare, though you must afford that entitlement for others)

If the government were going to afford personal welfare for the people to get people out of the red and into the black (instead of very selective corporate welfare), instead of debt financing wars, there would probably be more support for increasing taxes in the United States.

We can increase taxes on the wealthy without class warfare and without changing the subject to a hypothetical wealth tax.

There are a number of wealthy people who support increasing taxes on the wealthy.

One number to review in reviewing tax policy: tax revenue as a % of GDP.

Another number: the effective tax burden by binned household income


Let's take a look at how we blew $4T in 4 months and then went to shutdown showdown for a month, but the tariff slush fund for the children.

How many people did the government kill without due process while the government was out of money?

If I can't stop you from killing without due process using my money, should I give you more money?

What sort of assistance from wealthy people does the government need? Are religious and nonreligious NGOs better able to assist the poor without causing harm without due process?


Taxing individuals will not make a lot of money. Tax holding companies as if they are humans.

If you describe the actual mechanism required to fairly and accurately determine the amount of money owed under the wealth tax proposals (such system being not trivially defeated by an army of accountants and lawyers), the reason why the wealthy oppose them should be quite evident.

The few 0.1%ers I've known had no other goals in life other than running up the score on the balance sheets. While others in their twilight years are exploring the world, deepening ties with family, or going all in on hobbies, these people are on endless defense of their wealth. Resisting any type of tax that doesn't benefit their wealth growth goals is a natural outcome.

While not the only reason and probably not even the primary reason why they resist wealth taxes as a group, the four or fiveish I know are very much motivated by personal score.


greed. "fuck you pay me" as a world view.

Not that I'm within 10000X of being "Super-Rich"...but I'd assume there's a rather narcissistic "Divine Right of Kings" attitude that goes with the turf. Which is continuously reinforced by their retainers and sycophants. Along with a host of slippery slope arguments.



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