The following is commentary intended for discussion. Add your comments.
A 2% wealth tax, as proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, wouldn’t impact me. It wouldn’t impact most of you. (I think it’s targeting people who have wealth above $50 million.)
I guess it’s tempting to try to play off our jealousy and hope we will be “all for” hitting people who have more than us.
Personally, even when I had nothing, I didn’t resent those who had more. I didn’t hope that they got taxed more, I didn’t spend time thinking about how undeserving they were or how I’d been held back from what was, somehow, rightfully mine. I just tried to show up, work very hard, bounce back, be positive, get motivated after failure instead of feeling discouraged, and help others.
For the ultra-wealthy who speak out on occasion and say they think they should be paying more taxes: nothing stops them from doing so today. They can pay as much as they want over what they owe.
When they’re advocating that “they” should pay more, they’re actually saying they want to control matters so that “others” pay more– because they can do what they feel is their fair share today. No new law needed.
What do you think?
This one is simple. If you punish success, you will get less of it.
I am an expat, living in Switzerland and actually pay a Wealth Tax (Vermögensteuer). There is very little exempted from this tax. In lieu of a private pension plans (gone the way of the Dodo in the USA), employees (but not employers) contribute to a pension plan (Pillar 2) that is exempt from wealth tax . Excess contributions are allowed to be made into a Pillar 3 (similar as a 401k) but this is taxed as wealth.
The wealth tax is progressive and starts immediately. If your wealth (savings, home, cars etc.) is between 1 and 5 million CHF, expect to pay about 1% in wealth tax. The very wealthy can pay up to 1..5% in Vermögensteuer. the minimum rate is about 0.1%, so even the poor have “skin in the game”, although as a portion of the total tax burden it is negligible. By the way, the total tax burden in Switzerland is slightly less than the tax burden in the USA and the tax code is ridiculously simple. The US could learn a lot from Switzerland in this regard. Here is another fun fact about Swiss Taxes. The distribution of tax income (where we live, your results may vary), for every 1000 CHF in tax paid, about 600 goes to our community, 300 goes to the Canton (state) and 100 goes to the Bund (Federal). Most of the government functions and issues are handled locally. THIS is Federalism in practice.
I don’t think it’s the government’s place to decide where people’s money goes. People/businesses should be able to decide what needs and charities to invest in without the government’s help.
The wealthy are very skilled at hiding their wealth. A “wealth tax” will cause them to improve their skills even more. A great little book “Capital Without Borders” describes how this works. If we really wantedt to collect the proceeds of privilege, we would tax government-granted privilege directly.
Obama once chided the rich asking them how much money do they need? I strongly dislike massive amounts of money/assets being owned by a few. It is unhealthy for our society. We have seen this last election how a few literally used their millions to allow or ban political messaging. So what to do? A wealth tax is impossible to implement. Who decides the value of assets. The super rich say they want to pay more taxes, but that is a lie. They are leaving high taxed states for lower taxed states. They hire accountants, their generosity is dictated by amount to be deducted on their tax returns. Tom Brokaw said he surveyed his super rich friends that swore they want to pay more in taxes, but afraid our government will waste the money. They are right. Clowns work in our government. Pork is all they care about not doing right by the people. Sharyl you are the best. I am really sorry our federal government spied on you and you still cannot get to the truth of who exactly orchestrated this spy mission.
As a member of the working poor, I could not be more emphatic that just to say…NO! Look, never in the history of the US government, has there ever been a tax that went where it was alleged to have gone.
We have an almost 2,000,000,000,000.00 “relief package” in the works right now, that is supposed to be providing immediate relief to those whose lives and businesses have been utterly destroyed by the Democrat’s response to The Virus, which has been far worse than the virus itself. Yet, when you dig in to what they are proposing, the money won’t be spent until 2022 and on to 2028. So, where is the immediate relief?
To make matters worse. to add insult to injury, there is still a boatload of money unspent from the last “relief bill”. It’s like they have no idea as to what constitutes “economic absurdity”. Now, they want to add a “wealth tax”, in an attempt to further relieve successful Americans of their success. ALL of this is wealth-redistribution…period. It is another attempt to divide Americans by class, and thereby attain more power and money. Look at where the money goes in these proposals and what you find would make a wild carrion-eater wretch.
I have nothing against wealthy Americans. I wish I were one of them. In the meanwhile, those wealthy Americans actually pay me to build and renovate their homes. Thank god for them…until the Democrats finally chase them and their money offshore.
Sure, because we know the federal government will do a MUCH BETTER job spending that money.
I’m with Jeaneen: implement a flat tax. In 2018, Forbes predicted that the U.S. tax code is approx 75,000 pages. We need to revamp the tax code so that it is extremely concise and stupid simple. Accountants and corporations will absolutely despise this change, but the net benefit to the public and to government will be huge. Also, with it’s current length, the U.S. tax code can be used as a political weapon to target certain demographics, and revamping with a flat tax would help fix this problem too.
A wealth tax is a really bad idea, and currently, they may only be trying to target citizens with wealth greater than $50 million, but that would change over time. It’s a slippery slope, and sooner or later (definitely sooner), government would have some “small/minute” 1% wealth tax on those with wealth above $1 million. Also, taxes are only part of this equation – government needs to spend a lot less money in order to stop running a deficit year after year. All this talk about taxing the wealthy completely ignores the U.S. government’s spending addiction.
Wealth tax is unfair. Taxation of previously taxed income. Can’t get rid of it because that just puts more burden on other sources of tax revenue, but should not add to it.
Every time I hear about “taxing the rich” or a wealth tax, I wait to see how soon my taxes go up because I became rich to the government.
I think they should pay the #Wealthtax because they made so much during the pandemic. I don’t think that’s fair.
I am NOT in favor of a 2% Wealth Tax. I’d rather the “wealthy” continue to smartly (and legally) invest their wealth …. not have it seized by the Federal government.
We all need to understand that the ultra wealthy are not paying payroll/income tax. Their earnings are not taxed in the same way as those of us who get a regular paycheck are. While I agree the billionaires should be contributing a greater share, I actually support a flat tax because my problem with the current system is that the people on the low end have no skin in the game and I stated earlier, those ultra wealthy on the top and are not contributing as well.
I believe in a capitalistic economic society people should not be “punished “for hard work in attaining wealth anymore than people who are on the other end of the society get punished for being poor. I believe in hard work and high reward for hard work. If you are not willing to work and sacrifice then you should not benefit from the efforts and sacrifice of those who are working hard and benefiting. But I also believe in being a benevolent person and sharing my blessings and wealth with those who have not been as fortunate or potentially have not had as much opportunity as I have. But that should be a personal choice and not dictated from any government or any other organization.
I agree with you. For the most part, the ultra wealthy were willing to take a risk, on top of hard work, which is a huge distinction for me. Society as a whole benefits from those willing to take the risks. I will work hard my whole life and never be wealthy, and I’m OK with it.
Jeaneen,
That is an excellent, accurate synopsis of “capitalistic economic society.”
I would have written : “capitalistic, MERITOCRATIC economic society.”
In any case, the Washington Robin Hoods are MORALLY bankrupt.
Here is why :
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©1993
THE ‘POOR’
— Robin Hood was Morally Bankrupt —
Sherwoodians’ “compassionate” redistribution of hard-earned wealth :
Libertine Democrats are Liberal Hoods who appeal to citizens’ compassion for the “poor,” and seek votes for raising taxes to aid the down-trodden, as if the category “poor” were a monolithic collective of groups of individuals.
Whenever you hear a Liberal Hood use the term “poor,”
clutch your pockets tightly and ask, “ To which ’poor’ ? ” :
the lazy poor,
drug-dependant poor,
handicapped poor,
psychotic poor,
baby-making poor,
parasitic poor,
noble poor,
ascetic poor,
learned poor,
illiterate poor,
criminal poor,
contented poor,
innocent poor,
—or any combination of these, where appearances reveal a lack of material goods, or where one proves membership in any group supporting the views of Washington Sherwoodians?
If you belong to one of those groups, open your pockets wide to take a windfall and some change from the productive/industrious.
If you belong to one of the following, you’re about to get badly soaked :
the sweat-of-the-brow rich,
the inherited rich,
the compounding-interest rich,
the save-every-penney rich,
the pick-up-every-lost penny rich,
the lottery rich,
—or those citizens with any holdings slightly above the median family income.
No matter how the PRODUCTIVE are given a bath—it is an unjust, immoral, and socially destructive practice.
1) Liberal Hoods acquire no spiritual benefit because they are thieves !
2) The poor do not gain spiritually because they receive stolen goods !
3) The providers do not benefit because their “gifts” to the poor are involuntary !
And the poor get increasingly more lazy, dependent, and prodigious in bearing UNPRODUCTIVE young for the next generation of Washington-Sherwoodians’ charges.
If only Liberal Hoods would become rational; encourage the rich to continue being the best producers they can be; admonish the poor to become more like the rich; and chastise would-be Sherwoodians to find their moral and rational bearings, then . . .
-Rick
Absolutely not!
We already have versions of a wealth tax. At the local level we pay taxes on personal property, most notably real estate. But, this can also include cars, and in some states other property like furnishings.
In the case of real estate, the government holds all the cards. If the “assessed value” decreases, they can raise the the rates. And, most people do not pay sufficient attention to hold the representatives accountable.
Estate taxes are a cruel wealth tax, applied when families grieve and may not be able to pay without liquidating the results of a lifetime’s work.
As to the claim that this proposed wealth tax would only apply to a very few (over $50M), recall that the income tax was to be temporary (to fund support for WWI) and had a tax rate of 1%.
If such a tax were implemented, it would have to apply to lower levels of assets, because those with very high wealth would certainly find ways to shelter their assets to avoid the tax. (Tax avoidance is legal and not the same as tax evasion.)
I have little faith that such a tax would be limited to a rate or a specific level of assets.
this would be actual double taxation, this is money that was left after taxes were paid…..they yelped like wounded pups about double taxation when two different jurisdictions taxing the same money when the salt tax was repealed………..but that effected money that blue states would lose.
I do favor a wealth tax as so many of the billionaires and other rich people in the USA are pushing the NWO or call it Build Back Better, or the Great Reset. Tax the billionaires who own the Social Media monopolies, Google, Amazon, Walmart, Apple and other evil globalist corporations
I’m not going to be long winded I think that any tax that divides us is meant to do just that to divide us I am among the many that would not have to worry about this tax but even though I don’t have to worry about it it is still not right.
Just give us a flat tax with no deductions. Cut all stuff like tax deductions for green energy, green cars, mortgages etc. That way the rich would pay the same as everyone else. But as it is now they have accountants to find ways around paying taxes. But it will never fly because there is too many specials interests in DC. Besides if they take 2% from them they will spend 4%.
Would like to see everyone taxed equally. I get irritated that a certain percentage of the population doesn’t contribute. Or if this remains the case, they should forfeit their right to vote…
All taxes are wealth taxes. No I don’t support any additional tax for anything. Government is a poor steward of the tax money they currently, never give them another dime