Quote:
Originally Posted by puckedoff
I do think that income inequality needs to be addressed, but I worry about the fix being in the form of another tax, especially if just directed at general government revenue.
If the government is going to tax wealth, they'd better have a good use of the funds. For example I don't think it is constructive economically to take funds from business owners owners so that the government can purchase more SCUD* missiles.
I mean the US is running trillion dollar deficits, effectively financed by the Fed and spending huge amounts on spreading freedom. Do they really need more funds from their billionaires in order to do that? Is that productive use of capital? Not sure.
*(apologies to CaptainCrunch for not being up to date on modern weaponry)
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I had written a long post that I scrapped earlier that said something similar...
Essentially, there seems to be a misunderstanding of wealth and what wealthy people do with their money. It's not being "hoarded" in the sense of Scrooge McDuck and a swimming pool of gold... The wealth is "in" the economy, whether through investments, foundations, grants or other philanthropic activities. A very small percentage of high-level wealth is inactive or unused... I'm not sure handing any of it over to the government would achieve a higher and better use of the funds.