Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure
Plus, what are you actually taxing? Bezos has a lot of wealth, but it is all tied up in assets, and is by no means liquid. He sells a certain percentage of that wealth each year to finance his companies like Blue Origin.
So if you want to tax him say 10% on his 'wealth' you would force him to sell his assets in order to generate liquid to pay the actual tax.
Aren't we better off trying to get him to sell his assets to generate economic activity? Or donating to charity? Albeit the wealthy donating to charity as a tax write off is a problem in itself, but as an example his wife has donated billions since they got divorced.
Personally, I would much rather someone like Musk or Bezos take their billions and invest it into space companies that employ people and drive innovation.
Musk has basically created a worldwide internet system for $100 / month, and it didn't require any taxpayer money. How much money taxpayer money have governments funneled into internet access programs the last 25 years in an effort to make internet access available? Billions & billions.
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Just wondering.. did you watch the video? One of the loopholes is that guys like Musk and Bezos are able to borrow using their unrealized stocks as collateral, which gives them liquidity without taxation and allows them to further buy things, real estate, etc. and just continue to increase their wealth.
The plebes on this site will never be in a situation where we can do the same thing. The biggest issue I have is with wealth hoarding. There should be some limits on things like this. You get to a certain point and your actual wealth is meaningless to you.
Additionally, these billionaires should be investing in projects to do things like revolutionizing energy, transportation, fighting climate change, etc. instead of going to space. Space travel is meaningless while our planet burns.