Tax the rich! Borrow from the rich!
Taxing the 1% is often given as the "solution" to address society's problems. The 1% has about $25T in wealth. I believe this should be done but wonder how the tax money would be forthcoming given that most of the wealth is tied up in non-liquid assets. Even if forced to divest, who would be there to purchase these assets except the 1%?
The same question in terms of selling treasuries. Unless the Fed violates the FR Act and directly funds government spending (through the primary dealers or not) who is going to step up to purchase and provide the vast amount of money needed to fund the GND, universal health care, infrastructure, education, etc?
I'd like to know the answers to this as well. It's been confusing to hear their solutions
Old topic, but I must have missed it before....
This is a tough one. I think if we're going to do this the easiest way is to increase the cap gains rate to ordinary income and increase the way inheritance is taxed. Stepped up basis could go away or the estate tax could be reduced or eliminated.
I think wealth taxes are really tough. As Paul notes, a lot of these assets are illiquid and would force the owners to liquidate the assets. That's hard to do and even harder when we try to assess the value of these assets since so many of them aren't marked to market.
Very, very tough question. No great answers....
CC: @ladiesman540 & @paul-lebow